Using Effective Reading Speed to Integrate Adaptivity into Web-Based Learning

Abstract

It has always been difficult to determine to what extent a user has read a page especially in the area of educational adaptive hypermedia systems. We propose the use of an individual's effective reading speed to estimate how much of a page a user has read during their browsing activity. This method is currently used to apply history-based link annotation in a medical web-based learning application, JointZone. A validation test of this work has shown a positive result in approximating user's reading value when compared to conventional methods.

JointZone: users' views of an adaptive online learning resource for rheumatology

“…• A tracking tool that indicates to the user in graphical fashion the amount of time spent on viewing specific pages and by inference, the degree to which they have absorbed and digested that material. (Ng et al, 2002a) • A personalized site map serving as a personal navigation tool and providing a graphical view of what they had already read/viewed. • A personalized topic map that encourages goal orientated reading by providing links to content relevant to a user's reading goal, browsing history and knowledge level.…”

The application and evaluation of adaptive hypermedia techniques in Web-based medical education

“…The system keeps a record of a user's individual effective reading speed (Jackson and McClelland, 1979) which is assigned when they first use the application. An 'effort index' (Ng, Hall, Maier and Armstrong, 2002b) is then calculated for each document visited. A page will have a higher effort index if the page display time approximates an optimal reading time.…”