1. A meta level for LAG Adaptation Language re-use in education
Maurice Hendrix, A3H AH2008, 29/07/2008

2. Outline LAOS Limitations of LAG Solution Proposed extension
System setup of extension

3. AH Authoring: LAOS LAOS 5 layer model for AH authoring:
Domain model (DM)
Goal and constraints model (GM)
Adaptation model (AM)
User models (UM)
Presentation model (PM)

4. Authoring now: DM & GM Several tools like MOT (My Online Teacher)
Efforts to automate part of the process
Can easily be done by teachers without CS background
Content can be reused and transported easily e.g. via CAF and (recently) e- learning standards

5. Example DM authoring

6. Authoring AM
Either pre-prepared strategy or programming knowledge required
Re-use possible, but not very flexible, (DM/GM needs to be set-up for specific strategy)
In LAOS AM is authored using LAG, programming language like

7. Example AM authoring (LAG Language)
initialization(
PM.next = true
PM.ToDo = false
PM.menu = true
while true (
PM.GM.Concept.show = true
UM.GM.Concept.beenthere = 0 )
UM.GM.begnum = 0
UM.GM.intnum = 0 ….

8. Limitations of LAG Inherent run-time limitations.
No access to all items during run-time
Thus no Access to set of metadata (labels and weights) and concepts in use
Combined strategies have to share metadata fields

9. Examples of Limitations
Beginner – Intermediate – Advanced type strategy with arbitrary knowledge level groups defined by authors metadata (weight & label).
Course on general domain identifying the users more specific topic of interest using metadata (labels)
Integration of multiple strategies (currently forced use of same metadata field is a problem)

10. Solution
Access to the set of weights and labels (the metadata) at compile-time often enough
Propose extension to LAG language to allow compile-time access to set of label/weights & regular expression matching as metadata share mechanism

11. Proposed extension XML format for the additions
Easy to implement and maintain
Can cope with changing LAG
Adding like statement capturing labels with reg expr

12. DTD <!ELEMENT CAF (LAGfragment*, LIKE*, LAGfragment*)*>
<!ELEMENT LIKE attribute CDATA "" value CDATA "" (LAGfragment+, MATCH, LAGfragment+, (LAGfragment*, LABEL, LAGfragment*)*) >
<!ELEMENT LAGfragment (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT MATCH EMPTY>
<!ELEMENT LABEL EMPTY>

13. Example value='beginner'> while <match/>
<like attribute='GM.Concept.label'
value='beginner'>
while <match/>
UM.GM.<label/>_number += 1 )
</like>

14. System setup of extension

15. Conclusion & Further work
Using a simple pre-processing some limitations of LAG can be overcome
Next in line is building a prototype, integrated with advancing LAG developments
Conceptual Adaptation Model (CAM) of the Grapple project

16. Thank you for your attention
Questions?