Student modeling: Recognizing the individual needs of users in e-learning environments

Abstract

Along with numerous universities and large trading companies heavily relying on e-learning environments to train their students and employees, the design and development of adaptive educational hypermedia that customize the content and navigation for each student has gained importance and priority all around the world. This study aims to describe the concept of student modeling, heart of the adaptive learning systems, and analyze the information collection, construction and updating phases of a student modeling process. In the study, the classification of student models in numerous ways is explained, and the different methods employed in the representation of information in the student model are addressed. Moreover, the problem of uncertainty, which is one of the most important challenges in the student modeling process, is mentioned, and the trends in student modeling are discussed.