1. The document discusses the domain model of an adaptive learning system for poor comprehenders being developed as part of the TERENCE EU project. 2. It aims to structure the learning material which includes stories and interactive games through developing ontologies for the domain model. 3. The author analyzed relevant literature and conducted expert evaluations to acquire knowledge for building the domain model ontologies, including a story ontology, game ontology, and student model ontology.

1. The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
The Domain Model of an
Poor Compre-
henders Adaptive Learning System for
Oana Tifrea
¸
Poor Comprehenders
Outline
Motivations
and Objectives
of My Thesis
Oana Tifrea
¸
Adaptive
Learning Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Systems and
Ontologies
The Domain Advisor:
Model Dr. Rosella Gennari
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Co-advisor:
Work in Dr. Tania di Mascio
Progress: the
Student Model

2. The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
henders 1 Motivations and Objectives of My Thesis
Oana Tifrea
¸
Outline
2 Adaptive Learning Systems and Ontologies
Motivations
and Objectives
of My Thesis
Adaptive
Learning
3 The Domain Model
Systems and
Ontologies
The Domain
Model 4 Work in Progress: the Student Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

3. Motivation
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor comprehender (PC)
Poor Compre-
henders • Comprehension = identification, understanding and
Oana Tifrea
¸ reasoning
Outline • PC can identify the words, but cannot understand or
Motivations reason about them
and Objectives
of My Thesis • 10% of hearing 8-10 year-old children
Adaptive
Learning
Systems and Problem
Ontologies
The Domain
the requirements of poor comprehenders not clearly specified
Model ⇓
Story Ontology
Game Ontology no learning material easily adaptable to PCs’ requirements
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

4. The Objective of My Thesis
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre- • The TERENCE EU project aims at building an adaptive
henders
Oana Tifrea
¸
learning system for poor comprehenders.
• In order to build the TERENCE adaptive learning system
Outline
we need to structure its learning material, that is made of
Motivations
and Objectives 1 diverse types of stories,
of My Thesis 2 interactive question-games for reasoning about stories.
Adaptive
Learning • Structuring the learning material is the task of the domain
Systems and
Ontologies model of TERENCE.
The Domain
Model
• The main goal of my thesis is building the domain model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
for the learning material of TERENCE.
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

5. Adaptive Learning Systems
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
ALSs adapt the learning material to the user needs.
henders
Oana Tifrea
¸
Outline
Motivations
and Objectives
of My Thesis
Adaptive
Learning
Systems and
Ontologies
The Domain
Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

6. The Conceptual Model of an ALS
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
henders Conceptual Model of an ALS
Oana Tifrea
¸
Outline
Motivations
and Objectives
of My Thesis
Adaptive
Learning
Systems and
Ontologies
The Domain
Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

7. Why Ontologies for the Conceptual Model
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
Why ontologies for the TERENCE conceptual model?
henders
Oana Tifrea
¸ 1 OWL has formal semantics and we can to write algorithms.
Outline
2 We can write in OWL both the domain knowledge and the
Motivations
operational knowledge.
and Objectives
of My Thesis 3 To build a common terminology.
Adaptive
Learning
4 To analyze the knowledge to be acquired, and make
Systems and
Ontologies
implicit assumptions explicit.
The Domain 5 In case of the student model, to share adaptation rules
Model
Story Ontology among different ALSs via appropriate web services.
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

8. The Ontology Life Cycle
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre- Specification Identify purposes
henders
Determine how to acquire knowledge
Oana Tifrea
¸ Design the ontology architecture
Outline
Motivations
Conceptualization Extract concepts...
and Objectives
of My Thesis
Formalization Choose the level and type of formalism
Adaptive
Learning
Systems and
Ontologies Implementation Choose the implementation language...
The Domain
Model Building stage
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Manipulation stage
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model Maintainance stage

9. Specification: Ontology Architecture
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
IMPORTED IN
System for story
Poor Compre-
henders
ontology
Oana Tifrea
¸
Outline
Motivations
bridge
and Objectives common ontology
of My Thesis ontology
Adaptive
Learning
Systems and
Ontologies
The Domain
Model game
Story Ontology ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model DOMAIN ONTOLOGIES

