The Use of AI in E-Learning Recommender Systems: A Comprehensive Survey

Abstract

Nowadays, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, especially, machine learning has received significant attention from many researchers and professionals in several domains. For instance, this technology has revolutionized industrials sectors, such as e-commerce, health, manufacturing, and entertainment, as well as, the educational sector. In this context, during the pandemic, educational institutions around the globe recognized the benefits of adopting remote learning and teaching based on many e-learning platforms. Hence, deploying virtual classrooms is not that easy, due to many constraints, such as time, technological cost, lack of interactivity of learners, and the unsuitability of the learner's cognitive abilities and learning style. To this end, understanding the learner's style and providing adapted and personalized content are the main concerns of today's e-learning systems. To this end, integrating efficient recommender systems into online learning environment is required in order to consider student's behaviors and preferences when recommending various learning materials. Thus, intelligent recommender systems are able to provide a personalized learning path in which the system adapts to the student's learning requirements and abilities. This review discusses the different applications, methods, and challenges of AI-based recommendation systems used to assist different stockholders in an online learning environment.