The Teacher Assisting and Subject Adaptive Material (TASAM) System: An Arabic Adaptive learning Environment Nahla Aljojo Computing department, Technology College, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, S.A Nahla_Aljojo@yahoo.com Dr. Carl Adams School of Computing, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK carl.adams@port.ac.uk Abstract: Adaptive learning systems have increased in popularity offering the potential of providing personalised learning material to match individual learner’s needs and preferences. Existing adaptive systems have been mostly in English aimed at a Western learning environment. This paper reports on the development and initial trial of the first Arabic version of an adaptive learning system building on a validated Arabic translation of the Felder and Soloman ILS (Index of Learning Styles) instrument. The Teacher Assisting and Subject Adaptive Material (TASAM) System is used by Arabic speaking undergraduate students on a Statistics course at the King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia. The paper discusses the practicality of presenting learning material differently to meet the learning styles of individuals and, discusses issues of evaluation and how to measure effectiveness of adaptive learning systems. Key words: Arabic adaptive learning system, Index of Learning Styles 1. Introduction and Background Educational research tells us that ‘one size does not fit all’ (Reigeluth, 1996) when it comes to learning. People have different learning characteristics and needs: they learn differently, they process and represent knowledge in different ways, they have differing pace and focus in learning activities and they prefer to use different types of resources (Honey and Mumford, 1986). Research also suggests that it is possible to diagnose a student’s learning style and that some students learn more effectively when instruction is adapted to more closely match the way they learn (Rasmussen, 1998). Within the field of technology enhanced learning, adaptive educational systems offer an advanced form of learning environment that attempts to meet the needs of different students. Such systems build a model of the student’s knowledge, goals and preferences, and use the generated model to dynamically adapt the learning environment for each student in a manner that best supports learning (Brusilovsky, 2001). There is much potential benefit in developing adaptive learning environments since it would enable students to follow their course spending less time and obtaining better learning experience ( Paredes and Rodriguez,2004) effectively, acquiring knowledge in the most comfortable and efficient learning environment for them. There is also a cost driver in that once a system has been developed then there will be a low marginal cost for extra learners in providing high quality learning support that meets individual needs and preferences. However, the adaptive learning field is relatively young and it is still unclear which aspects of learning styles are worth modelling, and what would be the best learning support for users with specific learning styles in varying learning contexts. This is a growing and interesting area of learning that is calling for research in developing our understanding of which attributes of learning styles are most useful to model, how the learning material can be adapted to match those learning styles, how to measure effectiveness of adaptive learning systems and in applying adaptive learning systems to wider contexts and more diverse groups of learners. This paper builds on and adds to this growing body of research. The majority of existing adaptive systems have been targeted at Western learners and predominantly English speaking. Consequently there is a need to apply adaptive learning systems to wider learning contexts. The paper reports on the development and initial trial of the first Arabic version of an adaptive learning system that builds on a validated Arabic translation of the Felder and Soloman ILS (Index of Learning Styles) instrument (Aljojo et al 2009, Aljojo and Adams 2009). The adaptive learning system, called Teacher Assisting and Subject Adaptive Material (TASAM), is applied to Arabic speaking undergraduate students on a Statistics course at - 1541 -