A framework for recommendation in learning object repositories: An example of application in civil engineering

Abstract

Learning Object Repositories (LORs) are an important element in the management, publishing, location and retrieval of instructional resources. In recent times, the task of finding and recommending a list of learning objects that fits the specific user's needs and requirements is a very active area of research. In this regard, this paper proposes DELPHOS, a framework to assist users in the search for learning objects in repositories and which shows an example of application in engineering. LORs can be used in engineering not only for learning and training for students, instructors and professionals but also for sharing knowledge about engineering problems and projects. The proposed approach is based on a weighted hybrid recommender that uses different filtering or recommendation criteria. The values of these weights can be assigned by the user him/herself or can be automatically calculated by the system in an adaptive and dynamic way. This paper describes the architecture and interface of DELPHOS and shows some experiments with a group of 24 civil engineering students in order to evaluate and validate the usefulness of this tool. © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.