Development of a model of user attributes and its implementation within an adaptive tutoring system

User modelling within tutoring systems often concentrates on the representation of the learner's status with respect to the domain, paying little attention to the user's individual characteristics in terms of capabilities and preferences. A composite learner model, incorporating both domain related data and information about personal attributes is useful in determining not only which items should be presented, but how the student may best be able to learn them. A model of users' individual characteristics has been developed using multivariate statistical techniques as a means of generating user stereotypes from empirical data. Each stereotype has an associated profile in terms of attributes which are useful for the application in which the model is used. This paper describes the development of the model of learner attributes and its use within an adaptive tutoring system. The representation of the domain related information was in this case a basic overlay model. The results of experiments using the system with two classes of students in two successive academic years are discussed. The possibilities for application of the user model in other areas and the potential effects of combining an attribute learner model of this type with more sophisticated domain models are considered.