Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6651097?oq=5%2C815%2C794
Timestamp: 2018-04-20 09:01:23
Document Index: 365471946

Matched Legal Cases: ['application No. 7', 'application No. 9', 'art 140', 'art 140', 'art 140', 'art.\n4', 'art.\n10', 'art.\n16']

US6651097B1 - Learning support method, system and computer readable medium storing learning support program - Google Patents
Learning support method, system and computer readable medium storing learning support program Download PDF
US6651097B1
US6651097B1 US09478770 US47877000A US6651097B1 US 6651097 B1 US6651097 B1 US 6651097B1 US 09478770 US09478770 US 09478770 US 47877000 A US47877000 A US 47877000A US 6651097 B1 US6651097 B1 US 6651097B1
US09478770
A learning support method is provided, in which sophisticated learning support services which a learning support server provides can be used by using a tag rewriting rule, history information can be obtained, and a sophisticated user interface design, for example, for controlling a window can be realized. The learning support method includes the steps of: retrieving tag information which corresponds to a condition part from information, which is obtained by a learning support server, by using a tag rewriting rule, the tag rewriting rule including the condition part and an action part which describes a process; changing the tag information according to the process in the action part; and providing information in which the tag information is changed to an information terminal.
The technique is described, for example, in T. Berners-Lee et al., “The World-Wide Web”, Communications of the ACM, vol. 37(8), pp. 76-82.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show an example of an information structure which is provided by the information providing server and a display example. The information shown in FIG. 1A describes not only text information which is visualized by the information terminal but also information which is not visualized and is associated with a part of the text information. The information is called markup information. Usually, software for obtaining and displaying information which is called a browser is used in an information terminal in an information providing system which uses the WWW. The browser displays a page in a rectangular region in a display screen which is called a window. As shown in FIG. 1B, an underscore is drawn at a part where associated information exists. When the user selects information, for example, by clicking a mouse on the part which is underscored in a page in a window, another page corresponding to the part is displayed in the window. For example, when the user clicks on a part “how to read” in FIG. 1B, a page (read.html) describing how to write a mail is displayed in a window 1. The user can obtain necessary information one after another by carrying out the above-mentioned operation repeatedly.
In the following, the markup information will be described taking the WWW as an example. The markup information is distinguished from the visualized text information by bracketing with descriptors “<” and “>”. The markup information is placed before and after a part of text information (which will be called element information) which is associated with other information. A part before the element is called a start tag, and a part after the element is called an end tag (The end tag may be omitted according to the kind of the tag). The start tag describes one tag identifier, zero or more numbers of attribute names and/or an attribute name and a value of the attribute name in a format shown below.
There are various kinds of tag identifiers. A representative example is an anchor tag. The anchor tag indicates that there exists another page which is associated with an element (which is called an anchor) corresponding to the anchor tag. The identifier is “a” or “A”.
As an attribute of the anchor tag, there is an “href” attribute which indicates a location of the associated information. A format called “URL” shown below is widely used as a format of the value of the “href” attribute.
When a page is specified by using the location identifier, the page is displayed in the window from a location specified by the location identifier. FIGS. 2A-2C shows the examples. When a link show “how to write” in information shown in FIG. 2A is selected, the information terminal obtains a dictionary page (dictionary.html) shown in FIG. 2B. Then, the information terminal displays a page in the window 1 from a location indicated by <a name=write> which is included in the page information. According to a browser, a scroll bar is displayed for indicating that more information exists in the upper or lower part of the page.
When such a URL is specified, the information providing server executes a program specified by the program name with an argument “specified variable=value” and sends the execution result to the information terminal.
A target attribute is another attribute of the anchor tag. The target attribute is an attribute for controlling a window in which a page is displayed. The target attribute will be described with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B. When a user clicks on a link of “how to write” in which a target attribute is specified, a window 2 opens (the name of the window does not appear in actuality) and information on how to write an E-mail is displayed in the window 2. At the time, the window 1 does not change.
