Fundamental studies on effective e-learning using physiology indices

Abstract

In order to apply individual learning methods to an e-learning system, we need some appropriate measures to know the quantitative evaluation for the learning progress of each individual. The ratio of the number of correct answers to the number of questions is a simple measure of the achievement of the learner. However, such a simple measure may not accurately reflect the real progress of the learner. Event Related Potentials (ERPs for short) are measured from electroencephalograms (EEGs for short). We consider that ERPs may contain meaningful information about the level of the learner's achievement. We had experiments measuring ERPs of subjects learning chemical formulae on an e-learning system. We try to characterize the relation among the learner's achievement, hardness of learning, and the waveforms of his ERPs. This kind of characterizations may be useful for evaluating the learner's achievement. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.