Among student modelling researches, domain-independent student models have usually been a rarity. They are valued because of reusability and economy. The demand on domain-independent student models is further increased by the need to stay competitive in the so-called knowledge economy nowadays and the widespread practice of lifelong learning. On the other hand, the popularity of student-oriented pedagogy triggers the need to provide cognitive support in virtual learning environments which in turn requires student models that create cognitive profiles of students. This study offers an innovative student modelling approach called cognitive trait model (CTM) to address both the needs mentioned above. CTM is a domain-independent and persistent student model that goes beyond traditional concept of student model. It is capable of taking the role of a learning companion who knows about the cognitive traits of the student and can supply this information when the student first starts using a new learning system. The behaviour of the students in the learning systems can then be used to update CTM. Three cognitive traits are included in the CTM in this study, they are working memory capacity, inductive reasoning ability and divergent associative learning. For the three cognitive traits, their domain-independence and persistence are studied and defined, their characteristics are examined, and behaviour patterns that can be used to indicate them are extracted. In this study, a learning system is developed to gather behaviour data of students. Several web-based psychometric tools are also developed to gather the psychometric data about the three cognitive traits of students. In the evaluations, Cognitive trait modelling is then applied on the behaviour data and the results are compared with the psychometric data. The findings prove the effectiveness of CTM and reveal important insights about the three cognitive traits.

This thesis describes a research work aimed at improving the interfaces of online discussion forums (ODFs) in relation to their functional support to enhance learning. These ODFs form part of almost all Learning Management Systems (LMSs) such as WebCT, Moodle and Blackboard, which are widely used in education nowadays. Although ODFs are identified as valuable sources to learning, their interfaces are limited in terms of providing support to students, such as in the areas of managing their postings as well as in facilitating them to quickly locate and obtain specified information. In addition, these systems lack features to support inter-institutional cooperation that could potentially increase knowledge sharing between students and educators of different institutions. The interface design objective of this study therefore was to explore and overcome the limitations identified as above, and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of ODFs’ support to learning. Using a task centered design approach; the required features were developed, and implemented in a working prototype called eQuake (electronic Question answer knowledge environment). eQuake is a shared online discussion forum system developed as an add-on to a well-known open source e-learning platform (Moodle). This system was intended for use among interinstitutional students in New Zealand tertiary institutions that teach similar courses. The improved interface functionalities of eQuake are expected to enhance learning support in terms of widening communication among users, increasing knowledge base, providing existing matching answer(s) quickly to students, and exposing students to multiple perspectives. This study considers such improvements to ODF interfaces as vital to enable users to enjoy the benefits of technology-mediated environment. The perceived usefulness and ease-of-use of improved features in eQuake were evaluated using a quantitative experimental research method. The evaluation was conducted at three tertiary institutions in New Zealand, and the overall results indicated positive response, although some suggestions for improvement have been made in the evaluation. This thesis presents a review of the related literature, describes the design and development of a user interface, followed by its implementation in eQuake, and a description of the evaluation. The thesis concludes with recommendations for better interface design of ODFs and provides suggestions for future research in this area.

This PhD thesis is a theoretical and practical study concerning the user model for adaptive e-learning systems. The research activity is two-fold. It firstly explores the personality aspect in the user model which has been overlooked in the previous literature on the design of adaptive e-learning systems, in order to see whether learners with different types of personality would have different effects on their learning performance with adaptive e-learning systems. And secondly, it investigates how to embody the personality features in the current user model, proposing that the inclusion of the personality in the user model for adaptive e-learning systems would lead to better learning performance. The thesis has considered the personality aspect in four parts. PART I reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on adaptive e-learning systems from which the main research questions are constructed. It explains how this study derives an overarching model for the inclusion of personality type in effective e-learning systems. PART II consists of the experiments, which explore empirically the importance of identifying the personality in the user model for adaptive e-learning and its effect in individual learning. That is, the main theme of the thesis hypothesises that different personality type’s influence performance with e-learning systems. PART III shows the effects of personality type on groups of learners performing collaborative learning activities. It suggests practical implications of designing collaborative learning technologies in conjunction with the personality feature. Finally, PART IV includes personality in the proposed user model and tests the primary hypothesis that “the personality may influence the learning performance of students using adaptive e-learning systems”.

