Ontology-based personalisation of e-learning resources for disabled students

.................................................................................................................... I DEDICATION .............................................................................................................. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... IV AUTHOR'S DECLARATION AND PUBLICATIONS ........................................... VI TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. IX LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... XV LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. XVIII ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................... XX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1 1.1 SCOPE AND CONTEXT ............................................................................................... 1 1.2 MOTIVATIONS........................................................................................................... 4 1.3 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS, AIM AND OBJECTIVES ....................................................... 5 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .............................................................................................. 7 1.5 METHODOLOGY AND METHODS ............................................................................... 8 1.6 RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS ..................................................................................... 9 1.7 THESIS OUTLINE ..................................................................................................... 11 1.8 SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 13 CHAPTER 2: PERSONALISED E-LEARNING AND DISABILITY .................... 15 2.1 OVERVIEW .............................................................................................................. 15 2.2. LEARNING THEORIES AND STYLES ........................................................................ 15 2.2.1 Behaviourism .................................................................................................. 16 2.2.2 Cognitivism ..................................................................................................... 17 2.2.3 Constructivism ................................................................................................ 19 2.2.4 Learning Styles ............................................................................................... 20 2.3 DISABILITY AND EDUCATION ................................................................................. 22 2.3.1 What is Disability?.......................................................................................... 22 2.3.2 Prevalent Disabilities in Education ................................................................ 22 2.3.2.1 Visual Impairments .................................................................................. 23 2.3.2.2 Specific Learning Difficulty .................................................................... 25 2.3.2.3 Hearing Impairments ................................................................................ 27 2.3.2.4 Mobility Difficulties................................................................................. 27 2.3.2.5 Mental Health Difficulties........................................................................ 28 2.3.3 Assistive Technologies in Education............................................................... 29 2.3.3.1 Assistive Technologies for Students with Visual Impairments ............... 30 2.3.3.2 Assistive Technologies for Students with Dyslexia ................................. 32 2.3.3.3 Assistive Technologies for Students with Hearing Impairments ............. 33 2.3.3.4 Assistive Technologies for Students with Mobility Difficulties .............. 33 2.3.3.5 Assistive Technologies for Students with Mental Health Difficulties ..... 34 x 2.3.4 Assistive Technology Difficulties .................................................................... 34 2.3.4.1 Failure of Assistive Technologies ............................................................ 35 2.3.4.2 Possible Solutions .................................................................................... 36 2.4 E-LEARNING ........................................................................................................... 36 2.4.1 E-Learning Environments ............................................................................... 40 2.5 PERSONALISED E-LEARNING AND TECHNIQUES ..................................................... 41 2.5.1 Types of Personalisation ................................................................................. 43 2.5.1.1 Content Personalisation ............................................................................ 43 2.5.1.2 Link/Navigation Personalisation .............................................................. 43 2.5.1.3 Presentation Personalisation .................................................................... 44 2.5.2 Personalisation Techniques ............................................................................ 44 2.5.2.1 User Profiling ........................................................................................... 45 2.5.2.2 Information Filtering ................................................................................ 45 2.5.3 Ontology-Based Personalisation .................................................................... 46 2.5.4 Personalised E-Learning ................................................................................ 47 2.5.4.1 Personalised E-Learning Environments ................................................... 49 2.6 PERSONALISED E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES .. 52 2.7 ISSUES WITH CURRENT E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS ............................................ 53 2.8 SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 56 CHAPTER 3: APPROACHES TO DESIGNING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES .................................................................. 57 3.1 OVERVIEW .............................................................................................................. 57 3.2 APPROACHES TO SYSTEMS DESIGN......................................................................... 58 3.2.1 Object-Oriented Approaches .......................................................................... 58 3.2.2 User-Centred Approaches .............................................................................. 59 3.2.2.1 User-Centred Design ................................................................................ 59 3.2.2.2 Participatory Design ................................................................................. 59 3.2.2.3 Inclusive Design ....................................................................................... 60 3.2.2.4 User-Sensitive Inclusive Design .............................................................. 61 3.3 STANDARDS FOR DESCRIBING LEARNING MATERIALS ........................................... 63 3.3.1 Metadata Standards ........................................................................................ 63 3.3.1.1 IEEE LOM ............................................................................................... 63 3.3.1.2 SCORM .................................................................................................... 64 3.3.1.3 Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) ................................................ 64 3.3.1.4 IMS AccessForAll Meta-data Specification ............................................ 65 3.3.2 Issues with Metadata Standards ..................................................................... 66 3.4 SEMANTIC WEB STANDARDS .................................................................................. 67 3.4.1 Semantic Web Technologies ........................................................................... 68 3.4.1.1 XML ......................................................................................................... 69 3.4.1.2 RDF .......................................................................................................... 70 3.4.1.3 DAML+OIL ............................................................................................. 70 3.4.1.4 OWL ......................................................................................................... 70 3.4.2 OWL Editors ................................................................................................... 71 3.5 SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 71