Electronic profile based education service

• US 20060040248A1
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: At&T Delaware Intellectual Property, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Aaron, Jeffrey A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,597,030 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/362
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F

Abstract

An electronic education service module identifies a target education topic for a user and obtains user profile information associated with the user from a database communicatively coupled to the electronic education service. A plurality of tasks to provide the target education topic are identified based on the identified target education topic and the obtained user profile information. Execution of actions by application service providing modules, other than the electronic education service, to carry out the identified tasks is requested to provide the target education topic to the user.

Claims

1. A method for providing an electronic education service to a user, comprising:

identifying a target education topic for the user;

obtaining user profile information associated with the user from a database communicatively coupled to the electronic education service;

identifying a plurality of tasks to provide the target education topic based on the identified target education topic and the obtained user profile information; and

requesting execution of actions by application service providing modules, other than the electronic education service, to carry out the identified tasks to provide the target education topic to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying a target education topic for the user comprises receiving a request for the target education topic from the user.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying a target education topic for the user comprises:

receiving information identifying educational material available from a resource related to an education topic;

identifying a candidate education topic for the user based on the received information from the resource and the user profile information;

suggesting the candidate education topic to the user; and

receiving a request from the user designating the candidate education topic as the target education topic.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying a plurality of tasks to provide the target education topic comprises:

identifying tasks to generate an education plan for the target education topic;

identifying at least one resource for educational materials specified by the education plan; and

identifying tasks to provide the target education topic to the user based on the education plan.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein requesting execution of actions includes requesting acquisition of the educational materials specified by the education plan from the identified at least one resource.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

receiving status information from the application service providing modules based on the execution of actions by the application service providing modules; and

updating the education plan based on the received status information.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the status information includes information related to completion of portions of the target education topic by the user and wherein updating the education plan includes updating the user profile information associated with the user based on the information related to completion of portions of the target education topic.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein identifying tasks to generate an education plan further comprises identifying a task to obtain approval, from an authorized user different from the user, for providing the target education topic to the user based on the user profile information.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein identifying tasks to provide the target education topic to the user includes identifying tasks to obtain input from the user and/or provide output to the user and wherein the method further comprises associating one of a plurality of available personalities with the electronic education service and wherein identifying tasks to obtain input from the user and/or provide output to the user comprises identifying tasks to obtain input from the user and/or provide output to the user based on the associated one of the available personalities.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the associated one of the available personalities defines at least one of an accent, a communication syntax, a vocabulary, a sense of urgency, a speed of communication, a timing pattern of communication, a level of detail of communication and/or a preciseness of communication by the electronic arranger to the user.

11. The method of claim 4 wherein identifying tasks to generate an education plan includes:

identifying a type of the target education topic; and

identifying tasks to generate the education plan based on the target education topic; and

wherein the method further comprises generating the education plan.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein generating the education plan comprises:

selecting a plan framework from a plurality of predetermined plan frameworks based on the identified type of the target education topic;

determining modifiers for the selected plan framework based on the obtained user profile information; and

generating the education plan based on the selected plan framework and the determined modifiers.

13. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

determining a context for the electronic education service; and

updating the context based on the identified target education topic; and

wherein the method further comprises generating the education plan based on the determined context of the electronic education service.

14. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

defining sharing rules limiting sharing of the education plan; and

providing the education plan to a requesting user based on the determined sharing rules.

15. The method of claim 4 wherein identifying a plurality of tasks and/or requesting execution of actions further comprises:

obtaining information regarding prior requests for provision of target education topics to the user; and

identifying the plurality of tasks and/or requesting execution of actions based on the obtained information regarding prior requests.

16. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

determining a context for the electronic education service; and

updating the context based on the identified target education topic; and

wherein identifying a plurality of tasks further comprises;

determining a plurality of options for the plurality of tasks based on the context;

prioritizing the plurality of options;

requesting dynamic context information from the application service providing modules; and

identifying one of the plurality of options as the plurality of tasks based on the requested dynamic context information.

17. A method for providing an electronic education service application service providing module in a framework for providing computing device executed application services to a user using a plurality of application service providing modules, each of which provides a subset of the application services to the user, the method comprising:

identifying a target education topic for a user;

translating the identified target education topic to at least one task to be completed;

identifying at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules, other than the electronic education service application service providing module, required for completing the at least one task, the identified tasks including obtaining educational materials associated with the target education topic;

requesting execution of actions by the identified at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules to complete the at least one task;

obtaining the educational materials associated with the target education topic; and

presenting the educational materials to the user.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein user profile information is associated with the user and wherein translating the identified target education topic to at least one task comprises translating the identified target education topic to at least one task based on the user profile information.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein a security module is communicatively coupled to the electronic education service application service providing module and wherein identifying at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules and/or requesting execution of actions by the identified at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules to complete the task comprises:

obtaining security context information from the security module; and

identifying at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules and/or requesting execution of actions by the identified at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules based on the obtained security context information from the security module.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein identifying at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules and/or requesting execution of actions by the identified at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules to complete the task comprises:

obtaining dynamic context information associated with the application service providing modules; and

identifying at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules and/or requesting execution of actions by the identified at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules based on the obtained dynamic context information.

21. A computer program product configured to carry out the method of claim 17.

22. An electronic education service application service providing module comprising:

means for identifying a target education topic for a user;

means for obtaining user profile information associated with the user from a database communicatively coupled to the electronic education service;

means for identifying a plurality of tasks to provide the target education topic based on the identified target education topic and the obtained user profile information; and

means for requesting execution of actions by application service providing modules, other than the electronic education service, to carry out the identified tasks to provide the target education topic to the user.