The 3^rd International Conference on Adaptive Hypermedia
and Adaptive Web-based Systems
The Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
August 23 – 26, 2004
 
Workshop on Individual Differences in Adaptive Hypermedia

Background and Motivation

Although personalisation is recognised as an effective approach in several application areas, it is still not very clear whether adaptive hypermedia systems can accommodate individual differences effectively, in terms of providing individualised navigation support, delivering personalised content, adapting the presentation or the layout to the needs of the user. Existing applications mainly consider users’ preferences based on collecting explicit or implicit information, and emphasise on prior knowledge. Clearly, there is a number of important human factors, such as gender differences, cognitive styles, personality factors, cultural backgrounds and so on that have not been fully explored, as well as techniques for adaptivity that can be potentially useful to accommodate individual differences. To fill this gap, this workshop will explore how to embrace the various dimensions of individual differences into adaptive hypermedia, and will investigate the impacts of individual differences on the design, implementation and use of adaptive hypermedia systems.

Topics and Research Questions

Individuals differ in traits such as skills, aptitudes and preferences for processing information, constructing meaning from information, and applying it to real-world situations. The topics discussed in this workshop will address various dimensions of individual differences, such as the level of knowledge or literacy, gender, culture, spatial abilities, cognitive styles, accessibility issues for the disable and elderly. The Workshop will explore how individual differences theory can be integrated into the design, development and implementation of adaptive hypermedia applications, and investigate how individual differences considerations influence the use of adaptive hypermedia applications.

Papers submitted to this Workshop must contribute towards addressing research questions related to at least one of the following aspects:

- How adaptive hypermedia can improve accessibilities by providing multi modalities that satisfy users with special needs?

- What design guidelines should be established for development, and what criteria are needed for evaluating adaptive hypermedia that can accommodate individual differences?

- How different dimensions of individual differences can be combined in an adaptive hypermedia system?

- What type of information is needed from user profiles to identify the effects of individual differences on user's preferences?

- What kind of ontologies are needed for representing individual differences dimensions in the user model and the personalisation engine of adaptive hypermedia systems?

- What are the relationships between individual differences and features of adaptive hypermedia systems?