The concept of Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) has opened new avenues in the educational spectrum. Despite its popularity as an educational environment tool, the successful implementation of a virtual classroom is heavily reliant on the educator. This research focuses on the perceptions of educators regarding the acceptance of the MUVE as an educational tool. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to identify and evaluate the potential benefits of the MUVE in the domain of education. The qualitative approach was considered to be the suitable approach for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 educators; these interviews included the demonstration of a virtual class located in the Second Life Island known as Jokaydia. The collected data was transcribed using NVivo software, and analysed using constant comparison analysis. The transcribed interviews were provided to another researcher in order to obtain an independent analysis; this created the basis for triangulation of participants’ perceptions. A summary of this analysis was then sent to all participants to confirm its credibility. The conclusions of the study suggest that the combination of MUVEs’ features and strengths will eventually influence the educators to accept the MUVE as an educational tool, although several areas of concern are identified. Future growth in the educational uses of MUVEs is examined, the implications and limitations of the study are discussed, and ideas for future research are elaborated on. Keywords: MUVE, Second Life, education, TAM, ease of use, subjective norm, enjoyment, facilities, compatibility, security and trust, collaboration, awareness, media richness, discovery learning, situated learning, role playing, controlled environment, immersiveness.

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Instructional Design (ID) ontology can be used to formally represent knowledge about the teaching and learning process, which contributes to automatic construction of personalised eLearning experiences. While ID ontologies have been continuously improved and developed over recent years, there are concerns regarding what makes a quality ID ontology. This study proposes a framework for evaluating the quality of an ID ontology by synthesising the crucial elements considered in the ID ontologies developed to date. The framework would allow a more precise evaluation of different ID ontologies, by demonstrating the quality of each ontology with respect to the set of crucial elements that arise from the ontology. This study also gives an overview of the literature on ID ontology, as well as the implications for future research in this area.

This PhD thesis is a theoretical and practical study concerning the user model for adaptive e-learning systems. The research activity is two-fold. It firstly explores the personality aspect in the user model which has been overlooked in the previous literature on the design of adaptive e-learning systems, in order to see whether learners with different types of personality would have different effects on their learning performance with adaptive e-learning systems. And secondly, it investigates how to embody the personality features in the current user model, proposing that the inclusion of the personality in the user model for adaptive e-learning systems would lead to better learning performance. The thesis has considered the personality aspect in four parts. PART I reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on adaptive e-learning systems from which the main research questions are constructed. It explains how this study derives an overarching model for the inclusion of personality type in effective e-learning systems. PART II consists of the experiments, which explore empirically the importance of identifying the personality in the user model for adaptive e-learning and its effect in individual learning. That is, the main theme of the thesis hypothesises that different personality type’s influence performance with e-learning systems. PART III shows the effects of personality type on groups of learners performing collaborative learning activities. It suggests practical implications of designing collaborative learning technologies in conjunction with the personality feature. Finally, PART IV includes personality in the proposed user model and tests the primary hypothesis that “the personality may influence the learning performance of students using adaptive e-learning systems”.

This PhD thesis is a theoretical and practical study concerning the user model for adaptive e-learning systems. The research activity is two-fold. It firstly explores the personality aspect in the user model which has been overlooked in the previous literature on the design of adaptive e-learning systems, in order to see whether learners with different types of personality would have different effects on their learning performance with adaptive e-learning systems. And secondly, it investigates how to embody the personality features in the current user model, proposing that the inclusion of the personality in the user model for adaptive e-learning systems would lead to better learning performance. The thesis has considered the personality aspect in four parts. PART I reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on adaptive e-learning systems from which the main research questions are constructed. It explains how this study derives an overarching model for the inclusion of personality type in effective e-learning systems. PART II consists of the experiments, which explore empirically the importance of identifying the personality in the user model for adaptive e-learning and its effect in individual learning. That is, the main theme of the thesis hypothesises that different personality type’s influence performance with e-learning systems. PART III shows the effects of personality type on groups of learners performing collaborative learning activities. It suggests practical implications of designing collaborative learning technologies in conjunction with the personality feature. Finally, PART IV includes personality in the proposed user model and tests the primary hypothesis that “the personality may influence the learning performance of students using adaptive e-learning systems”.

