TY - JOUR
T1 - Adaptive feedback generation to support teachers in web-based distance education
AU - Kosba, Essam
AU - Dimitrova, Vania
AU - Boyle, Roger
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This work was conducted during the PhD studies of the first author sponsored by the Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria, Egypt. John Self’s supervision at an earlier stage of this work is greatly acknowledged. Thanks go to the participants in the TADV evaluation study. The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers who helped clarify the focus of the paper and improve its quality.
PY - 2007/9
Y1 - 2007/9
N2 - This work examines the application of user-adapted technologies to address problems experienced in web-based distance education. We have proposed an approach to support distance learning instructors by offering advice that points at problems faced by students and suggests possible activities to address these problems. The paper describes an original feedback generation framework which utilises student, group and class models derived from tracking data in web course management systems, and follows a taxonomy of feedback categories to recognise situations that are brought to the instructors' attention. The results of an empirical study in an online learning course point at benefits of the generated feedback to both instructors and students. Teachers can get a better understanding of their students by knowing what problems they may be facing, when they are behind or ahead of their peers, who can help them and how, and what roles can be assigned in discussion forums. This, in turn, can have a positive effect on students who can receive feedback tailored to their needs and problems. The evaluation study points at issues that can be related in general to planning empirical evaluations of user-adapted systems in realistic web-based learning settings.
AB - This work examines the application of user-adapted technologies to address problems experienced in web-based distance education. We have proposed an approach to support distance learning instructors by offering advice that points at problems faced by students and suggests possible activities to address these problems. The paper describes an original feedback generation framework which utilises student, group and class models derived from tracking data in web course management systems, and follows a taxonomy of feedback categories to recognise situations that are brought to the instructors' attention. The results of an empirical study in an online learning course point at benefits of the generated feedback to both instructors and students. Teachers can get a better understanding of their students by knowing what problems they may be facing, when they are behind or ahead of their peers, who can help them and how, and what roles can be assigned in discussion forums. This, in turn, can have a positive effect on students who can receive feedback tailored to their needs and problems. The evaluation study points at issues that can be related in general to planning empirical evaluations of user-adapted systems in realistic web-based learning settings.
KW - (Semi-)automatic advice generation
KW - Distance learning
KW - Empirical evaluation
KW - Intelligent course management systems
KW - Personalised feedback
KW - Teacher support/help
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34548087811&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11257-007-9031-z
DO - 10.1007/s11257-007-9031-z
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34548087811
SN - 0924-1868
VL - 17
SP - 379
EP - 413
JO - User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction
JF - User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction
IS - 4
ER -