Development of activity generation and behavior observation systems for distance learning

Abstract

Distance learning and e-learning are popular and widely used technology in today's teaching environment; monitoring systems allow teachers to assess the learning state of their students. This study proposes a development of activity generation and behavior observation systems that allows teachers to assess the learning activities of their students. We use the concept of deterministic finite automaton to define learning activities. In the proposed system, teachers only need to click the drop-down list items to manage learning activities. The proposed system also generates an activity recognizer after defining the activity. The activity recognizer can parse student-learning logs allowing teachers to get the real-time learning activities of students. When students are in abnormal learning states, teachers can immediately provide them with active guidance. The experiments in this study demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system. Experimental results show that students received higher grades and exhibited less abnormal learning with the proposed monitoring system. These results demonstrate that the proposed system provides teachers with a convenient interface for assisting their students. The proposed monitoring system improves the learning outcomes of students. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.