ONTOLOGY-BASED USER MODEL AND IRT FOR PERSONALISED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Web-based Adaptive Educational System (WAES) enables the most appropriate learning resources to be tailored to the learner's needs. User Model is the core of such system. It contains learners' personal information such as; their current knowledge, learning styles and goals which is important information necessary for the WAES to personalised individual user. This paper proposed an adaptive educational system being enhanced with semantic web technologies. The components of the systems include Student Model Ontology with Item Response Theory (SMO-IRT), Domain Model and Adaptive Model. The SMO-IRT comprises of student's profile, ability, prior knowledge, knowledge level, learning style, knowledge states and performance. Domain Model is the system learning content repository, storing learning materials for adaptive learning delivery. It provides learning material to each individual learner after the system examines the learner's learning activities. The system's integration with IRT incorporates measurement assumptions about learner's item and learning performance, and how performance relates to knowledge as measured by the items on a test. The system provides learning path to each individual student according to their prior knowledge and learning style.