=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2384/paper06
|storemode=property
|title=Interactive and Personalized Activity eBooks for Learning to Read: The iRead Case
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2384/paper06.pdf
|volume=Vol-2384
|authors=Nick Deligiannis,Dionysis Panagiotopoulos,Panagiotis Patsilinakos,Chrysanthi Raftopoulou,Antonios Symvonis
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/aied/DeligiannisPPRS19
}}
==Interactive and Personalized Activity eBooks for Learning to Read: The iRead Case==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2384/paper06.pdf
Interactive and Personalized Activity eBooks for
Learning to Read: The iRead Case?
Nick Deligiannis1 , Dionysis Panagiotopoulos2 , Panagiotis Patsilinakos3 ,
Chrysanthi Raftopoulou2 , and Antonios Symvonis2
1
Patakis Publishers, Athens, Greece
ngdeligiannis@gmail.com
2
School of Applied Mathematical and Physical Sciences, National Technical
University of Athens, Athens, Greece
dionisis.panag@gmail.com, crisraft@mail.ntua.gr, symvonis@math.ntua.gr
3
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of
Athens, Athens, Greece
patsilinak@mail.ntua.gr
Abstract. In this paper, we present a full system that provides a per-
sonalized educational service by making use of the new ePub3 eBook
standard. The system has been developed in the framework of the iRead
Project [7] which aims to develop tools for personalized learning of read-
ing skills. Based on a structural representation of the task “learning to
read in a specific language” which captures linguistic expert knowledge,
a profile (for each user) which reflects the users competence in mastering
the reading skill is created and maintained. Based on the user’s profile as
well as her reading history, a new personalized interactive activity eBook
which contains educational content (ePub3 embeddable mini-games) ap-
propriate for the current mastering level of the specific user is created
on demand. We present in detail the main concepts behind this “author-
less” activity book creation: domain modeling and user profiling, learner
profile adaptation, personalized content selection.
Keywords: Interactive eBooks· Personalized eBooks· Activity eBooks·
Domain modelling· User profile· ePub3· Mobile learning· iRead project.
1 Introduction
iRead is the acronym for the “Infrastructure and integrated tools for personal-
ized learning of reading skills” European Union Horizon-2020 funded project [7].
iRead is a 4-year (2017-2020) project that aims to develop a software infrastruc-
ture of personalized, adaptive technologies (which include real-time user mod-
eling and domain knowledge components) and a diverse set of applications for
supporting learning and teaching of reading skills for children with different abil-
ities and linguistic backgrounds. iRead targets primary school children aged 6-12
?
This work forms part of the iRead project, funded under Grant Agreement No.
731724 from the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.
2 N. Deligiannis, D. Panagiotipoulos, et al.
years old. As reading is a language dependent skill, iRead currently focuses on
English, English as a Foreign Language (EFL), German, Greek and Spanish. In
addition, for English and Greek it also covers children with dyslexia. In iRead,
personalized learning is supported by two teaching tools: the NAVIGO literacy
game [9, 17, 1] and the AMIGO eReader application [10]. A large number of
iRead evaluation pilots is currently underway across six European countries and
the result of the evaluation are expected to be available in December 2020. One
of the individual tasks of iRead focuses on interactive personalized eBooks. Its
objective is to establish, as a proof-of-concept, that we can develop mechanisms
for the automatic creation of interactive personalized activity eBooks which can
be used to test and improve the reading skills of children. In this paper, we de-
scribe the prototype system that provides this personalized educational service,
focusing on the main concepts behind the automated activity eBook creation:
domain modeling and user profiling, user profile adaptation, personalized con-
tent selection. Even though the developed concepts and mechanisms are capable
in supporting learning activities in different applications areas, for simplicity of
presentation, in the rest of the paper we only consider the case of the “learning
to read in a specific language” skill, or simply “reading skill”.
