UIC-ATC-ScalCom-CBDCom-IoP 2015
Research on E-learning in College Education
A model on personalized resource recommendation based on learning situation
Jinghua Zhang
Department of Computer
North China Electric Power University (Baoding), NCEPU
Baoding, China
zjh_bd@tom.com
Abstract—This paper pays great attention to the specific e-
learning for college education and tries to get better
combination with classroom teaching and provides better
service for college course learning. The research on e-learning
is Based on the thought of learning resource recommendation,
and does more work on linking up with college course and
instructing learning by more suitable recommendation under
college course learning context. The paper presents a solution
of generating a virtual self-learning space named learning
situation which represents the learning demands linking up
with college course. At last, a generic model for the solution is
given to support the personalized resource recommendation
based on learning situation.
Keywords-e-learning; college education; learning situation;
personalized recommendation; learning instruction;
I. INTRODUCTION
With the rapid development of internet, e-learning
generally refers to the web-based education applications. E-
learning has a wide range in application, such as formal
distance education, training of company or enterprise,
learning resources sharing web site and so on. Different
application has different characteristic and leads to different
research emphasis in e-learning. This paper pays great
attention to the specific e-learning for college education.
What should e-learning do with the traditional classroom
education in college?
Form the perspective of application layer, we think e-
learning can be summarized as two categories. One is for
providing learning resources, the other is for supporting the
specific teaching method, such as collaborative learning[11],
learning by game[1], inquiry learning[2], just-in-time
learning, virtual laboratory and other special methods for
specific courses. The two research fields are both meaningful.
This paper chooses the research field on learning resources,
for learning resources are needed by most of the courses and
abundant resources are all along the merits of e-learning
while the weakness of classroom teaching. On the other hand,
learning through resources by oneself is also an important
ability for college education.
The researches of e-learning based on learning resources
can also be seemed as two categories from the application
layer perspective. One is adaptive learning control. This
category researches the learning control. Through the test
978-1-4673-7211-4/15 $31.00 © 2015 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/UIC-ATC-ScalCom-CBDCom-IoP.2015.229
and evaluation of learning achievement, the learning path
and process are controlled and different learning materials
are provided. The correlational researches involved the
whole application model, the student model and evaluation
strategy of learning achievement[6], the adaptive control
strategy[3,4,5] and so on. Another category is personalized
resource recommendation. This category researches
recommendation. It gives more freedom to the learner
without the control of learning process. The correlational
researches were mainly for recommendation strategies. Some
researches do recommendation through learner
characteristics[7,8] such as learning interests, learning style,
learning preferences, learner’s knowledge level. Some papers
used collaborative filtering techniques[9]. Some Papers
researched the context model to guide the
recommendation[10,11].
This paper focuses on the e-learning design for the
purpose of complementary to college education. Under this
purpose, we think resource recommendation application is
helpful. As a complement of classroom teaching we do not
need the control of learning process, but we need to link up
with the classroom teaching which many researches on
learning resource recommendation didn’t pay more attention
to. So also from the application layer perspective, this paper
gives the solution, model and strategy for the e-learning in
college education and try to connect it to the college courses
and make the recommendations to fit the course demands.
In next section, we give an conceive of the e-learning on
the problem of combination with classroom teaching. Then
in section III, we present an idea to add a special instruction
layer linking up to the college course and a solution is
designed to instruct learning based on adaptive learning
situation. In section Č , we give the specific model for
personalized resource recommendation application based on
learning situation. The last section summarizes the paper.
II. E-LEARNING IN COLLEGE EDUCATION
Our discussion is based on the computer science subject
which the author is familiar with, for other subject may have
different demands.
A. Merits and Shortcomings
Classroom teaching in college education has its merits
for teacher’s knowledge and experience. So the classroom
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teaching by teacher can make the knowledge easy to
understand and brings students vivid and deep perception by
some classroom teaching methods such as discussion,
question and so on. On the other hand, classroom teaching
has some shortcomings coming from the limits by its form.
