Designing Patterns for Adaptive or Adaptable Educational Hypermedia: a Taxonomy

The design of an adaptive or adaptable educational hypermedia (AEH) is a complex process. Beside the design activities of “conventional” educational hypermedia, it involves a number of other tasks the design of the learner model, of the user model detection mechanisms, of the adaptation capabilities (to dynamically customize the application according to the learner’s model), of the user control over customization. Patterns can significantly help mastering the complexity of AEH design. As a preliminary steps towards the definition of a pattern language for AEH, we have identified and structured the typical problems a designer may face during each AEH design task. From the problem analysis and classification we have defined a taxonomy for AEH patterns, which can be used as a conceptual framework for discovering patterns and for structuring a pattern language in the AEH field. The paper reports our approach, discusses our taxonomy, and presents examples of AEH design patterns.