Educational support device, educational support method, and program

Abstract

To provide an education support device capable of appropriately supporting learning of a student.SOLUTION: An education support device includes: a correlation store part 103 storing correlation information related to a correlation between units acquired using two or more pieces of performance information, each having information on performance for three or more respective units associated with respective unit identifiers identifying the units; a unit selection part 109 for acquiring, using the correlation information, one or more unit identifiers out of the three or more respective unit identifiers; and an output part 111 for outputting the information corresponding to the one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection part 109.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an education support device that supports the education of students. [Background technology]

[0002] A known prior art technique is one in which instruction information is added to test questions answered by a learner based on the learner's past behavior history (see, for example, Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2020-98253 A (Page 1, Figure 1, etc.) Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, in the past, there was no effort to appropriately support students' learning by utilizing the relationships among three or more units.

[0005] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances, and has an object to provide an education support device, an education support method, and a program that can appropriately support students' learning. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The educational support device of the present invention is an educational support device that includes a correlation storage unit that stores correlation information regarding the correlation between units obtained using two or more grade information, each of which has information regarding the grades for three or more units associated with a unit identifier that identifies a unit, a unit selection unit that uses the correlation information to obtain one or more unit identifiers from among the three or more unit identifiers, and an output unit that outputs information corresponding to the one or more unit identifiers obtained by the unit selection unit.

[0007] With this configuration, it is possible to appropriately support students' learning by utilizing the correlations between three or more units.

[0008] In addition, the educational support device of the present invention may further include a grade storage unit in which two or more pieces of grade information are stored, and a correlation acquisition unit that acquires correlation information between two units using the two or more pieces of grade information stored in the grade storage unit and accumulates the correlation information in the correlation storage unit.

[0009] With this configuration, it is possible to appropriately support students in their learning by utilizing correlation information between units obtained using grade information.

[0010] In addition, the educational support device of the present invention may further include a group storage unit in which group information indicating groups of unit identifiers grouped into two or more groups based on correlation information is stored, and the unit selection unit may obtain one or more unit identifiers by utilizing the groups of unit identifiers.

[0011] With this configuration, it is possible to appropriately support students' learning by utilizing the groups of units that are grouped according to correlations.

[0012] In addition, the educational support device of the present invention may further include a group generation unit that uses correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit to group unit identifiers of three or more units into two or more groups, and accumulates group information indicating the groups of the unit identifiers of the three or more units in the group storage unit.

[0013] With this configuration, it is possible to appropriately support students' learning by utilizing the groups of units that are grouped using correlation information.

[0014] In addition, in the educational support device of the present invention, the unit selection unit may use correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit for each of three or more units to obtain importance information indicating that the stronger the correlation with other units, the more important the unit is, and obtain one or more unit identifiers whose obtained importance information satisfies the selection condition.

[0015] With this configuration, it is possible to obtain unit identifiers with high importance, thereby providing appropriate support for students' learning.

[0016] In the education support device of the present invention, the unit selection section may obtain, for each of the three or more units, importance information among all the units.

[0017] With this configuration, it is possible to obtain the unit identifier that is most important among all units, thereby providing appropriate support for students' learning.

[0018] In addition, in the educational support device of the present invention, the unit selection unit may be configured to obtain importance information within the group indicating that the stronger the correlation between a unit and other units in the group, the higher the importance of the unit within the group, using correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit for each of three or more units, where the correlation information is two or more pieces of correlation information between the unit and other units in the group to which the unit belongs, and to obtain one or more unit identifiers whose obtained importance information satisfies the selection condition.

[0019] With this configuration, it is possible to obtain the unit identifier of the most important unit among the units in each group, thereby appropriately supporting the students' learning.

[0020] In addition, the educational support device of the present invention may further include a constraint storage unit in which constraint conditions for unit selection are stored, and the unit selection unit may acquire a number of unit identifiers that satisfy the constraint conditions.

[0021] With this configuration, it is possible to obtain the number of unit identifiers according to the constraints.

[0022] In addition, the educational support device of the present invention may further include a question storage unit in which one or more pieces of question information associated with a unit identifier are stored, and a question acquisition unit that acquires from the question storage unit one or more pieces of question information corresponding to each of the one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit, and the output unit may output information having the one or more pieces of question information acquired by the question acquisition unit as information corresponding to the one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit.

[0023] With this configuration, it is possible to output problem information for one or more appropriate units by utilizing the correlations between three or more units, thereby appropriately supporting students' learning.

[0024] In addition, the educational support device of the present invention may be an educational support device further comprising an academic ability storage unit in which academic ability information having information regarding the student's academic ability for each unit is stored, and the unit selection unit further uses the academic ability information to obtain one or more unit identifiers for the student.

[0025] With this configuration, it is possible to appropriately support students in their learning by utilizing the student's academic ability information. Effect of the Invention

[0026] According to the educational support device and the like of the present invention, it is possible to appropriately support the learning of students. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0027] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram of an educational support device according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] A flowchart illustrating the operation of the educational support device. [Diagram 3] A flowchart illustrating the operation of the educational support device. [Figure 4]FIG. 4(a) is a diagram showing an example of a grade management table of the educational support device, and FIG. 4(b) is a diagram showing an example of a unit identifier obtained from the grade management table. [Diagram 5] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a correlation management table of the educational support device. [Figure 6] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a group management table of the educational support device. [Figure 7] FIG. 7(a) and FIG. 7(b) are diagrams showing examples of a constraint management table of the educational support device. [Figure 8] FIG. 8(a) is a diagram showing an example of an importance management table of the educational support device, and FIG. 8(b) is a diagram showing an example of an importance management table obtained when academic ability information is used. [Figure 9] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a question management table of the educational support device. [Figure 10] FIG. 13 shows a display example of the educational support device. [Figure 11] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of an academic achievement management table of the educational support device. [Figure 12] FIG. 13 shows a display example of the educational support device. [Figure 13] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the appearance of a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 14] FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of the computer system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0028] Hereinafter, an embodiment of an educational support device and the like will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that, in the embodiments, components with the same reference numerals perform similar operations, and therefore repeated description may be omitted.

[0029] (Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an educational support device 1 according to the present embodiment.

[0030] The educational support device 1 comprises a grade storage unit 101, a correlation acquisition unit 102, a correlation storage unit 103, a group generation unit 104, a group storage unit 105, an academic ability storage unit 106, a constraint storage unit 107, a question storage unit 108, a unit selection unit 109, a question acquisition unit 110, an output unit 111 and a reception unit 112.

[0031] Two or more pieces of grade information are stored in the grade storage unit 101. The grade information is information that has information on grades for three or more units. The grade information has information on the grades for each of three or more units in association with a unit identifier that identifies the unit. For example, one piece of grade information has information on the grades for each of three or more units of one student in association with a unit identifier that identifies each unit. One piece of grade information is usually information that has information on the grades for each of three or more units included in one subject. The two or more pieces of grade information stored in the grade storage unit 101 may be grade information for multiple students or information for one student. For example, the two or more pieces of grade information may be two or more pieces of grade information for each of multiple students. The unit identifier may be a name that identifies the unit, or may be a code assigned to the unit. The information on the grades for each unit may be hereinafter referred to as unit grade information.

[0032] The unit performance information is, for example, the percentage of correct answers, scores, deviation values, etc., in tests conducted on the unit. The scores may be the total score of multiple tests, or may be a representative value of the scores of multiple tests, such as the average score or the midpoint. The unit performance information may be, for example, an evaluation value for grades, or an index of grades. The unit performance information is, for example, information that is expressed as a numerical value, or information that can be expressed as a numerical value. It is more preferable that the unit performance information is, for example, normalized information, standardized information, information that can be normalized, or information that can be standardized.

[0033] A subject is, for example, an organization of educational teaching contents classified according to the nature, etc. Examples of subjects are Japanese, social studies, arithmetic, mathematics, science, and foreign language (e.g., English, French, etc.). A unit is a series of groups within an educational subject. A unit can also be said to be a certain range of learning subjects. A unit is, for example, a unit of instructional content that is subdivided further than a subject. For example, Japanese language units include metaphorical expressions, themes of novels, logical relationships, and the contents of demonstrative pronouns. Mathematics units include numbers and expressions, quadratic functions, properties of shapes, probability, expressions and proofs, properties of integers, trigonometric functions, etc. English units include tenses, infinitives, gerunds, passive voice, auxiliary verbs, metaphors, and the conditional mood. The size and breadth of a unit does not matter.

[0034] The grade information may be information that includes information on grades for three or more units included in one subject. A subject is, for example, a unit into which a school subject is subdivided, and includes one or more units. For example, subjects included in science include physics, chemistry, biology, etc. Furthermore, subjects included in Japanese include modern Japanese, classical Japanese, classical Chinese, etc.

[0035] The grade storage unit 101 may store a plurality of grade information items respectively associated with a plurality of subjects. The grade information items may be stored in the grade storage unit 101, for example, in association with a subject identifier of the corresponding subject. For example, the grade storage unit 101 may store a plurality of grade information items respectively associated with subject identifiers of a plurality of subjects. The subject items corresponding to the grade information items are, for example, subjects including a unit corresponding to the unit grade information items included in the grade information items. The subject identifier is, for example, information having a subject name, a code assigned to the subject, or the like. The grade information items may be stored in the grade storage unit 101, for example, in association with a subject identifier of the corresponding subject. The subject identifier is, for example, information having a subject name, a code assigned to the subject, or the like.

[0036] Furthermore, the grade information may be stored in the grade storage unit 101 in association with the student identifier of the corresponding student, for example. The student identifier may be the student's name, or a code assigned to the student, such as a student ID number or a student number. The student here may be considered as a user who is the subject of education. The student here may be a student, a cram school student, a cram school student, or a student.

[0037] Furthermore, the score information may be associated with the exam identifier of the corresponding exam, for example, and stored in the score storage unit 101. The exam identifier is information having one or more of the following: a code assigned to the exam, the name of the exam, the grade for which the exam is to be conducted, at least a part of the date of the exam, the subject identifier of the subject of the exam, and the unit identifier of the unit of the exam.