The lacking of time limits the contents in classroom. As a
centralized learning mode, the individual characteristic and
ability level can not be taken good care of. Classroom
teaching is controlled by teacher, and gives little freedom to
students.
The shortcomings of classroom teaching are just the
merits of e-learning. So using the e-learning merits to
compensate for the classroom teaching is a good
combination direction.
B. Conceives of E-learning
The e-learning should be the complement of classroom
teaching. We have four conceives:
1) Divide the college course into two parts: classroom
part and e-learning part. The teacher should give a detailed
course plan. Some knowledge points should be taught in
class, and the others should be learned by self in e-learning
system. The classroom contents should be the basic and
necessary knowledge using examples, exercises, questions,
discussions as teaching strategies. E-learning fulfils the tasks
which classroom teaching can not do such as remedying or
deepening the knowledge of classroom, strengthening the
practical ability, expanding knowledge and so on.
2) The basis of e-learning is rich resources. There are
many resources in internet, but many of them are repeated,
mixed by good and bad, and irrelevant to the college course.
Searching in internet is always lack of efficiency for
information overload. So resources provided by teacher are
necessary for meeting the learning demands. A resource
library with teacher’s resources for his course is worthwhile.
The resources should be diverse and fit the demands of
students in different levels, different purposes and different
characteristics.
3) A resource library for a whole subject is more useful
than for a single course. For courses of a whole subject are
relevant, so the resources can be used repeatedly. Some tasks
of a course may involve several courses also.
4) The e-learning system as a complement of classroom
doesn’t need learning control for more freedom and
autonomous ability. Its purpose is remedying, strengthening,
expending, exploring after class according to student’s
learning state. So under this purpose e-learning is a resource
system at first. Some learning resource systems are only for
search. Some can give recommendation mostly by user
information or by collaborative filtering technique. These
may seem not enough for college course. Researches should
pay attention to the “teaching and learning” pedagogy in
internet circumstance in addition to the technical problems to
provide better service. So as an e-learning in college
education, it should be an actual complement of classroom
teaching. It should consider the course plan, learning
objectives and demands of students to give guidance.
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III. A SOLUTION FOR E-LEARNING
Nowadays the education thought has turned to the
viewpoint that teaching and learning both have the same
emphasis. At the same time, blended learning is being paid
more and more attention which just represents the
combination of teaching and learning.
E-learning adopts the autonomous learning mode by just
providing resources but not controlling the learning process.
But without teaching, it is just a resource platform, not a
learning system. In this paper, the combination of teaching
and learning lies in the learning instruction.
So for the e-learning in college education, we have an
idea. First, the infrastructure is resource library. Then we
should link up with the college courses. At last, we should
instruct the student’s autonomous learning in resource library.
According to the idea, we give a solution. We present a
thought of learning situation to express the personalized
learning demands linking up with the classroom teaching.
Then the learning instruction can be done under the learning
situation.
A. Link up with the College Courses
The basis of e-learning system is rich resources. But as a
supplement of college education, the resources should be
related to the course demands. So e-learning needs a course
and knowledge structure in whole subject. The teacher is
responsible for building and updating the knowledge
structure of his course. The teacher also submits the
resources for his course, and builds the feature vector of
resource for resource recommendation. Some resource
systems in web build the resource feature vector by feature
extraction algorithm, but in e-learning, the resources are
related to the course objectives the teacher designed, so the
feature vector built by teacher is more accurate and
necessary. The system supports the course process in every
term. The teacher marks the course process along with
classroom teaching. Every student enrolls in the system
during his four years college time. The system should record
the student information. Students enroll his course every
term. At last, teacher gives the result of the course for every
student as the students’ knowledge structure. The system
records the learning process and actions of every student.
B. Instruct based on Learning Situation
The teacher and the system cooperate to do the
instruction. The teacher is responsible for the pedagogical
design on course plan, course objectives, course tasks and
course knowledge demands. The system is responsible for
perception of student status and gives advices according to
the teacher’s pedagogical design and other information. In
our idea, the teacher’s design for course is the guiding
ideology, the system does the actual instruction to students
through advice, the student still has great autonomy for the
instruction style is only advice.
