oa Dynamic and static generation of multimedia tutorials for children with special needs: Using Arabic text processing and ontologies

We propose a multimedia-based learning system to teach children with intellectual disabilities (ID) basic concepts in Science, Math and daily living tasks. The tutorials' pedagogical development is based on Mayer's Cognitive Learning Model combined with Skinner's Behaviorist Operant Conditioning Model. Two types of Arabic tutorials are proposed: (1) Statically generated tutorials, which are pre-designed by special needs instructors, and developed by animation experts. (2) Dynamically generated tutorials, which are developed using natural language processing and ontology building. Dynamic tutorials are generated by processing Arabic text, and using machine learning to query the Google engine and generate multimedia elements, which are automatically updated into an ontology system and are hence used to construct a customized tutorial. Both types of tutorials have shown considerable improvements in the learning process and allowed children with ID to enhance their cognitive skills and become more motivated and proactive in the classroom.