International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM) – eISSN: 1865-7923 – Vol. 13, No. 7, 2019


Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing 
Profile for Slow Learner Children 

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v13i07.10775 

Marzita Mansor (*) 
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjung Malim, Malaysia 

marzita@fskik.upsi.edu.my 

Wan Adilah Wan Adnan, Natrah Abdullah  
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shaha Alam, Malaysia 

Abstract—Personalization is a good supplement for learning process. It has 
been claimed that personalization has a huge potential of providing solution to 
facilitate the learning path based on children ability and preferences. Diverse re-
search on personalized learning for children have been conducted which, are 
commonly concerns on the development and implementation of personalized 
learning products and services. However these researches have little empha-
sized in exploring slow learner personalized learning process particularly on 
their reading ability. With that, this paper aims to highlight two key important 
processes of personalization for slow learner children which are construction of 
user profile and scenario. The scope of this study is on personalization of read-
ing for slow learner children. There were 13 slow learner children with reading 
difficulties from primary school participated in this study. The key findings 
from this study are the construction of user profile and scenario that represent 
the personalization for reading. These user profile and scenario construction 
then provide guidelines for the development of personalized interface design for 
slow learner reading application.  

Keywords—Personalized Reading, User Profile, Scenario, Slow Learner 

1 Introduction 

There are tremendous changes on how children learn and how knowledge is deliv-
ered. The changes can be attributed to the extensive use of the technology that 
knowledge is accessible anytime anywhere. However, there is limited research that 
examines the effectiveness of the technology that assists delivering knowledge to 
learners, especially children who are slow learners and require special attention. The 
first consideration is to understand the whole pictures of the slow learners and the 
second consideration is to determine the best approach of using technology to tackle 
the root of the problem. Difficulties in reading is identified as the leading problem 
related to literacy among slow learners. Difficulty in reading will negatively influence 
their academic performance at school. 

iJIM ‒ Vol. 13, No. 7, 2019 103

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v13i07.10775
https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v13i07.10775
https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v13i07.10775


Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

 Personalization is identified as the best solution. It is capable of providing a per-
sonalized approach based on the reading ability and preferences of the slow learners. 
There is a minimal discussion in the literature of user profile as a personalization 
process, especially for the children who are slow learners. However, it is debatable 
that the user profile construction plays a vital role in personalization. [1] indicate that 
there are three (3) main directions in the development of personalization. These three 
directions are similar to the current study which encompass understanding the stu-
dent’s personality (user profile) and personalization approach as a feasible solution. 
[2] mutually agreed with the fact the knowledge on the user provides a better ap-
proach to personalization. This paper describes the personalization processes which is 
important as it leads to the development of personalized interface design. The identi-
fied processes is the construction of slow learner profile which describe the infor-
mation of the slow learners. As the development process of the user profiles requires a 
deeper understanding of slow learner's explicit and implicit information, several steps 
are provided to develop the slow learner profiles to cater to both information by em-
ploying qualitative approach in the data collection process. With that, this paper aims 
to highlight a key important processes of personalization for slow learning-children 
which is the construction of user profile as it is provides step by step guidelines to the 
successful personalization. Section 2 of this paper discusses the related literature re-
view while describes the methodology of the study. Section 4 present a detailed ex-
planation of the key process of personalization which is the construction of the slow 
learner profile. Finally, Section 5 concludes the study.  

2 Literature Review 

The last decades has witnessed significant changes in education due to the en-
hancement in educational technology that has provided opportunities for all learners 
to learn any time. These advancements and increased use of technology are popular-
ised the shift from the traditional one-fits-all approach to a personalized experience. 
Personalization technology is a powerful tools in enhancing user experience, yet sim-
ultaneously provide a personalization tool that meets the needs, preferences and 
knowledge of users. The personalization technology also promises a high potential 
that enables a technological tool to be accessible by users according to individual 
requirement by providing a solution to facilitate the expression of user needs [3]; [4]. 
However, looking at the personalization as a technological solution is inadequate. The 
concept of personalization is more than a simple process of providing personalized 
services based on gathered and observed activities. Research on personalization has 
demonstrated that personalization provides a broad view by changing human lives.in 
education, personalization is found to be a good supplement for the learning process.  

