JPH08328939A - Method and device for controlling wide area distributed hyper text system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To manage information on a user at one place and to simplify an entire system concerning a wide area distributed hyper text system such as WWW. CONSTITUTION: An assist manager LM is interposed between a user side computer C and a server W, and a user memory 26 for storing a state for each user and a link generator LG for generating the information of link to a document corresponding to the user are connected to this assist manager LM. The assist manager LM searches and outputs the document corresponding to the state of the user based on the information of the link generator LG so that it is not necessary for the server side to store the individual information of the user and the personal information of the user can be managed at one place. When this invention is applied to a learning system, the suitable materials of learning can be provided corresponding to the learning level or comprehension degree of a learning person so that a learning effect can be improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wide area distributed hypertext system control method and apparatus for extracting and outputting a required document from a plurality of servers connected by a wide area network according to a user's request and status. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a widely distributed hypertext system has been used to call a required document from a plurality of servers. For example WWW (World Wi
de Web) is a computer software for sending and receiving information on the Internet, there is something that allows you to use the documents of many servers using this.

Mosaic (Mosaic, usually called a browser) is known as application software for viewing the WWW information, and a user can use this software to retrieve a necessary document from his / her computer. It has been considered in the past to form a learning system for education, that is, for supporting a user's learning activity by using a document of a server connected by such a network.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the concept of WWW. In this figure, W1 and W2 are WWW servers, each of which stores a large number of documents. C is a WWW client, which is a program used by a user (learner) in the learning system. In the WWW, the layout information and link information are combined with the information to be transmitted in HTML (Hype
It is managed in the form of descriptive text called rText Markup Language), and if the WWW user specifies the required document using WWW client such as Mosaic, the URL
A document with a uniform name for the document on the Internet by (Uniform Resource Locator) is called.

[0005]

2. Description of the Related Art Since such a conventional WWW is basically a passive information retrieval system, a personalized function corresponding to the characteristics of each user, that is, the content presented by the system side is actively selected. Individualized function is insufficient. For example, when used in a learning system, it is necessary to be able to present learning information suitable for the learner in response to some request from the learner, according to the characteristics of each learner. However, there is a problem that the conventional WWW cannot meet this demand.

When constructing a learning system using this WWW, the following functions are required. That is, a) a function of modeling and managing the state of the learner, b) a function of performing a search according to the learner using the learner model, and c) presentation of teaching materials according to the learner using the learner model. The function to do.

In order to realize such a function, the WWW
In addition to the server and client, it is necessary to install two system modules, an assist manager (in the case of a learning system, a learning manager) and a link generator. Here, the learning manager models the state of a user (learner), stores it in a user memory and manages it, and uses this user memory to present teaching materials according to the user. The link generator uses the user memory to search for teaching materials according to the user.

As such a learning system, the one shown in FIG. 11 can be considered. In this figure, LM is a learning manager, LG is a link generator, and M is a learner model. The learner model M corresponds to the user memory and stores the state of the learner. For example, attributes (name, date of birth, gender, personality, etc.), understanding state for each subject, learning history for each subject, and the like are stored.

In this system, WWW servers W1 and W
There are a learning manager LM and a link generator LG as application programs on two host computers. And the WW that learners use
All requests from the W client C side are CGI (Common
The Gateway Interface) is used to access application programs such as LM and LG. Here, CGI is a mechanism that can start another program from the WWW server and receive the processing result.

However, this system has the following problems. That is, the user (learner) of the user (learner)
Since the model and the usage (learning) history (information indicating the state of the user such as) are separately recorded for each server, the user (learner) model and the usage (learning) history (such as the user that exist in a distributed manner) exist. It is necessary to separately provide a mechanism for managing and managing (information indicating the state of). Therefore, there is also a problem that the system becomes complicated.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and in a wide-area distributed hypertext system such as WWW, information about users can be managed at one place, and the entire system can be simplified. The purpose is to provide a control method. Another object is to provide a device directly used for implementing this method, that is, a wide-area distributed hypertext system device.

[0012]

According to the present invention, a plurality of servers for managing documents are connected by a wide area network, and a computer according to a user's request and status is sent to the server via the network. In a method for controlling a wide area distributed hypertext system that calls and outputs from a computer, an assist manager is provided between the user side computer and a server, and a state for each user is stored in a user memory connected to the assist manager. On the other hand, this assist
The manager is connected to a link generator to search for documents corresponding to each user,
The manager uses the contents of the user memory to model the user and manages the user, and calls the required document from the corresponding server using the link obtained from the link generator. The output contents in response to the user's request. And a control method for a wide-area distributed hypertext system, which is characterized in that

When this system is applied to a learning system that supports a user's learning activities, documents of teaching materials are stored in the server, and information including the learning history of the user (learner) is stored in the user memory. .

