Dynamic Identification of Learning Styles in MOOC Environment Using Ontology Based Browser Extension

Abstract

With the advent of the era of big data and Web 3.0 on the horizon, different types of online deliverable resources in the pedagogical field have also become raft. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are the most important of such learning resources that provide many courses at different levels for the learners on the go. The data generated by these MOOCs, however, is often unorganized and difficult to track or is not used to the extent that allows identification of learner types to facilitate better learning. The proposed approach in this paper aims to detect the learning style of a learner, interacting with the MOOC portal, dynamically and automatically through a novel, indigenous and in-built browser extension. This extension is used to capture the usage parameters of the learner and analyze learning behavior in real-time. The usage parameters are captured and stored as a learner ontology to ease sharing and operating across different platforms. The learning style so deduced is based on the Felder Silverman Learning Style Model (FSLSM), where learner’s behavior under multiple criteria, vis-`a-vis perception, input, understanding, and processing are measured. Based on the generated ontological semantics of learner’s behavior, multiple models can be made to facilitate precise and efficient learning. The result shows that this state-of-the-art approach identifies and detects the learning styles of the learners automatically and dynamically, i.e., changing over time