[0038] Furthermore, the grade information may be stored in association with attribute information indicating the attributes of the student corresponding to the grade information, such as the grade, course taken, school to which the student belongs, or school of choice.

[0039] The result storage unit 101 is preferably a non-volatile recording medium, but may also be a volatile recording medium. The same applies to the other storage units.

[0040] The correlation acquisition unit 102 acquires correlation information between two units using two or more grade information stored in the grade storage unit 101, and accumulates the information in the correlation storage unit 103. The two units are, for example, between two units in each set when a set of two units is extracted from three or more units included in the grade information. The two units here may be, for example, between a plurality of sets of two units acquired using two or more grade information, or may be between a plurality of sets of two units prepared in advance. The correlation information is information on the correlation between two units. The correlation information is information on the correlation between units based on the grade information. The correlation information is, for example, a correlation coefficient between two units. The correlation coefficient between two units is calculated using, for example, a set of unit grade information corresponding to each of the two units acquired from a plurality of grade information. In addition, the correlation information is not limited to a correlation coefficient, as long as it is information indicating the correlation between two units. The correlation information may be, for example, a first vector (P 11 ,P 12 ,···,P 1n ) and a second vector (P 21 ,P 22 ,···,P 2n ) The technology for calculating the similarity between vectors is a well-known technology. The correlation information may be, for example, the similarity between the distribution of scores for two or more tests or questions corresponding to a first unit and the distribution of scores for two or more tests or questions corresponding to a second unit.

[0041] For example, the correlation acquisition unit 102 acquires a set of unit score information corresponding to each unit for each combination of two units from each of two or more pieces of grade information, and acquires a correlation coefficient, which is correlation information between two units, using two or more sets of unit score information acquired from each piece of grade information for each combination of the same two units. For example, when the unit score information is a numerical value, the correlation acquisition unit 102 calculates a correlation coefficient between two units using this numerical value, and when the unit score information is not a numerical value, the correlation acquisition unit 102 acquires a numerical value corresponding to each piece of unit score information, and acquires correlation information between two units corresponding to the set of unit score information using two or more sets of the acquired unit score information. Note that the process of acquiring correlation information described above is an example, and the process of acquiring correlation information by the correlation acquisition unit 102 is not limited to the above process. Since the process of calculating the correlation coefficient is a publicly known technique, a detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

[0042] The correlation acquiring unit 102 accumulates, for example, the acquired correlation information between the two units in the correlation storage unit 103 in association with the unit identifiers of the two corresponding units.

[0043] When the grade information is stored in association with a subject identifier, the correlation acquiring unit 102 may acquire correlation information for each subject identifier, and store the acquired correlation information in association with the subject identifier.

[0044] Furthermore, when grade information is stored in association with a subject identifier, the correlation acquiring section 102 may acquire correlation information for each subject identifier, and store the acquired correlation information in association with the subject identifier.

[0045] Furthermore, when grade information is stored in association with a student identifier, the correlation acquisition unit 102 may acquire correlation information for each student identifier, and store the acquired correlation information in association with the student identifier.

[0046] In addition, when grade information is stored in correspondence with student attribute information, the correlation acquisition unit 102 may acquire correlation information for each attribute information such as grade level, and store the acquired correlation information in correspondence with the student attribute information.

[0047] The correlation storage unit 103 stores correlation information regarding the correlation between multiple sets (e.g., three or more sets) of units acquired using two or more pieces of grade information. For example, the correlation information is stored in the correlation storage unit 103 in association with the unit identifiers of the two units corresponding to the correlation information. The stored correlation information is, for example, a correlation coefficient. The correlation storage unit 103 may further store the correlation information in association with one or more of a subject identifier, a course identifier, a student identifier, and attribute information.

[0048] In this embodiment, as an example, a case will be described in which correlation information acquired by the correlation acquisition unit 102 using two or more pieces of grade information stored in the grade storage unit 101 is stored in the correlation storage unit 103. However, the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 is not limited to the correlation information acquired by the correlation acquisition unit 102 using the grade information stored in the grade storage unit 101. For example, correlation information received from a device (not shown) that acquires correlation information similar to that of the correlation acquisition unit 102 using grade information similar to that stored in the grade storage unit 101 by a receiving unit (not shown) may be stored in the correlation storage unit 103. Note that when correlation information other than the correlation information acquired by the correlation acquisition unit 102 is stored in the correlation storage unit 103, the grade storage unit 101 and the correlation acquisition unit 102 may be omitted.

[0049] The group generating unit 104 uses the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 to group the unit identifiers of three or more units into two or more groups, and accumulates group information indicating the groups of the grouped unit identifiers of the three or more units in the group storage unit 105. The group information may be, for example, information having unit identifiers belonging to each group. The group information may also be information having unit identifiers and group identifiers of groups to which the unit identifiers belong in association with each other. The group identifiers may be, for example, group names or codes assigned to groups. However, the group identifiers are not limited to these pieces of information. Note that the group information is not limited to the above information, as long as it is information capable of identifying unit identifiers belonging to the same group. The grouping here may be considered as grouping or group generation.

[0050] For example, the group generating unit 104 groups the unit identifiers so that the unit identifiers whose corresponding correlation information indicates a high correlation between the units are grouped together. For example, when the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 is a correlation coefficient, the group generating unit 104 groups the unit identifiers so that two unit identifiers associated with one correlation coefficient having a large value are grouped together.

[0051] The group generating unit 104 performs grouping of unit identifiers by clustering using, for example, correlation information. For example, the group generating unit 104 performs clustering using correlation information corresponding to two unit identifiers as a measure of similarity (for example, distance) between units identified by the two unit identifiers. For example, when the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 is a correlation coefficient, the group generating unit 104 performs grouping of unit identifiers by clustering the unit identifiers by determining that the larger the correlation coefficient associated with the two unit identifiers, the shorter the distance between the units identified by the two unit identifiers. The clustering used by the group generating unit 104 may be considered to be, for example, one of unsupervised machine learning. Note that the group generating unit 104 may perform clustering by supervised machine learning.

[0052] The clustering used for grouping may be hierarchical clustering such as the nearest neighbor method, the group average method, or Ward's method, or may be non-hierarchical clustering such as the k-means method.

[0053] Here, the grouping is performed by clustering, but the grouping process performed by the group generating unit 104 is not limited to clustering, and grouping may be performed by a known grouping process other than clustering. For example, when the correlation information is information indicating that the higher the value, such as a correlation coefficient, the higher the correlation, the group generating unit 104 may group the unit identifiers such that unit identifiers whose correlation information between unit identifiers is equal to or greater than a threshold (or is greater than the threshold) are grouped in the same group. Also, for example, when the correlation information is information indicating that the lower the value, the higher the correlation, the group generating unit 104 may group the unit identifiers such that unit identifiers whose correlation information between unit identifiers is equal to or less than a threshold (or is smaller than the threshold) are grouped in the same group. Also, for example, the group generating unit 104 may group the unit identifiers by performing a grouping process other than clustering by using the correlation information as a measure of similarity (for example, distance) between units identified by corresponding unit identifiers.

[0054] The group generating unit 104 may group unit identifiers using correlation information associated with one or more combinations of a subject identifier, a course identifier, a student identifier, and attribute information. The group generating unit 104 may store the acquired group information in the group storage unit 105 in association with one or more combinations of the subject identifier, the group generating unit 104 may group unit identifiers associated with correlation information for each subject identifier using correlation information associated with the same subject identifier. For example, the group generating unit 104 may group unit identifiers associated with correlation information for each student identifier using correlation information associated with the same student identifier. The group generating unit 104 may also group unit identifiers associated with correlation information for each subject by grade using correlation information for which the associated attribute information is the same school year and the associated subject identifier is the same.

[0055] The group generation unit 104 may, for example, perform grouping using correlation information associated with the specified combination of one or more subject identifiers, subject identifiers, student identifiers, and attribute information in accordance with information specified by the receiving unit 112, which combination of one or more subject identifiers, subject identifiers, student identifiers, and attribute information.

[0056] The number of groups generated by the group generation unit 104 through grouping may be two or more, and the number is not limited. The number of groups generated by the group generation unit 104 may or may not be determined in advance. For example, when the process of grouping is a process that requires the number of groups to be specified in advance, such as the k-means method, the number of groups needs to be specified in advance. The number of groups may be determined using an increasing function with the number of units as a variable, or a table that has the number of units and the number of groups in correspondence with each other, so that the number of groups increases continuously or stepwise as the number of units to be grouped increases. The number of groups may also be determined by the grouping process executed by the group generation unit 104. The upper limit of the number of groups to be generated may also be determined in advance.

[0057] It is preferable that the groups generated by the group generating unit 104 are groups in which some unit identifiers do not overlap between two or more groups, but groups in which some unit identifiers overlap may also be used.

[0058] Group information is stored in the group storage unit 105. The group information is information indicating groups of unit identifiers of three or more units grouped into two or more groups based on correlation information. It is preferable that two or more of the groups of unit identifiers stored in the group storage unit 105 do not have some unit identifiers that overlap, but they may overlap.

[0059] The group information stored in the group storage unit 105 may be stored in association with one or a combination of two or more of a subject identifier, a course identifier, a student identifier, and attribute information.

[0060] If the unit selection unit 109 (described later) does not use group information when acquiring a unit identifier, the group generation unit 104, the group storage unit 105, etc. can be deleted.