10. Specification: Main Purposes
The Domain Main purpose of the domain model:
Model of an
Adaptive • classifying stories and games for
Learning
System for directing the end user towards the
Poor Compre-
henders most adequate class of stories or
Oana Tifrea
¸ games.
Outline
Specific purposes of the:
Motivations 1 story ontology: analyzing and specifying concepts difficult
and Objectives
of My Thesis for poor comprehenders in stories;
Adaptive
Learning 2 game ontology: analyzing and specifying the related
Systems and
Ontologies
question-games for poor comprehenders;
The Domain 3 common ontology: incorporating the common concepts of
Model
Story Ontology the story and game ontologies, such as the language
Game Ontology
Work in
concept;
Progress: the
Student Model 4 bridge ontology: connecting the story and game
ontologies.

11. Specification: How to Acquire the Domain
Knowledge
The Domain
Model of an
How was the knowledge for building the domain model
Adaptive
Learning
acquired?
System for 1 Via expert-based evaluations with:
Poor Compre-
henders • (psycho-)linguists, e.g., Paul van den Broek;
Oana Tifrea
¸ • psychologists expert of deaf poor comprehenders, e.g.,
Barbara Arf´;
e
Outline
• psychologists expert of hearing poor comprehenders, e.g.,
Motivations
and Objectives Jane Oakhill, Barbara Carretti.
of My Thesis
2 Via a selection of reusable sources from the domain
Adaptive
Learning literature, guided by the domain experts.
Systems and
Ontologies How were the expert evaluations con-
The Domain ducted? Via:
Model
Story Ontology • questionnaires;
Game Ontology
Work in • interviews;
Progress: the
Student Model • two focus-groups: one in l’Aquila in
June; one in Padova in July 2010.

12. Conceptualization: Why the Middle-Out Approach
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
henders
Oana Tifrea
¸
1 We followed the middle-out approach in the
conceptualization, because
Outline • there were no reusable ontologies for poor comprehenders,
Motivations • after analysing the specific purposes of our ontologies, we
and Objectives
of My Thesis could easily identify independent clusters of basic concepts
Adaptive of our domain model, that we then generalized or
Learning
Systems and specialized.
Ontologies
The Domain
2 How?
Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

13. Conceptualization: Context of Use for the Domain
Knowledge
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
More general or specific concepts for the domain model were
System for
Poor Compre-
extracted from the context of use that we analyzed, namely:
henders • relevant text/story analysis concepts:
Oana Tifrea
¸
• mainly, concepts of reading difficulty formulae, and the
Outline more refined Coh-metrix concept scheme;
Motivations • general text analysis ontologies;
and Objectives • ontologies/concept schemes for temporal features of texts;
of My Thesis
Adaptive • relevant taxonomies of
Learning
Systems and • reading comprehension;
Ontologies • reading interventions.
The Domain
Model But, how did we decide
Story Ontology
Game Ontology • which concepts were relevant for our domain model,
Work in
Progress: the • and which had to be refined or enriched?
Student Model

14. Conceptualization: User Requirements
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
henders
Oana Tifrea
¸ 
 word, e.g., abstract words,
Outline
hearing = sentence, e.g., word order
Motivations
 discourse, e.g., reasoning on events;

and Objectives
of My Thesis
Adaptive
 word, e.g., word recognition,
Learning deaf = sentence, e.g., inter-sentence relatives,
Systems and
discourse, e.g., reasoning on events.

Ontologies
The Domain
Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

15. Conceptualization: Hearing Poor Comprehenders
Analysis at Word Level
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
henders
Oana Tifrea
¸
Outline
Motivations
and Objectives
of My Thesis
Adaptive
Learning
Systems and
Ontologies
The Domain
Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

16. Implementation: Main Concepts of the Story
Ontology
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
henders
The story ontology’s main concepts are:
Oana Tifrea
¸
• the syntactic structure of the story (e.g., words, sentences,
Outline paragraphs),
Motivations
and Objectives • the semantic structure of the story (e.g., events),
of My Thesis
Adaptive
• the coherence of the story,
Learning
Systems and • the genre of the story,
Ontologies
The Domain
• the title of the story.
Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

17. Implementation: Story Ontology
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
henders
Oana Tifrea
¸
Outline
Motivations
and Objectives
of My Thesis
Adaptive
Learning
Systems and
Ontologies
The Domain
Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