Not only that, personalization has been widely applied in several areas such as e-
learning, adaptive learning and web [5]; [6];[7];[8]. Various studies have attempted to 
utilised personalization as a tool for learning [9]. For example, [10] provide personali-
sation in searching information in the digital library, personalisation of a storybook to 
improve distance communication by [11], and personalisation of learning algebra by 

104 http://www.i-jim.org



Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

[12]. Although technology has significantly impacted society and is ubiquitous at all 
levels of education, some categories of people in need are unfortunately left behind. 
The minority category focused on this study is slow learner children. In general, they 
are the minority of students who struggle with literacy problem, especially reading. 
Their existence in primary school is considered one of the biggest challenges that 
school teachers face nowadays, especially in order to achieve the school’s aim of 
producing zero illiteracy among students. Zero illiteracy explains that every child at 
the school must be able to perform basic literacy skills including reading, writing, and 
calculating. Ensuring basic literacy seems like an easy task, but requires excellent and 
thorough planning. The implementation of zero illiteracy programmes might be possi-
ble for normal children, but teaching all children to read in school is a challenging 
process [7]. One of the challenges pertains the way to ensure all children who have 
reading difficulties, including slow learners allocated at normal classroom setting in 
primary school, have the ability to read like normal children. One of the ways to help 
slow learner children is by fully understanding them and by providing a better tool 
that can assist them to read better. Although personalisation has been identified as a 
better approach in learning, a growth in personalisation studies that present personali-
sation as just a product was identified. Adamantly, limited studies have focused on the 
understanding process of the unique profile of the users and describing how the pro-
cess of the personalisation is implemented from sketch to the end product. A detailed 
understanding of user profile leads to a better design of the personalised materials. 
User profile is important for personalised information access. [13] presented that user 
profile provides several ways on building, managing, and representing information 
personalised for each user. 

3 Methodology 

User profiling can be defined as the data identification process of a user’s interest 
domain [14]. Realising the criticality using user profile to understand slow learners, 
this paper presents how a concept-based user profile technique is used to develop a 
user-describing profile. This work also adapts the user profile development methodol-
ogies by [15] which build user profiling based on the type of users’ information, either 
explicit or implicit information. A similar approach using explicit user feedback and 
implicit user feedback was also explored by [16] and [15]. The user profile and devel-
oped scenario are vital in determining the personalisation features in the personalised 
interface design. These two elements supplement each other in ensuring that all user 
needs are well-translated in the form of understandable step-by-step personalised 
design. In this study, the researchers’ present personalisation as one of the supple-
ments embedded in the reading materials to assist slow learners to overcome their 
reading difficulties. The slow learner children are selected as users due to the reading 
problem that the slow learner children faced in primary school. Although the data 
from 13 slow learner children were collected qualitatively, only one user profile and 
one scenario presented are in this paper to provide a better understanding of how the 
personalisation process was carried out. Two methods of user construction techniques 

iJIM ‒ Vol. 13, No. 7, 2019 105



Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

are employed in this study to cater to two types of information of the user, namely, 
explicit and implicit information. These two methods are explicit user information 
collection methodologies, often called explicit user feedback and implicit user infor-
mation collection methodologies, also known as implicit user feedback. These two 
techniques are important in the construction of user profiling construction where ex-
plicit and implicit information of users are incorporated. Fig.1. depicts the several 
steps required in implementing these two methodologies of user profile construction 
which are the explicit user feedback and the implicit user feedback: 

• Information collection process 
• Construction of user profile 
• Use of user profile in the application 

 
Fig. 1. Overview of user profile concept-based personalization. Adapted by [13] 

The framework of our proposed approach is illustrated in Figure 2. 