Next, a form tag will be described with reference to FIGS. 4A and 4B. The form tag is often used in conjunction with an input tag. The form tag is used for executing a program by using a user input value and returning the execution result. As shown in the figures, a program name “search” is specified with an action attribute of the form tag. Input tags are within the form tags. The input tag is for receiving a user input. Forms for receiving the user input can be selected with a type attribute. For example, a text field for inputting a text is displayed by using “type=text” and a button is displayed by using “type=submit”. When a user input a text in the text field and clicks on the submit button, the information server is requested to execute a program “search” with an argument “key=[user input]”. Then, the execution result is displayed on the information terminal.
The above-mentioned first conventional method can not be used for education since appropriate information corresponding to user's circumstances can not be provided. The personal adapting type hypertext system changes providing information contents so that the information contents are adapted to the user's personal information. The personal-adapting type hypertext system is disclosed in Japanese patent application No. 7-313053, “Information providing method and information providing system”, and Japanese patent application No. 9-124309, “Information providing method, system and a computer-readable medium storing information providing program”. The personal adapting type hypertext system can be called a web-based training system.
Next, the link rewriting definition file 85 will be described with reference to FIG. 6. The link rewriting definition file 85 has control information for rewriting a link name when the link name which is specified as an original link name exists in a page specified by a page name. More specifically, when a link which has an anchor name of “next screen” exists, generally the link points to a specific page. If the link is converted in advance to a “NEXT” command which requests a next screen appropriate for the progress of learning of the user, the user can receive an appropriate page.
In addition, the learning support server supports various learning support commands such as an “INDEX” command which enables the terminal to display the table of learning contents including the user's progress, and a “DIC” command which provides a dictionary function in accordance with the user's progress. Each command can be applied to anchors such as “table of contents” and “search” which may be commonly seen on a hypertext of the WWW.
By virtue of the link rewriting file 85, it becomes possible to covert an anchor such as a tag (“next page”, “previous page” and the like), an index and a term into a command for intellectual support, in which the tag or the index corresponds to a table of contents or a structure of a text book on the WWW which is constructed by using the conventional first technique. As a result, a page appropriate for a user's progress can be provided.
The process by the learning support server will be described with reference to FIG. 7. First, the user sends a command (for example, “NEXT”) to the learning support server 60 in step 11. The server 60 checks the scenario definition file and the target definition file against the user's learning history thus far in the history information file 70 in step 12, and determines a screen which will be displayed next in step 13.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a learning support method, a system and a computer readable medium storing a learning support program, in which sophisticated learning support services which the learning support server provides can be used by using a tag rewriting rule which is described with a simple description, history information can be obtained, and a sophisticated user interface design, for example, for controlling a window which is indispensable for learning support can be realized.
According to the above-mentioned conventional techniques, there are problems. Specifically, some functions of the learning support server require various arguments (name=value), however, the name or the value of the argument can not be converted into a form suitable for the learning support server by using the conventional link rewriting technique. Thus, the sophisticated learning support function for adapting a user's progress can not be fully provided. For example, the argument can not be converted into a command “DIC” for providing a dictionary function adaptable to a user's learning progress.
In addition, when a command for learning support is executed, it is stored in the learning support server as a history. However, since conversion to a command can not be carried out, it can not be stored as a history. For example, usually, when a user uses a dictionary function of the learning support server, the user's intention of “I want to consult a dictionary for the detailed meaning of a word.” is stored as a history, and the history is used for learning support. However, such usage can not be realized according to the conventional link rewriting technique.
In addition, a window control appropriate for learning support can not be performed since a tag for a window operation such as a target attribute can not be controlled. A case is taken as an example in which a link. “next page” and a link to information on a specific word exist in a page and a person who makes a learning material intends that a user learns according to the link “next page”. When the user selects a link other than the link “next page”, an existing window is overwritten by information selected by the user, as a result, the link “next page” disappears from the display screen. In such a case, if the information selected by the user is displayed in another window, a link to a route to which the material making person wants a user to go does not disappear. However, such a control can not be realized only by the conventional link rewriting technique. In addition, when the material making person does not want the user to select a link other than “next page”, the only method which can be taken is to delete the link, which is not realized according to the conventional technique.
