Abstract

The focus of this research is based on the provision of user support to
students using electronic means of communication to aid their learning.
Digital age brought anytime anywhere access of learning resources to
students. Most academic institutions and also companies use Virtual
Learning Environments to provide their learners with learning material. All
learners using the VLE have access to the same material and help despite
their existing knowledge and interests.
This work uses the information in the learning materials of Virtual Learning
Environments to answer questions and provide student help by a Question
Answering System.
The aim of this investigation is to research if a satisfactory combination of
Question Answering, Information Retrieval and Automatic Summarisation
techniques within a VLE will help/support the student better than existing
systems (full text search engines).