Adaptive Learning and Testing in Moodle Alda Kika, Loreta Leka and Emiranda Loka University of Tirana, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Informatics, Bulevardi Zogu I, 25/1, Tirana, Albania Abstract E-Learning systems are becoming an asset in education. Although there exist a lot of e-learning systems very few of them can adapt to learning styles and other characteristics of students for learning and testing processes. The aim of this paper is to present the adaptations that are done to the Moodle platform to provide the tools and features to best serve the students and educators to adapt the learning materials according to the students’ learning styles and to perform adaptive testing according to their level of performance. An experimental adaptive quiz was set up and a survey was used to evaluate learning effectiveness and learning satisfaction of 50 students who took the test. The results of the survey were presented and discussed followed by the conclusions and future directions. Keywords 1 Adaptive quiz, learning styles, adaptive learning. 1. Introduction elevate motivation, engagement, satisfaction and learning outcomes [1]. The goal of e- learning systems should not be only to provide During COVID-19 pandemic the the learning materials but also to tailor them to universities in Albania have been obliged to various characteristics of the learners such as switch to e-learning systems. These systems goals, preferences, and learning styles [2]. An have gained a great value during this period as adaptive e-learning system is an interactive the only way of communication between system that personalizes and adapts e-learning students and professors for the learning process, content, pedagogical models, and interactions spreading the learning materials, assessments, between participants to meet the individual and evaluation tests. There are a lot of needs and preferences of users [3]. We have advantages that these systems offer to their enhanced Moodle e-learning system with users as the possibility to attend the lectures features that enable it to adapt to the students anywhere and anytime. However, there are learning styles and other characteristics. We some drawbacks as well such as missing the have chosen Moodle platform because it is an experience face to face learning and practicing. open-source platform offering the possibility to Adaptive e-learning systems aim to overcome make changes and other platforms integration the lack of direct contact by applying a personal [4]. This paper will present the main tools that approach of teaching. are used for adaptation for both students and Traditional education and the e-learning professors. Another important aspect in the systems which are designed with the same learning process is testing and evaluation of the approach follow the concept of one size fits all, acquired knowledge. Online quizzes which presenting the same content to all students. serve as a type of assessment allow students to Adaptive learning on the other hand provides be independent of the location and time. participants with a personalized and dynamic However, quizzes need to address the issue of learning experience. This experience can Proccedings of RTA-CSIT 2021, May 2021, Tirana, Albania EMAIL: alda.kika@fshn.edu.al (A.Kika); loreta.leka@fshn.edu.al (L.Leka); emiranda.loka@fshn.edu.a (E. Loka) ©️ 2021 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org) enhancing the students learning process, 3. The adaptation for Learning lacking the feature of ‘Personalization’. To extend our work toward adaptation of the materials system for testing, an adaptive quiz is created and evaluated with a group of 50 students. After An adaptive e-learning system which providing a short overview of the works related personalizes the learning materials to the to this research, another section will follow students learning styles would be very useful with the aim to represent our work for the to them [11]. We have modified Moodle to adaptation of the Moodle platform. The rest of include the questionnaire that was based on the paper will show the results of the adaptive Index of Learning Styles (ILS) [12]. This quiz followed by the conclusions and the work instrument is used to evaluate a student’s for the future. learning style according to Felder-Silverman learning style model. FSLSM defines four dimensions (Preprocessing, Perception, Input 2. Literature Review and Understanding). For each dimension two types of learning styles which can be viewed as Adaptive learning systems have been learning preferences opposites of each other are demonstrated to improve student commitment defined. The combination of the learning styles and learning outcomes [5]. for each dimension creates individual’s Heba Fasihuddin et al. [6] have proposed the learning preferences [13]. personalization of the system and its adaptation In order to identify the students learning styles based on Felder-Silverman Learning Style and help the professors to understand better the Model (FSLSM). This model works through learning styles of the students and the materials two agents: the first one identifies the learner’s that they should produce three plugins are style and the second, using the information created in [14] and added to the Moodle from the first agent, provides an adaptable platform. The first one is used to identify, and navigation system. FSLSM was used in the store student’s learning styles based on the work of S. Graf et al. [7] who have proposed a questionnaire, the second which is called framework for the adaptation of the course “Learning styles” represents in a graphical view content based on learning styles identified by the distribution of learning styles between the model. The research in [8] proposed an students, and “Activity Report” that shows for enhanced LMS implemented in Moodle each student, the number of interactions with platform that support adaptive features. The each material. We have tested the modified major adaptation features were based on visual Moodle Platform with a group of 73 students in and verbal dimension of Felder-Silverman Bachelor of Informatics Program. The results Learning Style Model (FSLSM) and the from the created plugin “Learning styles” are student's knowledge level. In [9] the system shown in Figures from 1 to 4. "E-school" is described. In this system the characteristics of the user are used by the administrator to create different learner groups which have access to specific lectures. Quizzes, generated on the same content, are used to evaluate the knowledge acquired by the users. The paper in [10] focuses on the major components of adaptive features and techniques to implement an adaptive quiz. Three main components are identified: student model, domain model and adaptation model. The Figure 1: The results from “Learning styles” adaptive quiz system will serve to assess the report for preprocessing dimension. knowledge of the students based on skills, knowledge, and preferences of each learner. 