Further, a tag having “previous page” or “next page” as an anchor and corresponding to a structure of a text book, or an index tag are typical patterns existing in each page of the text book. It requires complicated descriptions to specify the pattern one-by-one, and it takes much time to add pages.
The tag attribute rewriting file 103 has at least a tag rewriting rule which includes the condition part which specifies a condition for converting control information of a hypertext (tag information) and the action part for converting the tag information which satisfies the condition. A regular expression may be used for specifying the tag information. The regular expression is described, for example, in “Mastering Regular Expressions” O'Reilly 1997, ISBN1-56592-257-3.
A first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 11A-11F.
FIG. 11A shows information before a conversion which is stored in the information providing server 200. When the information is displayed as—is by the information terminal 300 or 400, it is displayed in a window 1 of the information terminal as shown in FIG. 11B. If a user selects “history of E-mail”, the window 1 is overwritten with “history-html” as shown in FIG. 11C. In the case, a link “next page” disappears from the screen.
In the first embodiment, a rule shown in FIG. 11D is used as the tag rewriting rule. As shown in FIG. 11D, the condition of the rule is that a link which has “href=history.html” as an attribute in anchor tags of “section.html” exists, and the action is adding an attribute “target=window2”.
When the tag conversion rule is executed, information is converted as shown in FIG. 11E. Therefore, when the user clicks on an anchor “history of E-mail”, next information is displayed in another window 2 as shown in FIG. 11F and the original window 1 which has the link “next page” remains in the screen.
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 12A-12D. FIGS. 12A and 12B show information before a conversion which is stored in the information providing server 200. The information terminal displays information shown in FIG. 12A, and, when the user selects an anchor “the Internet”, the dictionary page shown in FIG. 12B is displayed with a part <name=internet> at the top of the screen.
As shown in FIG. 12C, the condition is that a link which corresponds to an regular expression “href=*.html#* in “section.html” exists, and the action is converting the attribute into “href=DIC&word=$2”.
Information is converted as shown in FIG. 12D by executing the tag conversion rule. When the user clicks on an anchor “the Internet”, the learning support server 100 can execute a command DIC which provides a dictionary function suitable for the user's learning progress with an argument “word=the Internet”.
In the following, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 13A-13D. FIG. 13A shows information before a conversion which is stored in the information providing server 200. A program “search” which is specified here is for searching data which is stored in the information providing server 200 for information corresponding to a user input data and sending the value. The information shown in FIG. 13A is displayed as shown in FIG. 13B by the information terminal 300 or 400.
As shown in FIG. 13C, according to the rule, a form tag which has an attribute “action=search” in form tags within “index.html” is converted into “action=DIC”. In addition, “form input[ ]” in the second line means that “name=key” of an input tag nested in the form tag shown in the first line is converted into “name=word”.
After the above-mentioned conversion is carried out in the scene analyzing/tag attribute rewriting part 140, the information is converted as shown in FIG. 13D. Accordingly, when the user input a word, the learning support server 100 executes a program DIC with an argument “word=a user input value”.
Next, a fourth embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 14A-14E. In FIG. 14A, information before a conversion which is stored in the information providing server 200 is the same as that of the above-mentioned first embodiment. When a link “history of E-mail” should not be selected by the user, a tag rewriting rule shown in FIG. 14C is used. According to the tag rewriting rule, a process program (DELETE) for deleting the link (deleting link capability) is used. In the example of the figure, “DELETE” is specified in the field of “tag” of the action part.
In the following, a fifth embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 15. According to the tag rewriting rule of the figure, “.*” is specified to a page or a link. “.*”, which is a regular expression, means that the condition applies to all URLs or tags when they have the specified anchor. Accordingly, even when a link which has “next page” or “previous page” as an anchor is described in many pages, the tag rewriting rule can be described by using two lines, in which “next page” or “previous page” is a typical pattern.
