Generating Context-Aware Fill-in-Blank Problems for Promoting Web-Based Investigative Learning and Its Evaluation

Abstract

On the Web, learners are allowed to investigate any question with a great variety of Web resources to learn extensively. This requires them to expand a question into related ones as sub-questions to be investigated further. However, they tend to overlook the related sub-questions. In our previous study, we proposed a Web-based investigative learning model and developed a cognitive tool called interactive Learning Scenario Builder (iLSB for short). The main issue addressed in this paper is how to help learners become aware of related sub-questions with iLSB to promote their question expansion. Our approach is to provide learners with context-aware fill-in-blank problems for allowing them to reflect on their learned contents. This paper proposes a method for generating context-aware fill-in-blank problems. We also report a case study whose purpose was to ascertain the effectiveness of the generated problems. The results of the study suggest that solving the generated problems could promote question expansion in Web-based investigative learning.