Hypermedia environments and adaptive instruction

Recommendations for research, development, and evaluation are made to appropriate sponsors, academic administrators, faculty members, training managers, and instructional developers, interested in realizing on-line learning.

Abstract

The relevant professional literature is reviewed and discussed regarding the following salient issues: (1) hypermedia environments enable learner control; (2) this is reflected in individuals' navigational paths through network-based subject matter; (3) these student tracks can be captured in log files; and (4) this information can be used by artificially intelligent tutors to implement adaptive instruction. Assuming (1) most schools, colleges, universities, and corporations will eventually offer distributed students network-based instruction for particular refresher preparation and certain core courses, and (2) adaptive intelligent tutors are crucial components of course management systems, recommendations for research, development, and evaluation, extracted from the discussion, are made to appropriate sponsors, academic administrators, faculty members, training managers, and instructional developers, interested in realizing on-line learning.