A learning situation idea is provided. The learning
situation in our e-learning is not for specific knowledge, it’s
a learning circumstance for student individuality. E-learning
system is a huge resource circumstance. Learning situation is
just a small room separating from the whole resource space
for a student with specific demands. In the proper learning
situation, student’s learning may be of better efficiency and
may fit the needs of student.
So the solution is personalized resources
recommendation based on learning situation. The learning
situation represents the learning demands or objectives, the
instruction is hidden behind it. When entering the system,
students can learn resources by fundamental search method,
or by help of system. The system can build several suitable
learning situation. If student chooses a learning situation,
there are the suitable resources for specific learning demands
hinted by the learning situation.
The learning situation is designed with three pattern at
present:
z pattern one: remedy and improve learning mode.
This pattern is used for a supplement to classroom
teaching. It offers several adaptive situation to
choose through referring to the information about
course states, course objective, student’s learning
states and so on. The situation implies the demands
such as remedy of the knowledge points in
classroom, strengthening the practical skills and so
on.
z pattern two: problem based exploration learning
mode. This pattern is for solving large problem such
as project, task and so on. It is used to instruct the
learning direction on a specific problem.
z pattern three: no purpose learning mode. This pattern
is for the learning without clear learning objectives.
It can be used to meet the student interests.
IV. A MODEL ON PERSONALIZED RESOURCE
RECOMMENDATION BASED ON LEARNING SITUATION
According to the solution in section III, we design a
concept model for e-learning system. The model including
the information structure model and the learning instruction
model. Information structure model expresses the
information design for supporting the e-learning’s demand.
Learning instruction model is the strategy design for the
solution of personalized resources recommendation based on
learning situation.
A. Information Structure Model
The information structure model describes the
information the system needed.
1) Subject structure model
The subject structure model is defended as follow:
CInfo = (courseId, couseName, describe).
CRe = (courseId1, courseId2, relation).
KInfo = (knowledgeId, knowledgeName, keyWords).
KRe = (knowledgeId1,knowledgeId2,relation).
CInfo is a three tuple. It describes the course information.
courseId, couseName, describe are the three elements of
CInfo which express course identification, course name,
course description. We use the same grammar to describe
other information units. CRd describes the relationship of
two courses to reflect the course structure of a subject, KInfo
describes course knowledge point information, and KRe
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describes the relationship of two knowledge points to reflect
the knowledge structure of a course.
2) Resource model
The resource model is defined as follow:
RInfo = (resourceId, resourceName, path, media).
RandK = (resourceId, courseId, knowledgeId).
RandR = (resourceId1, resourceId2, relation).
RFeature = (resourceId, category, contentType,
difficulty).
Rinfo describes the basic information of a resource,
RandK describes the relationship of resource and knowledge
point, RandR describes the relation of resource and resource,
RFeature describes the feature of a resource. category is
valued by the range of {knowledge, practice}. contentType is
valued by the range of {classroomContent, depthContent,
example, problemAnalysis, projectDesign, expandContent,
extraKnowledge}.
3) Student model
The student model is defined as follow:
SInfo = (studentId, studentName, class, specialty ).
SandC = ( studentId, courseId, state, result).
SandR = ( studentId, resourceId, time, feedback,
evaluation).
SFeatureOnAbility = ( studentId, score, cognitiveAbility).
SFeatureOnPre = ( studentId, contentTypePreference,
contentPreference, situationPreference).
SInfo describes the basic information of a student. SandC
describes course selection information of student. SandR
describes the resources learning record of student.
SfeatureOnAbility describes the student features on learning
ability. score is a value as a evaluation of learning ability.
cognitiveAbility is also evaluation of learning ability but by a
value vector as (memorization, comprehension, analysis,
application, design, synthesis) to describe the cognitive
ability of a student. SFeatureOnPre describes the student
feature on preference. contentTypePreference is a model
describing the student preference to the resource content type.
contentPreference is also a model for the knowledge student
preferred. situationPreference is a model describing the
preference to learning situation.
