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Construction of an Adaptive E-Learning Environment To !PREFACE Construction of an Adaptive E-learning Environment to Address Learning Styles and an Investigation of the Effect of Media Choice Christian Wolf Diplom-Informatiker (FH) Digitale Medien (equivalent to BCompSc(Hons) Digital Media) This exegesis is submitted with the durable record of the project materials on DVD in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy. School of Education Design and Social Context Portfolio RMIT University January 2007 Certification i Certification I hereby state that a. except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work has been carried out by myself alone; b. the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; c. the content of the exegesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; and d. any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged. e. ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. Christian Wolf Melbourne, January 2007 Acknowledgements ii Acknowledgements This PhD by project was partially funded by a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service and a grant from the Telematics Course Development Fund Trust. Thanks to my supervisors Tony Owens, Andrew Seaton, Nicola Yelland, and Robyn Blake for their comments on my work and on earlier versions of this exegesis. Additional thanks for helpful comments on the statistics sections go to John Izard, Cliff DaCosta and Boyka Bratanova. I would also like to express my gratitude to the 63 multimedia students from RMIT University (TAFE division), who participated in the evaluation of iWeaver, as well as to all the ADoM staff members for their support and cooperation. A big “thank you” goes to all my friends. You were my social network that kept me out of the dark holes of doing a PhD. It was always rewarding and enlightening to socialise with all of you and you kept me sane. Special thanks to Stefan G. and Stefan K., who both helped me greatly with practical and emotional support. Similarly, I would like to express my gratitude to Tess and Floyd for their thorough proof-reads and insights. Additional cheers must go to my housemates (for putting up with me), to Apples (for encouragement and constructive criticism), to Ben and Rosalba (for asking the right questions), to Sampo and Lil (for many great discussions), to Anna (for the spoken components), to Jeremy Parker (for his invaluable support during the recording sessions) and to everyone who provided feedback on preliminary versions of iWeaver. Thanks to my parents who supported me and believed in me. Thank you both for never losing faith that I would complete this PhD. You were always there for me and I always felt safe and supported. This work is dedicated to my family and friends. Christian Wolf Related Publications iii Related Publications Parts of the background and method chapter of this exegesis have been published before in conference proceedings. Wolf, C. (2002). iWeaver: Towards an Interactive Web-Based Adaptive Learning Environment to Address Individual Learning Styles. Paper presented at the Interactive Computer Aided Learning Workshop (ICL2002), Villach, Austria. http://www.adaptive-learning.net/media/pdf/2002_ICL_Paper.pdf Wolf, C. (2003). iWeaver: Towards ‘Learning Style’-based E-learning in Computer Science Education. In T. Greening & R. Lister (Eds.), Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology (Vol. 20, pp. 273-279). Adelaide, Australia: Australian Computer Society. http://www.adaptive-learning.net/media/pdf/2003_ACE_Paper.pdf Table of Contents iv Table of Contents CERTIFICATION .......................................................................................................................i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... ii RELATED PUBLICATIONS ..................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................. viii LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................ix ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................1 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 3 1.1 OVERVIEW .....................................................................................................................3 1.2 COMPONENTS OF THIS PHD ...........................................................................................3 1.3 DEFINITION OF TERMS ...................................................................................................3 1.4 MOTIVATION..................................................................................................................5 1.4.1 Broadband as Facilitator for Media-Rich E-learning...........................................................6 1.4.2 Growth of E-learning...........................................................................................................7 1.4.3 Benefits of Adaptivity .........................................................................................................8 1.4.4 Adaptive Learning Approaches ...........................................................................................8 1.4.5 Dynamic Adaptation and Choice.......................................................................................10 1.5 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ...............................................................................................10 1.5.1 Contributions .....................................................................................................................12 1.5.2 Scope and Limitations .......................................................................................................12 1.6 EXEGESIS OUTLINE ......................................................................................................13 2 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................. 15 2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................15 2.2 INDIVIDUALISATION TENDENCIES IN LEARNING PARADIGMS.....................................16 2.2.1 A Definition of Learning ...................................................................................................16 2.2.2 Behaviourist Influences .....................................................................................................17 2.2.3 Cognitivist Influences........................................................................................................19 2.2.4 Constructivist Influences ...................................................................................................21 2.2.5 Summary............................................................................................................................23 2.3 MULTIMEDIA LEARNING..............................................................................................24 2.3.1 A Definition of Multimedia...............................................................................................24 2.3.2 Information Processing Theories.......................................................................................25 2.3.3 Multimedia as Multiple Representations ...........................................................................28 2.3.4 Media Effect versus Multimedia Effect.............................................................................30 2.3.5 Summary............................................................................................................................32 2.4 E-LEARNING .................................................................................................................33 2.4.1 A Definition of E-learning.................................................................................................34 2.4.2 E-learning as a Tool for Individualisation .........................................................................34 2.4.3 Adaptive Capacity of Standard Platforms .........................................................................35 Table of Contents v 2.4.4 Effectiveness Studies.........................................................................................................36 2.4.5 Summary............................................................................................................................38 2.5 LEARNING STYLE THEORIES........................................................................................39 2.5.1 A Definition of Learning Style..........................................................................................40 2.5.2 Dilemmas and Problems of the Field.................................................................................42 2.5.3 Learning Style and the Brain .............................................................................................46 2.5.4 A Classification and Review of Major Models..................................................................48 2.5.5 Selection of a Model: Criteria, Criticism and Defence......................................................54 2.5.6
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