Learner control

This paper describes major trends in learner-adapted teaching systems towar ds greater learner control over the learning process. In the early teaching systems, the goal was to build a clever teacher able to communicate knowle dge to the individual student. Recent and emerging work focuses on the lear ner exploring, designing, constructing, making sense and using adaptive sys tems as tools. Correspondingly, systems are being built to give the learner greater responsibility and control over all aspects of the learning, and e specially over the learner model which is at the core of user-adaptation. A parallel trend is the growing acknowledgement of the importance of the lea rner's social context. Systems are increasingly being designed for learners working in groups of real or simulated peers. This paper discusses several elements of the shift to greater learner control, with a focus on the impl ications for learner modelling. The computer may offer the learner a choice of learning tools and companion learners, on-demand learning of various ty pes, control over the elements of the systems and the possibility of contro lling the amount of control. Learner control offers promising possibilities for improved learning. At the same time, there are pragmatic issues for ac hieving the benefits. The paper discusses three of these: the need to evalu ate the effectiveness of the emergent learner-controlled systems; problems with learner control; and the need for interoperable and reusable component s.