Adaptive Guidance Services:

MediaMatrix incorporates several adaptive instruction strategies, beginning with guidance services which are contextually, and thus adaptively, defined. The simplest of these is the list of alternative navigational maps which present various topical navigation options in the form of singularly related topical outlines. Each navigational map presents the "title-bar" summaries of incorporated topical kernels, and its explicit outline illustrates the conceptual associational structure which relates these kernels one to another. Because each kernel is actually an isolated database element, it may be reused in any number of alternative maps. Each of these various maps may be defined by independent criteria and may appear in the navigational list much like a "book title." This organizational independence allows for several unique variations in organizational structure, and thus offers unique opportunities for the custom publishing of highly personalized collections of information drawn from a singular comprehensive database of topical information.

A navigational outline of kernelized topics doesn't, of course, really differ from a traditional table of contents, except it adds the feature of always showing you which topic you are currently visiting at any given moment. Integrally related to the outline is the constant presentation of both current, next- and previous-topical association paths for identifying one's location in the overall mapping of informational content. Even the use of abbreviated terms to describe each topic has been designed on the pedagogical principle of stimulus fading in order to encourage the mnemonic strategy of coding larger chunks of information into smaller units, as occurs when an abbreviation captures the essence of a topic's title bar describing the content in a given full-text version of the same information.

In fact, a totally new writing style-guide is defined by MediaMatrix, wherein a full kernelized topic's content is reduced to title information, which in turn is reduced to a singular abbreviated term, which in turn is presented in-context of the full association-path of terms which that kernel conextually amplifies. In addition, all relevant hyperlinks relevant within a given kernel, including links to kernels amplified by it and kernels which subsequently amplify anything within it, all presented in bold font. And, importantly, such links may include other kernels, pop-up appendicized elements and comments, pictures, audio elements, video kernels or comments, tabular information, and interactive or simulational modules.

Other guidance and navigational aides are offered by the left-margin pop-up service menu which allows for ever-present find, glossary, and citational-reference services for locating and/or navigating to desired contextual elaborations. This same service menu also offers current history-of-navigation and assessment access which is totally navigable. Finally, if the full-text presentation of information is more dense than desired and one wishes only to view an annotated "notes" version, or an even more simplified outline, such summaries are immediately available by shifting from "Text" mode to "Notes" or "Presentation" mode.

Finally, the incorporation of an automatic knowledge generation engine to support the delivery of adaptive tutoring and adaptive assessment also supplies information used at the highest skill levels to suggest student navigation to topics in need of review or further work as a result of tutorial evaluations. Constant evaluation of former problem topics, despite current topic of study, allows for the system to guide the student to all topics in need of further study.

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