A multicriteria decision support approach for redesigning e-learning systems

Abstract

In this paper we present a decision support approach for redesigning e-learning systems through the analysis of students' preferential structures. Our approach supports instructional designers to take decisions during the redesign process of an e-learning system by analysing the students' preferential structures in the following dimensions: 1) the dimension of students' learning behaviour; 2) the dimension of students' learning performance; 3) the dimension of students' feedback. Our approach is based on a new method from the domain of multicriteria decision-making that provides weights of individuals' preferences which become input in a clustering process that determines groups of preferences among students. Based on these clusters we analyse the other three dimensions and we present a framework for the decision making process capable to provide significant feedback for the redesign of the e-learning system. A case study is also described about the application of our approach in a real course.