[0061] The academic ability storage unit 106 stores academic ability information of one or more students. The academic ability information is information having information on the academic ability of each unit of the students. The academic ability information is, for example, information having information on the academic ability of each unit associated with the unit identifier of each unit (one or more, preferably three or more). The information on the academic ability of each unit may be hereinafter referred to as unit academic ability information. The unit academic ability information is, for example, the student's correct answer rate for one or more tests conducted for each unit, or the difference between the correct answer rate and the target correct answer rate. The unit academic ability information is, for example, the student's score for one or more tests conducted for each unit, or the difference between the score and the target score. The score here may be a representative value such as the average score or the median value of the scores of one or more tests for the same unit. The score here may also be a standardized score or a normalized score. For example, the score here may be a score indicating the ratio of the student's score to the score if all questions in the test were correct. In addition, for example, the score here may be the deviation value of the student's score, etc. The same applies to the target score. The unit academic ability information may be an evaluation value indicating the student's grades or proficiency for the unit, or may be the difference between the evaluation value and the target value for the evaluation value.

[0062] In the academic ability storage unit 106, for example, one or more pieces of academic ability information of each student are stored in association with the student identifier of each student. In the academic ability storage unit 106, the academic ability information may be further stored in association with one or more combinations of a subject identifier, a course identifier, and attribute information. For example, the academic ability information associated with a subject identifier and a student identifier is the academic ability information of a subject indicated by the subject identifier of a student identified by the student identifier. The same applies to the subject identifier. The attribute information here is, for example, attribute information of a student corresponding to the academic ability information (for example, a student's grade, etc.). For example, the attribute information is information used when acquiring an attribute of a student corresponding to the academic ability information. Note that, when the attribute information associated with a student identifier is stored in advance in a storage unit (not shown), the attribute information can be used to acquire the attribute of a student, so the academic ability information does not need to be associated with the attribute information.

[0063] The constraint storage unit 107 stores constraint conditions for unit selection. For example, the constraint conditions are conditions that restrict the number of unit identifiers to be acquired, which are used when the unit selection unit 109 described later acquires one or more unit identifiers. For example, the unit selection unit 109 acquires a number of unit identifiers that satisfy the constraint conditions.

[0064] The constraint condition may be associated with a student identifier and stored in the constraint storage unit 107. For example, the constraint condition associated with a student identifier is a condition that restricts the number of unit identifiers to be acquired when acquiring one or more unit identifiers for a student indicated by the student identifier.

[0065] The constraint condition is, for example, an amount of money or time. The amount of money that is the constraint condition is, for example, the tuition fee for a lecture or course that a student takes. The tuition fee here is, for example, the budget for a lecture or course that a student takes. For example, when the constraint condition is the tuition fee, the number of units to be taken is restricted so that the product of the number of units to be taken and a predetermined tuition fee per unit is equal to or less than the tuition fee that is the constraint condition. In addition, when the unit identifier of the unit to be taken and the tuition fee for taking the corresponding unit are stored in advance in a storage unit (not shown), the number of units to be taken is restricted so that the total tuition fee corresponding to the units to be taken, which is obtained from the stored information, is equal to or less than the tuition fee that is the constraint condition. The constraint condition, which is the tuition fee, may be associated with a student identifier as described above.

[0066] The time constraint is, for example, the test time or the class time. The time constraint is, for example, the test time of the test taken by the student, or the time of the lecture or course taken by the student. For example, when the constraint is the test time, the number of units to be tested is restricted so that the product of the number of units and a predetermined time limit per unit is equal to or less than the test time, which is the constraint. The time limit may be considered as the answer time set for one or more questions on the corresponding unit. Note that, when the unit identifier of the unit to be taken and the test time of the test to be taken on the corresponding unit are stored in advance in a storage unit (not shown), the number of units to be taken is restricted so that the total of the time limits corresponding to the units to be taken, obtained from the stored information, is equal to or less than the test time, which is the constraint.

[0067] There is no restriction on the timing or trigger for storing the constraint condition in the constraint storage unit 107. For example, the reception unit 112 may receive an instruction to output a unit identifier having a constraint condition, and upon receiving this instruction, the reception unit 112 may store the constraint condition in the constraint storage unit 107, and the unit selection unit 109 may acquire one or more unit identifiers as described later.

[0068] If no constraints are required, the constraint storage unit 107 may be omitted.

[0069] The question storage unit 108 stores one or more pieces of question information associated with a unit identifier. The question information associated with a unit identifier is, for example, question information about the unit indicated by the unit identifier. The question information about the unit is, for example, question information for confirming or evaluating the level of understanding of the unit. The question information is, for example, information used to output a question, and specifically, information having one or a combination of two or more of a character string, an image, a video image, a sound, etc. The question information may further have answer information corresponding to the question.

[0070] The question information may further be stored in question storage unit 108 in association with one or more combinations of a subject identifier, a course identifier, and attribute information. The question information associated with a subject identifier is, for example, information on questions for the subject indicated by the subject identifier. The question information associated with a subject identifier is, for example, information on questions for the subject indicated by the subject identifier. The question information associated with attribute information is, for example, information on questions corresponding to the attribute indicated by the attribute information. For example, the question information associated with the grade, which is the attribute information, is a question corresponding to that grade. For example, the question information associated with the study course, which is the attribute information, is a question corresponding to that study course.

[0071] If question information is unnecessary, such as when question information is not output, question storage section 108 may be omitted.

[0072] The unit selection unit 109 acquires one or more unit identifiers from among the three or more unit identifiers using the correlation information. The one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit 109 are, for example, unit identifiers of one or more units selected from the units indicated by the three or more unit identifiers for efficient learning, or unit identifiers of one or more units selected for efficient diagnosis of the academic ability of a student.

[0073] The unit selection unit 109, for example, uses the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 for each of the three or more units to acquire importance information indicating that the stronger the correlation between the unit and the other units, the higher the importance of the unit, and acquires one or more unit identifiers for which the acquired importance information satisfies the selection condition. The three or more units are, for example, units identified by unit identifiers associated with a plurality of pieces of correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103. The importance information is information indicating the importance of the corresponding unit. For example, the unit selection unit 109 acquires correlation information indicating the correlation with one or more other units, and calculates the importance information by an increasing function with a value indicated by the acquired correlation information as a parameter. The one or more other units may be all other units or a part of the units. The part of the units is, for example, other units in the same group.

[0074] For example, the unit selection unit 109 acquires the importance of each of three or more units among all the units. Here, all the units are, for example, all the unit identifiers acquired from the unit identifiers associated with a plurality of correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 without duplication. For example, the unit selection unit 109 acquires correlation information indicating the correlation between all the other unit identifiers for the unit identifiers that identify all the units, and acquires the value indicated by the sum, average value, median, or other representative value of the values ​​indicated by the acquired correlation information as the importance information of the corresponding unit identifier. For example, when the correlation information is a correlation coefficient, the larger the value of the correlation coefficient, the stronger the correlation between the units. Therefore, the larger the value of the sum or representative value of the correlation coefficient, the stronger the correlation between the units. Therefore, the importance information acquired in this way indicates that the importance of the corresponding unit is higher the larger the value. In addition, when the importance is expressed as the sum of correlations or the like, basic units such as "positive and negative numbers" in mathematics will have a high importance, so it is preferable to further use the difference from the average learning score to obtain the importance, so that even units that tend to have low scores despite being highly relevant can be evaluated as having high learning importance.

[0075] Then, the unit selection unit 109 acquires, from among the unit identifiers that identify all the units, a unit identifier whose importance information acquired for the unit identifier satisfies a selection condition. For example, the selection condition is a condition that the order of the corresponding importance information, in order from most important to least important, is within a predetermined order, or a condition that the value indicated by the corresponding importance information is a value indicating that the importance is equal to or greater than a threshold value. However, the selection condition is not limited to such conditions.

[0076] For example, when the correlation information is a correlation coefficient and the importance information is a representative value such as the sum of the correlation coefficients or the average value of the correlation coefficients, the unit selection unit 109 may acquire unit identifiers whose corresponding importance information is ranked from largest to smallest up to a predetermined rank as unit identifiers whose acquired importance information satisfies the selection condition.

[0077] Also, for example, when the correlation information is a correlation coefficient and the importance information is a representative value such as the sum of the correlation coefficients or the average value of the correlation coefficients, the unit selection unit 109 may acquire a unit identifier whose corresponding importance information is greater than or equal to a threshold value as a unit identifier whose acquired importance information satisfies the selection condition.

[0078] The unit selection unit 109 may acquire one or more unit identifiers by using, for example, a group of unit identifiers. The group of unit identifiers here is, for example, a group of unit identifiers indicated by unit identifiers stored in the group storage unit 105 in association with each group. The unit selection unit 109 acquires importance information within a group indicating that a unit has a higher importance within the group as the correlation between the unit and other units within the group is stronger, using correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 for each of three or more units, for example, two or more pieces of correlation information between the unit and other units within the group to which the unit belongs, and acquires one or more unit identifiers whose acquired importance information satisfies the selection condition.

[0079] For example, the unit selection section 109 may acquire importance information about each unit identifier belonging to each group, and acquire, for each group, one or more unit identifiers whose acquired importance information satisfies a selection condition.

[0080] For example, the unit selection unit 109 acquires, for a unit identifier identifying each unit belonging to each group, two or more pieces of correlation information between each unit and other units in the group to which it belongs, and acquires a value indicated by a representative value such as the sum, average, or median of the values ​​indicated by the acquired correlation information as importance information of the corresponding unit identifier within the group to which the unit identified by the unit identifier belongs. For example, if the correlation information is a correlation coefficient, as above, the larger the value of the acquired importance information, the higher the importance of the corresponding unit within the group.

[0081] Then, the unit selection unit 109 acquires, for each group, from among the unit identifiers that identify the units belonging to each group, unit identifiers whose importance information acquired for the unit identifier satisfies a selection condition. For example, the selection condition is a condition that the order of the corresponding importance information, arranged from the most important to the least important, is within a predetermined order within the group, or a condition that the value indicated by the corresponding importance information is a value indicating that the importance is equal to or greater than a threshold value. However, the selection condition is not limited to such conditions.

[0082] The unit selection unit 109 may also acquire importance information for each unit identifier belonging to one group, and acquire one or more unit identifiers whose acquired importance information satisfies the selection condition from the unit identifiers belonging to one group. In this case, the one group is, for example, a group designated by information designating a group received by the reception unit 112 via an input device (not shown) such as a keyboard or a touch panel.