106 http://www.i-jim.org



Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

 
Fig. 2. Personalization process 

3.1 Collecting explicit and implicit information of slow learner  

The collection of information using explicit user feedback and implicit user feed-
back involves different activities. The explicit user feedback approach requires the 
researcher to collect information directly from the intended users. The explicit user 
feedback approach relies on the user’s input, thus, explicit information gathered in 
this process requires direct communication with the user. Particularly, in this research, 
three (3) main activities are utilised to gather information which are interview, obser-
vation, and data analysis. Meanwhile, the implicit user feedback approach gathers 
implicit information of the user by analysing the information when the user is per-
forming an activity while using the personalised application. To clarify, the total 
number of respondents involved in this study is 13 slow learner children and one 
remedial teacher who manages the children in their remedial class. 

iJIM ‒ Vol. 13, No. 7, 2019 107



Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

Collecting explicit information of slow learner through a qualitative research 
approach: Different user profile construction technique is utilised based on the type 
of user information. In this study, the explicit information of the user is collected by 
gathering the required information in a primary school setting. Personalisation of 
content is described in this paper due to the importance of identifying the right read-
ing content material for the slow learner children who have difficulties in reading. 
Hence, a qualitative approach was conducted to collect the explicit information of 
reading performance of the slow learner children (prior knowledge in reading), read-
ing needs, reading preferences as well as personal information of each slow learner 
child in order to identify suitable content for personalisation. All the gathered infor-
mation is essential as provides an in-depth understanding of the real factors that con-
tribute to the reading difficulties and to identify specific needs and preferences of each 
child for a personalised design. The figure below provides information on the qualita-
tive research approaches conducted and outcome(s) from each activity performed. 

 
Fig. 3. Data Collection Process 

Collecting Implicit information of slow learner through monitoring user read-
ing activity: Implicit user information feedback approach focuses on the incorpora-
tion of implicit information in the construction of user profile. Gathering implicit 
information of slow learners while using the application does not require any inter-
vention. The use of implicit information is important as it determines the changes in 
the personalisation feature embedded earlier which would take place using explicit 
information. Implicit information gathered from user behaviour while performing a 
reading activity determines the preferences and the needs of the user in the next usage 
of the reading application.  

Capturing the implicit information from users is vital as it enriches the dynamic us-
er profile information. Unlike the explicit information of the user which will not have 

108 http://www.i-jim.org



Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

an effect over time (static), the dynamic information provides useful information that 
will ensure that the user profile is updated. The combination of explicit and implicit 
information enables the developed user profiles to cover all beneficial information 
that can support the construction of a comprehensive user profile. The information on 
the implicit user feedback approach and based on the activity performed when the 
slow learner children using the reading application are provided for the personalisa-
tion purposes. However, in the construction of the user profile, the preliminary infor-
mation while performing something similar (reading activity) is used as a foundation 
in collecting real implicit information of the user.  

Table 1 summarises the implicit data collection technique which specifies how the 
implicit information is collected, type of implicit information, and category of infor-
mation for user profiling, and also the relationship between the implicit information 
and personalisation. 

Table 1.  Implicit user feedback 

Collection Technique / Activity Type of information Captured Category of information for user profiling 
Login User registration User name / login info 
Test Test on reading ability result Reading ability 
Native activity, Selection of pref-
ered colour, Selection of preferredd 
reading buddy 

Browsing activity, Preferred back-
ground colour, Preferred reading 
buddy 

Navigation information, colour 
preferences, Reading companion 

End test Test on reading ability result Changes on Reading ability 

4 Findings  

The outcome from the data collection process is divided into four (4) criteria. The 
four criteria are  

• Slow learner demographic information 
• Slow learner prior knowledge in reading 
• Slow learner reading needs 
• Slow learner reading preferences. Brief information of the required explicit infor-

mation and its relation to the design aspect before the development of user profile 
will be described in the next section. 

4.1 Slow learner raw information 

Slow learner demographic information: One of the elements in user profile de-
velopment is by gathering rich information on the slow learner demographic infor-
mation. Many previous studies have also considered demographic information in 
understanding user as part of user profile design and development. Examples include 
studies by [17];[14]; and [18]. Slow learner demographic information refers to the 
personal information of the slow learner children including age, gender, hobby, car-
toon characters, reading style, and interesting topics in reading. The demographic 

iJIM ‒ Vol. 13, No. 7, 2019 109



Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

information leads to a better design interface in personalisation. It is interesting to 
identify the personal traits of an individual in designing personalised reading materials 
so that personalisation can be developed according to their preference. For example, a 
cartoon character that a specific slow learner child prefers can be used as a reference 
in developing a preferred reading buddy in the personalised reading materials. 