Consider a typical paper activity-book that aims to help a learner develop
her reading skill. Such a book may be full of activities of the form “which (out of
the given two or three options) is the correct way to spell a given word”, “fill the
ending in the following words”, or “underline the spelling errors in the following
text”. We have all grown up with such books containing activities and exercises
given as practice material. One characteristic of these activity books is that they
are of a static nature in many aspects: They can be used only once, unless filled
with a pencil and then erased. No matter how many times the reader goes over
the book she always sees the same material. Usually the only feedback provided
for a erroneous response by a reader is just the correct answer with no clues on
what went wrong. Finally, the learning material is limited in size; she may need
to practice more but no more activities are available.
Besides the above limitations and having decided to buy such an activity
book, we face a more serious question: “which is the best book to buy?”. The
answer to this question requires “to know” the intended reader. In our example,
the parent has to select the book that matches the mastery level of the child’s
reading skill. But, is there a variety of alternatives available to a parent? The
reading activity-books are all classified to a small set of categories (based on
age or school-year) and the parent has to select one of them. Usually, there is
little hope to locate a book composed of the right mixture of spelling activities:
a (small) set of reinforcing activities on the items the child has mastered, a
large set of activities on the items the child has made partial progress towards
mastering, and a (small) set of activities on the “harder” items that are to follow.
From the above discussion, it is obvious that we would like to move from the
classical paper activity-books that are static and non-personal to activity eBooks
that are interactive and personalized.
Interactive and Personalized Activity eBooks... 3
Besides the typical interactivity of an eBook (e.g., turning pages, adding
bookmarks, changing the font-size), the latest IDPF eBook specification, ePub3
[4], provides for support of JavaScript [12] which allows us to create and embed
interactive content into eBooks [14]. This opens numerous possibilities for inter-
activity: we can include into eBooks engaging interactive activities (in iRead, we
call them mini-games), we can observe and record the readers’ responses, we
can provide feedback and reinforcement, we can point out the activity parts that
proved to be difficult to the reader, we can support guided navigation through
the pages of the eBook. In a sense, since we have embedded in the eBook an
executable JavaScript program, we can include any type of interactivity we can
imaging, provided that we write code for it. Of course, there exist restrictions
which are mainly imposed by the way different eBook readers implement the
ePub3 standard in conjunction with security related issues.
One particular feature being present under the new ePub3 standard is the
ability of an interactive eBook to communicate with a (remote) server and store
to it the reader’s responses/answers, i.e., the reader’s reading/playing history,
for further processing. Based on the user performance on specific activities (in-
formation present in the user’s reading history), we can build a learner profile
which reflects the current level of mastering of the reading skill. In turn, by also
utilizing our knowledge on the learning material/activities the learner has been
exposed to through her reading so far, we can prepare in an automatic way (i.e.,
author-less) a new personalized activity book which aims to advance the current
level of the reading skill.
In order to be able to automatically capture the mastering level of the reading
skill, we must identify the features that are important in mastering the reading
skill and the relations among them. These features and their interrelationships
constitutes a domain model, the construction of which require incorporating
linguistic expert knowledge. Having identified the features present in a domain
model, we can estimate the mastering level, also referred as competence, of a par-
ticular learner for each feature. This array of competence-values constitutes the
learner’s profile. So, assuming that small (large) competence values correspond
to low (high) level of mastery, the goal of any reading skill acquisition program
is, through interactive literacy activities, to bring the learner’s competence for
each domain feature to a level that it can be considered as being mastered. Our
ability to update the learner’s competence values based on the correctness of her
responses to interactive activities is referred to as learner profile adaptation. Of
course, all the above assume that we are also equipped with a way to measure
the learner’s competence.
In iRead, we have implemented six JavaScript literacy mini-games which,
when complemented with appropriate literacy content, they form activities ca-
pable of supporting the learning of multiple domain features. Each page of an
iRead interactive eBook is devoted to a specific domain feature and utilizes ex-
actly one of the developed mini-games. In principle, the content of an iRead
eBook is developed automatically and is always relevant to a specific learner.
The selection of features to be targeted, the mini-games to be utilized in the
4 N. Deligiannis, D. Panagiotipoulos, et al.
activities and the literacy material to be used, is based on the learner’s profile,
the learner’s reading/playing history, a set of language specific content selection
rules and a set of language specific resources (dictionaries). The size (number of
pages) of each eBook is typically user defined.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows: In Section 2, we provide an
overview of the architecture of iRead’s personalized eBook system and of the
supported user work-flow. In Sections 3, we examine the domain/learner models
employed by iRead’s eBook system. In Section 4, we describe how the iRead
eBook system utilized learner profiling in order to produce personalized activity
eBooks. We conclude in Section 5.