[0083] For example, the unit selection unit 109 acquires, for a unit identifier identifying each unit belonging to a group, two or more pieces of correlation information between the unit identifier and other units belonging to the same group, and acquires, as importance information of the corresponding unit identifier within the group, a value indicated by a representative value such as the sum, average, or median of the values ​​indicated by the acquired correlation information. For example, if the correlation information is a correlation coefficient, similarly to the above, the acquired importance information indicates that the larger the value, the higher the importance of the corresponding unit within the group.

[0084] Then, the unit selection unit 109 acquires unit identifiers whose importance information acquired for each unit identifier identifying each unit belonging to one group satisfies a selection condition. For example, the selection condition is a condition that the order of the corresponding importance information, in order from most important to least important, is within a predetermined order, or a condition that the value indicated by the corresponding importance information is a value indicating that the importance is equal to or greater than a threshold value.

[0085] The unit selection unit 109 may obtain the importance information of the unit identifier identifying each unit by combining the correlation information obtained for all units other than each unit and the importance within each group to which each unit belongs. For example, the sum of the correlation information obtained between each unit and all other units and the sum of the correlation information obtained between each unit and other units in the group to which each unit belongs may be obtained as the importance information of the unit identifier identifying each unit.

[0086] Also, the unit selection unit 109 may acquire, for example, a representative value such as an average value of correlation information acquired between each unit and all other units, and a representative value such as an average value of correlation information acquired between each unit and other units in the group to which each unit belongs, and further acquire the acquired representative value (for example, an average value, etc.) as the importance information of the unit identifier identifying each unit. Also, instead of this process, the unit selection unit 109 may acquire, for example, a representative value (for example, an average value, etc.) of correlation information acquired between each unit and all other units, and correlation information acquired between each unit and other units in the group to which each unit belongs, as the importance information of the unit identifier identifying each unit.

[0087] In any of the above cases, when the correlation information is a correlation coefficient, for example, the acquired importance information is one in which the larger the value, the higher the importance of the corresponding unit within the group.

[0088] In any of the above cases, the weighting may be changed between the correlation information obtained between all other units, their total values, and representative values ​​and the correlation information obtained between the unit and other units in the group to which the unit belongs, their total values, and representative values.

[0089] The unit selection unit 109 may further use the academic ability information stored in the academic ability storage unit 106 to acquire one or more unit identifiers for a student. For example, the unit selection unit 109 may further use the academic ability information stored in the academic ability storage unit 106 in association with one student identifier to acquire one or more unit identifiers for a student identified by this one student identifier. The unit selection unit 109 may use the academic ability information in any of the above-mentioned cases of acquiring one or more unit identifiers from all unit identifiers, acquiring unit identifiers from each group, and acquiring one or more unit identifiers from one group.

[0090] For example, when acquiring one or more unit identifiers for a student identified by a single student identifier, as described above, for each of three or more units, the importance information is acquired using correlation information between each unit and other units in the same manner as in any of the above cases, and further, the difference between the score corresponding to each unit and the target score is acquired from the academic ability information stored in the academic ability storage unit 106 in association with the single student identifier, and the importance information acquired for each unit is corrected using this difference to acquire the importance information for each unit, and one or more unit identifiers that identify units that satisfy the selection conditions as described above may be acquired using the importance information acquired in this way. The score corresponding to each unit may be, for example, the test score, average score, deviation value, etc. of each unit, or may be a score indicating the evaluation of each unit. The score corresponding to each unit may be, for example, a score indicating the student's grades in each unit or a score indicating academic ability.

[0091] The correction using the difference between the score corresponding to each unit and the target score here is, for example, a correction in which the greater the difference, the higher the importance indicated by the importance information, and is, for example, a process of multiplying or adding the difference to the value indicated by the importance information. When the academic ability information has a difference between the score and the target score of each unit of a student associated with the unit identifier of each unit, the unit selection unit 109 may read out the difference corresponding to each unit by searching or the like using the unit identifier from the academic ability storage unit 106, and when the academic ability information has a score and a target score of each unit of a student associated with the unit identifier of each unit, the unit selection unit 109 may read out the score and the target score corresponding to each unit and subtract the score from the read target score to obtain the difference between the score and the target score.

[0092] The acquisition of importance information for each unit using correlation information here may be acquisition of importance information using correlation information between all units, acquisition of importance information using correlation information between each unit and other units in the group to which it belongs, or acquisition of importance information using a combination of these.

[0093] Also, for example, when acquiring one or more unit identifiers for a student identified by a single student identifier, as described above, when acquiring importance information for each unit, the above importance information is acquired for each unit using correlation information between each unit and other units, as in any of the above cases, and further, using the academic ability information stored in the academic ability storage unit 106 in association with a single student identifier, a representative value such as an average value of the difference between the score and the target score corresponding to a plurality of units (preferably, all units) in the group to which each unit belongs is acquired, and the importance information acquired for each unit is corrected using this difference to acquire the importance information for each unit, and the importance information acquired in this way may acquire a unit identifier that identifies a unit that satisfies the selection condition as described above. In this way, for example, in addition to the importance of the unit itself calculated from the correlation, the importance in learning for each student (in other words, priority) is determined.

[0094] Here, the correction for each unit using the representative value of the difference between the scores corresponding to multiple units in the group to which each unit belongs and the target score is, as above, a correction in which the greater the difference, the higher the importance indicated by each importance information, for example, a process of multiplying or adding the difference to the value indicated by the importance information.

[0095] The unit selection unit 109 may use the academic ability information stored in the academic ability storage unit 106 in association with one student identifier to obtain the difference between the score and the target score corresponding to each unit and a representative value such as the average value of the differences between the scores and the target scores corresponding to multiple units in the group to which each unit belongs, and may use both of them to correct the importance information obtained using the correlation information for each unit. For example, the value indicated by the importance information using the correlation information for each unit may be multiplied by the difference between the score and the target score corresponding to each unit, and further multiplied by a representative value such as the average value of the differences between the scores and the target scores corresponding to multiple units in the group to which each unit belongs, and the obtained value may be used as the corrected importance information. In this way, for example, the importance in learning for each student is determined in the same manner as described above.

[0096] In addition, obtaining corrected importance information by correcting the importance information obtained using correlation information as described above using academic ability information can also be considered as obtaining importance information using correlation information and academic ability information.

[0097] The receiving unit 112 may receive information designating one student identifier, and the unit selecting unit 109 may acquire one or more unit identifiers using academic ability information corresponding to the received one student identifier. The one or more unit identifiers acquired in this manner may be considered as unit identifiers that identify one or more units that are important for the student identified by the one student identifier to study efficiently, for example.

[0098] The unit selection unit 109 may acquire a number of unit identifiers that satisfy the constraint condition, for example. For example, when the constraint condition is an amount such as a tuition fee, the unit selection unit 109 acquires a number of unit identifiers such that the sum of the amounts (for example, the amount required to attend the unit identified by the one or more unit identifiers) corresponding to the one or more unit identifiers acquired is equal to or less than the amount of the constraint condition. For example, the unit selection unit 109 acquires a number of unit identifiers such that the product of the number of unit identifiers acquired and the amount (for example, the amount required to attend one unit) corresponding to the unit identified by one unit identifier is equal to or less than the amount of the constraint condition. For example, the unit selection unit 109 may divide the amount of the constraint condition by the amount of the amount to attend one unit to acquire the number of units corresponding to the amount, and acquire the unit identifiers for this number of units. Also, for example, the unit selection unit 109 may acquire a number of unit identifiers such that the sum of the amounts corresponding to the one or more unit identifiers acquired is equal to or less than the amount of the constraint condition. Also, for example, the unit number corresponding to the amount may be obtained from a table that associates the amount with the unit number, which is stored in advance in a storage unit (not shown), and the unit identifier of this unit number may be obtained.

[0099] For example, if a constraint condition that is an amount is associated with a student identifier and stored in the constraint storage unit 107, the unit selection unit 109 acquires a number of unit identifiers that satisfy this constraint condition when acquiring one or more unit identifiers for this student identifier. For example, when acquiring one or more unit identifiers as described above using academic ability information associated with one student identifier, it acquires a number of unit identifiers that satisfy the constraint information that is an amount associated with this one student identifier.

[0100] It is preferable that the unit selection unit 109 acquires the maximum number of unit identifiers such that the total amount of money corresponding to the one or more acquired unit identifiers is equal to or less than the amount that is the constraint condition.

[0101] Also, for example, when the constraint condition is time such as test time or class time, the unit selection unit 109 acquires a number of unit identifiers such that the total time required for an exam having questions of a unit identified by the acquired one or more unit identifiers or for taking a class of a unit identified by the acquired one or more unit identifiers is equal to or less than the time that is the constraint condition. For example, the unit selection unit 109 acquires a number of unit identifiers such that the product of the number of acquired unit identifiers and the time corresponding to a unit identified by one unit identifier (for example, the answer time set for a question of one unit or the time required for taking a class of one unit) is equal to or less than the time that is the constraint condition. Also, for example, the unit selection unit 109 may acquire a number of unit identifiers such that the total time corresponding to each of the acquired one or more unit identifiers is equal to or less than the time that is the constraint condition.

[0102] For example, when selecting a unit of test questions to assess a student's academic ability, the test time of the test is stored in the constraint storage unit 107 as a constraint condition, and the unit selection unit 109 acquires a number of unit identifiers that satisfy the constraint condition of the test time.

[0103] It is preferable that the unit selection section 109 acquires the maximum number of unit identifiers such that the total time corresponding to the one or more acquired unit identifiers is equal to or less than the time constraint.

[0104] The selection conditions described above may include a condition that specifies that the number of unit identifiers corresponding to the constraint conditions should be obtained.