Slow learner prior knowledge: As described previously, one of the criteria in 
building the slow learner profile is understanding the existing knowledge of slow 
learners. Strong comprehension of the knowledge of the slow learners is the founda-
tion that will assist the designer or even a school teacher to determine suitable or per-
sonalised reading content. Inability to provide necessary information based on each 
slow learner’s ability will negatively influence the learning performance of the slow 
learner children as gathered from the analysis of the interview session conducted with 
one of the primary school teachers. Thus, it is required to understand the assessment 
of reading implemented at schools to understand the existing knowledge of the slow 
learner children. In Malaysian primary schools, the Ministry of Education has provid-
ed an effective tool to measure the ability of all primary school children in reading 
performance through the Literacy and Numeracy Screening (LINUS) programme. 
This assessment is gradually conducted to monitor children’s performance from 7 
years old to 9 years old. The reading ability for primary slow learner children is then 
categorised according to their reading performance. In brief, the LINUS programme is 
conducted to analyse children’s progress in literacy learning. Table 2 indicates the 
LINUS assessment as determined by the LINUS constructs: 

Table 2.  Reading construct by LINUS assessment 

Construct Description 
K1 Ability to sound and write vowels and consonant 
K2 Ability to sound and write open syllable 
K3 Ability to read and write open syllable 
K4 Ability to sound and write close syllable 
K5 Ability to read and write close syllable 
K6 Ability to read and write words which contain 'ng' closed syllable 
K7 Ability to read and write words which contains single vowel syllable 
K8 Ability to read and write words which contains diphthong and cooperative vowel 
K9 Ability to read and write words which contains digraph and cooperative consonant 

K10 Ability to read and write word is with prefix and suffix 
K11 Ability to read and write simple sentences 
K12 Ability to read and understand stimulation material orally and in writing 

 
The result in Table 3 describes the reading ability of the slow learner children 

based on a study conducted in a primary school in Malaysia. Among all 13 slow 
learners aged 9, the results indicated that 6 slow learner children are able to master 
word recognition, 2 can master the decoding stage in reading, and 5 were already 
mastering the semantic stage of reading which is related to the comprehension of the 
meaning of a word or sentence.Consequently, this study provides a feasible solution 
that can cater to the reading ability of these children categorised by word recognition, 
decoding, and semantic categories. However, due to the personalisation approaches 

110 http://www.i-jim.org



Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

that require us to observe the needs and preferences of the slow learner children, the 
identification process of the suitable aspect of the design does not stop once the exist-
ing knowledge of the slow learner children is identified. The next section explains the 
reading needs and reading preferences of the children as another consideration that 
should be catered in this study for the development of the personalised design content. 

Slow Learner Reading Needs and Reading Preferences: Approaching slow 
learner children is different compared to how we communicate with other children at 
a similar age. The difference can be attributed to the characteristics of the slow learner 
children which require different approaches. The importance of handling slow learner 
children has been captured in several books which have provided several intervention 
strategies such as [19], [20] and [21]. Collecting information on reading needs and 
reading preferences of slow learners is an interesting part of this study. Not only the 
information determines the interactivity and the attractiveness of the user interface, 
the first process of finding the information is also a worthwhile experience. Finding 
information on reading needs and reading preferences of the slow learner children 
requires the researchers to be a part of the reading process in the primary school class-
room. The slow learner children that were observed in this study are positioned in the 
remedial class in order to receive intensive practice on reading in the particular case 
study that was conducted. Slow learner children have poor self-image [22] and have 
low self-esteem, [23]. In order to communicate effectively with them during the inter-
action and observation session, a teaching and learning session was conducted and the 
researchers acted as new teachers. This requires the researchers to build a good repu-
tation and establish trust with them. Although the observation session took longer, the 
results of the observation are very worthy to this study. All information on the reading 
needs and reading preferences with the one-to-one reading activity of each slow 
learner children have been successfully gathered. Several reading needs and prefer-
ences are depicted in Table 2. 