2 iRead eBook System Architecture
In this section we review the architectural design of the iRead eBook system4 .
We start our description with a brief presentation of a typical supported user
work-flow which highlights the services provided to its users.
2.1 A typical work-flow
We assume that the learner is a child and that some actions are taken on her
behalf from her parent. From the system’s point of view, these two entities are
not distinguishable; they are both treated as users of the system operating the
same account. The iRead eBook system supports the following user work-flow:
1. The user [parent] creates an account in the iRead eBook server.
2. The user [parent] chooses the type of activity eBook to be created by selecting
one of the available language domain models (currently supported: English,
Greek). A profile is created and initialized for the specified domain model.
3. On the eBook creator application, referred to as eBook synthesizer, the user
[parent] specifies eBook attributes (number of pages; one activity per page,
which mini-games to include, etc). Default values are available.
4. Based on the learner’s profile and reading/playing history, the eBook syn-
thesizer selects appropriate literacy content and generates a new activity
eBook.
5. The user [parent] downloads the generated eBook from the iRead eBook
server to her tabloid.
6. (a) The user [learner ] opens and reads (plays) the activity eBook on her
favorite ePub3 compliant eBook reader. During play, reading/playing
actions (referred to as progress) are locally saved.
(b) Locally saved data (progress) is synced to the iRead eBook server.
(c) The learner-profile is updated according to the newly received progress.
7. The user [parent] can login to the iRead eBook server, to see her [learner ]
overall progress, saved eBooks etc.
Step-6 is repeated as long as the learner reads the eBook. Step-6a (data sync)
and Step-6b (profile update) are transparent to the user.
4
For a description of the architecture of the complete iRead system see [11].
Interactive and Personalized Activity eBooks... 5
2.2 The Architecture
Figure 1 presents a schematic representation of the architecture, showing both
the components present at the eBook server as well as at the client side (tablet).
For a more detailed description of the architecture, see [2].
Persnalized eBooks Server
Web Server Request book Content Provider
content
eBook Sync eBook User Model
progress Sync
book Synthesizer profiling/ and
Syncronizer id Provide adaptivity resource
content service
Reading/ Get user
Playing DB progress Model/
History data DB Resources
(HTTP) Download Information Dictionary/
eBook exchange Profiles
Mobile Device
Local
save/ Save/Load eBook iRead
sync Infrastructure
DB Server
(HTTP)
Reader
Fig. 1. The architecture of our interactive personalized eBook system.
Client-side Architecture (on Android Device) It is shown at the lower-left
part of Figure 1 and it consists of the following parts:
– eBook reader. Any commercial eBook reader running on an android device
should work. Our interactive activity eBooks have been successfully tested
on the following readers: ePub Reader for Android [3], GitDen Reader [6],
Kotobee Reader [13], Supreader [18].
– Local Save/sync server app. A learner must be able to read a downloaded
activity eBook even when she is off-line. This entails a local saving function-
ality in order to allow the learner to partially read her eBook, to close and
then re-open it without having lost her progress. Since ePub readers don’t
support a universal local saving mechanism, we use a specialized app on the
user’s device (tablet) as a local save/sync server. The app runs on the back-
ground of the user’s device and functions as a basic web server, listening
on some pre-selected port to which the eBook reader, through embedded
code in the interactive eBook, sends HTTP requests. All data from eBooks
used on a particular device are stored using this mechanism in the save/sync
server’s local database. An eBook can also use the same mechanism (HTTP
request) to retrieve saved data from the local save/sync server, in order to
load saved mini-game states.
6 N. Deligiannis, D. Panagiotipoulos, et al.
The save/sync server app is also used to synchronize it’s local database data
with the eBook remote server’s database which containing the progress of all
users. A unique id embedded in every eBook upon construction, associates
it with the user the eBook was created for.
