A Logic-based Approach to Learner Assessment

摘要

The effectiveness of an e-learning environment strongly depends on the proof that students actually learn what they are supposed to. The procedure of assessment in educational systems provides alternative ways to address this issue adequately, depending on the specific learning setting and requirements. Currently, we are witnessing the transformation of static e-learning environments to adaptive ones along with the gradual incorporation of semantic web technologies. These technologies enable more sophisticated user and content modelling, which in turn gives adaptation mechanisms new potential. This paper presents an overall categorization of assessment methods used in the e-learning domain and employs first-order logic to describe a number of indicative assessment mechanisms by proposing a set of atoms, predicates and rules to express the logic that produces the assessment decisions. First-order logic representation enables easier implementation of assessment strategies with semantic web technologies and provides a formal way for comparing alternative assessment schemes.