Table 3.  Matching criteria of personalization in reading 

Reading needs Design strategies Read Preferences Design Strategies 

Reading buddy or 
teacher companion 

Provide animated and 
preferred reading buddy 

Reading book based 
on interest 

Develop book with identified 
interest 

Repetition Allow repetition Reading with or without music Enable / diable music 

Familiarized objects 
use familarized theme to 
promote understanding 

Reading coloured 
book Coloured animation book 

Read-aloud 
mechanism Provide narration 

Moving objects / 
images 

Provide suistable images / 
animation to avoid distraction in 
reading 

4.2 User profile construction  

The user profile is not a new term. Apparently, a few years back, it has been used 
widely as a foundation for the implementation of personalized approach due to the 
importance of understanding a user [24]. User profile or user model is one feature that 
is important in personalization. The information stored in the user profile is essential 

iJIM ‒ Vol. 13, No. 7, 2019 111



Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

to determine the different personalization effect on each individual user needs. In the 
development of personalized user Interface for slow learner children, the information 
of user profile is important to determine how the user interface is presented. In this 
particular study, the user profile was constructed by gathering explicit and implicit 
information of the users only. Due to the qualitative data collection technique imple-
mented, as well as considering only reading activities are concerned, the user profile 
construction only focus on 4 important aspects that need to be considered in the de-
sign as proposed by [24] in his book entitled The Essential Guide to User Interface 
Design. All four aspects adapted in the construction of user profile in this study are: 

• Knowledge/Experience 
• User task and needs 
• user psychological characteristics (motivation, expectation and cognitive style)  
• user physical characteristics (name, age, cognitive processing, gender) 

There are various ways of presenting user profiles such as keywords, semantic 
networks, or concepts, or association rules. In this particular study, the concept of user 
profile was used to identify related user profile features as proposed by [24]. Concept-
level models of user interests are generally more powerful than keyword-level mod-
els. Compared to keywords, concept-level models allow a more accurate representa-
tion of interests. Concept user profiles are presented in the format of the node. The 
concept of user-describing profile describes using concept user profile that focuses on 
the in-depth understanding of a user for developing a personalised design. A good 
understanding of the user provides a clear explanation of the three important aspects 
of the user profile which are the existing knowledge of the user, reading needs, and 
reading preferences. In addition, the user profile also contains information on the 
personal explicit information of a particular user and the behavioural pattern which 
captures implicit information of a particular user while the user is performing a read-
ing activity. The user profile is an important aspect of the personalisation tool. The 
type of information stored in the user profile is categorised into two (2) categories 
which are the static type of explicit information, and dynamic type of implicit infor-
mation. All the necessary information is stored and the changes made by a particular 
user are recorded and updated to keep track of the user’s reading pattern when using 
the application. Firstly, the data from the user are gathered and classified according to 
the reading ability based on the LINUS test result. The reading ability (RA) is used as 
a foundation for user profile classification. Grouping the children through similar RA 
would provide a solution for the children reading difficulties.  

Elements for content design: 

• Reading ability (RA) 
• Reading needs (RN) are divided into 2 categories, one for the content design, an-

other one for interface design 
• Reading preferences 

All information for content personalisation is related to reading ability, reading 
needs, and reading preferences. Only related information to the reading of slow learn-

112 http://www.i-jim.org



Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

er children is considered as an element in the content design due to the understanding 
of slow learner difficulties in reading leads to better design. In this paper, only one 
user profile which falls into the K12 reading construct is presented as an example to 
provide a better understanding of the importance of developing the user profile for a 
better design.  

Table 4.  Focused categories of slow learner based on reading ability (K12 Reading Construct) 

Reading Construct Categories of Reading ability Description on reading Ability No of slow Learner 

K2 Phonology Decoding 1 
K3 Orthology Word Recognition 5 
K4 Phonology Decoding 1 
K6 Orthology Word Recognition 1 

K11 Semantic Meaning 2 
K12 Semantic Meaning 3 

 
In brief, there are three (3) user profiles created based on the identified slow learn-

ers’ reading ability. Each user profile is designed to cater to each slow learner applica-
tion. Three interface designs were also developed to cater to a specific user profile. 
However, due to the limitation in decryption capacity, only one user profile is pre-
sented in the form of graphical information as shown in Figure 5. 