Personalized eBook Server Architecture It is shown at the top part of
Figure 1 and it consists of the following parts:
– User interface web service. It handles user account creation, account man-
agement, access to services and data etc. It is not shown in Figure 1.
– eBook Synthesizer. It is the component responsible for the generation of
personalized eBooks. Through the eBook synthesizer web interface the user
[parent] specifies the characteristics of the interactive eBook to be created
(e.g., topic [domain model], number of pages, which mini-games). Typically,
the eBook’s content is generated automatically based on the learner’s model
and her playing/reading history, however, the user also has the option to
manually specify the activities that populate the eBook’s pages. Then, the
eBook synthesizer requests, trough an appropriate API, related content (ac-
cording to the user’s options) from the content provider. Based on the re-
ceived content, it composes and generates the interactive eBook (according
to the ePub3 standard). Finally, the eBook synthesizer informs the user-data
database about the eBook-id of the generated eBook, associating it to the
user who requested it.
– eBook progress synchronizer. It is the component which communicates with
the save/sync server (running on the user’s android device) in order to sync
the learner’s progress. In this way, a complete reading/playing history for
each is maintained at the eBook server which, in turn, can be used to update
the learner’s profile.
– User-data database. It is used to store user-account info, the generated
eBooks, and playing/reading history for all users.
– Content provider. The content provider, is responsible for generating the
content to be included in a new personalized eBook. In doing so, it also
maintains (stores and updates) the learner’s profiles. It employs a local
Model/Resources database which stores domain-models (topics), related re-
sources and mini-games. Upon request, the content provider generates appro-
priate educational content and forwards it to the eBook synthesizer system.
The automatic content selection is based on the user’s profile and play-
ing/reading history. Learner profile maintenance and update is the task of
the user profiling and adaptivity component (see Section 4).
The content provider can also utilize external source in order to receive user
modeling services and/or relevant resources. In Fig. 1, the iRead project[7]
plays the role of the external infrastructure and provides access to linguistic
resources (specialized dictionaries).
Interactive and Personalized Activity eBooks... 7
3 Domain Modeling in iRead
Domain models constitute a central component of iRead which inform all sub-
systems (NAVIGO Game, AMIGO Reader, Text Classification, Personalized
eBooks) and determine the individualized pedagogical design used for each child.
The role of each domain model is to (a) specify the linguistic structures, referred
to as domain features, that must be mastered when learning to read as well as
progression schemes, in the form of prerequisites, indicating the order of teach-
ing of those features, and (b) provide the basis for the formulation of individual
learner models, which enable the iRead system to record each learners individual
strengths and weaknesses. The linguistic information included in domain models
was especially selected to address all the linguistic sub-skills that are relevant
or necessary for reading development and covers awareness of speech sounds
(phonology), spelling patterns (orthography), word meaning (semantics), gram-
mar (syntax) and patterns of word formation (morphology) [8]. As “learning to
read” is language dependent, a specific domain model has to be developed for
each language. Table 1 presents information about the size of the basic iRead do-
main models. Differences is size (e.g., German vs Spanish model) reflect not only
differences in the language but also in the level of granularity different linguistic
experts approached the modelling task.
Domain models are represented and stored within the iRead infrastructure
as weighted directed acyclic graphs (DAGs for short). Vertices of the graph corre-
spond to language features while directed edges indicate prerequisites. Naturally,
in such a representation, there can be no directed cycle, while the non-negative
weight on the edges allows to express the fact that two different features can be
both prerequisites of a third feature, but one of them is more important than
the other. In the case where a language feature has prerequisites, the sum of the
weights of its incoming edges must be equal to 1.
Using weighted DAGs allows to efficiently instantiate learner models, most
commonly referred to simply as profiles, and store a learners progress. Profiles are
instantiations of domain models, which can be personalized to each learner via
their interactions with the interactive educational components (smart literacy
games and interactive eBooks). Profiles are also represented as weighted DAGs
(in fact, a copy of the corresponding domain model graph), where each vertex is
equipped with an additional attribute, called competence. Competence is a non-
negative integer value showing the current mastering of the underlying language
feature. When a learner exercises a particular language feature, the value of the
competence can increase or decrease, depending on her performance. The value
of competence cannot vary arbitrarily: for every language feature we define its
English Greek German Spanish
# of Features (vertices) 279 446 316 326
# of Prerequisite relations (edges) 4,457 17,552 748 17,290
Table 1. Size of iRead domain models.
