Adaptive learning, also known as adaptive teaching, relies on learning path recommendation, which sequentially recommends personalized learning items (e.g., lectures, exercises) to satisfy the unique needs of each learner. Although it is well known that modeling the cognitive structure including knowledge level of learners and knowledge structure (e.g., the prerequisite relations) of learning items is important for learning path recommendation, existing methods for adaptive learning often separately focus on either knowledge levels of learners or knowledge structure of learning items. To fully exploit the multifaceted cognitive structure for learning path recommendation, we propose a Cognitive Structure Enhanced framework for Adaptive Learning, named CSEAL. By viewing path recommendation as a Markov Decision Process and applying an actor-critic algorithm, CSEAL can sequentially identify the right learning items to different learners. Specifically, we first utilize a recurrent neural network to trace the evolving knowledge levels of learners at each learning step. Then, we design a navigation algorithm on the knowledge structure to ensure the logicality of learning paths, which reduces the search space in the decision process. Finally, the actor-critic algorithm is used to determine what to learn next and whose parameters are dynamically updated along the learning path. Extensive experiments on real-world data demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of CSEAL.
Abstract It is difficult for e-learners to make decisions on how to learn when they are facing with a large amount of learning resources, especially when they have to balance available limited learning time and multiple learning objectives in various learning scenarios. This research presented in this paper addresses this challenge by proposing a new multi-constraint learning path recommendation algorithm based on knowledge map. The main contributions of the paper are as follows. Firstly, two hypotheses on e-learners’ different learning path preferences for four different learning scenarios (initial learning, usual review, pre-exam learning and pre-exam review) are verified through questionnaire-based statistical analysis. Secondly, according to learning behavior characteristics of four types of the learning scenarios, a multi-constraint learning path recommendation model is proposed, in which the variables and their weighted coefficients considers different learning path preferences of the learners in different learning scenarios as well as learning resource organization and fragmented time. Thirdly, based on the proposed model and knowledge map, the design and implementation of a multi-constraint learning path recommendation algorithm is described. Finally, it is shown that the questionnaire results from over 110 e-learners verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and show the similarity between the learners’ self-organized learning paths and the recommended learning paths. Nowadays, e-learning systems are widely used for education and training in universities and companies because of their electronic course content access and virtual classroom participation. However, with the rapid increase of learning content on the Web, it will be time-consuming for learners to find contents they really want to and need to study. Aiming at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of learning, we propose an ontology-based approach for semantic content recommendation towards context-aware e-learning. The recommender takes knowledge about the learner (user context), knowledge about content, and knowledge about the domain being learned into consideration. Ontology is utilized to model and represent such kinds of knowledge. The recommendation consists of four steps: semantic relevance calculation, recommendation refining, learning path generation, and recommendation augmentation. As a result, a personalized, complete, and augmented learning program is suggested for the learner. As users implicitly express their preferences to items on many real-world applications, the implicit feedback based collaborative filtering has attracted much attention in recent years. Pairwise methods have shown state-of-the-art solutions for dealing with the implicit feedback, with the assumption that users prefer the observed items to the unobserved items. However, for each user, the huge unobserved items are not equal to represent her preference. In this paper, we propose a Multiple Pairwise Ranking (MPR) approach, which relaxes the simple pairwise preference assumption in previous works by further tapping the connections among items with multiple pairwise ranking criteria. Specifically, we exploit the preference difference among multiple pairs of items by dividing the unobserved items into different parts. Empirical studies show that our algorithms outperform the state-of-the-art methods on real-world datasets. Abstract Discovering useful hidden patterns from learner data for online learning systems is valuable in education technology. Studies on personalized learning full-path recommendation are particularly important for the development of advanced E-learning systems. In this paper, we present a novel model of full-path learning recommendation. This model relies on clustering and machine learning techniques. Based on a feature similarity metric on learners, we first cluster a collection of learners and train a long short-term memory (LSTM) model in order to predict their learning paths and performance. Personalized learning full-paths are then selected from the results of path prediction. Finally, a suitable learning full-path is recommended specifically to a test learner. In this study, a series of experiments have been carried out against learning resource datasets. By comparisons, experimental results indicate that our proposed methods are able to make sound recommendations on appropriate learning paths with significantly improved learning results in terms of accuracy and efficiency. Abstract: We apply recurrent neural networks (RNN) on a new domain, namely recommender systems. Real-life recommender systems often face the problem of having to base recommendations only on short session-based data (e.g. a small sportsware website) instead of long user histories (as in the case of Netflix). In this situation the frequently praised matrix factorization approaches are not accurate. This problem is usually overcome in practice by resorting to item-to-item recommendations, i.e. recommending similar items. We argue that by modeling the whole session, more accurate recommendations can be provided. We therefore propose an RNN-based approach for session-based recommendations. Our approach also considers practical aspects of the task and introduces several modifications to classic RNNs such as a ranking loss function that make it more viable for this specific problem. Experimental results on two data-sets show marked improvements over widely used approaches. The nearest neighbor decision rule assigns to an unclassified sample point the classification of the nearest of a set of previously classified points. This rule is independent of the underlying joint distribution on the sample points and their classifications, and hence the probability of error R of such a rule must be at least as great as the Bayes probability of error R^ --the minimum probability of error over all decision rules taking underlying probability structure into account. However, in a large sample analysis, we will show in the M -category case that R^ R R^ (2 --MR^ (M-1)) , where these bounds are the tightest possible, for all suitably smooth underlying distributions. Thus for any number of categories, the probability of error of the nearest neighbor rule is bounded above by twice the Bayes probability of error. In this sense, it may be said that half the classification information in an infinite sample set is contained in the nearest neighbor.  An adaptive learning system aims at providing instruction tailored to the current status of a learner, differing from the traditional classroom experience. The latest advances in technology make adaptive learning possible, which has the potential to provide students with high-quality learning benefit at a low cost. A key component of an adaptive learning system is a recommendation system, which recommends the next material (video lectures, practices, and so on, on different skills) to the learner, based on the psychometric assessment results and possibly other individual characteristics. An important question then follows: How should recommendations be made? To answer this question, a mathematical framework is proposed that characterizes the recommendation process as a Markov decision problem, for which decisions are made based on the current knowledge of the learner and that of the learning materials. In particular, two plain vanilla systems are introduced, for which the optimal recommendation at each st...