Still another object is to connect a plurality of servers for managing documents by a wide area network, and to call a document according to a user's request and status from the server through this network to output the document to a user side computer. In a distributed hypertext system device, an assist manager connected between the user computer and each server for modeling the user and managing the user, and a state for each user connected to the assist manager. User memory to be stored, management of indexes for searching documents requested by the assist manager using the request of each user connected to the assist manager and the state obtained from the user memory, and narrowing of search range Do link generator Wide hypertext system apparatus comprising: a is accomplished by.

When applied to a learning system,
It is desirable to store the learning material and the learning history of the learner in the user memory while storing the teaching material in the server. On the server side, a rule (1) consisting of data for embodying this rule is specified together with the teaching material, while the rule for selecting the teaching material according to the learner from the teaching materials is specified and stored in the user memory. It is desirable to store the strategy (2) which is a rule for selecting a teaching material based on the degree of understanding of the person and the learning history.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific example thereof. In this embodiment, the WWW server W
1, the learning manager LM as an assist manager is interposed between the W2 and the WWW client C. As shown in FIG. 2, the learning manager LM includes a relay 10, a system control 12, a learner model manager 14, and a learning progress control 1.
Each functional module 6 and the memory 18 of the strategy (2) are provided.

Each server is not limited to two, W1 and W2, but many servers are connected by the WWW network.
Then only one is shown. The server W stores the document. The document is the teaching material memory 2 in this embodiment.
0 and strategy (1) are the teaching material and strategy (1) stored in the memory 22, respectively. 3 and 4 are diagrams showing the contents of this teaching material and the strategy (1).

The teaching material is a teaching material structure for each subject, its explanation,
The content of the explanation and the difficulty level are stored in association with each other, including the question, the answer, the difficulty level, and the like. The strategy (1) is to specify, for each teaching material, a rule for selecting a teaching material according to a learner from the teaching materials and store data for embodying this rule.

As the WWW client C used by the learner, for example, Mosaic can be used, and this client C is connected to the server W via the relay 10 of the learning manager LM.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 26 is a user memory, which includes a learner model M and a history memory 28. As shown in FIG. 5, the learner model M includes learner attributes (name, date of birth, gender, intellectual level, grade level, personality, etc.), subjects A, B.
Memorize the understanding of each subject, etc.

As shown in FIG. 6, a record of which part of each subject A, B, ... In the figure, "95-02-05" is 1995
It shows February 5, and shows that Chapter 1 Section 1 has been learned on this day.

The link generator LG has a memory 30 for storing the index of the teaching material stored in the teaching material memory 20 of each server W. The memory 30 stores, for example, information such as a document content and a URL (Uniform Resource Locater) indicating the address storing the document, a field, a difficulty level, a document name, a creation date, a creator, and the like in a format shown in FIG. To be done.

The learning progress control 16 which is a functional module of the learning manager LM has a memory 32 for storing the strategy (2). As shown in FIG. 8, the strategy (2) stored in the memory 32 is a rule for determining the learning level of the learner and is described abstractly. That is,
First, after learning the rule for determining the teaching material to be used by the above strategy (1), the learner model M and the contents of the history memory 28 are used by the learner according to this rule in this strategy (2). Decide on which difficulty the teaching material should be used. For example, the difficulty level of the learner described in the learner model M and the thresholds a, b, c, ... It is a thing.

The learning progress control 16 includes strategies (1) and (2).
Combining with and defining the rule to determine the learning level,
The link generator LG is used to search for a learning material to be learned corresponding to this learning level. That is, the URL that is the address of this teaching material is generated.

The learner model manager 14 changes the contents of the learner model M and the history memory 28 based on the strategy contents output by the learning progress control 16, that is, the action (response) progress of the learner and the system. For example, the level of understanding of the learning content is determined based on the reaction of the learner, and the content of the learner model M is rewritten.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. When the learner inputs a subject to be learned from the WWW client C, the content thereof enters the learning progress control 16 via the relay 10 and the system control 12. Link generator L here
Using G, the URL (address) of the document (teaching material) of the course content requested by this learner is obtained. Then, the learning material of subject A selected by this learner (FIG. 3) and the strategy (1) for this learning material (FIG. 4) are called. In addition, the learner model M and the learning history for this learner are the learner model M.
Call from.

In the learning progress control 16, it is understood from the strategy (1) that rules 1, 5, 6, ... Can be applied. Therefore, according to rule 1, the number of classes in subject A is N = 3,
The threshold of comprehension for classifying is a = 25, b
Know that = 75. Then, based on the degree of comprehension and the learning history obtained from the learner model M and the history memory 28, the difficulty level of this learner is determined from the strategy (2). Next, rule 1 of the strategy (1) is used to classify the learners, and rule 5 of the strategy (2) determines one of the difficulty levels L1, L2, and L3. As a result, the difficulty levels A, B, ... Of the learning material to be selected are determined by the rule 5 of the strategy (1).

The learning progress control 16 uses this result to determine the explanation content of the corresponding teaching material based on the difficulty levels A, B, ... Of the subject A to be learned by the learner. For example, if the learner is in class L1 and the difficulty level is A, the contents such as 1-1-1a, 1-1-2b, 1-2-1a, which are the explanations of the difficulty level A of the teaching material, are read (FIG. 3). ). This read content is relay 10
And is output to the learner's WWW client C via the system control 12. Further, the URL and the content of the strategy output by the learning progress control 16 are sent to the learner model manager 14, where the contents of the learner model M and the history memory 28 are corrected.