[0105] The unit selection unit 109 may acquire one or more unit identifiers for each one or more combinations of a subject identifier, a course identifier, a student identifier, and attribute information. For example, the unit selection unit 109 may acquire one or more unit identifiers by appropriately using information such as correlation information associated with one or more combinations of a subject identifier, a course identifier, a student identifier, and attribute information and stored in the correlation storage unit 103, the group storage unit 105, the academic ability storage unit, the constraint storage unit 107, etc.

[0106] For example, when the receiving unit 112 receives an instruction to obtain one or more unit identifiers for one or more combinations of a subject identifier, a course identifier, a student identifier, and attribute information, the unit selection unit 109 may obtain one or more unit identifiers for each of the one or more combinations of a subject identifier, a course identifier, a student identifier, and attribute information indicated by the instruction.

[0107] The process of acquiring one or more unit identifiers by the unit selection unit 109 is not limited to the above process. The process of acquiring importance information is also not limited to the above process. The threshold values ​​described in each process above may be the same value or different values.

[0108] The question acquisition unit 110 acquires, from the question storage unit 108, one or more pieces of question information corresponding to each of the one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit 109. Note that, when it is not necessary to acquire question information, such as when the output unit 111, which will be described later, does not output question information, the question acquisition unit 110 may be omitted.

[0109] The output unit 111 outputs information corresponding to one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit 109. The information corresponding to one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit 109 may be, for example, one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit 109, or may be information related to a unit identified by one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit 109. The information related to the unit is stored in a storage unit (not shown) in association with one or more unit identifiers. The information related to the unit may be, for example, an identifier of a course or lecture corresponding to the unit. The output unit 111 may output information having one or more question information acquired by the question acquisition unit 110 as information corresponding to one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit 109. The output unit 111 may output a corresponding unit identifier together with the question information. When outputting the question information, the question information may be arranged in a template or the like stored in advance in a storage unit (not shown) or the like and output.

[0110] The term "output" used here is a concept that includes display on a monitor, printing on a printer, sound output, transmission to an external device, storage on a recording medium, delivery of processing results to other processing devices, other programs, etc. The output unit 111 may or may not include an output device such as a monitor or printer. The output unit 111 is realized, for example, by driver software for an output device, or a combination of driver software for an output device and an output device, etc.

[0111] The reception unit 112 receives, for example, an instruction to acquire one or more unit identifiers using the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 and output information corresponding to the acquired unit identifiers from a user or another device. This instruction may include, for example, an instruction to use the academic ability information stored in the academic ability storage unit 106. In this case, this instruction may include, for example, a student identifier associated with the academic ability information to be used. This instruction may also include an instruction to acquire a unit identifier using group information stored in the group storage unit 105. For example, the instruction received by the reception unit 112 may be an instruction to output problem information corresponding to the acquired unit identifier as information corresponding to the acquired unit identifier. The reception unit 112 may also receive a constraint condition. For example, an instruction to acquire one or more unit identifiers as described above and output information corresponding to the acquired unit identifier, which has a constraint condition, may be received. For example, the reception unit 112 may accumulate the received constraint condition in the constraint storage unit 107.

[0112] In addition, the receiving unit 112 may receive instructions to obtain correlation information using the grade information stored in the grade storage unit 101, or instructions to obtain group information using the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103, etc.

[0113] Note that the instructions and information accepted by the accepting unit 112 are not limited to the instructions and information described above.

[0114] The reception here is, for example, reception from an input means, reception of an input signal transmitted from another device, reading of information from a recording medium, etc. This input means may be anything, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, or a menu screen. The reception unit 112 is realized, for example, by a device driver of an input means such as a keyboard or a touch panel, or control software for a menu screen. Note that when the reception unit 112 is unnecessary, such as when the reception unit 112 does not receive an instruction to acquire a unit identifier or when the reception unit does not receive an instruction to acquire correlation information, the reception unit 112 may be omitted.

[0115] Next, an example of the operation of the educational support device 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart in Fig. 2. For the sake of simplicity, the description will be given by taking as an example a case where only grade information on one subject for multiple students belonging to one grade is stored in the grade storage unit 101.

[0116] (Step S101) The correlation acquisition unit 102 determines whether it is time to acquire correlation information. For example, it may determine that it is time to acquire correlation information when a predetermined time arrives, or it may determine that it is time to acquire correlation information when the reception unit 112 receives an instruction to acquire correlation information. However, the determination of the timing to acquire correlation information is not limited to the above determination. If it is time to acquire correlation information, proceed to step S102, and if it is not time to acquire correlation information, proceed to step S106.

[0117] (Step S102) The correlation acquisition unit 102 acquires correlation information for each pair of two unit identifiers among the three or more unit identifiers using two or more pieces of grade information having three or more unit grade information associated with the unit identifiers stored in the grade storage unit 101.

[0118] (Step S103) The correlation acquiring unit 102 accumulates each piece of correlation information acquired in step S102 in the correlation storage unit 103 in association with the two corresponding unit identifiers.

[0119] (Step S104) The group generating unit 104 groups the unit identifiers using the correlation information stored in association with the unit identifiers in the correlation storage unit 103. For example, the grouping is performed by clustering.

[0120] (Step S105) The group generating unit 104 accumulates group information indicating the groups of the unit identifiers grouped in step S104 in the group storage unit 105. For example, the group information in which the unit identifiers are associated with the group identifiers is accumulated. Then, the process returns to step S101.

[0121] (Step S106) The unit selection unit 109 determines whether it is time to acquire one or more unit identifiers. For example, it may determine that it is time to acquire a unit identifier when a predetermined time arrives, or it may determine that it is time to acquire a unit identifier when the reception unit 112 receives an instruction to acquire a unit identifier. However, the determination of the timing to acquire a unit identifier is not limited to the above determination. If it is time to acquire one or more unit identifiers, proceed to step S107, and if it is not time to acquire them, return to step S101.

[0122] (Step S107) The unit selection unit 109 determines whether to acquire a unit identifier using academic ability information associated with one student identifier stored in the academic ability storage unit 106. For example, if the instruction to acquire a unit identifier received in step S106 or the like is an instruction to acquire a unit identifier using academic ability information associated with one student identifier, it determines that the acquisition is to be made using academic ability information. If the acquisition is to be made using academic ability information, the process proceeds to step S117, and if the acquisition is to be made without using academic ability information, the process proceeds to step S108.

[0123] (Step S108) The unit selection unit 109 acquires unit identifiers associated with the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 by performing unique processing or the like to avoid duplication. Note that if all unit identifiers can be acquired without duplication, the unit identifiers may be acquired by a process other than this process. For example, the unit identifiers may be acquired without duplication from the group storage unit 105. Also, multiple unit identifiers prepared in advance may be acquired from a storage unit (not shown) or the like.

[0124] (Step S109) The unit selection unit 109 assigns 1 to the value of the counter m.

[0125] (Step S110) The unit selection unit 109 acquires importance information for the m-th unit identifier among the unit identifiers acquired in step S108, using a plurality of pieces of correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 in association with this unit identifier. The importance information acquired here may be importance information acquired using correlation information between the m-th unit identifier and all other unit identifiers, or may be importance information acquired using correlation information between the m-th unit identifier and other unit identifiers in the group to which the m-th unit identifier belongs, or may be importance information acquired by a combination of both. The importance information is, for example, associated with the unit identifier and temporarily stored in a storage unit (not shown). The order of the unit identifiers may be determined in any way.

[0126] (Step S111) The unit selection unit 109 increments the value of the counter m by one.

[0127] (Step S112) The unit selection unit 109 judges whether the m-th unit identifier is included in the unit identifiers acquired in step S108. If it is included, the process returns to step S110, and if it is not included, the process proceeds to step S113.

[0128] (Step S113) The unit selection unit 109 reads out constraint information from the constraint storage unit 107. For example, the unit selection unit 109 may read out constraint information that is designated in advance to be used when academic ability information is not used. For example, the unit selection unit 109 reads out constraint information that is a time such as a test time.

[0129] (Step S114) The unit selection unit 109 acquires one or more unit identifiers whose importance information acquired for the unit identifiers in step S110 satisfies the previously prepared selection conditions, the number of which satisfies the constraint information read out in step S113. The unit identifiers acquired here may be unit identifiers acquired from all unit identifiers using the importance information, or may be unit identifiers acquired from each group using the importance information. Whether the unit identifiers are acquired from all unit identifiers or from each group may be determined in advance, or may be specified by an instruction to acquire unit identifiers accepted by the acceptance unit 112.

[0130] (Step S115) The question obtaining section 110 obtains, from the question storage section 108, question information corresponding to the unit identifier obtained in step S114.

[0131] (Step S116) The output unit 111 outputs information corresponding to the unit identifier acquired in step S114. For example, the output unit 111 may acquire the unit identifier acquired in step S113, may output the question information acquired in step S115, or may output both of them. Then, the process returns to step S101.

[0132] (Step S117) The unit selection unit 109 performs a process of acquiring a unit identifier by using the academic ability information associated with one student identifier. The details of this process will be described later. Then, the process returns to step S101.

[0133] In the flowchart of Figure 2, when the unit selection unit 109 acquires a unit identifier from a specific group, for example, instead of processing in step S108, it acquires a unit identifier belonging to the specific group, and in step S110, it acquires importance information for the m-th unit identifier among these unit identifiers using the corresponding correlation information, and in step S114, it acquires a unit identifier whose importance information satisfies the constraint condition.

[0134] Next, an example of the operation of the education support device 1 to acquire one or more unit identifiers using academic ability information will be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 3. This operation corresponds to, for example, the process of step S117 shown in Fig. 2.

[0135] (Step S201) The unit selection unit 109 acquires academic ability information associated with one student identifier from the academic ability storage unit .

[0136] (Step S202) The unit selection unit 109 acquires unit identifiers associated with the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 by performing unique processing or the like to avoid duplication. Note that, as long as all unit identifiers can be acquired without duplication, unit identifiers may be acquired by processing other than this processing. Also, multiple unit identifiers prepared in advance may be acquired from a storage unit (not shown) or the like.

[0137] (Step S203) The unit selection unit 109 assigns 1 to the value of a counter n.

