User and Context Modeling Infrastructure for ImREAL

Within ImREAL, we are concerned with the science and engineering of an augmented learner and context modeling infrastructure. Our research is organized in two main stages:

• Stage 1: In the first stage, the focus is on (1) the setup of the technical infrastructure for the learner and context modeling infrastructure to be available for the other components and services in the project, and (2) the development and validation of relevant techniques for learner and context modeling. For the development and validation of the modeling techniques, first the state of the art in user modeling is used to create techniques for capturing augmented, real-world knowledge into user models.
• Stage 2: In the second stage, the research and development is aimed at the experimentation with the techniques from the first stage on real-world knowledge to determine the best possible augmentation for adaptive applications, such as the ImREAL simulators.

In the scope of the ImREAL project, we developed U-Sem, a user modeling infrastructure for the Social Web. U-Sem provides user modeling services that support augmenting adaptive training and learning applications (e.g. simulators) with knowledge that can be derived from the Social Web about the trainees and their context and background. As a consequence of exploiting this knowledge from the Social Web, the adaptive training situation becomes more aware of the real world in which the trainees perform.

More details over U-Sem can be found here.