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This study attempted to combine the benefits of multimedia learning, adaptive interfaces, and learning style theory by constructing a novel e-learning environment. The environment was designed to accommodate individual learning styles while students progressed through a computer programming course. Despite the benefits of individualised instruction and a growing worldwide e-learning market, there is a paucity of guidance on how to effectively accommodate learning styles in an online environment. Several existing learning-style adaptive environments base their behaviour on an initial assessment of the learner's profile, which is then assumed to remain stable. Consequently, these environments rarely offer the learner choices between different versions of content. However, these choices could cater for flexible learning styles, promote cognitive flexibility, and increase learner control. The first research question underlying the project asked how learning styles could be accommodated in an adaptive e-learning environment. The second question asked whether a dynamically adaptive environment that provides the learner with a choice of media experiences is more beneficial than a statically adapted environment. To answer these questions, an adaptive e-learning environment named iWeaver was created and experimentally evaluated. iWeaver was based on an introductory course in Java programming and offered learning content as style-specific media experiences, assisted by additional learning tools. These experiences and tools were based on the perceptual and information processing dimension of an adapted version of the Dunn and Dunn learning styles model. An experimental evaluation of iWeaver was conducted with 63 multimedia students. The analysis investigated the effect of having a choice of multiple media experiences (compared to having just one static media experience) on learning gain, enjoyment, perceived progress, and motivation. In addition to these quantitative measurements, learners provided qualitative feedback at the end of each lesson. Data from 27 participants were sufficiently complete to be analysed. For the data analysis, participants were divided into two groups of high and low interest in programming and Java, then into two groups of high and low experience with computers and the Internet. Both group comparisons revealed statistically significant differences for the effect of choice. Having a choice of media experiences proved beneficial for learners with low experience but detrimental for learners with high experience or interest. These findings suggest that the effect of choice appears to be strongly influenced by the learner's background. It is hypothesised that encouraging a more active learner role in educational systems would expand the positive influence of choice to a wider range of learners. The study has contributed some weight to the argument that for certain groups of learners, it is more beneficial to view learning style as a flexible, rather than a stable construct. As a practical implication, it seems advisable to collect data on prior experience, interest, and the initial learning style distribution of the target audience before developing environments comparable to iWeaver. [See http://www.adaptive-learning.net/research/media.htm for media files associated with this thesis.]

Submitted by Cássia Santos (cassia.bcufg@gmail.com) on 2016-06-13T15:22:17Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Alexandre Martins Ferreira Bueno - 2011.pdf: 2170812 bytes, checksum: ca9620fc2142f942080575c91a55e932 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-06-13T15:27:38Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Alexandre Martins Ferreira Bueno - 2011.pdf: 2170812 bytes, checksum: ca9620fc2142f942080575c91a55e932 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-13T15:27:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Alexandre Martins Ferreira Bueno - 2011.pdf: 2170812 bytes, checksum: ca9620fc2142f942080575c91a55e932 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-13 / Nowadays, e-learning has become an important source of knowledge, providing content without the limitation of time or space. In this context, Web-based education became an important sector. A large number of e-learning applications have utilized the Web to teach, mainly to provide distance learning. As a result of the substantial growth in elearning there has been an increase in the diversity of students that uses this environment to achieve their academic or professional backgrounds. In general, these students have di erent personal, social-cultural and cognitive characteristics. Adaptive Hypermedia Systems provide resources to assist this diverse public, they are able to consider the individual characteristics of students during the learning process. It is known that the representation of these features are often associated with uncertain and imprecise information. Given this context, this work proposes a Web-based Adaptive Educational Hypermedia System (with instructional content) that aims to personalize the process of distance learning. It has a student model that is able to represent the uncertainties related to the student's knowledge (characteristic of the students considered by the system) through the use of a Bayesian Network. This model is adjusted according to the answers provided by students in ability tests, which in turn are evaluated by a mathematical model of Item Response Theory. The experiment realized compared the results obtained by the proposed system, that is provided with adaptation (personalization) mechanisms, and other system that has no such mechanisms, in which the same content was presented to all the students. Statistical analysis of the collected data has shown a signi cant improvement in knowledge retention by the students who used the system provided with adaptation. However, it was expected, as a result of this improvement, that the levels of satisfaction reported by the students who used the proposed system were better than the levels reported by the students who used the system without adaptation, which was not evidenced by the gathered data. / Hoje em dia, o e-learning se tornou uma importante vertente na obtenção de conhecimento, fornecendo conteúdo sem a limitação de tempo ou espaço . Neste contexto, a educação baseada na Web tem recebido destaque. Inúmeras aplicações de e-learning tem se utilizado da Web para ensinar, principalmente para prover ensino a distancia. Como consequência do crescimento substancial do e-learning houve um aumento na diversidade dos alunos que fazem uso deste meio para a obtenção de suas formações acadêmicas ou prossionais. Em geral, estes alunos possuem diferentes características pessoais, sócio culturais e cognitivas. Os Sistemas Hiperm dia Adaptativos oferecem recursos para atender a este p ublico diverso, eles são capazes de considerar as características individuais dos alunos durante o processo de aprendizagem. Sabe-se que na representação destas características frequentemente estão associadas informações que são incertas e imprecisas. Diante do apresentado, este trabalho propõe um Sistema Hipermídia Adaptativo Educacional (com conteúdo instrucional) que tem como objetivo a personalização do processo de ensino a distância através da Web. Ele possui um modelo do aluno que e capaz de lidar com as incertezas relacionadas ao conhecimento dos alunos (caracteristica dos alunos considerada pelo sistema) através do uso de uma Rede Bayesiana. Este modelo e ajustado por respostas dadas pelos alunos em testes de habilidade, que são avaliadas por um modelo matemático da Teoria da Resposta ao Item. O experimento realizado comparou os resultados obtidos pelo sistema proposto, provido de mecanismos de adaptação (personalização), e outro sistema desprovido de adaptação, em que o mesmo conteúdo era apresentado a todos os alunos. A analise estatística dos dados coletados mostrou uma melhoria signicativa na retenção de conhecimento por parte dos alunos que zeram uso do sistema provido de adaptação. Entretanto, esperava-se, como consequência desta melhoria, que os níveis de satisfação informados pelos alunos que zeram uso do sistema proposto fossem superiores aos níveis informados pelos alunos que zeram uso do sistema desprovido de adaptação, fato não evidenciado pelos dados obtidos.