Learning SQL Programming with Interactive Tools: From Integration to Personalization

ABSTRACT Rich, interactive eLearning tools receive a lot of attention nowadays from both practitioners and researchers. However, broader dissemination of these tools is hindered by the technical difficulties of their integration into existing platforms. This paper explores the technical and conceptual problems of using several interactive educational tools in the context of a single course. It presents an integrated Exploratorium for database courses, an experimental platform, which provides personalized access to several types of interactive learning activities. Several classroom studies of the Exploratorium have demonstrated its value in both the integration of several tools and the provision of personalized access.

SHORT BIO

Peter Brusilovsky has been working in the area of adaptive systems and E-Learning for many years. Since 1993 he has participated in the development of several adaptive Web-based educational systems including ELM-ART, a winner of 1998 European Academic Software Award.

He continues his research on adaptive E-Learning as an Associate Professor of Information Science and Intelligent Systems at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Brusilovsky has published numerous research papers and several books adaptive systems and E-Learning. He is the Associate Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies and a board member of several other journals. He is also the current President of User Modeling Inc., a professional association of user modeling researchers.