Abstract:

Advanced e/m-Learning systems must take many factors into consideration, such as functionalities offered to the users, organisation of contents and service fruition modalities.

As far as functionalities are concerned, it is becoming more and more important to involve the user actively, and adapt the studying process to his needs. Not only does such requirement imply a personalised and careful definition of learning paths, but also an efficient choice of assessment phases.

If contents are taken into consideration, whose management is the core of any e/m-learning system, among the many properties they should meet there are clarity, completeness and their possible extension and integration with other learning sources.

Most naturally, such features must be taken into great consideration when choosing the kind of database, for instance a relational system rather than an object-oriented one.

As for the access to e/m-Learning systems, modalities should be as diversified as possible, on the basis of the student’s aims, ties and timetables, as well as his location and kind of technologies at his disposal. All such factors must be taken into consideration in order to reach a good compromise between quality of learning and studying conditions.

In this paper, an architecture is consequently proposed which consists of three layers:
(a) external layer: access to the system;
(b) middle layer: interaction between learner and system, testing module and learning path decision;
(c) lower layer: information system and organisation of contents.

These modules have been designed in order to meet the following requirements:
(i) according to his interests and purpose, the user can define a personalised target or learning level; moreover,
(ii) in case he discovers further interesting issues or deepenings, the e-Learning path can be varied over time accordingly.

The constant interaction among layers allows to adapt learning paths dynamically, and define specific tests which keep the user’s improvements under constant check.

Such operations are meant to be tailored to different situations and last the whole lifspan of the learning process itself.

The propposed architecture is based on Petri Nets and on a hybrid LDAP-SQL database. In this approach, e/m-Learning paths are initially tailored to the user’s aims and, during the learning process, are dynamically adapted to his needs. By means of an ad hoc user-system interface, each learner is allowed to specify his initial target and, if he decides to deepen some issues, is authorised to redefine such target over time. This process is guided by a “Path Decision Module” based on Petri Nets, which checks the user’s learning level and consequently decides whether further issues can be faced or not. The underlying LDAP-SQL database benefits from the joint use of directory services and relational databases, used for the storage of learning material and dynamical paths respectively.

This approach could be of help in many fields, such as Computer-Aided Assessment, which, ranging from automated multiple-choice tests to more sophisticated systems is becoming increasingly useful. With some of such systems, feedback can be adapted on the basis of both mistakes and actual achievements.

Keywords:

Personal targets, user-system interface, LDAP-SQL, Petri Nets.