A design of a multi-agent recommendation system using ontologies and rule-based reasoning: pandemic context

Learners attend their courses in remote or hybrid systems find it difficult to follow one size fits all courses. These difficulties have increased with the pandemic, lockdown, and the stress they cause. Hence, the role of adaptive systems to recommend personalized learning resources according to the learner's profile. The purpose of this paper is to design a system for recommending learning objects according learner's condition, including his mental state, his COVID-19 history, as well as his social situation and ability to connect to the e-learning system on a regular basis. In this article, we present an architecture of a recommendation system for personalized learning objects based on ontologies and on rule-based reasoning, and we will also describe the inference rules required for the adaptation of the educational content to the needs of the learners, taking into account the learner’s health and mental state, as well as his social situation. The system designed, and validated using the unified modeling language (UML). It additionally allows teachers to have a holistic view of learners’ progress and situations.

Averting the next credibility crisis in psychological science: Within-person methods for personalized diagnostics and intervention.

Personalizing assessments, predictions, and treatments of individuals is currently a defining trend in psychological research and applied fields, including personalized learning, personalized medicine, and personalized advertisement. For instance, the recent pandemic has reminded parents and educators of how challenging yet crucial it is to get the right learning task to the right student at the right time. Increasingly, psychologists and social scientists are realizing that the between- person methods that we have long relied upon to describe, predict, and treat individuals may fail to live up to these tasks (e.g., Molenaar, 2004). Consequently, there is a risk of a credibility loss, possibly similar to the one seen during the replicability crisis (Ioannides, 2005), because we have only started to understand how many of the conclusions that we tend to draw based on between-person methods are based on a misunderstanding of what these methods can tell us and what they cannot. An imminent methodological revolution will likely lead to a change of even well-established psychological theories (Barbot et al., 2020). Fortunately, methodological solutions for personalized descriptions and predictions, such as many within-person analyses, are available and undergo rapid development, although they are not yet embraced in all areas of psychology, and some come with their own limitations. This article first discusses the extent of the theory-method gap, consisting of theories about within-person patterns being studied with between-person methods in psychology, and the potential loss of trust that might follow from this theory-method gap. Second, this article addresses advantages and limitations of available within- person methods. Third, this article discusses how within-person methods may help improving the individual descriptions and predictions that are needed in many applied fields that aim for tailored individual solutions, including personalized learning and personalized medicine.

Computational Thinking and Participatory Teaching as Pathways to Personalized Learning

This chapter discusses personalized learning by briefly outlining historical trends and deficiencies associated with what can be referred to as production style or assembly line approaches to education before contrasting personalized learning definitions. The chapter extends those definitions. It discusses participatory teaching as a personalized learning strategy by which students take on roles of co-teaching, co-designing lessons, or co-designing curriculum with adult teachers. One participatory teaching example involves an international group of students who help one another learn science and mathematics through shared video production. This example involves a US school involved in a larger districtwide effort comprehensively designed to involve each student. Organized around computational thinking, multidisciplinary innovation, arts integration, and collaborative problem-solving, the district may be viewed as a case study in implementing personalized learning. The chapter furnishes several examples that blend participatory teaching and computational thinking.

Assessment of teachers' readiness for the implementation of personalized teaching in a general education school

Статья посвящена проблеме выявления состояния готовности педагогов школ к реализации идеи персонификации образования. Выявлена типология персонифицированного обучения как феномена гуманитарной парадигмы. Прояснен феномен готовности педагогов. На основании достигнутых пониманий раскрыта сущность готовности педагогов к реализации персонифицированного обучения. Охарактеризованы типологии такой готовности исходя из возможного наличия или отсутствия каждого из ее компонентов. Разработана комплексная система оценки, которая позволяет осуществлять как внешнюю оценку, например, администрацией школы, так и самооценку педагогом исследуемой готовности. Описаны первые результаты, полученные при применении этой системы. Охарактеризованы модули повышения квалификации учителей, позволяющие корректировать каждый из компонентов готовности педагогов к реализации персонифицированного обучения. The article is devoted to the problem of identifying the state of readiness of school teachers to implement the idea of personification of education. The typology of personified teaching as a phenomenon of the humanitarian paradigm is revealed. The phenomenon of teachers' readiness has been clarified. On the basis of the achieved understandings, the essence of the teachers' readiness for the implementation of personalized training is revealed. The typologies of such readiness are characterized based on the possible presence or absence of each of its components. A comprehensive assessment system has been developed, which allows for both external assessment, for example, by the school administration, and the teacher's self-assessment of the studied readiness. The first results obtained using this system are described. The modules for improving the qualifications of teachers, which make it possible to correct each of the components of the readiness of teachers for the implementation of personalized learning, are characterized.

Organizational and methodological support for students’ foreign language personalized learning pathway modeling in the context of digital challenges

В статье раскрывается организационно-методическое сопровождение построения персонализированных образовательных треков при обучении иностранному языку в контексте цифровизации образования, которое представляет собой пошаговый алгоритм проектирования гибких персонализированных моделей изучения английского языка студентами негуманитарных направлений в электронной образовательной среде. Предлагаемые модели изучения английского языка студентами негуманитарных направлений способствуют реализации активной адаптивности как универсального механизма управления образовательным процессом на основе динамических характеристик облучающегося, с разработанным комплексом вариативных аффективных технологий (повышение уровня мотивации и снижение уровня тревожности) как средства достижения более эффективного процесса обучения. Предложенные в исследовании методические советы могут быть применены при разработке персонализированных адаптивных обучающих систем, программы, методические материалы для преподавателей, инструкции по созданию адаптивных формирующих и диагностических контрольно-измерительных материалов, методические указания для студентов вузов. The article reveals organizational and methodological support for students’ foreign language personalized learning path design in the context of digitalization of education, which is a step-by-step algorithm for designing flexible personalized models for non-language-major students’ foreign language learning in the electronic educational environment. The proposed models of foreign language learning by non-linguistic university students contribute to the implementation of active adaptability as a universal mechanism of educational process management based on the dynamic characteristics of the student, with the developed complex of varied affective technologies (increase of motivation and reduction of anxiety levels) as a means of achieving a more effective learning process. The methodological tips proposed in the study can be applied in the development of personalized adaptive learning systems, programs, methodological materials for teachers, instructions for creating adaptive formative and diagnostic control and measurement materials, methodological guidelines for university students.

The Effects and Implications of a Peer-Led Small Group Advising Scheme: A Case Study

The present case study aims to investigate the effects and implications of a semi-structured, small group advising scheme led by a peer advisor (PA) who graduated from a previously offered scheme. The scheme involves a seven-unit Personalized Learning Module (PLM) that simultaneously combines four key points: (1) reflecting, (2) mindset training, (3) personal motivation and success, and (4) teaching students how to limit overwhelming sources of information as part of creating an actionable, personalized learning plan. Each unit of the PLM consists of an integrated, scaffolded set of original advising tools. Four learners were trained in a group by a PA. Data were collected through PA open-ended feedback forms at the end of each unit, metaphor drawings and the advisee feedback form containing the learners’ reflections on the efficiency of the module. Additionally, the PA’s feedback form containing the PA’s observations and reflections were used for data collection and data were analyzed through content analysis. The outcome of the study reveals promising results for future PA programs.