Iberamia 2004, Ibero-american Workshops on Artificial Intelligence. National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics. November 22-23 th Puebla, Mëxico. Using Cognitive Maps to Develop a Student Model Alejandro Peña 1,2 and Humberto Sossa 2 WOLNM 1 , UPIICSA 1 -IPN, CIC 2 -IPN 2 Av. Juan de Dios Bátiz s/n Unidad Profesional “Adolfo López Mateos” CP 07738, México, D.F., MEXICO apenaa@ipn.mx , hsossa@cic.ipn.mx Abstract. Designing a student model implies considering different concepts and ac- tivities that are related through causal relationships to stimulate or inhibit among them. In this paper we describe a conceptual proposal for the designing and manage- ment of a learning student model through the use of a Cognitive Map that could be considered as a specialized subsystem of an Adaptive Web-Based Education System. 1 Introduction In spite of the relative short life of Web-Based Education Systems (WBES), nowadays exists a strong evolution in the development of Internet and Artificial Intelligence-based systems where the first field provides more powerful ways to access services and hyper- media content; and the second area offers the logistic framework and experiences in the educational area through the use of the Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS). With these two branches WBES improve and extend the benefits that offer the Learning Management Systems carrying on its services and functionality to a wider community of users’ world wide, merging the facilities to represent and exploit learning materials authored for differ- ent developers with the intelligent guidance and assistance of the educational systems. Inside this trend, there are several targets like adaptive interested in focusing the educa- tional service in the student, through a specific learning plan for each user that is devel- oped and updated along the provision of appropriate material, lessons, trials and tests ac- cording to the particular goals, interests, preferences and skills of the individual. This adaptive scheme of education is a dynamic process that starts from an initial state and runs for the educational paths designed in the plan in order to accomplish several learning goals along the way until achieve a final or desired state. During the walkthrough the monitor and control services provides appropriate feedback to modify, tuning and improv- ing the scheme according to the behavior, proficiency and evaluation of the student. This kind of scenario is pursued by an Adaptive Web-Based Education System (AWBES), whose main goal is to provide a flexible and well-fitted education service oriented to the each specific learner from a general framework, broad repository of content and special- ized services available in the Web for a world community that grows each day. A. Peña, H. Sossa, Workshop on Virtual Laboratorios, pp 435-445, Copyright, Iberamia 2004. ISBN 968-863-786-6