Attending to individual students: how student modelling can be used in designing personalised blended learning objects

Abstract

This paper reports on research carried out at the University of Hertfordshire over the past ten years relating to how the experience of learning can be personalised for individual learners. This work relates primarily to Computer-Based Learning (CBL), but is not restricted to it, as it encompasses a blended approach, linking on and off-computer teaching and learning activities. The research reported in this paper relates to the development of psychological and domain-based student models and how they can be used together in a composite student model to assist in the selection and use of Blended Learning objects. It is argued that the needs of individual learners may be attended to in this way. Techniques in user modelling, theories of instructional design and sophisticated methods of evaluation are discussed as being central to this approach.