SOLA-ASTERISK - STUDENTS ONLINE ADVISER

This paper is about educational advising and adaptation to learner style in the provision of advice about learning. The recipients of the advice are students attempting to complete a course of study. SOLA*, an advisory system (implemented in SMALLTALK-80) provides help with what should be learned, how it should be learned and when it should be learned. Providing advice of this sort is becoming increasingly important as the range of educational materials available to the student continues to increase and the need for independent co-ordination of study becomes more common. Advisory systems are valuable in circumstances where learners are expected to control their own learning as not all students (particularly at first) are capable of successfully managing their study time. SOLA* is flexible in its approach to advising about study plans not only at the level of local decision making (e.g. which study materials to use) but also at the level of its global approach to a domain. SOLA* provides a series of study plans adapted to the learner. © 1993 Academic Press. All rights reserved.