About the Book
Technology enhanced learning takes place in many different forms and contexts, including formal and informal settings, individual and collaborative learning, learning in the classroom, at home, at work, and outdoor in real life situations, as well as desktop-based learning and learning by using mobile devices. Environments range from desktop-based learning systems such as learning management systems, which present learners with learning material and activities, to mobile, pervasive, and ubiquitous learning environments which are used in real life settings and enable learners to learn from real learning objects. In each of these forms and contexts, adaptive and intelligent support has potential to contribute in making such learning environments more personalized, user-friendly, and effective in supporting learners in learning. Intelligent and Adaptive Learning Systems: Technology Enhanced Support for Learners and Teachers focuses on how intelligent support and adaptive features can be integrated in currently used learning systems and discusses how intelligent and adaptive learning systems can be improved in order to provide a better learning environment for learners. This book provides academics as well as professional practitioners innovative research work for enhancing learning environments with adaptively and intelligent support in different contexts and settings, ranging from provision of courses and assessment in formal desktop-based learning systems to learning environments that support collaborative, informal, ubiquitous learning.
About the Author :
Sabine Graf has a PhD from Vienna University of Technology, Austria, and is presently an Assistant Professor at Athabasca University, School of Computing and Information Systems, in Canada. Her research expertise and interests include adaptivity and personalization, student modeling, ubiquitous and mobile learning, artificial intelligence, and collaborative learning technologies. She has published more than 60 peer-reviewed journal papers, book chapters, and conference papers in these areas, of which three conference papers were awarded with the best paper award. Dr. Graf is Executive Board Member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technologies, Editor of the Learning Technology Newsletter, a publication of the IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Committee on Learning Technology (TCLT), and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Interaction Design and Architectures. She is an active member of the research community, serving as editorial board member of three international journals, workshop chair and organizer of eight international workshops, doctoral consortium chair at three international conferences, and guest editor of three special issues. Furthermore, Dr. Graf has been invited to given keynote/invited talks at universities/companies/conferences in Austria, Canada, Colombia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and UK. Fuhua Lin is a Professor and the Centre Chair of the School of Computing and Information Systems, Faculty of Science and Technology, of Athabasca University, Canada. Dr. Lin has been conducting research in Computers in Education since 1986. He obtained his PhD in Virtual Reality from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 1998. Prior to working in Athabasca University, Dr. Lin was an assistant research officer at the Institute for Information Technology (IIT) of the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada. Dr. Lin conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Calgary during 1998-1999.Dr. Lin has garnered international recognition for his research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education and agent-based educational systems. His current research interest is applying AI technology through constructing effective and efficient algorithms to address challenges that may exist in traditional educational systems and to enhance online and distance learning environments, e.g. incorporating intelligence into virtual worlds for e-learning to build engaging, personalized, and interactive social virtual learning environments for online learning. He is leading a research group, the Intelligent Educational Systems group, consisting of PhD students, MSc students, researchers, and international visiting scholars. As principal investigator, Dr. Lin has received various external research grants and awards. Dr. Lin has more than 80 publications, including edited books, journal papers, book chapters, conference papers, and reviews. He is the editor of the book Designing Distributed Learning Environments with Intelligent Software Agents published by IGI Global and is co-editor of the book Intelligent and Adaptive Learning Systems: Technology Enhanced Support for Learners and Teachers . Dr. Lin is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Distance Education Technologies . He has served as an invited reviewer for many international journals. For more information about Dr. Lin's research, please visit: oscar.athabascau.ca. Kinshuk is NSERC/iCORE/Xerox/Markin Industrial Research Chair for Adaptivity and Personalization in Informatics, Associate Dean of Faculty of Science and Technology, and Full Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at Athabasca University, Canada. His work has been dedicated to advancing research on the innovative paradigms, architectures, and implementations of learning systems for individualized and adaptive learning in increasingly global environments. His main research interests lie in the areas of adaptive learning systems, cognitive profiling, and mobile learning technologies. He is the Founding Chair of IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology and the Editor of the SSCI indexed Journal of Educational Technology & Society. He has been involved in numerous large-scale research projects for exploration based adaptive educational environments and has published over 300 research papers in international refereed journals, conferences, and book chapters. Kinshuk has also organized and chaired numerous international conferences and workshops in the area of advanced learning technologies. Rory McGreal is a Professor of Computer Technologies in Education and the Associate Vice President of Athabasca University – Canada’s Open University based in Alberta, Canada. He is also a UNESCO Chair in Open Educational Resources. He was previously the Executive Director of TeleEducation NB, a bilingual New Brunswick e-learning network. He previously was a supervisor at Contact North, a bilingual distance education network in Northern Ontario. He has also worked abroad in the Middle East, Seychelles (Indian Ocean), and Europe. He has been honored with the Wedemeyer Award for Distance Education practitioner. He researches the implementation and management of distance education systems and networks from technological, pedagogical, and policy perspectives. His present research interests include the use of open educational resources and standards in technology assisted learning, particularly in the development and application of learning objects. He is also researching how these would be applied and formatted on mobile devices for m-learning.