[0138] (Step S204) The unit selection unit 109 acquires importance information for the n-th unit identifier among the unit identifiers acquired in step S202, using a plurality of correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit 103 in association with this unit identifier and unit academic ability information corresponding to the n-th unit identifier in the academic ability information acquired in step S201. The unit academic ability information corresponding to the n-th unit identifier in the academic ability information is, for example, the difference between the score corresponding to the n-th unit identifier of the student and the target score. Note that the importance information acquired here may be importance information acquired using correlation information between the n-th unit identifier and all other unit identifiers, or may be importance information acquired using correlation information between the n-th unit identifier and other unit identifiers of the group to which the n-th unit identifier belongs, or may be importance information acquired by a combination of both. The importance information is, for example, associated with the unit identifier and temporarily stored in a storage unit (not shown). Note that the order of the unit identifiers may be determined in any way.

[0139] (Step S205) The unit selection unit 109 increments the value of the counter n by one.

[0140] (Step S206) The unit selection unit 109 judges whether the n-th unit identifier is included in the unit identifiers acquired in step S202. If so, the process returns to step S204, and if not, the process proceeds to step S207.

[0141] (Step S207) The unit selection unit 109 reads out constraint information from the constraint storage unit 107. For example, the unit selection unit 109 may read out constraint information that is designated in advance to be used when academic ability information is used. For example, the unit selection unit 109 reads out constraint information that is an amount such as a tuition fee.

[0142] (Step S208) The unit selection unit 109 acquires one or more unit identifiers whose importance information acquired for the unit identifiers in step S204 satisfies the predetermined selection condition, the number of which satisfies the constraint information read out in step S207. The unit identifiers acquired here may be unit identifiers acquired from all unit identifiers using the importance information, or may be unit identifiers acquired from each group using the importance information. Whether the unit identifiers are acquired from all unit identifiers or from each group may be determined in advance, or may be specified by an instruction to acquire unit identifiers accepted by the acceptance unit 112.

[0143] (Step S209) The output unit 111 outputs information corresponding to the unit identifier acquired in step S208. For example, the output unit 111 acquires the unit identifier acquired in step S208. Then, the process returns to the upper level process.

[0144] In the flowchart shown in FIG. 3, after the processing of step S208, question information corresponding to the unit identifier obtained in step S208 may be obtained, similar to step S115 in the flowchart shown in FIG. 2, and the obtained question information may be output in step S209.

[0145] In the flowcharts shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, for example, when the grade information associated with a combination of attribute information indicating different grades and different subject identifiers is stored in the grade storage unit 101, the correlation acquisition unit 102 preferably acquires correlation information for each combination of grades and subjects, for example, using generation information associated with the combination of each grade and each subject identifier. In addition, it is preferable that the grouping performed by the group generation unit 104 is also performed for each subject of each grade, using correlation information associated with the subject of each grade. In addition, the unit selection unit 109 may acquire a unit identifier for each subject of each grade, using correlation information associated with the subjects, or may acquire a unit identifier for each subject of a specific grade or for a specific subject of a specific grade, using correlation information associated with the subjects. In addition, the unit selection unit 109 may acquire a unit identifier for a specific subject by grade, using correlation information associated with the subjects.

[0146] The specific operation of the education support device 1 in this embodiment will be described below. Here, it is assumed that the grade storage unit 101 stores grade information of a plurality of students for one subject, mathematics, from the first year of junior high school to the third year of junior high school for the past five years.

[0147] FIG. 4(a) is a grade management table for managing grade information stored in the grade storage unit 101. The grade management table has attributes such as "grade ID", "grade ID", "unit ID", and "average score". "Grade ID" is an identifier for grade information, and is assumed to be a code assigned to grade information here. "Grade ID" is a name indicating a grade, which is attribute information corresponding to grade information, and "first year of junior high school" indicates a first year of junior high school, "second year of junior high school" indicates a second year of junior high school, and "third year of junior high school" indicates a third year of junior high school. "Unit ID" is a unit identifier, and is assumed to be a unit name here. Multiple records (rows) with the same value of "grade ID" correspond to one piece of grade information for one student, and records with the same value of "grade ID" but different values ​​of "unit ID" correspond to unit grade information for the unit indicated by the value of "unit ID" for the same grade information. "Grade ID" of records (rows) with the same value of "grade ID" is the same value. The "average score" is the unit score information for the corresponding unit, and in this case, it indicates the average score of one or more tests conducted for the corresponding unit. Note that this average score is calculated by converting the scores of each test into a value with a perfect score of 100 points. Note that the "X" in "average score" 1001 " or "X 1002 Here, each character such as " is a specific numerical value representing the average score.

[0148] Here, it is assumed that the receiving unit 112 of the education support device 1 receives an instruction to perform correlation information using the grade information stored in the grade storage unit 101 from a user or the like.

[0149] The correlation acquisition unit 102 first acquires the "Grade ID" values ​​"first year of junior high school," "second year of junior high school," and "third year of junior high school" without duplicates from each record in the grade management table shown in Fig. 4 by performing unique processing, etc. Then, from the records (rows) in the grade management table shown in Fig. 4 where the "Grade ID" value matches the first acquired value "first year of junior high school," it acquires the "Unit ID" values ​​without duplicates by performing unique processing. Note that although "first year of junior high school" is set as the first value here, it does not matter which "Grade ID" value is set as the first value.

[0150] 4B is a diagram showing the values ​​of the "unit ID" acquired by the correlation acquisition unit 102. Here, it is assumed that a value of 3 or more of the "unit ID" is acquired.

[0151] Next, all combinations of unit identifiers are obtained when extracting two unit identifiers from the obtained "unit ID" values ​​without duplicates. The combinations of unit identifiers extracted are, for example, the combination of unit identifiers "positive numbers and negative numbers" and "use of positive and negative numbers", the combination of unit identifiers "positive numbers and negative numbers" and "addition and subtraction", the combination of "positive numbers and negative numbers" and "multiplication and division", etc.

[0152] Note that, here, three or more sets of two unit identifiers are obtained using grade information, but three or more sets of two unit identifiers may also be read out from a storage unit (not shown) that has been previously associated with a grade identifier.

[0153] Then, from among the multiple records whose "Grade ID" is the first value "first year of junior high school" above and have the same value for "Grade ID," two records whose "Unit ID" values ​​match the two unit identifiers in the first pair of unit identifiers obtained above are detected, and the pairs of "Average Score" values ​​of the two records detected from the multiple records are obtained as multiple pairs of values ​​corresponding to each unit identifier.

[0154] For example, if the unit identifiers of the first pair are "Positive and negative numbers" and "Use of positive and negative numbers," the corresponding pairs of "average score" values ​​are obtained from each record with the same "Grade ID" value among records with "Grade ID" of "first year of junior high school." Note that it does not matter which pair of unit identifiers is the number of the pair.

[0155] Then, using multiple pairs of values ​​corresponding to each unit identifier obtained for the first pair, a correlation coefficient is obtained here as correlation information between the unit identifiers of the first pair, "positive numbers and negative numbers" and "use of positive numbers and negative numbers." The process of obtaining a correlation coefficient is a well-known technique, so a description thereof will be omitted here. When the obtained correlation coefficient value is "y 1001 ", this correlation coefficient is stored in the correlation storage unit 103 in association with the first unit identifier pair "positive numbers and negative numbers" and "use of positive numbers and negative numbers". Here, the correlation coefficient and the unit identifier pair are further stored in the correlation storage unit 103 in association with the above grade identifier "first year of junior high school". 1001 The letters " " and " " indicate a specific value representing the correlation coefficient. The same applies to the letters of other correlation coefficients.

[0156] A similar process is performed to obtain correlation coefficients, which are correlation information, for each of the two unit identifiers in the second and subsequent pairs of unit identifiers obtained above, and the obtained correlation coefficients are added to the correlation storage unit 103 in association with the two unit identifiers in each pair and the above grade identifier ``first year of junior high school.''

[0157] Furthermore, when the process of acquiring correlation information as described above for a record whose "Grade ID" value is "first year of junior high school" is completed, the correlation acquisition unit 102 acquires correlation information between unit identifiers as described above for records having second and subsequent "Grade ID" values, in this case "second year of junior high school" and "third year of junior high school," and adds the acquired correlation information to the correlation storage unit 103 by associating it with the unit identifier pair and the grade identifier.

[0158] FIG. 5 shows a correlation management table for managing correlation information stored in correlation storage unit 103. The correlation management table has attributes of "grade ID", "unit ID", and "correlation". "Grade ID" is a grade identifier. "Unit ID" is a unit identifier, and here, two unit identifiers corresponding to correlation information are arranged in no particular order, separated by a comma (,). "Correlation" is correlation information, and here is a correlation coefficient. For example, if "Grade ID" is "first year of junior high school", "Unit ID" is "positive numbers and negative numbers, multiplication and division", and "correlation" is "y 1003 The record (row) for which the correlation coefficient between the unit "Positive and Negative Numbers" for first-year junior high school students and the unit "Multiplication and Division" is "y 1003 " This indicates that.

[0159] Next, the group generating unit 104 uses the correlation information managed by the correlation management table shown in FIG. 5 to group the unit identifiers for each grade identifier.

[0160] First, the group generation unit 104 reads out information on each record (row) whose "grade ID" value is the first grade identifier "first year" from the correlation management table shown in FIG. 5. Then, the unit identifiers are grouped by performing clustering using the correlation coefficient, which is the "correlation" value of each read record, as the distance between the units identified by the two unit identifiers indicated by the "unit ID" values ​​of the corresponding records. Note that here, the clustering is performed so that the larger the correlation coefficient value, the shorter the distance between the units is determined to be. Then, group information in which group identifiers are associated with the unit identifiers grouped by clustering is stored in the group storage unit 105 in association with the grade identifier. The clustering process is a well-known technique, so a detailed description is omitted here.

[0161] Similarly, the group generation unit 104 uses the correlation information obtained for each of the second and subsequent grade level identifiers to group the unit identifiers corresponding to each grade level identifier to obtain group information, and stores the obtained group information in the group storage unit 105 in association with the corresponding grade level identifier.

