There is widespread recognition worldwide that adaptive learning systems will play an increasing role in education and training, both within the education sector, and also in the corporate world. Economic difficulties around the globe are having an effect on the future of education. Costs (financial, time and return on investment) associated with traditional classroom based education techniques, and poorly integrated educational technology, is now a topic of debate not only for government, but also involving educationalists, employers and even students and parents. Many countries are now evaluating how technology might better serve the learning process and help to develop a knowledge based economy.
The extraordinary increase in the use of the Internet, and the pervasiveness of learning software in particular, now means that more and more people are exposed to online learning content from a very early age. This will continue through second level education, also at third level, and subsequently into the workplace, and generally throughout an individual’s personal and career development.
The opportunity now exists to develop a framework for learning that will provide a truly personalised ‘learning space’ for each individual user. The central place of education in today’s intelligence revolution necessitates the development of systems that fully understand, and cater for, the knowledge, skills, creativity and potential of each learner, while at the same time allowing for the measurement of progress against defined objectives and skills for the providers of education. Such a learning engine must ally advanced mathematical techniques with modern pedagogical and cognitive thinking.
