# Design of an Intelligent Tutoring System to Create a Personalized Study Plan Using Expert Systems
## 4 Proposed Model
### Application of Module M1B  
The LMS Moodle environment served as a means of applying the proposed learning model. The main principle of our approach was the uniqueness of each student. This idea was at the center of our focus when structuring the user's (student's) profile in Moodle. We created 25 new attributes that described the student's sensory preferences and knowledge. Concerning the former, those areas were labeled as VARK. The attributes have values _yes_ and _no_, as specified by a student in a questionnaire and which are stored in B\({}_{\text{MIB}}\). VARK stands for:  
1. **Visual**--drawings, tables, maps, pictures, designs;
2. **A**ural--any type of audio files;
3. **Read**/write --any type of text;
4. **K**inaesthetic--practical work, learning by doing. This methodology is used to identify how people absorb information and store it in their brains in the most efficient way. For instance, if a person wants to find a place in a town, they ask someone to tell/show/draw the way, according to how the person prefers to receive information. More details about the VARK methodology are found in [31]. The above-presented methodology is an easy, practical, yet very efficient method to test how people process new information. Nevertheless, no one can be 100% classified into a single VARK category (so-called preference). Each person possesses a certain mixture of preferences but always has one major one; the others are minor ones, which are influenced by a given situation, physical or mental condition, etc. Among the positive features of this approach can be included: (a) there are only 4 dimensions, i.e., it is not unnecessarily complex; (b) its taxonomy is fixed, and the testing phase is standardized; and (c) study materials in an e-learning course are easy to assign to a corresponding preference (audio files, text files, pictures, charts, multimedia, etc.). If there is anything negative, we can state that the _Kinaesthetic_ type is not yet very profoundly elaborated. It can be used in e-learning, but to a very limited extent. The results from the VARK questionnaire are obtained by calculating the percentage ratio of each preference for a given student (see Table 1). The initial average ratio is set to 25-25-25-25 to be neutral. If any of the VARK preferences do not reach 20% (which means that some other(s) must increase in favor of that one), study materials related to the decreased preference are eliminated from the student's study plan. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**First Name** & **Last Name** & \begin{tabular}{c} **Profile** \\ **Field\_V** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **Profile** \\ **Field\_A** \\ \end{tabular} & \
\begin{tabular}{c} **Profile** \\ **Field\_R** \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Profile** \\ **Field\_K** \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline Student 1 & Student 1 & NO (11.1) & YES (29.6) & YES (37) & YES (22.3) \\ Student 2 & Student 2 & NO (11.8) & YES (41.2) & NO (5.8) & YES (41.2) \\ Student 3 & Student 3 & NO (15.2) & YES (30.4) & YES (27.2) & YES (27.2) \\ Student 4 & Student 4 & YES (20.7) & YES (24.4) & YES (24.1) & YES (31.1) \\ Student 5 & Student 5 & NO (16.6) & YES (29.2) & YES (29.2) & YES (25) \\ Student 6 & Student 6 & YES (33.3) & NO (16.6) & YES (30.1) & YES (20) \\ Student 7 & Student 7 & YES (29.7) & YES (21.6) & YES (21.6) & YES (27.1) \\ Student 8 & Student 8 & YES (20.3) & YES (33.3) & NO (11.1) & YES (30.3) \\ Student 9 & Student 9 & NO (12.8) & YES (38.4) & YES (23.2) & YES (25.6) \\ Student 10 & Student 10 & YES (21.7) & YES (30.4) & YES (34.8) & NO (13.1) \\ Student 11 & Student 11 & YES (41.4) & YES (31) & NO (13.8) & NO (13.8) \\ Student 12 & Student 12 & YES (21.4) & YES (35.7) & NO (14.3) & YES (27.6) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Examples of VARK attributes in students’ portfolios in the test course. For instance, Student 1 clearly prefers the text type of study materials in combination with the audio type. The benefit of practical (kinaesthetic) exercises is neutral.