ED-MEDIA 1999 Proceedings Book - Association for the ...

Hezinet: Interactive (Adaptive) Education Through Activities
Tomás A. Pérez, Koro Gabiola, Julián Gutiérrez, Ricardo López, Amaia González, Jose Ángel Carro
Dept. of Computer Languages and Systems
University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU
Spain
{tomas, jibgacok, gutierrez, jibloprr, jibgogoa, jibcamej}@si.ehu.es
Abstract: Most language learning systems and in general all educational systems accessible
via WWW, lack in individualizing the course for each student. Adaptive Hypermedia
Systems can offer solutions by controlling the student progress throughout the course.
Besides, they can provide multimedia interface to students. This paper introduces HE-
ZINET, a project whose goal has been to develop by the end of 1998 a commercial product
based on the AHS approach for learning Basque language. As far as we know, this
product will be the first with these characteristics in the market.
Introduction and Context: Adaptive Hypermedia Systems for Language Teaching
The World Wide Web (WWW) began in 1989 as a mean of transporting research and ideas effectively
(Berners & Cailliau, 1989). In few years, the widespread use of the WWW has converted it in a very
appropriate medium for sharing all kind of information. One of the uses of the WWW is distance learning.
The ideal course would be intelligent and adaptive to the user.
Based our experience, currently computer systems for language-learning do not adapt to their students.
The systems we have evaluated do not take into account which concepts the student has not been
able to acquire. As Professor Alfred Bork said, "they are alike traditional books badly designed, adorned
with hypertext functionality" (Sáez-Vacas, 1998). For instance, (Kargu-Heldring, 1996) describes an Adaptive
Hypermedia System (AHS) for learning Estonian by means of an interactive hypermedia environment.
However, this system does not take into account the student model to help understand the information it
provides. (Johansson, 1998) introduces IKITS, an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) that teaches Chinese
individually. System developers say that individuality can be seen when the students get tips from the system
depending on the results of their interactions. These tips are independent of the concepts he has understood
or not. AHSs constitute a new approach for educational systems (Urban-Lurain, 1997). Usually,
AHSs combine ITS and Educational Hypermedia Systems (Pérez, Gutiérrez & Lopistéguy, 1995). Because
of this, they get the advantages of both to achieve the adaptation to the student.
The Basque language is spoken in the Basque Country, which is situated on the North of Spain
and on the SouthWest of France. It is not a curiosity of the past, but a living language, and therefore, plenty
of future. The majority of grown-up population is not Basque-literate, that is why exist centers for Basque
learning: the so-called "Euskaltegiak". The learning of this language is divided into several levels being the
last the one called EGA ("Euskarako Gaitasun Agiria" or "Basque language Certificate"), which assess a
level of proficiency in written and spoken Basque.
We have built Hezinet-EGA, a language-learning system on the web, as a solution for people
willing to learn Basque that are not able to assist to the Euskaltegiak. With the system, the students can
learn via Internet at their own place and pace. A course lasts about 100 hours. The courses to learn Basque
from scratch last 500 hours (10 terms, 50 hours each). EGA-Hezinet cover the last two terms. Later on the
system will be completed to cover the other four courses.
Hezinet-EGA is user-adaptive. The adaptation can be seen in several ways. First of all, since the
system uses WWW the system can be used with any web browser available. Second, the system stores information
about the different students and presents diverse course material according to it. For example, the
students are categorized into two stereotypes: analytic and Multimedia. Depending on these categories the
system will present activities either full of attractiveness and needing more interaction (multimedia) or
simpler activities visually less attractive using basically text (analytic). Third, the system also prepares