Towards intelligent management of a student's time

Abstract

In parallel with studies, a lot of extra activities need to be fitted in a student's schedule. Frequently, excessive workload results in poor performance or in failing to finish the studies. The problem is more severe in lifelong learning, where students are professionals with family duties. So, the need of making informative decisions as of whether taking a specific course fits into a student's schedule is of great importance. This paper illustrates a system, called EDUPLAN and being currently under development, which aims at helping the student to make intelligent management of her time. EDUPLAN aims at informing the student as for which learning objects can fit her schedule or not, as well as at organizing her time. This can be achieved using scheduling algorithms and a description of the user's tasks and events. In the paper we also extend the LOM 1484.12.3™-2005 ontology with classes that can be used to describe the temporal distribution of the workload of any learning object. Finally, we provide EDUPLAN's architecture, being built around the existing SELFPLANNER intelligent calendar application. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.