 
Fig. 4. User profile with K12 reading ability 

iJIM ‒ Vol. 13, No. 7, 2019 113



Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

5 Conclusion 

This study concludes that the development of personalisation approaches is a long 
process. The development requires a strong understanding of two important elements 
which are the specific user profile and personalisation design methods that are needed 
to be embedded as a solution. Understanding the user helps the designers to cater to 
specific problems or issues while understanding personalised design methods such as 
the development of the scenario helps the designers in understanding the method to 
develop a task or an activity in the development of artefact. Combining these two 
elements in the design process promises the possibility to provide workable personali-
sation as a design solution. 

6 Acknowledgement 

The authors would like to record our sincere thanks to the Universiti Teknologi 
MARA for the financial support. This research is supported under the funding of 600-
IRMI/DANA 5/3/LESTARI (0137/2016) 

7 References 

[1] S. Cakula and M. Sedleniece, “Development of a personalized e-learning model using 
methods of ontology,” Procedia Comput. Sci., vol. 26, no. December, pp. 113–120, 2013. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2013.12.011 

[2] T. Yang, G. Hwang, and S. J. Yang, “Development of an Adaptive Learning System with 
Multiple Perspectives based on Students’ Learning Styles and Cognitive Styles,” J. Educ. 
Technol. Soc., vol. 16, no. 4, 2016. 

[3] M. Gil, P. Giner, and V. Pelechano, “Personalization for unobtrusive service interaction,” 
Pers. Ubiquitous Comput., vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 543–561, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1007/ 
s00779-011-0414-0 

[4] Y. A. Rezaei, G. Heisenberg, and W. Heiden, “User Interface Design for Disabled People 
Under the Influence of Time, Efficiency and Costs,” in Communications in Computer and 
Information Science, 2014, vol. 435 PART I, pp. 197–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-
319-07854-0_35 

[5] T. H. Wang, “Developing an assessment-centered e-Learning system for improving student 
learning effectiveness,” Comput. Educ., vol. 73, pp. 189–203, 2014. https://doi.org/ 
10.1016/j.compedu.2013.12.002 

[6] A. G. Hwang, H. Sung, C. Hung, and I. Huang, “A Learning Style Perspective to Investi-
gate the Necessity of Developing Adaptive Learning Systems,” J. Technol. Soc., vol. 16, 
no. 2, 2016. 

[7] C. Chen, “Personalized Intelligent Mobile Learning System for Supporting Effective Eng-
lish Learning Published by : International Forum of Educational Technology & Society 
Personalized Intelligent Mobile Learni,” Int. Forum Educ. Technol. Soc., vol. 11, no. 3, 
2017. 

[8] J. M. Carroll, Making use: scenario-based design of human-computer interactions, vol. 48. 
2000. 

114 http://www.i-jim.org

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2013.12.011
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2013.12.011
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-011-0414-0
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-011-0414-0
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07854-0_35
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07854-0_35
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.12.002
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.12.002


Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

[9] K. Wu, Y. Tang, and C. Tsai, “Graphical interface design for children seeking information 
in a digital library,” Vis. Eng., vol. 2, no. 1, p. 5, 2014. 

[10] K. Moffatt, J. David, and R. M. Baecker, “Reading, Laughing and Connecting with Young 
Children,” Springer-Verlag London, pp. 173–193, 2013. 

[11] C. Walkington and M. Sherman, “Using adaptive learning technologies to personalize in-
struction: The impact of interest-based scenarios on performance in algebra,” J. Educ. Psy-
chol., vol. v105, no. 4, pp. 932–945, 2013. 

[12] A. Gauch, Susan; Speretta, Mirco; Chandramouli,Aravind; Micarelli, “User Profiles for 
Personalized Information Access,” Adapt. Web, vol. 4321, pp. 54–89, 2007. 
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72079-9_2 

[13] S. Kanoje, S. Girase, and D. Mukhopadhyay, “User Profiling Trends, Techniques and Ap-
plications,” Int. J. Adv. Found. Res. Comput., vol. 1, no. 11, pp. 2348–4853, 2014. 

