CALCULATION OF A DEGREE OF SIMILARITY OF USERS

• US 20170212950A1
• Filed: 01/22/2016
• Published: 07/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kosugi, Akihiro, Kanayama, Hiroshi
• Granted Patent: US 10,095,772 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

Abstract

A method, a computer system, and a computer program product are provided for calculating a degree of similarity of users. Each user may be a preparer and an answerer of one or more quizzes. The method includes collecting one or more quizzes from one or more users as preparers and providing the collected quizzes to one or more user as answerers. The method further includes collecting one or more answering activities of one or more answerers to the provided quizzes from the one or more answerers, wherein a pair includes a preparer and an answerer. The method additionally includes calculating, for each pair, a degree of similarity of knowledge background, based on the one or more answering activities of the one or more answerers.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for calculating a degree of similarity of users, wherein each user may be a preparer and an answerer of one or more quizzes, the method comprising:

collecting one or more quizzes from one or more users as preparers;

providing the collected quizzes to one or more users as answerers;

collecting one or more answering activities of one or more answerers to the provided quizzes from the one or more answerers, wherein a pair includes a preparer and an answerer; and

calculating, for each pair, a degree of similarity of knowledge background, based on the one or more answering activities of the one or more answerers.

2. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising clustering the users according to the degree of similarity of each pair, selecting one or more pairs having a predetermined degree of similarity, selecting one or more pairs having a predetermined threshold or more of a degree of similarity, or sorting the users according to the degree of similarity of each pair.

3. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising generating one or more features calculated from the one or more answering activities, the degree of similarity being calculated based on the one or more features.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the one or more features are selected from at least one of a correct answer rate of each answerer, an average response time for each answerer to reach correct answers, and an average number of web pages that each answerer referred to before reaching correct answers.

5. The method according to claim 4, the method further comprising performing normalization on at least one of the average response time and the average number of web pages by standard deviation of results by one answerer, standard deviation of all results for one quiz, or standard deviation of results for the quizzes by one preparer, the degree of similarity being calculated based on the normalization result.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the degree of similarity is calculated on condition that the answerer answers at least a predetermined number of the quizzes by the preparer.

7. A system comprising:

a memory storing a program, which, when executed on the processor, performs an operation for calculating a degree of similarity of users, wherein a user may be a preparer and an answerer of one or more quizzes, the operation comprising;

collecting one or more quizzes from one or more users as preparers;

providing the collected quizzes to one or more users as answerers;

collecting one or more answering activities of one or more answerers to the provided quizzes from the one or more answerers, wherein a pair includes a preparer and an answerer; and

calculating, for each pair, a degree of similarity of knowledge background, based on the one or more answering activities of the one or more answerers.

8. The system according to claim 7, the operation further comprising clustering the users according to the degree of similarity of each pair, selecting one or more pairs having a predetermined degree of similarity, selecting one or more pairs having a predetermined threshold or more of a degree of similarity, or sorting the users according to the degree of similarity of each pair.

9. The system according to claim 7, the operation further comprising generating one or more features from the one or more answering activities, the degree of similarity being calculated based on the one or more features.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the one or more features are selected from at least one of a correct answer rate of each answerer, an average response time for each answerer to reach correct answers, and an average number of web pages that each answerer referred to before reaching correct answers.

11. The system according to claim 10, the operation further comprising performing normalization on at least one of the correct answer rate, the average response time and the average number of web pages by standard deviation of results by one answerer, standard deviation of all results for one quiz, or standard deviation of results for the quizzes by one preparer, the degree of similarity being calculated based on the normalization result.

12. The system according to claim 7, wherein the degree of similarity is calculated on condition that the answerer answers at least a predetermined number of the quizzes by the preparer.

13. A computer program product for calculating a degree of similarity of users, wherein each user may be a preparer and answerer of one or more quizzes, the computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

collecting one or more quizzes from one or more users as preparers;

providing the collected quizzes to one or more users as answerers;

collecting one or more answering activities of one or more answerers to the provided quizzes from the one or more answerers, wherein a pair includes a preparer and an answerer; and

calculating, for each pair, a degree of similarity of knowledge background, based on the one or more answering activities of the one or more answerers.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13, the method further comprising clustering the users according to the degree of similarity of each pair, selecting one or more pairs having a predetermined degree of similarity, selecting one or more pairs having a predetermined threshold or more of a degree of similarity, or sorting the users according to the degree of similarity of each pair.

15. The computer program product according to claim 13, the method further comprising generating one or more features from the one or more answering activities, the degree of similarity being calculated based on the one or more features.

16. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein the one or more features are selected from at least one of a correct answer rate of each answerer, an average response time for each answerer to reach correct answers, and an average number of web pages that each answerer referred to before reaching correct answers.

17. The computer program product according to claim 15, the method further comprising performing normalization on at least one of the correct answer rate, the average response time and the average number of web pages by standard deviation of results by one answerer, standard deviation of all results for one quiz, or standard deviation of results for the quizzes by one preparer, the degree of similarity being calculated based on the normalization result.

18. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the degree of similarity is calculated on condition that the answerer answers at least a predetermined number of the quizzes by the preparer.