Activity-based learner-models for learner monitoring and recommendations in moodle

Abstract

In technology-enhanced learning, activity-based learner models can provide evidence for competence assessment. Such models are the foundation for learning and teaching support, such as: adaptation, assessment, and competence analytics, recommendations, and so on. This paper analyses how to construct activity-based learner models based on existing data in the Moodle learning management system. Based on the activity theory model and the actuator-indicator model, aggregators of learner activities for different activity types were implemented in Moodle. This requires the consideration of the social roles in a course, in order to enable adaptive views for learners and instructors on the stored activity information. The implementation showed that Moodle stores information about course activities that requires filtering before it can get used for higher level processing. The social planes in Moodle reveal a higher complexity than it has been previously described by theories of classroom orchestration, such as actors who are no longer present in a course. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.