A Case-Based Approach to Adaptive Hypermedia Navigation

Hypermedia, with its combination of multimedia and non-linear organization of links among informative nodes, provides a highly interactive environment. In structured domains such as Web-based Educational Systems, the complexity of the learning domain often requires a large set of learning nodes and conceptual interrelationships that can cause several issues, e.g.: lack of comprehension, disorientation and inefficacious learning strategies. In this article we propose a new approach to guided navigation in hypermedia-based domains, suitable for helping users in structured and complex learning environments such as cultural heritage domains. Our proposal draws inspiration from the Case-Based Reasoning paradigm associated with a hypermedia structural analysis. In particular, our presentation highlights the use of a hybrid architecture for Adaptive Navigation Support, where the indexing problem of the case-based reasoner is solved by way of a sub-symbolic approach. A case study in the Neo-Realist Italian Cinema domain is discussed along with a formal and controlled evaluation that proves the advantages of the proposed approach.