18. Implementation: Local Coherence of the Story
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
henders
Oana Tifrea
¸
Outline
Motivations
and Objectives
of My Thesis
Adaptive
Learning
Systems and
Ontologies
The Domain
Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

19. Implementation: Adjacent Events
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
henders
Oana Tifrea
¸
Outline
Motivations
and Objectives
of My Thesis
Adaptive
Learning
Systems and
Ontologies
The Domain
Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

20. Implementation: A Fragment of the Game
Ontology
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
henders
Oana Tifrea
¸
Outline
Motivations
and Objectives
of My Thesis
Adaptive
Learning
Systems and
Ontologies
The Domain
Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

21. Specification: The Student Ontology and Its
Purpose
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
henders Student Model of an ALS
Oana Tifrea
¸
Outline
Motivations
and Objectives
of My Thesis
Adaptive
Learning
Systems and
Ontologies
The Domain
Model
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

22. Specification: Main Sources for the Student
Ontology
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
Main sources for the student ontology:
henders
• KBS-Hyperbook and TRAILS;
Oana Tifrea
¸
• AHA!;
Outline
Motivations
• GUMO/GRAPPLE.
and Objectives
of My Thesis
GUMO-Basic defines generic user characteristics and
Adaptive
Learning personality traits by means of the so-called Characteristics and
Systems and
Ontologies Personality classes.
The Domain
Model We will refine GUMO-Basic with concepts related to the
Story Ontology
Game Ontology
domain ontology and the user requirements.
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

23. Conclusions
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive Summing up, my thesis work meant:
Learning
System for
Poor Compre-
1 analyzing the state of the art of ALSs, focusing on their
henders conceptual models,
Oana Tifrea
¸
2 analyzing and specifying the context of use necessary for
Outline building the TERENCE ALS (part of a technical working
Motivations
and Objectives
document of WP1 of TERENCE),
of My Thesis
3 analyzing and specifying the user requirements (part of a
Adaptive
Learning technical working document of WP1 of TERENCE),
Systems and
Ontologies 4 using them for
The Domain • building the ontologies of the domain model,
Model
Story Ontology • specifying the student model.
Game Ontology
Work in Last but not least, all this was done, iteratively, under the
Progress: the
Student Model constant guidance of the domain experts.

24. Acknowledgments
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning
System for My thanks to:
Poor Compre-
henders • my supervisor, Rosella Gennari, and co-supervisor, Tania di
Oana Tifrea
¸
Mascio;
Outline • the psychologists and linguists of TERENCE, in particular:
Motivations
and Objectives
B. Arf´, B. Carretti, Padova U.; J. Oakhill, Sussex U.;
e
of My Thesis
• F. Abel, E. Herder, and W. Nejdl from L3S, Hannover U.,
Adaptive
Learning for the GUMO user ontology;
Systems and
Ontologies • ontology engineers, in particular, M. Rodriguez Muro, M.
The Domain
Model
Keet;
Story Ontology
Game Ontology • software engineers from l’Aquila U.
Work in
Progress: the
Student Model

25. level sistency of information in sentences.
A Snapshot have that requireswith accessing thePoor Comprehenders
memory the Hearing
Working
memory
PC
of difficulties the simultaneous [NABCS99]
storage of sentences.
Analysis at Discourse Level
Table 4.2: Poor comprehenders and written sentence comprehen-
sion.
The Domain
Model of an
Adaptive
Learning Poor comprehenders (PC) characteristics at DISCOURSE LEVEL
System for
Poor Compre- Yes No
henders
The cause of difficulties on this level is not memory. [Oak82] [MO09]
Oana Tifrea
¸ [CO07]
A) Inference Making PC have difficulties with [CO07]
Outline inference making. [BCS05]
BK is not a relevant [OCBP01]
Motivations parameter for inference [Oak82]
and Objectives making.
of My Thesis
PC have difficulties with [COE03]
Adaptive inference integration. [LK06]
Learning Inference Integration Inference integration can [OC96]
Systems and be improved with visual-
Ontologies ization.
The Domain PC have problems with [Cai09]
Model consistency checking. [CO06a]
Story Ontology
Logical inferences easier [CO99]
Game Ontology
to improve than the prag-
Work in matic inferences.
Progress: the 1)Logical Inferences PC have difficulties with [Oak82]
Student Model logical inferences. [Chi92]