Entre-pass: Personalising u-learning with Intelligent Agents

Gregory M. P. O’Hare, Bríd C. Doherty, Peter T. O’Hare, Michael J. O’Grady

School of Computer Science and Informatics,

UCD, Dublin, Ireland.www.entre-pass.com

Ubiquitous Learning

Anytime, Anywhere, Any media Learning

User sets their own learning timetable

Content adapts to user’s requirements

Same learning quality no matter which device is used

Desktop PC PDA Smart Phones

Home University/School Roaming

Server

User Profiling

On registration, explicit profile created Profiler Agent extracts this profile, places it in

User Profile Database Subsequent interactions cause implicit

refinement through Listener Agent-Profiler Agent interaction

Benefits of User Profiling

More intuitive interactions Users feel system adapts to their

requirements More comfortable user interactions Content is adapted to display and bandwidth

restrictions

Considerations with User Profiling

Profiling must not be obvious or intrusive Users may feel their privacy is being invaded

by aggressive profiling Profiling must be performed in an intuitive

and non-invasive manner

Agent Factory

A cohesive framework for the development and deployment of agent applications (Collier et al, 2003)

BDI (Belief-Desire-Intention) agent development

Inter-agent Communication language, based on FIPA standards

www.agentfactory.com

Agent Factory Features

Interpreted Agent Programming LanguageAgent Platform to support deployment of

agentsLightweight agent implementation that can

be deployed on PDAsMethodological support for agent

fabrication

Moodle

Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment

Developed by Martin Dougiamas Open source ‘Social Constructionist Pedagogy’ Developed in PHP under a GPL license

www.moodle.org

Entre-pass Project

Pan-European Project Partners in Spain, Denmark, Hungary, Romania, Britain

and Ireland Aim of our project is to increase the number of people

undertaking entrepreneurial training by increasing the visibility, accessibility and transferability of such courses and qualifications

Entre-Pass Project

Entrepreneurial qualification development Development of an on-line training course,

undertaken in an enveloping internet hosted training environment, adapted to the needs of those contemplating starting up their own business.

Successful completion of this course will lead to the award of the “European Certificate in Entrepreneurship.”

Entre-pass Project Output

Online u-learning system Personalised Content Presentation Electronic Record of Training Achievements Multi-language courseware: Danish, Spanish,

Hungarian, Romanian, English

Video Content

Quizzes are used for Assessment

The Entre-Pass System

Combination of Moodle and Agent Factory Multi-Agent System constructed in Agent Factory

Entre-Pass Multi-Agent System

Listener Agent– Detects user interactions– Passes results of these actions to Profiler Agent– e.g. Detects username and password on login

Entre-Pass Multi-Agent System

Profiler Agent– Maintains, updates and analyses the user profile in a

database– Extracts Profile from Moodle Database, stores it in User

Profile Database– Assesses the user’s requirements – Communicates these requirements to other Agents– e.g. Detects required language and notifies Content

Management Agent

Entre-Pass Multi-Agent System

Content Management Agent– Controls Content– Requirements are passed from Profiler Agent– Content is then selected from Content Database according to this

content– e.g. If a user performs badly in an assignment, the preceding

content is re-displayed for revision

Entre-Pass Multi-Agent System

Presentation Agent– Adjusts display for differing screen real-estate of PC and

PDA– Applies different css (cascading style sheet) to content

display

User Interface

Web-based system (www.entre-pass.com/)

Online Feedback Form used

Feedback Analysis

Online Form used Relevance of Materials & Videos:

– 51% relevant, 38% neutral, 11% irrelevant– Videos too large for dial-up or PDA viewing

Navigation: – 76% found it Intuitive or Very Intuitive

Conclusion

Application of intelligent agents allows for greater profiling capabilities

Courseware tailored to user requirements Both implicit and explicit profiling used Positive Feedback for the system

Contact Details and Additional Information

brid.doherty@ucd.ie www.prism.ucd.ie www.entre-pass.com www.entre-pass.com/moodle

Questions??