4) Pedagogy design model
The pedagogy design model is defined as follow:
KFeature = (knowledgeId, demand, type,
cognitiveDemand).
CTeaching = (knowledgeId, state).
CTask = (taskId, taskName, taskType, relatedK).
CProject = (projectId, projectName, discription, taskType,
relatedCK).
KFeature describes the knowledge point feature. demand
is valued in the set{inClass, outClass}. type is the knowledge
type valued in the set{knowledge, algorithmAndApplication,
methodAndProcedure}. congnitiveDemand is a value vector
as (memorization, comprehension, analysis, application,
design, synthesize). CTask is the course task teacher
designed from the perspective of skill students should
master. CProject is the actual project teacher designed for
training the skills of students. taskType describes the type of
task or project valued in a set {memorization,
comprehension, analysis, application, design, synthesize}.
The model expresses the teacher’s pedagogical design. As an
example of programming course, the task can be designed as
“Exhaustive algorithm application”, “program design using
procedure oriented method”.
B. Learning Instruction Model for Personalized Resource
Recommendation based on Learning situation.
1) Learning situation expression
In section III, we give three patterns for learning situation.
We designed the parameter vector to represent a specific
learning situation. The three patterns have different
parameter vectors.
a) Pattern one: remedy and improve learning mode
This pattern is used for complement of classroom
teaching. After class, the student may have some feedbacks
on his own learning states, so he would use the e-learning
system to learn according to his state. So the parameter
vector is designed to describe the learning demand or
objective.
situationParam1 = (course, knowledgePoint, objective)
objective is used to describe the demand or objective of
learning. We designed the possible learning demands after
class: remedy the knowledge in class, strengthen the practice
ability, deepen the knowledge, expand the knowledge out
class, strengthen synthesis application ability.
b) Pattern two: problem based exploration learning
mode
This pattern is used for solving the tasks or projects the
teacher assigned. It tries to instruct the exploration direction.
Any task or project is relevant to the knowledge and skill. So
we designed a parameter vector, and try to instruct the
exploration through knowledge point and problem nature.
situationParam2 = (problem, courseKnowledgeSet,
nature).
nature describes the question’s type such as summary
and overview, deep research, problem analysis, design.
Different type needs different exploration method, needs
different resources to read.
c) Pattern three: no purpose learning mode
This pattern is used for student without clear purpose. So
we need some other methods such as through interests to
build his learning situation. So the parameter vector we
designed is:
situationParam3 = (userPreference, userAbility,
histroyRecord, userGroup ).
The parameters involves student’s preference, student’s
learning ability, student’s learning records, and student’s
companions.
2) Dynamic generation of the learning situation
When student enters the system, the learning situations
can be built for him dynamically. We use the parameter
vector to express a learning situation.
First, a basic method is filling in the parameters by
student himself.
Also, a strategy of auto filling in the parameters is
provided.
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For pattern one, first get the course, then get the objective,
at last get the knowledge point of a course. Since the
combination of the three parameters lead to large amount of
learning situations. Then a strategy is needed to choose the
learning situations. The strategy is used to choose the
learning situations which most fit the student’s information.
The relevant student information including
SFeatureOnAbility, SFeatureOnPre. At present, we just
designed a simplified strategy on course and knowledge
point: choose the one recent changed. The personalized
strategy only are designed for the objective. We use rule as
the method to implement the strategy. The front part of the
rule is student information element, the consequent part of
the rule is the objective and a value as degree. After
reasoning of the rule set, an accumulative degree for the
different objectives can be acquired. So the result is to sort
the degree as the recommendation sequence. At last, the
information of preference on learning situation
(SFeatureOnPre.situationPreference) is also a reference for
adjusting the sequence.