8 N. Deligiannis, D. Panagiotipoulos, et al.
/c/-c /k/-c /s/-s /c/-c /k/-c /s/-s /c/-c /k/-c /s/-s
6 5 8 7 5 8 6 4 8
7 7 7
7 7 7 7 7 7
0.2 0.2 0.2
0.3 0.5 0.3 0.5 0.3 0.5
/s/-ce /s/-ce /s/-ce
0 0 5
Fig. 2. Domain modeling: Unlocked and locked features. Unlocked features are shown
in green, locked in yellow. Unlocked edges are drawn black, locked red. We assume
that the unlock value of all vertices is equal to 0.75 and the competence threshold
value for unlocking is 5. In the leftmost case, the bottom feature is locked as the
sum of the unlocked incoming edges is equal to 0.5 (i.e., smaller than 0.75). In the
middle configuration, the corresponding sum is equal to 0.8 (i.e., greater than 0.75)
and becomes unlocked, while in the rightmost configuration, although the sum of the
unlocked incoming edges is less than the unlock value of 0.75, the competence of the
feature is 5, equal to the threshold value. Thus, the feature becomes unlocked.
minimum and maximum value. By default, and unless otherwise specified within
the domain model, we consider the minimum value to be equal to zero, and the
maximum value equal to ten.
For a particular learner, not all language features are “available” for practic-
ing. It is clear that a learner can practice a language feature if she has mastered
the feature’s prerequisites. In order to express the “availability” of a language
feature, we equipped both vertices and edges of the graph with the unlock value
attribute. The availability status of a vertex (or edge) can be either locked or
unlocked, i.e. available or non-available respectively. An edge becomes unlocked
if the competence of its source is higher than the unlock value of the edge, other-
wise it is locked. Vertices can be also unlocked in three ways: (i) if a vertex has no
prerequisites it is, by default, unlocked, or (ii) if the sum of the weights of their
incoming unlocked edges is higher than the unlock value of the vertex, or (iii) if
the competence of the feature is higher than a competence threshold value. As
an example, consider the configurations shown in Figure 2: vertices are drawn
as rectangular shapes and their label shows the corresponding language feature
and the competence of the learner (e.g. the bottom vertex has competence 0 in
the first two configurations and competence 5 in the third one). For the sake of
simplicity, we assume that the unlock value of all vertices is equal to 0.75 and
the competence threshold value for unlocking is equal to 5. The unlock value
for the edges is denoted within a yellow circle, while the weight of each edge
is also present. An immediate consequence of the above unlocking procedure is
that a language feature can become unlocked even if the learners competence
on the prerequisites cannot unlock incoming edges. Hence, the sub-graph of the
unlocked vertices and edges, is not necessary a connected graph. This property
can prove very useful in the case where the initialization of a profile is based on
an undertaken test; the domain model contains too many language features and
Interactive and Personalized Activity eBooks... 9
it is almost impossible to test all of them. Still, the available unlocked vertices
will allow the learner to practice different areas of the domain model in parallel.
4 Adaptivity and Personalizion
The ability of the iRead eBook System to provide personalized interactive activ-
ity books is based on its learner modeling capabilities. By maintaining learner
profiles it can choose the proper language features to focus on and, in turn,
choose appropriate activities relevant to these features to be included in the
eBook. Finally, by consulting the playing/reading history of the learner, it can
select from the available language resources the appropriate (for the specific
learner) linguistic material to be used in conjunction with the chosen activities.
In the architecture of the iRead eBook system, services related to learner
profiling and adaptivity as well as services responsible for maintaining domain
models and related linguistic resources, are part of the content provider subsys-
tem (see Fig. 1). Even though these services completely follow the logic employed
in the iRead infrastructure, we have decided to provide a separate implemen-
tation as part of our eBook server. This allows for the incorporation of models
(and their relevant resources) which are not covered by iRead (e.g., relevant to
mathematics) and the production of personalized activity eBooks in the cor-
responding fields. However, as indicated in Fig. 1, it is possible to obtain this
functionality from external resources, as the iRead infrastructure in our case,
provided it is available. Actually, in our implementation, we utilize the iRead
dictionary services by directly connecting to the iRead infrastructure.
