A vision for truly adaptable and accessible learning objects

Abstract

In the present landscape of technological and social change, the increasing demand for new educational approaches and pedagogies, and the growing emphasis on the need to cater for the needs and preferences of the individual learner, are shifting the focus to the integration of adaptive and ubiquitous learning. In order to respond to the challenge of providing truly learner-centered, accessible, personalised and flexible learning, this research suggests a solution which is based on the principle that learning content can be generated from adaptable aggregations of learning objects and media components using proven learning patterns. This paper proposes a transformation, augmentation and substitution service (TASS), which by using a variant of IMS AccessForAll works on available metadata and user profiles to generate alternative, equivalent learning experiences relating to a user’s declared needs, preferences and learning styles. TASS encompasses methods to retrieve a learning object upon request by a user, unpack and disaggregate the learning object, execute the adaptation process, re-aggregate the learning object components and deliver the adapted learning object to the user in the form in which it is required.