In the following, a sixth embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 16A-16D. FIG. 16A shows a page of a table of contents which is stored in the information providing server 200. When the user selects a link to the table of contents, a fixed screen shown in FIG. 16B always appears.
In the sixth embodiment, a tag rewriting rule shown in FIG. 16C is used. The rule means that every link which has an anchor “to table of contents” is converted into an INDEX command for showing the user's progress. Accordingly, a screen which reflects the user's progress can be displayed. For example, as shown in FIG. 16D, a check mark is displayed at a page which the user finished learning and an arrow is displayed at a page under leaning.
For all above-mentioned embodiments, a link to which any tag rewriting rule can not be applied can be converted into an link which includes an original link information as follows in the scene analyzing/tag attribute rewriting part 140.
Here, “command=dont_care” means that the learning support server 100 obtains a page which is specified by “link”, and provides the page to the user after converting the page by using the tag rewriting rule in the scene analyzing/tag attribute rewriting part 140. Thereby, the user can obtain services from the learning support server 100 without interruption while receiving a desired page. In addition, the learning support server 100 can keep records of accessing external servers as the user's history information.
1. A learning support method performed by a learning support server in a learning support system which includes an information providing server, said learning support server and an information terminal which are connected via a communication means including a computer network, said learning support method comprising the steps of:
obtaining from said information providing server, by said learning support server, information which is to be provided to said information terminal according to history information of a user when said information terminal requests said learning support server to send information;
performing, by said learning support server, a changing process for changing control information necessary for learning support on said information, and providing said information to said information terminal,
wherein, when said information which is obtained by said learning support server from said information providing server is hypertext information, said changing process comprises the steps of:
retrieving tag information which corresponds to a condition part from said information by using a tag rewriting rule, said tag rewriting rule including said condition part used for retrieving tag information which is to be changed and an action part which describes a process corresponding to said condition part, said tag information being control information of said hypertext information, wherein said condition part of said tag rewriting rule comprises a URL condition including a URL and a tag condition including a tag identifier indicating a kind of a tag;
changing said tag information according said process in said action part; and
providing information in which said tag information is changed to said information terminal.
2. The learning support method as claimed in claim 1, comprising the steps of:
using a regular expression described by a pattern description language for describing said condition part or said action part;
retrieving said tag information corresponding to said condition part described by said regular expression from said obtained information;
performing said changing process on said tag information according to said action part described by said regular expression.
3. The learning support method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said action part includes a command for carrying out a process, said learning support method comprising the step of:
executing said command for changing a pattern corresponding to said condition part.
4. The learning support method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said condition part of said tag rewriting rule includes an information name, a tag name, an attribute name and an anchor name.
6. The learning support method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said condition part of said tag rewriting rule includes an information name, a tag name, an attribute name and an anchor name.
means for obtaining, from said information providing server, information which is to be provided to said information terminal according to history information of a user when said information terminal requests said learning support server to send information; and
changing means for performing a changing process for changing control information necessary for learning support on said information;
said changing means comprising:
a tag rewriting rule which includes a condition part used for retrieving tag information which is to be changed and an action part which describes a process corresponding to said condition part, said tag information being control information of hypertext information, wherein said condition part of said tag rewriting rule comprises a URL condition including a URL and a tag condition including a tag identifier indicating a kind of a tag;
tag retrieving means for retrieving tag information which corresponds to said condition part from said information which is obtained by said learning support server from said information providing server when said information is hypertext information;
tag changing means for changing said tag information according to said process in said action part; and
information providing means for providing information in which said tag is changed to said information terminal.
8. The learning support server as claimed in claim 7, wherein a regular expression described by a pattern description language is used for describing said condition part or said action part, said tag retrieving means comprising:
means for retrieving said tag information corresponding to said condition part described by said regular expression from said obtained information, and
said tag changing means comprising:
means for performing said changing process on said tag information according to said action part described by-said regular expression.
