ADAPTIVE VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, BASED ON LEARNING STYLE, TO SUPPORT THE TEACHING OF NUMERICAL METHODS SUBJECT

Within the problematic of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is highlighted the low integration of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in educational processes, according to the research "Virtual Models in the Colombian HEIs", conducted by Ramboll firm, shows that less than 50% of HEIs has a strategic plan for integrating ICTs.

Currently, the Facultad Tecnológica of a Colombian University, implements some ICT's, for example UDtecnovirtual portal, which provides educational tools for students, nevertheless the portal is at an early stage and it is restricted. On the other hand, the subject of numerical methods do not have any technological tool to support the development of classes, which has promoted a research process to design, develop and implement a technological solution to the problem described above.

MethUD is an Adaptive Virtual Learning Environment (AVLE), which performs a user modeling to determine the appropriate content for each student. User modeling is performed considering learning style and the knowledge level of each student, this information is obtained by applying tests proposed by pedagogy authors like Catherine Jester and Math teachers. The acquired information from the tests is given to a Multiagent System (MAS), which autonomously searches the appropriate contents for learning style and knowledge level of the student who has performed the test in order to receive the contents to continue developing the course.

The MAS has two agents, the style identifier agent (SIA) and the content management agent (CMA). SIA’s goal is to identify the user's learning style based on the outcome of the test, then through Agent Communication Language (ACL), sends messages to the CMA that aims to identify the course contents according to learning style that has been determined by the SIA. Both agents achieve their goals through the execution of behaviors and coordinate themselves to then achieve the MAS's goal

For design and implement MethUD makes use of different technologies and methodologies for example java under specification JEE5, Glassfish as application server, Java Server Faces (JSF) as a framework for developing user interface, the software development methodology RUP and Postgresql as database engine. Also to develop SMA it was used INGENIAS as methodology, JADE as agents platform and Agent Communication Language (ACL) as a communication language between agents.

MethUD proposes to operate a registration system for users management, interaction system that provides applications such as chat, wiki, forum, blog, a help system that provides information about the operation of AVLE, a storage system where Course contents is stored, a system of communities to create working groups and an adaptation system that determines the appropriate contents for each student according to their learning style and knowledge level.

This document describes in detail the research process performed, the methodology and the technological solution proposed, as well as the MethUD model obtained, to make this AVLE an innovative solution that supports the teaching of the course Numerical Methods.