4. Adaptive Quiz We have set up an adaptive quiz by using Adaptive Quiz Activity in Moodle. It creates tests that can estimate users' level of knowledge by adapting the question difficulty. A question bank of 20 multiple choice questions from two modules in the subject Figure 2: The results from “Learning styles” “Programming Java” was created. Each report for perception dimension. question was tagged with the level of difficulty (easy, moderate, advanced). The parameters of the quiz can be determined by the professor such as difficulty levels of questions, the starting level for the first question or minimum and maximum number of questions. In the Figure 5 a screenshot from the adaptive quiz is presented. Figure 3: The results from “Learning styles” report for input dimension. Figure 5: Adaptive quiz presentation After the student answers one question, the algorithm selects the difficulty level for the next question depending on the student’s answer. If the student answers a question correctly, a question with a higher level of Figure 4: The results from “Learning styles” difficulty is chosen next otherwise a less report for understanding dimension. difficult or will the same level of difficulty question will be chosen. This report shows to the professors the Another adaptation that this quiz does is about distribution of the students according to their the number of the questions that will be asked. learning styles. The professors of the course The number of questions will be between the having this information would be more aware minimum and maximum values which are of the type of the materials that they provide for determined during the process of configuration their students. For example, if most of the of the quiz. The quiz will stop if the user's students are visual learners, they can ability level is determined to the required understand better the concepts with pictures, accuracy or if the maximum number of diagrams, flow charts, and demonstrations questions have been answered. while verbal learners understand by reading The students can have an unlimited number of more text material or listening to spoken attempts to the quiz. The quiz will choose the explanations. question in random depending on the configuration made by the professor and the answers given by the student. 5. Students’ survey data results information about the lecture where that concept was introduced. To understand the perceived value of an adaptive quiz to the students a survey was filled 6. Conclusion and future work by 50 students who took the adaptive quiz. The survey data were examined to explore Adapting the e-learning systems to the learning whether the students perceived benefits from styles and other characteristics will provide the adaptive quiz and also to gather suggestions value and encourage the students to learn and from them about the features that could be perform better. In this paper we presented the added to the adaptive quiz to increase their level work that is done to adapt Moodle platform to of motivation and learning outcomes. The learning styles of the students following Felder- survey was composed of 5 questions. Silverman Learning Style Model. This The first question was whether they have heard adaptation will help the professors to provide before about adaptive quizzes. Surprisingly learning materials according to learning styles 42% have heard before and 58% have not. The of the students. In the future we aim to adapt the second question was whether adaptive quiz system to automatically present to the students helped the students to identify the problems in the materials that are more suitable to their their knowledge about the subject. learning styles. Adaptive testing is another 96 % answered that this quiz helped them to important tool that can help students to better identify their problems and 4% that it did not. learn and assess their level of knowledge. An The third question was about whether the adaptive test is set up and taken by 50 students. reaction of the adaptive quiz encourages The results of the survey showed that the students to try more to increase their adaptive quiz was perceived as a valuable tool performance. All of them answered that this by the students that encourages them to learn feature of adaptive quiz encouraged them to and increase their level of performance. Some try more(36% answered that it helped very suggestions from the students will be used to much and the rest that it helped sufficiently). enhance the features of the adaptive quiz in the The fourth question was about the statement future. Future research will explore further that adaptive quiz was a very good tool to whether the students who did use adaptive increase the knowledge about the subject. All quizzes, improved their performance compared the students agree to this statement (24 % to those that did not or took traditional ones. strongly agree and the rest agree). The last question was formulated to gather the suggestions from the students with the aim of enhancing the adaptive test in the future to serve 7. References them better. In general students liked the adaptive quizzes but some of them would like [1] B. Ross, A. Ahonen, D. Robbie, G. Oates to integrate in it some features from traditional and Y.Absalom. 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