9. The learning support server as claimed in claim 8, wherein said action part includes a command for carrying out a process, said tag changing means comprising:
means for executing said command for changing a pattern corresponding to said condition part.
10. The learning support server as claimed in claim 8, wherein said condition part of said tag rewriting rule includes an information name, a tag name, an attribute name and an anchor name.
12. The learning support server as claimed in claim 7, wherein said condition part of said tag rewriting rule includes an information name, a tag name, an attribute name and an anchor name.
program code means for obtaining, from said information providing server, information which is to be provided to said information terminal according to history information of a user when said information terminal requests said learning support server to send information; and
changing program code means for performing a changing process for changing control information necessary for learning support on said information;
said changing program code means comprising:
program code means for storing a tag rewriting rule which includes a condition part used for retrieving tag information which is to be changed and an action part which describes a process corresponding to said condition part, said tag information being control information of hypertext information, wherein said condition part of said tag rewriting rule comprises a URL condition including a URL and a tag condition including a tag identifier indicating kind of a tag;
tag retrieving program code means for retrieving tag information which corresponds to said condition part from said information which is obtained by said learning support server from said information providing server when said information is hypertext information;
tag changing program code means for changing said tag information according to said process in said action part; and
information providing program code means for providing information in which said tag is changed to said information terminal.
14. The computer readable medium as claimed in claim 13, wherein a regular expression described by a pattern description language is used for describing said condition part or said action part, said tag retrieving program code means comprising:
program code means for retrieving said tag information corresponding to said condition part described by said regular expression from said obtained information, and
said tag changing program code means comprising:
program code means for performing said changing process on said tag information according to said action part described by said regular expression.
15. The computer readable medium as claimed in claim 14, wherein said action part includes a command for carrying out a process, said tag changing program code means comprising:
program code means for executing said command for changing a pattern corresponding to said condition part.
16. The computer readable medium as claimed in claim 14, wherein said condition part of said tag rewriting rule includes an information name, a tag name, an attribute name and an anchor name.
18. The computer readable medium as claimed in claim 13, wherein said condition part of said tag rewriting rule includes an information name, a tag name, an attribute name and an anchor name.
US09478770 1999-01-28 2000-01-06 Learning support method, system and computer readable medium storing learning support program Expired - Fee Related US6651097B1 (en)
JP2039599A JP2000222326A (en) 1999-01-28 1999-01-28 Learning supporting method and its system and storage medium for storing learning supporting program
JP11-020395 1999-01-28
US6651097B1 true US6651097B1 (en) 2003-11-18
ID=12025839
US09478770 Expired - Fee Related US6651097B1 (en) 1999-01-28 2000-01-06 Learning support method, system and computer readable medium storing learning support program
US (1) US6651097B1 (en)
JP (1) JP2000222326A (en)
GB (1) GB2347260B (en)
JPH07313053A (en) 1994-05-26 1995-12-05 Marumatsu Bussan Kk Production of chinese bamboo shoot immersed in salt water
JPH09124309A (en) 1995-10-30 1997-05-13 Mitsubishi Kakoki Kaisha Ltd Treatment of sulfur pit-extracted gas
JPH10320334A (en) 1997-05-14 1998-12-04 Nippon Telegr & Teleph Corp <Ntt> Method for providing information and system therefor, and storage medium for storing information providing program
JPH113201A (en) 1996-07-01 1999-01-06 Sun Microsyst Inc Method and system for accelerating pop-up link inside hyper text usable computer system
WO2000038141A1 (en) 1998-12-22 2000-06-29 Accenture Properties (2) B.V. A system, method and article of manufacture for a goal based system utilizing an activity table
WO2000038135A1 (en) 1998-12-22 2000-06-29 Accenture Properties (2) B.V. A system, method and article of manufacture for a runtime program regression analysis tool for a simulation engine
GB2347260A (en) 2000-08-30 application
GB2347260B (en) 2001-06-27 grant
JP2000222326A (en) 2000-08-11 application
GB9930584D0 (en) 2000-02-16 grant
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