[0162] FIG. 6 shows a group management table that manages group information stored in group storage unit 105. The group management table has attributes of "grade ID", "group ID", and "unit ID". "Grade ID" is a grade identifier. "Group ID" is a group identifier, and is assumed to be information having a consecutive number that is automatically assigned to a group. "Unit ID" is a unit identifier that constitutes each group, and one or more unit identifiers are arranged separated by "," (comma). Here, it is assumed that a group management table such as that shown in FIG. 6 has been obtained by the above processing.

[0163] Next, assume that the reception unit 112 of the education support device 1 receives an instruction to output a test question for assessing the academic ability of a first-year junior high school student. This instruction is information having a grade identifier "first year of junior high school". Also assume that this instruction is information having information on the test time of 60 minutes as a constraint condition. When the reception unit receives an instruction to output this question, the constraint condition of this instruction is stored in the constraint storage unit 107. For example, the test time of "60 minutes" is associated with information indicating the type of constraint condition, "test time", and stored in the constraint storage unit 107.

[0164] 7A shows a constraint management table for managing the constraint conditions stored in the constraint storage unit 107. The constraint management table has an attribute called "type" that indicates the type of constraint condition, and an attribute called "condition" that is the value of the condition. Here, it is assumed that a record of a constraint condition whose "type" is "test time" and whose "condition" is "60 minutes" has been newly stored.

[0165] Having received an instruction to output test questions, the unit selection unit 109 starts processing to obtain a unit identifier without using the student's academic ability information.

[0166] First, the unit selection unit 109 obtains the values ​​of "group ID" from multiple records in which the "grade ID" in the group management table shown in Fig. 6 is "first year of junior high school" by performing unique processing, etc., to ensure that there are no duplicates. Here, it is assumed that seven group identifiers from "G01" to "G07" are obtained.

[0167] The unit selection unit 109 acquires the first group identifier "G01" from the seven acquired group identifiers, and acquires multiple unit identifiers indicated by the "unit ID" values ​​of records in which the "group ID" value in the group management table shown in FIG. 6 is the acquired group identifier "G01". The multiple unit identifiers acquired here are unit identifiers belonging to the first group. Here, it is assumed that multiple unit identifiers such as "surface area and volume of a solid", "how to view and examine a solid", "structure of a solid", "organizing materials", and "approximate values ​​and significant figures" have been acquired. It does not matter which group identifier is designated as which group identifier.

[0168] Next, the unit selection unit 109 detects all records in which two unit identifiers, which are the values ​​of "unit ID", match the first unit identifier among the multiple unit identifiers belonging to the first group acquired above and other unit identifiers belonging to the first group from the correlation management table shown in FIG. 5, and calculates the average value of the correlation coefficient, which is the value of "correlation" of all the detected records. It does not matter which unit identifier in the same group is set as the number of the unit identifier. Then, the calculated average value of the correlation coefficient is stored in a storage unit (not shown) in association with the unit identifier and the group identifier as importance information indicating the importance of the first unit identifier in the group. The storage here may be temporary. Since the importance information acquired here is the average value of the correlation coefficient, normally, the larger the value, the higher the importance.

[0169] Similarly, importance information is obtained for the second and subsequent unit identifiers belonging to the first group, and is stored in a storage unit (not shown) in association with the unit identifiers and group identifiers.

[0170] Furthermore, for each of the second and subsequent group identifiers among the seven group identifiers acquired above, the unit selection unit 109 similarly acquires importance information, which is the average value of the correlation coefficients, for each unit identifier belonging to each group, using correlation coefficients, which are correlation information between the unit identifiers and other unit identifiers in the same group, acquires the unit identifier with the highest importance indicated by the corresponding importance information as the unit identifier corresponding to each group identifier, and stores the unit identifiers in a storage unit (not shown) in association with the group identifier and the unit identifier.

[0171] FIG. 8(a) is an importance management table for managing importance information acquired and accumulated by the unit selection unit 109. The importance management table has attributes of "group ID", "unit ID", and "importance". "Group ID" is a group identifier. "Unit ID" is a unit identifier. "Importance" is the importance information calculated above using academic ability information and the like for each unit. Note that the "j" of "importance" 1001 " indicates a specific value of the importance information. This also applies hereinafter.

[0172] Next, the unit selection unit 109 determines whether a constraint condition whose "type" is "test time" is stored in the constraint storage unit 107. Here, since a record (row) whose "type" is "test time" is stored in the constraint management table shown in FIG. 7(a), the constraint condition "60 minutes" which is the "constraint" value of this record is read out. Then, the constraint condition value "60 minutes" is divided by the predetermined time required to answer a question per unit, "10 minutes," to determine the number of units for which question information is to be obtained. This time "10 minutes" is read out from, for example, a storage unit (not shown) that has been previously stored. Here, the number of units "6" is determined.

[0173] The unit selection unit 109 acquires unit identifiers that satisfy the selection condition using the importance information acquired for each unit in each group as described above. Here, the selection condition is assumed to be a condition that "acquires unit identifiers of the number of units determined by the constraint condition, one by one from each group, in order from the unit identifiers in each group that have the highest importance indicated by the importance information acquired for the unit identifiers in the group. However, if there are no constraint conditions, acquires the unit identifiers with the highest importance from each group." Here, since the number of units determined by the constraint conditions is "6" as described above, a total of six unit identifiers are acquired using the importance management table shown in FIG. 8(a).

[0174] Although the selection conditions are expressed in natural language here, the selection conditions may be composed of, for example, one or more functions corresponding to these natural languages, method names, control syntax indicated by "if", "then", etc. Furthermore, the selection conditions may be algorithms for performing decision processing corresponding to these natural languages. The same applies to the other selection conditions described below.

[0175] First, the unit selection unit 109 detects the record with the highest "importance" value from among the multiple records with the same "group ID" in the importance management table shown in FIG. 8(a). Here, the number of detected records is seven, which is more than the number of units "6" determined above due to the constraint conditions, so six records are detected from the seven detected records in descending order of "importance". Then, the value of "unit ID" of each of the detected six records is obtained. Here, it is assumed that the following unit identifiers are obtained and stored: "Calculation of algebraic expressions" from the group with group identifier "G01", "Basics of plane figures" from the group with group identifier "G02", "Equations using algebraic expressions" from the group with group identifier "G03", "Proportional expressions" from the group with group identifier "G04", "Movement of figures" from the group with group identifier "G05", and "Multiplication and division" from the group with group identifier "G06". It is assumed that no unit identifier was obtained from the group with group identifier "G07".

[0176] In addition, if the number of records with the highest "importance" value detected from multiple records with the same "group ID" in the importance management table shown in Figure 8 (a) is less than the number "6" determined by the constraint conditions, the unit identifier of the record with the highest "importance" value in each group is obtained, and further, a process of obtaining importance information is performed starting from the record with the next highest "importance" value in each group, until the total number of unit identifiers obtained reaches the number determined by the constraint conditions.

[0177] FIG. 9 shows a question management table for managing question information stored in question storage unit 108. The question management table has attributes of "grade ID", "unit ID", and "question". "Grade ID" is a grade identifier, and "unit ID" is a unit identifier. "Question" is the file name of a question information file in which the question text and image are placed. Note that the file format of the question information is not important.

[0178] 9, the question acquisition unit 110 reads out question information files corresponding to the number of unit identifiers that satisfy the constraint conditions acquired above from the question storage unit 108. In this example, a question information file such as "Q1001" is read out.

[0179] The output unit 111 arranges the data of the read question information file in a template or the like stored in advance in a storage unit (not shown) or the like to form test question data.

[0180] The output unit 111 outputs data of the test questions in which the question information acquired by the question acquisition unit 110 is arranged. The output unit 111 may further output a number of unit identifiers that satisfy the constraint conditions acquired by the unit selection unit 109.

[0181] Fig. 10 is a diagram showing an example of display of test question data in which question information acquired by the question acquisition unit 110 is arranged, which is displayed on the monitor 111a by the output unit 111. For example, in Fig. 10, question 91 is a question indicated by question information corresponding to the unit identifier "calculation of algebraic expressions", question 92 is a question indicated by question information corresponding to the unit identifier "basics of plane figures", and question 93 is a question indicated by question information corresponding to the unit identifier "algebraic expressions".

[0182] Next, assume that the reception unit 112 of the educational support device 1 receives an instruction to propose an optimal curriculum for improving grades within a budget of 50,000 yen for a student with a student identifier "U001" who is in the first year of junior high school and whose corresponding academic ability information is already stored in the academic ability storage unit 106. This instruction is information having a grade identifier "first year of junior high school" and a student identifier "U001". Also assume that this instruction is information having a constraint condition of a tuition fee of 50,000 yen. When the reception unit receives this instruction, the constraint condition shown in FIG. 7(a) is deleted, and the constraint condition of this instruction is newly stored in the constraint storage unit 107. For example, the tuition fee "50,000 yen" is associated with information indicating the type of constraint condition, "tuition fee", and stored in the constraint storage unit 107.

[0183] 7(b) is a constraint management table for managing constraint conditions newly stored in the constraint storage unit 107. Here, it is assumed that a record of a constraint condition in which the "type" is "tuition fee" and the "condition" is "50,000 yen" has been newly stored.

[0184] The unit selection unit 109 starts a process of acquiring a unit identifier by using the student's academic ability information, since it has received an instruction to propose a curriculum for a student whose corresponding academic ability information is already stored in the academic ability storage unit 106. The proposal of a curriculum here may be considered to be, for example, a process of proposing a unit of a class that the student should take.