For pattern two, first check the task or project of the
courses the student takes part in, then get the parameters
from the task or project information the teacher gives.
For pattern three, get the parameters from the student
model SFeatureOnAbility, SFeatureOnPre, SandR. And the
userGroup comes from a user clustering algorithm by user
model information.
3) Personalized recommendation of resources
When student enters a learning situation, a room is
established. In the room, the adaptive resources is
recommended for the demands the situation implied.
According to the pattern of learning situation, the strategy is
designed.
a) Pattern one
In this pattern, the import principle is to accomplish the
learning objective. In this pattern, the recommendation
method we choose is rule. The rule is used to acquire the
resource feature fitting the objective and user. To simplify
the rule and inference, the method is divided into four steps.
First, system filters the resources according to course and
knowledge points. The query method is enough in this step.
Second, system filters the resources according to
objective. The rule is a deduction from objective value to
resource feature value (RFeature.category,
RFeature.contentType). So system can acquire the resource
feature to filter the resource.
Third, system filters the resources according to the
student learning ability level. This step is used to fit the
student’s ability. In this step, system do the reasoning to
proper difficulty of resource ( RFeature.difficult ).
Fourth, system adjusts the resource sets according to the
feedback about the resource on learning. This step is used to
adjust the difficulty (RFeature.difficult) and content
(RFeature.contentType) according to the feedback on a
resource from two aspects: difficulty and satisfaction degree
(SandR.feedback).
b) Pattern two
 In this pattern, the important principle is to instruct on
direction of exploration. So the knowledge points should be
enough, and the resources should fit the problem type. In this
pattern, a hybrid method is adopted.
First, system filters the resources according to course and
knowledge points. The query method is enough in this step.
Second, system filters the resources according to the
problem nature. This step uses rule to acquire the resource
feature, just like pattern one.
Third, system does the recommendation according to the
user group. This step uses a different method to rule. It uses a
user-based recommendation. The method is a simplified user
based collaborative filtering algorithm for the neighbors are
easy to find. We can use the task or project as a nature
clustering.
c) Pattern three
In this pattern, we cannot do the recommendation
according learning objective. So the recommendation can be
done according to the preference, action and user group. In
this pattern, a hybrid method is also adopted.
First, system do the recommendation according to the
preference (SFeatureOnPre.contentTypePreference,
SFeatureOnPre.contentPreference). The preference
information is extracted from the learning actions. The
contentTypePreferece is a vector of value to the resource
content type set. The contentPreference is three sets for
courses, knowledge points, keywords. In this step, the
content filtering method is adopted. The similarity degree of
student preference vector and the resource feature vector is
used for recommendation.
Second, system do the recommendation according to the
neighbor users. This step computes the similar degree of user
to get neighbor sets according to the user feature of
preference and ability, then do the user based collaborative
filtering.
Third, system adjust the resources sets according to the
feedback about the resource on learning. The thoughts of
item based collaborative filtering is adopted in this step. This
step is used for sorting the resources in resource set already
established by similar degree of resource to resource.
V.
CONCLUSION
The paper used some popular techniques to support the
learning instruction model, such as rule based reasoning,
content based filtering, user based collaborative filtering and
item based collaborative filtering. But problems of technique
layer are not the paper’s focus. The paper’s work is a generic
model on high layer in order to get more proper service for
college course teaching. The model constructs the
connection with classroom teaching, uses learning situation
to represents the learning demands under the specific context
of college course. So the resource recommendation strategies
is first based on the course plan, objective and task. Though
with the popular recommendation algorithms, the high layer
model and synthesis strategies play important roles to
acquire a learning system than a resource recommendation
system only.
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There are still some works left for the future. To validate
the high layer model, we did some simplification on details.
The learning situation and recommendation strategies can be
researched further. On the other hand, technology is also a
research directions for performance problems. The e-
learning’s application in college education is a rather
complex problem, we just present an idea from the direction
of improving e-learning to generate a virtual self-learning
room with learning demands, but other pedagogy also should
be considered to resolve the problem.
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