Helping Learners to Understand Themselves with a Learner Model Open to Students, Peers and Instructors

This paper introduces work in progress on an open student model designed to help learners to better understand their learning, and Planned extensions to enable student-system and peer-peer collaboration with reference to student models, are discussed.

Abstract

This paper introduces work in progress on an open student model designed to help learners to better understand their learning. The aim of the system is to investigate issues relevant to open learner models in a large-scale, real use context. This will be achieved initially through the deployment of a simple, domain-independent system. The student model is inspectable by the student it represents, to help focus reflection on their learning. Students may also view the models of their peers, to enable them to compare their own progress against that of others. Furthermore, instructors may view the learner models of their students, to help them support students in their learning. The initial version of the system and the learner model are very simple, to enable early deployment in a variety of contexts. (Subsequent investigations may lead to more detailed recommendations for specific domains.) Planned extensions to enable student-system and peer-peer collaboration with reference to student models (based on existing work on other systems), are also discussed.