Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a support system to the selection of enrichment activities in educational environment called RunayaySoft, where Runayay comes from the word Quechua that means develop and Soft as it is an informatics tool that supports the educational institutions and their students, in the selection of activities that allow foster some of their skills based on their interests, learning styles, aptitudes, multiple intelligences, preferences and so on. Moreover, it suggests institutions about the activities that they should make in their building considering student´s characteristics and the agreements that they have.
Design/methodology/approach
It does a diagnostic for identifying which characteristics are going to be considered to students and institutions. Then, it generates adaptive profiles with the aim of generating suggestions of enrichment activities that allow to boost some of their skills. For the students were considered their preferences, learning style, aptitude, multiple intelligences and interests. In the case of institutions were the agreements, resources and activities that they develop. Based on this information, it defines the relations for the generation of suggestions of activities toward students, where it does the prioritization of which activities should be considered.
Findings
For validating the system, it was done as a functional prototype that generates suggestions to students, as well as educative institutions, through a satisfaction test student assess if they agree or disagree with the suggestions given. With that assessment, it is validated the relationship between student’s characteristics, activity and institution are related for generating activities suggestions.
Research limitations/implications
RunayaySoft generates adaptive profiles for the students, activity and institution. Each profile has information that allows adapt an advice toward students and institutions.
Social implications
RunayaySoft considers student’s characteristics, activities and educational institutions for generating suggestions for enrichment activities that allow to boost some of their skills. Many times, when activities are generated in educative institutions, they are not considered a learner’s needs and characteristics. For that reason, the system helps institutions to identify activities that should be done in their facilities or with those institutions which they have agreements when the institutions that students come from do not have the required resources.
Originality/value
RunayaySoft suggests enrichment activities to students as well as educative institutions. For students, it suggests disciplinary areas where they can boost their skills; for each disciplinary area are recommended activities based on their preferences. Once students select the disciplinary area and activities, the system suggests educative institutions activities that they can do. If the institutions do not have the necessary facilities, the system shows with which other institutions they can set agreements. Moreover, it supports educative institutions to identify enrichment clusters, where it clusters students based on similar interest, allowing institutions to identify the activities that they should focus on.
The relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ perceptual learning styles and their multiple intelligences
