1. Towards Designing a User-Adaptive E-Learning System By Leena Razzaq, Neil Heffernan & Robert Lindeman This work-in-progress presents the groundwork for the design of a user- adaptive web-based e-learning system. A survey and two randomized controlled experiments compare the effects of active versus passive interaction on attitude and learning and compare user vs. system initiated control of information presentation. Results showed that the more time- consuming active interaction was indeed more helpful to less-proficient students, but it was not as helpful to more-proficient students. Results also indicate that both more- and less-proficient students learn more from system initiated information presentation. These results will help to design a user-adaptive e-learning system that can determine which kind of interactivity and information presentation works best for which students and when. Summary  The Assistment System is a web-based assessment system that tutors students on math problems. The system is freely available at www.assistment.org  As of March 2008, over 3000 middle school students use ASSISTments as part of their math classes.  Teachers use the fine-grained reporting that the system provides to inform their instruction. Background on ASSISTments Analysis Survey Results Students who said they tried to get through difficult problems as quickly as possible were negatively correlated with learning. Students who thought that breaking problems down into smaller steps DID NOT help them solve similar problems were negatively correlated w/standardized test scores. We believe that the survey results support the results of Experiments 1 and 2.  Results showed a significant interaction between condition and math proficiency (p < 0.05), a good case for adapting tutoring strategies to students’ background knowledge. Less-proficient students benefit from active interaction and coaching through each step to solve a problem. More-proficient students benefit from passive interaction and seeing problems worked out and getting the big picture. Both more- and less-proficient students do better with system-initiated control of information; students don’t do as well when we depend on student initiative. Less proficient students learned more from active interaction and system-initiated control of information (p < 0.05) More proficient students learned more from passive interaction and system-initiated control of information (p = 0.075) System-initiated control of information was better for both groups of students (p < 0.05) Active vs. Passive Interaction, User vs. System Initiated Control Hints on Scaff. Q. Scaff. Q. #1 Scaff. Q. #2 Scaff. Q. #3 Scaff. Q. #4 Hint #1 Hint #2 Hint #3 Hint #4 Hint #5 Hint #6 Hint #7 CollaboratorsSponsors Students in this condition interact actively with system- initiated help. Students in this condition interact passively with user- initiated help. Students in this condition interact passively with system- initiated help. Students see the solution after they finish all of the problems. Our Hypothesis  More interactive tutoring will lead to more learning (based on post-test gains) than less interactive tutoring.  The best tutoring strategies will be different for students who are less- proficient than students who are more- proficient. Conclusions This work has been accepted to the 26 th SIGCHI conference in Florence, Italy, 2008.