Title: PASER: a curricula synthesis system based on automated problem solving

Authors: Dimitris Vrakas, Grigorios Tsoumakas, Fotis Kokkoras, Nick Bassiliades, Ioannis Vlahavas, Dimosthenis Anagnostopoulos

Addresses: Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece. ' Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece. ' Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece. ' Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece. ' Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece. ' Department of Geography, Harokopio University, Athens, 17671, Greece

Abstract: This paper presents PASER, a system for automatically synthesising curricula using AI Planning and Machine Learning techniques based on an ontology of educational resources metadata. Given the initial state of the problem (learner|s profile, preferences, needs and abilities), the available actions (study an educational resource, take an exam, join an e-learning course, etc.) and the goals (obtain a certificate, learn a subject, acquire a skill, etc.), the planning module of PASER constructs a complete educational curriculum that achieves the goals. The Machine Learning module of PASER matches textually described learning requests, objectives and prerequisites to concepts of the ontology.

Keywords: curricula synthesis; automated planning; text mining; problem solving; machine learning; ontology; educational resources metadata; educational curriculum; teaching; education; artificial intelligence; curriculum planning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTCS.2007.014217

International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 2007 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.159 - 170

Published online: 25 Jun 2007 *

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