MultiLezi: Implementation of an Adaptive Multichannel Learning Environment

E-Learning applications are particularly well-suited to demonstrate the usefulness and the potential of multichannel and context-aware services within a framework such as the one defined for the MAIS architecture. Providing teaching material and a suitable learning environment, which can be used across different channels and contexts, and with different interaction modalities (e.g. to allow access also to users with specific dis-abilities, such as blindness or motor difficulties), requires the design and development of multimodal interfaces, adaptable navigation structures, and contents developed and designed in a way that they can be easily repur-posed for different styles of access and interaction. In this section we briefly present MultiLezi, a multichannel, multimodal learning environment prototype, which leverages the MAIS User Model for profiling the user needs in a learning environment, and the MAIS Reflective Architecture to provide the user with the most efficient selection of channels and access modalities, to guarantee optimal usability and accessibility of the learning contents. Currently the channels supported by the implemented prototype are the web, the telephone, and hand-held devices, with possibility to use text and audio-video contents, read text contents on a PDA, listen to a VoiceXML with TTS/ASR navigation system accessible over the phone, use of a Mul-timodal channel which allows to use the mouse but also voice control and speech synthesis in a combined (multimodal) mode.