Open student modeling for academic performance visualization in Ubiquitous Learning Environments

One of the greatest challenges for computer science in education is the capacity to provide environments that are intelligent and adaptable to the real needs of students. In order to create efficient adaptive mechanisms for educational content, student models are proposed to identify and to predict the real knowledge level of students. Such models are useful not only for computer systems but also to assist students and instructors in the teaching-learning process so that such models may be visualized by them in an intuitive way. Thus, this study proposes the integration of information visualization tools aimed at creating an open student model that allows students and instructors to access the information inferred by the student model. For validation, the proposed model was implemented, integrated, and tested in a real ubiquitous learning environment. Results show users' satisfaction when such feature is available, as well as their perception about different visualizations.