Título: On the way to learning style models integration: a Learner's Characteristics Ontology
Autor: Ezzat Labib-Awad, Ahmed; Canos Cerda, José Hilario; Penadés Gramage, María Carmen
Resumen: [EN] On the way to increasing customization in e-learning systems, the learner model is the main source of
variability. Such a model includes a number of psychological characteristics and study preferences that
describe the learner's personality traits related to learning. During the last decades, the design methods
and tools for e-learning have been designed assuming speci
fi
c learner models. Therefore, in the search
for a learning environment suitable for as many learner models as possible, we need tools to explore -and
exploit- such models. In general, the learner's characteristics can be linked to the so-called
learner's
learning style
(which is a part of the learner model) to provide the instructor with extensive knowledge
about the learner's characterization in perceiving and processing information. Numerous learning styles
have been proposed in the last decades, in some cases with overlapping characteristics with the same or
different names. Thus, the heterogeneity of the learning style space makes it dif
fi
cult to handle cus-
tomization effectively. In this paper, we introduce a
Learner's Characteristics Ontology
based on creating
interconnections between the different learning style model dimensions and learning styles with the
relevant learner's characteristics, that: (1) helps instructors to improve and personalize the learning
content; (2) can recommend learning materials to learners according to their learning characteristics and
preferences; (3) can provide both instructors and learners with extensive knowledge about how they can
improve their teaching and learning abilities; and (4) can improve communications and interaction
between humans and computers by specifying the semantics of the learning style models'
characteristics.