Figure 3 provides a view of the architecture focusing on the components
of the content provider as well as the flow of information that this relevant to
profile adaptation and content selection, the topic of this Section. During the
presentation, we should always keep in mind the typical work-flow of a learner:
(a) she downloads an activity eBook, (b) she read it, i.e., she plays the activities
in it and, when finishes reading/playing, (c) she orders a new activity eBook
(more precisely, her parents do so). Also, keep in mind that when the learner is
online, the save/sync app that runs on the tablet sends the learner’s progress to
the eBook server.
4.1 Adaptivity
When a new eBook is being ordered for a specific learner, we have to make
sure that the learner’s profile in accurate and reflects her reading skill state. If
it is the first time that we generate an eBook for the learner in question, we
have to initialize a new profile for her. This can be done by either adopting
one of predefined initial profiles that fit the characteristics of the learner (e.g.,
age, school year, an informal classification) or by giving her a literacy test on
the features of the domain model (currently, this option is not implemented in
iRead). If we already have a profile for the user, we have to make sure that the
profile is accurate. Assuming that the profile was last updated during the creation
10 N. Deligiannis, D. Panagiotipoulos, et al.
get content
Synthesizer Content Creation
get profile get resources
get playing
production
history
and previous User Profiles Models
eBooks
eBook
save
update Resources
profile games
get playing words
eBook Usage history Adaptivity sentences
Server Data
Fig. 3. The flow of information for the content provider.
of the last book ordered for the learner, we now have to re-evaluate it. It is the
profile re-evaluation that guarantees that the activities and content included in
the eBook are appropriate for the learner, i.e., the eBook is personalized.
The learner’s responses for each activity in the eBook are all recorded in her
reading/playing history. So, after reviewing the performance data for a specific
activity, we should be able to decide whether the learner improved her compe-
tence on the feature targeted by the activity5 . Typically, if a user has a high
success rate over the few last played activities targeting the specific language
feature, the competence is increased by one unit. In iRead (where the reading
skill is improved by playing the NAVIGO literacy game, and the feature com-
petence takes integer values in the range [0 . . . 10]) we focus on the last three
played activities and we request a success rate of 75% in all of them. In our
activity eBook system we have adopted a lighter approach, that is, we allow
feature competence to only take the values zero (0) and one (1) and we only
consider the last two (2) played activities. The rational for doing so is based on
our desire to (theoretically) allow the learner to master all language features in
a reasonable amount of eBook pages. Assuming the user provides only correct
answers, the English reading skill can be mastered by reading 558 pages6 . In
any case, these values can be easily adjusted. Note that, during reevaluation it
makes sense to also reduce the feature competence if a learner provides too many
wrong responses. This allows the learner to work again on improving her skills
on language features she has not practiced recently and has forgotten them.
Updating the competence values for all features in the current reading/playing
history of the learner completes the reevaluation process. However, we are not
ready yet to proceed to the next stage; the selection of personalized content.
Before we do that, we have to examine whether the changes in competence for
some features results to unlocking more language features (which can be the
5
Each activity aims to improve the competence of the learner in one specific language
feature. It tries to achieve that by asking the learner to play an appropriate mini-
game.
6
The English model has 279 features. Playing 2 activities per feature requires 2×279 =
558 eBook pages in total.
Interactive and Personalized Activity eBooks... 11
topic of new activities). This process is triggered by the end of the reevaluation
process. For each feature with an improved competence value, we check whether
the feature that depend on it (i.e., they come immediately after it in the DAG
representing the domain model) satisfy the conditions for unlocking them.
4.2 Personalized Content Selection
Each page of the activity eBook contains one activity. An activity is defined to
be a triplet consisting of (a) a language feature, (b) a type of activity7 , and
(c) a mini-game, together with appropriate educational content (e.g., words,
sentences). Six mini-games used in the NAVIGO games have been adopted for
use in the iRead eBook system and developed by iRead partners Patakis and
PickaTale. A list of them together with a brief description is given in Table 2.
