TU e eindhovenuniversity of technology Evaluation of Interoperability of

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Evaluation of Interoperability of Adaptive Hypermedia Systems: testing the MOT to WHURLE conversion in a classroom setting Alexandra Cristea 1, Craig Stewart 2, Tim Brailsford 2 and Paul Cristea 3 1 - Information System Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Computing Science, Technical University Eindhoven 2 - School of Computer Science and IT, University of Nottingham 3 - Digital Signal Processing Laboratory, “Politehnica” University of Bucharest Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Outline • • • Introduction MOT WHURLE MOT 2 WHURLE conversion Student Evaluation – Hypotheses – Results • Conclusion Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Introduction • Creation of adaptive hypermedia content: – Extremely time intensive – Complex – Platform lockdown – Lack of standard tools Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Introduction • Ideal creation of adaptive hypermedia content: – Automated (this will aid with the time and complexity factors) – Interoperable – Standardised Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Introduction • Our answer: – Develop a series of tools that will allow for interoperability between different systems – We use MOT as an authoring system to author materials for: • AHA! (an AEH) • WHURLE (an AEH) • Blackboard (a non-adaptive commercial system) Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Introduction • Here we present an evaluation of the authoring process using MOT and WHURLE • A class of 31 students were introduced to this new authoring paradigm Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology MOT • • My Online Teacher Based on the LAOS framework Is a generic AEH delivery system Also a powerful and simple authoring system – Web-form, therefore a non-technical author can easily use it – Very flexible, as it is easy to extend Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology MOT • Domain Maps Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology MOT • Goal and Constraint Maps – AND/OR – Weights – Labels Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology WHURLE • An adaptive XML learning environment • Basic content building block: Chunk • Structure applied using Lesson Plans Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology MOT 2 WHURLE • Currently a command line environment • Conceptually maps the MOT Goal & Constraints map structure to the WHURLE Lesson Plan – A MOT Concept = WHURLE chunks(s) • It does this using the MOT weights and labels. Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology MOT 2 WHURLE Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology MOT 2 WHURLE • These rules are used to determine which MOT attributes are to be aggregated into WHURLE chunks. – ’ 35’ = visual – ’ 75’ = verbal – ‘ 0’ = common Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology MOT 2 WHURLE Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Student Evaluation • A class of 31 students in the 4 th year of study for a technical Masters degree at the University of Bucharest, Romania • All subjected to a week long intensive course on AH • After initial lectures, they were given the following task: Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Student Evaluation 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Create 2 -3 MOT Domain Concept Maps, with approximately 510 concepts on the http: //e-learning. dsp. pub. ro/mot/ MOT server The attributes of each concept were: title; keywords; introduction; text; conclusion and figure. With limits placed on the type and amount of content in each one (this was done so as that each group would not spend their limited time creating a vast corpus of information). Create a single MOT Lesson (Goal & Constraints Map) using their Concepts maps. Alter the lesson so that the weights and labels of each concept agreed with those described in the second Table previoiusly. Run the ‘mot 2 whurle’ conversion program and copy the files to WHURLE. Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Student Evaluation 6. 7. 8. Check that the WHURLE XML files are well-formed. Run and login to WHURLE to check that the lesson matches their design and make any necessary changes. Finally at the end of the week, each student was asked to complete a series of questionnaires: three generic SUS (System Usability Scale) questionnaires, one for each system (MOT, mot 2 whurle and WHURLE) and a single specific questionnaire designed to determine their level of knowledge about each system, as well as to gather non-statistical information. Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Evaluation hypotheses • The hypotheses that we wished to examine were: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The systems (MOT, mot 2 whurle, WHURLE) are simple and intuitive to use, with a minimum amount of explanation. The students understood theoretical background (Adaptive Hypermedia, LAOS, Adaptive Strategies) of these systems. The students understood the connection between LAOS and MOT. The students used MOT purely for authoring adaptive hypermedia, and perceived it as such. The students used WHURLE solely for delivering adaptive hypermedia, and perceived it as such. Students consider automatic conversion between one-to-many or many-to-many adaptive hypermedia systems useful. Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Evaluation Results • SUS scores: – MOT Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology • WHURLE Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology • MOT 2 WHURLE Department of Computer Science

TU/e eindhovenuniversity of technology Conclusion Department of Computer Science