[14] G. Jawaheer, M. Szomszor, and P. Kostkova, “Comparison of implicit and explicit feed-
back from an online music recommendation service,” Proc. 1st Int. Work. Inf. Heterog. 
Fusion Recomm. Syst. - HetRec ’10, pp. 47–51, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1145/ 
1869446.1869453 

[15] D. Godoy and A. Amandi, “User profiling in personal information agents: A survey,” 
Knowl. Eng. Rev., vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 329–362, 2005. 

[16] Ahmed Altaboli, “Investigating the Effects of Font Styles on Perceived Visual Aesthtics of 
Website Interface Design,” LNCS 8004 - Human-Computer Interact. Hum. centered Des. 
approaches, methods, tools Environ., vol. 1, no. July, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-
642-39232-0_59 

[17] K. L. Mcclarty and M. N. Gaertner, “Measuring Mastery: Best Practices for Assessment in 
Competency-Based Education,” no. April, p. 16 p., 2015. 

[18] L. Wawryk-Epp, G. Harrison, and B. Prentice, Teaching Students with Reading Difficul-
ties and Disabilities: A Guide to Educators. Saskatchewan Learning, 2004. 

[19] A. G. K. Hugh W. Catts, The Connections Between Language and Reading Disabilities. 
London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005. 

[20] A. Druin, Mobile Technology for Children:Designing for Interaction and Learning. Am-
sterdam: Morgan Kaufman Publishers, 2009. 

[21] Y. S. Al-hashmi, “Slow Learners: How are they Identified and Supported?,” English, 2008. 
[22] B. Wawryk-Epp, Lynne; Harrison, Gina; Prentice, Teaching Students with Reading Diffi-

culties and Disabilities: A Guide for Educator. 2004. 
[23] B. Saleena and S. K. Srivatsa, “Using concept similarity in cross ontology for adaptive e-

Learning systems,” J. King Saud Univ. - Comput. Inf. Sci., vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 1–12, 2015. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksuci.2014.03.007 

8 Authors 

Dr Wan Adilah Wan Adnan has over 30 years of experience in academic sector. 
Currently she is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical 
Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). She is the Internal Audit committee 
of the faculty. Wan Adilah is also a panel assessor of the Malaysia Qualifying Agency 
(MQA), a statutory body to accredit academic programs since year 2001. Wan is also 
an external accessor for masters programs at the Madinah International University, 
Malaysia. Her research interest is in HCI focusing on usability and user experience 
evaluation, personalization as well as community informatics and in curriculum de-

iJIM ‒ Vol. 13, No. 7, 2019 115

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72079-9_2
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72079-9_2
https://doi.org/10.1145/1869446.1869453
https://doi.org/10.1145/1869446.1869453
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39232-0_59
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39232-0_59
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksuci.2014.03.007
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksuci.2014.03.007
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksuci.2014.03.007


Paper—Personalized Reading: Developing User-Describing Profile for Slow Learner Children 

sign and development. Her consultancy includes conducting expert usability evalua-
tion on MYJOBMALAYSIA 2.0 for the Ministry of Human Resource Malaysia. 

Dr Natrah Abdullah@ Dollah is currently a Senior lecturer at Faculty of Com-
puter and Mathematical Sciences,Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). She received 
her Ph.D in Information technology from the University of Teknologi MARA in 
2012.Her research interests are in Human Computer Interaction: Personalization and 
Customization, User Interface Design, User Experience Evaluation, Usability Testing, 
Information Representation.  

Marzita Mansor is a lecturer at Faculty of Art, Computing and Creative Industry 
(FSKIK), Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI). Currently she is a Ph.D candi-
date at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Her research interest are in in Human-
Computer Interaction (HCI) with particular interest is in interaction design for users in 
various background 

Article submitted 2019-04-23. Resubmitted 2019-06-04. Final acceptance 2019-06-04. Final version 
published as submitted by the authors. 

116 http://www.i-jim.org