Interface colour scheme design is complex, but important. Most software allows users to choose the colours of single items individually and out of context, but does not acknowledge colour schemes or aid in their design. Creating colour schemes by picking individual colours can be time-consuming, error-prone, and frustrating, and the results are often mediocre, especially for those without colour design skills. Further, as colour harmony arises from the interactions between all of the coloured elements, anticipating the overall eff ect of changing the colour of any single element can be difficult. This research explores the feasibility of extending artistic colour harmony models to include factors pertinent to user interface design. An extended colour harmony model is proposed and used as the basis for an objective function that can algorithmically assess the colour relationships in an interface colour scheme. Its assessments have been found to agree well with human evaluations and have been used as part of a process to automatically create harmonious and usable interface colour schemes. A three stage process for the design of interface colour schemes is described. In the fi rst stage, the designer speci es, in broad terms and without requiring colour design expertise, colouring constraints such as grouping and distinguishability that are needed to ensure that the colouring of interface elements reflects their semantics. The second stage is an optimisation process that chooses colour relationships to satisfy the competing requirements of harmonious colour usage, any designer-specified constraints, and readability. It produces sets of coordinates that constitute abstract colour schemes: they de fine only relationships between coloured items, not real colours. In the third and fi nal stage, a user interactively maps an abstract scheme to one or more real colour schemes. The colours can be fi ne-tuned as a set (but not altered individually), to allow for such "soft" factors as personal, contextual and cultural considerations, while preserving the integrity of the design embodied in the abstract scheme. The colours in the displayed interface are updated continuously, so users can interactively explore a large number of colour schemes, all of which have readable text, distinguishable controls, and conform to the principles of colour harmony. Experimental trials using a proof-of-concept implementation called the Colour Harmoniser have been used to evaluate a method of holistic colour adjustment and the resulting colour schemes. The results indicate that the holistic controls are easy to understand and eff ective, and that the automatically produced colour schemes, prior to fi ne-tuning, are comparable in quality to many manually created schemes, and after fi ne-tuning, are generally better. By designing schemes that incorporate colouring constraints specifi ed by the user prior to scheme creation, and enabling the user to interactively fi ne-tune the schemes after creation, there is no need to specify or incorporate the subtle and not well understood factors that determine whether any particular set of colours is "suitable". Instead, the approach used produces broadly harmonious schemes, and defers to the developer in the choice of the fi nal colours.

Highly mobile people (HMPs) require flexible, reactive service delivery due to their regularly changing location and activities and the lack of a wired network connection. A mobile service delivery system should be able to detect relevant events that occur such as change of location, availability of new last-minute specials, sales opportunities and safety issues and then reactively take action in response to these events. This work describes a situation management ontology based framework for delivering such a system. Issues addressed include HMP and service states and events, context, situations and situation-action rules, and syntactically and semantically compatible XML ontologies for their specification. A generic situation management ontology is developed in OWL using the ontology development tool, Protégé. This ontology is combined with domain specific classes in the travel domain to create a travel situation management ontology that can be used as the basis for a ubiquitous mobile travel service application. Using a typical independent traveller scenario, the travel situation management ontology is instantiated to demonstrate its effectiveness. The flexibility of the generic situation management ontology is demonstrated by creating an academic situation management ontology by simply replacing a small number of domain specific classes. A framework is also proposed that is based on the situation management ontology, distributed, co-operating software agents, and context based filtering, and is suitable for mobile service delivery. The example framework uses the situation management ontologies developed in this work and action rules to link situation specification to situation detection and action. The ontologies and action rules are semantically consistent and are specified in the XML based, industry standard language, OWL, thus drawing together previous independent work in a number of diverse disciplines.