Principles for an effort-aware system

Abstract

Learners require a certain effort to acquire a specific skill or competence. The invested effort can be affected by many factors as previous knowledge, abilities or time available for learning. The evaluation of the effort has been mainly related to cognitive science or instructional psychology due to the relation between effort and mental work. This paper focuses on how the effort can be estimated on e-learning systems. This information can enhance instructional process since teachers can analyze the total time learners invest on acquiring knowledge and they can adjust better the complexity of the course. The paper contributes on principles to design an effort-based system. Finally, a particular application to an intelligent tutoring system is performed.