Mini Game Description
Cleomatchra The learner connects pairs of strings to form full words. Pick-
aTale [16].
Perilous paths The learner selects a string (word or sentence) over three possible
options, to complete a sentence or answer a question. PickaTale [16].
Remove the runes The learner selects all words from a given list that have a specific
property. Patakis [15].
Sliceophagus The learner splits compound words to stems. PickaTale [16].
Bridgyptian The learner selects a number of string compounds from an available
set and places them in an appropriate order so that she creates a
word or a sentence. Some string compounds may have a predefined,
fixed placement. PickaTale [16].
Raft rapid fire Words appear sequentially on the learner’s screen. The learner must
“hit” all words that have a predefined property. Patakis [15].
Table 2. The Mini-games employed in iRead eBooks
Information about each activity is stored in a database and is accessed during
the selection of personalized content. Note that the process of selecting the con-
tent required in order to play an activity may be quite elaborate. For example,
we may be required to identify several words relevant to a feature (e.g., words
starting with “b” as in “bag”) but also distractor words relevant to another fea-
ture (e.g., words starting with “d” as in “dog”). These rules are specified as a
collection of filters which are employed during content selection.
The get activity service is responsible for determining the activities to be
played. The selection of the activities is made by focusing only to those rele-
vant to unlocked features in the domain model. Emphasis is given to unlocked
features with competence below their threshold value. The reading/playing his-
tory database is also consulted. We want to avoid repetitions, we want to use as
7
Possible activity types for literacy games are: accuracy, automaticity and blending.
12 N. Deligiannis, D. Panagiotipoulos, et al.
many mini-games (relevant to the feature) as possible. The aim is to get a good
mixture of activities so that we build an engaging eBook.
Having decided on which activities to include in the eBook, it remains to se-
lect content for each activity. In the case of iRead eBooks, this basically means
selecting words and passing them through the filters mentioned above. Special-
ized dictionaries are used to complete this task. The dictionaries are specialized
in the sense that each word is pre-processed in advance so that word selection
is speed up and the application of the filters is made easier. An additional re-
quirement is that the words have been carefully selected so that they cover all
language features and they are appropriate to be presented to children.
The get content service is responsible for returning content for each activ-
ity. The service identifies the words in the dictionary that are relevant to the
activity’s feature and pass all the filters. The word’s difficulty (an attribute of
each word stored in iRead’s dictionary) is taken into account in the final word
selection (the smaller the learner competence the easiest the words we select).
In addition, we also consult the reading/playing history in order to avoid words
that the user has seen too many times, to replay words that the user usually get
wrong and, in general, get a good mix that avoids boring repetition.
In addition to the fully automatic activity selection made by get activity we
also provide a mechanism for the semi-automatic way to select the content of
an activity eBook. It is semi-automatic in the sense that a teacher/parent can
only specify the activity that appears in each page of the eBook8 . The rational
behind providing such a service is the need to allow teachers to build activity
eBooks that reflect the specific teaching plan they use in class.
5 Conclusion
We presented the iRead eBook system that provides an integrated personalized
learning service aiming to develop the learner’s reading skills by engaging her
in activities delivered through interactive eBooks. The system has been imple-
mented in the framework of the iRead H2020 EU research project. There are
several threads of research that are worth investigating:
– Experiment with different methods to select activities and content for each
activity.
– Expand the available resources for the reading skill acquisition. More mini-
games, more elaborate activities, larger dictionaries, more languages.
– Develop domain models for learning skills in other fields (besides “reading”).
Mathematics may be an option.
– Consider potential privacy issues that may arise due to the use of profiling,
for example, in the case that an eBook is addressed to a learner belonging in
a specific group such as children with dyslexia. This question may be more
relevant for services deployed and use in Europe due to the GDPR [5].
8
Specifying both the activities and the content for each activity proved to be too
complicated, especially when discractor words are also required) and too boring.
Interactive and Personalized Activity eBooks... 13
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