Open Education in Digital Era With Avatar-Based Control and Estimation

Theoretical Background And Literature Review

This section gives the reader an overview of main research works and contributors associated with the paper.

There is the tremendous growth in the use of the Internet to deliver distance education at community colleges (Cejda, 2010). The virtual environment offers many interesting options for continuous dialogue, through the application of such tools as asynchronous e-mail or threaded discussion forums, real-time conferencing platforms, and instant messaging functions (Meyers, 2008). Distance education can be defined as a result of the attempt for educational progress (Gündoğan & Eby, 2012).

Atkinson (1976) states that in order to improve learning strategy’s efficiency it is necessary to ensure it adaptability. Therefore, adaptive learning systems should change and select educational strategies for each concrete situation to improve the learning process and achievement of its goals. Besides, the given system is capable of collecting information about students and storing it in special modules, which in turn ensures an individual approach to every student (Brusilovsky, 1996). The urgency to develop adaptive learning environments is also proved in works by a number of authors (Chang, 2005; Lin, 1998).

Chang et al. (2006) proposes to use a personalized web-based learning system, founded on the item response theory (IRT). This system is focused on arranging such an educational environment that takes into account students’ capabilities and difficulties they face when studying.

Lin and Kuo (2005) created a virtual learning environment that meets all the needs of the individual adaptive approach to student teaching. The environment is based on the theories of constructivism and learning objects.