In the above embodiment, the strategy (1) consisting of the data for designating the rule for selecting the teaching material and embodying the rule is stored in the memory 22 on the server W side, while the learning level of the learner is individual. The strategy (2), which is a rule for selecting a teaching material based on, is stored in the learning manager LM side. That is, the information about the individual and the information about the general-purpose teaching material are separated, and the teaching materials are decided by combining both the abbreviations (1) and (2). For this reason, the information on the individual is completely absent on the server W side, and the configuration is simplified.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of another embodiment. In this embodiment, the relay 10 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is composed of another WWW server W '. In FIG. 9, the portions corresponding to those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and therefore, in the description, the communication between the WWW server W ′ and other functional modules in the learning manager LM is performed using the CGI. The system control 12 communicates with the WWW server W that manages the teaching material. According to this embodiment, since another server W'is used instead of the relay 10, the configuration is simplified without changing the function.

Although the present invention is most suitable for a personalized system such as a learning system, the present invention is not limited to this and the strategy is not limited to this embodiment. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention is applied to a system for providing information to a user through a network, in which the value of the service can be improved by ranking or providing information based on the information about the user. In this case, the effect is particularly great.

For example, a [video-on-demand] system that enables a user to watch a video program such as a movie at any time through the network, and provides the user with an external photograph of the product, a video, a catalog, etc. through the network. Can be applied to an [on-line shopping] system capable of ordering merchandise, a medical information system for answering medical inquiries from users through a network, a database search system, and the like.

[0033]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the assist manager is interposed between the computer on the user side and the server, and the user memory for storing the state of each user in the assist manager, and the user. It is connected to a link generator that generates link information to the document corresponding to. Since the assist manager searches the document corresponding to the user's state based on the information of the link generator and outputs it, it is not necessary to store the user's individual information on the server side, and the user's personal information can be saved. Since it can be managed locally, the whole system can be simplified.

If this method is applied to a learning system, the learning effect can be enhanced by presenting an appropriate teaching material according to the learning level and the degree of understanding of the learner (claim 2).

According to the third aspect of the present invention, an apparatus directly used for carrying out this method, that is, a globally distributed hypertext system apparatus can be obtained. When constructing a learning system according to the present invention, a strategy (1) consisting of data for designating a rule for selecting a learning material suitable for a learner and embodying this rule is stored in the server side, If the strategy (2), which is a rule for selecting a teaching material from individual information such as the degree of comprehension and learning history associated with an individual, is stored in the assist manager side, the configuration becomes simple (claim 4).

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific example thereof.

[Figure 3] Diagram showing the contents of the teaching material

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of strategy (1).

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of a learner model.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the contents of a learning history

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a teaching material index of the link generator.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a strategy (2).

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the concept of WWW.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a learning system using WWW.

[Explanation of symbols]

 C WWW client W, W1, W2 server LM Learning manager as assist manager M Learner model as user memory LG link generator 24 User computer 28 Learning history memory as user memory

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A wide-area distributed hyper that connects a plurality of servers for managing documents by a wide area network, and calls out documents according to the user's request and status from the server to a computer on the user side via this network and outputs them. In the control method of the text system, an assist manager is provided between the user side computer and the server, and the state of each user is stored in a user memory connected to this assist manager, while the assist manager is provided in this assist manager. A link generator for searching a document corresponding to each user is connected, the assist manager models and manages the user by using the contents of the user memory, and the link obtained from the link generator. Documents required using A method for controlling a wide-area distributed hypertext system, characterized in that an output content according to a user's request is managed by calling a corresponding server. 2. A wide-area distributed hypertext system is a learning system for supporting a user's learning activities, a document stored in the server is a teaching material, and a user state stored in the user memory is a degree of understanding of the learner. 2. The control method for a wide area distributed hypertext system according to claim 1, including a learning history. 3. A wide-area distributed hypertext in which a plurality of servers for managing documents are connected by a wide area network, and a document according to a user's request and status is called from the server via this network and output to a user's computer. In the system unit, an assist manager connected between the user side computer and each server for modeling the user and managing the user, and a user memory connected to the assist manager for storing the state of each user And a link generator which is connected to the assist manager and manages an index for searching a document requested by the assist manager by using a request of each user and a state obtained from the user memory and narrows down a search range. To prepare Characteristic wide area hypertext system device. 4. A wide-area distributed hypertext system is a learning system for supporting a user's learning activities, and the server specifies a rule for selecting a learning material and a learning material suitable for a learner, and embodies this rule. And a strategy (1) made up of data for performing the assistance, and the user memory stores the degree of understanding and learning history of the user.
4. The wide area hypertext system device according to claim 3, wherein the manager stores a strategy (2) which is a rule for selecting a teaching material based on the degree of comprehension and the learning history obtained from the user memory.