[0185] FIG. 11 is an academic ability management table that manages academic ability information stored in the academic ability storage unit 106. The academic ability management table has attributes such as "student ID," "unit ID," and "academic ability." "Student ID" is a student identifier. "Unit ID" is a unit identifier. "Academic ability" is a student's unit academic ability information, and here it is a value indicating the difference between the target value for each unit and the average test score of the student. Normally, the smaller the "academic ability" value for a unit, the closer the average value is to the target value, and therefore the unit can be considered to have higher academic ability. Instead of the average test score, a value indicating a grade other than the average, such as a deviation value, may be used. Information in records (rows) with the same "student ID" corresponds to the academic ability information of the same student. Note that "z" in "academic ability" is 1001 " etc. are assumed to be specific numerical values ​​indicating the difference between the target value and the average value for each unit.

[0186] First, the unit selection unit 109 reads out information of the record in which the "Student ID" is "U001" from the academic achievement management table shown in FIG.

[0187] Next, the unit selection unit 109 performs unique processing, etc., to obtain unit identifiers without duplication from the values ​​of "unit ID" of multiple records whose "grade" is "first year of junior high school" in the correlation management table shown in Fig. 5. The obtained unit identifiers are the same information as the unit identifiers shown in Fig. 4(b).

[0188] Next, for the first unit identifier among the acquired unit identifiers, the unit selection unit 109 acquires importance information by using the academic ability information. Here, for example, it is assumed that the first unit identifier is "positive numbers and negative numbers." It does not matter which unit identifier is set as the unit identifier.

[0189] First, the unit selection unit 109 selects the "unit ID" from the record read from the academic achievement management table. The record whose value is the first unit identifier "positive number and negative number" is found, and the unit academic ability information "z 1001 " to get

[0190] Next, the unit selection unit 109 detects records containing the first unit identifier "positive number and negative number" as the value of "unit ID" in records in which the "grade ID" is "first year of junior high school" in the group management table shown in FIG. 6, and obtains all unit identifiers other than the first unit identifier from the "unit ID" of the detected records. The unit identifiers other than the first unit identifier are other unit identifiers in the same group as the first unit identifier. Then, in records in which the "grade ID" is "first year of junior high school" in the correlation management table shown in FIG. 5, the unit selection unit 109 detects multiple records in which the two unit identifiers in the "unit ID" match the pair of the first unit identifier and other unit identifiers in the same group as the first unit identifier, and calculates the average value of the correlation coefficients, which are the values ​​of "correlation" of the detected records. The calculated average value of the correlation coefficients is obtained as the average value of the correlation coefficients between the first unit identifier and other unit identifiers in the group.

[0191] Furthermore, the unit selection unit 109 detects all records whose "unit ID" includes the first unit identifier "positive numbers and negative numbers" in the records whose "grade ID" is "first year of junior high school" in the correlation management table shown in Fig. 5, and calculates the average value of the correlation coefficients, which are the "correlation" values ​​of the detected records. The calculated average value of the correlation coefficients is obtained as the average value of the correlation coefficients between the first unit identifier and all other unit identifiers corresponding to first year of junior high school.

[0192] Then, the unit selection unit 109 selects the unit academic ability information “z 1001 " is multiplied by the average value of correlation coefficients between the first unit identifier and other unit identifiers in the group and the average value of correlation coefficients between the first unit identifier and all other unit identifiers corresponding to first-year junior high school students.The calculated value is then acquired as importance information indicating the importance corresponding to the first unit identifier and stored in a storage unit (not shown) in association with the first unit identifier.The acquired importance information is, for example, importance information in which the larger the value, the higher the importance.

[0193] Similarly, for the second and subsequent unit identifiers, the unit selection unit 109 obtains the corresponding unit academic ability information and the average value of the correlation coefficient between other unit identifiers in the group to which the unit identifier belongs, and the average value of the correlation coefficient between the unit identifier and all other unit identifiers corresponding to first-year junior high school students, obtains the product of these as importance information corresponding to the unit identifier, and stores (e.g., adds) it in association with the unit identifier.

[0194] FIG. 8(b) is an importance management table for managing importance information acquired and accumulated by the unit selection unit 109. The importance management table has attributes of "unit ID" and "importance". "Unit ID" is a unit identifier. "Importance" is the importance information calculated above using academic ability information and the like for each unit. Note that "k" of "importance" 1001 " indicates a specific value of the importance information. This also applies hereinafter.

[0195] Next, the unit selection unit 109 determines whether a constraint condition whose "type" is "tuition fee" is stored in the constraint storage unit 107. Here, since a record (row) whose "type" is "tuition fee" is stored in the constraint management table shown in FIG. 7(b), the constraint condition "50,000 yen" which is the "constraint" value of this record is read out. Then, this constraint condition value "50,000 yen" is divided by the predetermined tuition fee per unit "10,000 yen" to determine the number of units of lessons to be taken by the student with student identifier "U101". This tuition fee "10,000 yen" is read out from, for example, a storage unit (not shown) that has been previously stored. Here, the number of units "5" is determined.

[0196] The unit selection unit 109 acquires unit identifiers that satisfy the selection condition by using the importance information acquired for each unit. Here, the selection condition is assumed to be a condition that "unit identifiers of the number of units determined by the constraint condition are acquired in order of importance indicated by the importance information acquired for the unit identifiers, starting from the unit identifier with the highest importance. However, if there is no constraint condition, 10 unit identifiers are acquired." Here, since the number of units determined by the constraint condition is "5" as described above, five unit identifiers are acquired in order of importance indicated by the corresponding importance information, using the importance management table shown in FIG. 8(b). Here, five unit identifiers are acquired in order of importance indicated by the corresponding importance information with the highest value, using the importance management table shown in FIG. 8(b). Here, it is assumed that the unit selection unit 109 acquires "calculation of algebraic expressions," "use of equations," "proportional expressions," "movement of figures," and "basics of spatial figures."

[0197] Here, since the instruction received by the receiving unit 112 above is not an instruction to output a question corresponding to the acquired unit, the question acquisition unit 110 does not acquire question information corresponding to the unit identifier acquired by the unit selection unit 109 above.

[0198] Then, the output unit 111 outputs the five unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit 109. For example, the output unit 111 arranges the five unit identifiers in a template or the like prepared in advance and outputs (for example, displays) them.

[0199] FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a unit identifier displayed by the output unit 111 on the monitor 111a.

[0200] The unit selection unit 109 may acquire unit identifiers that satisfy a selection condition including the condition "acquire a unit identifier with the highest importance indicated by the importance information acquired for the unit identifier, and as the p-th (p is an integer of 2 or more) unit identifiers after the first, acquire unit identifiers with high correlation with the p-1th unit identifier in the same group as the acquired unit identifier in sequence." As an example of a process for acquiring unit identifiers that satisfy such a selection condition, for example, the unit selection unit 109 acquires the unit with the highest importance as the first unit identifier, and then acquires the unit identifier with high correlation with the first unit identifier in the same group as the second unit identifier, and then acquires the unit identifier with high correlation with the second unit identifier in the same group as the third unit identifier, thereby acquiring unit identifiers with high correlation in the same group in sequence. By outputting the unit identifiers acquired in this way by the output unit 111, it is possible to acquire unit identifiers in an order according to the correlation between groups and units, for example, and to output unit identifiers that enable continuous learning of related units. The unit identifier is acquired so as not to overlap with other identifiers.

[0201] As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to acquire an appropriate unit identifier according to the correlation between three or more units, and to appropriately support the learning of students.

[0202] For example, a unit identifier indicating one or more units in which the student is to study can be obtained according to the student's academic ability and the correlation between the units.

[0203] In addition, in order to properly diagnose a student's academic ability based on the correlation between three or more units, for example, it is possible to obtain a unit identifier indicating one or more units to be checked and problem information corresponding to this unit identifier.

[0204] In each of the above embodiments, each process (each function) may be realized by centralized processing in a single device (system), or may be realized by distributed processing in a plurality of devices.

[0205] In addition, in the above embodiments, the educational support device is described as a standalone device, but the educational support device may be a standalone device or a server device in a server-client system. In the latter case, the output unit and the reception unit receive input and output screens via a communication line.

[0206] In each of the above embodiments, each component may be configured by dedicated hardware, or a component that can be realized by software may be realized by executing a program. For example, each component may be realized by a program execution unit such as a CPU reading and executing a software program recorded on a recording medium such as a hard disk or semiconductor memory. During execution, the program execution unit may execute the program while accessing a storage unit (e.g., a recording medium such as a hard disk or memory).

[0207] The software for realizing the educational support device in each of the above-mentioned embodiments is a program as follows: That is, this program causes a computer that can access a correlation storage unit in which correlation information regarding the correlation between units obtained using two or more pieces of grade information each having information regarding the grades for three or more units associated with a unit identifier that identifies a unit to function as a unit selection unit that obtains one or more unit identifiers from among the three or more unit identifiers using the correlation information, and an output unit that outputs information corresponding to the one or more unit identifiers obtained by the unit selection unit.

[0208] In addition, the functions realized by the above program do not include functions that can only be realized by hardware, such as a modem or an interface card in an acquisition unit that acquires information or an output unit that outputs information.

[0209] Furthermore, the program may be executed by a single computer or a plurality of computers. That is, the program may be executed by either centralized processing or distributed processing.

[0210] 13 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the appearance of a computer that executes the above program to realize the education support device according to the above embodiment. The above embodiment can be realized by computer hardware and a computer program executed thereon.

[0211] In FIG. 13, computer system 900 includes a computer 901 including a CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory) drive 905 , a keyboard 902 , a mouse 903 , and a monitor 904 .

[0212] Fig. 14 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of a computer system 900. In Fig. 14, the computer 901 includes, in addition to a CD-ROM drive 905, an MPU (Micro Processing Unit) 911, a ROM 912 for storing programs such as a boot-up program, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 913 connected to the MPU 911 and temporarily storing instructions of application programs and providing a temporary storage space, a hard disk 914 for storing application programs, system programs, and data, and a bus 915 for mutually connecting the MPU 911, the ROM 912, etc. Note that the computer 901 may include a network card (not shown) for providing a connection to a LAN.

[0213] A program for causing computer system 900 to execute the functions of the educational support device or the like according to the above-described embodiment may be stored on CD-ROM 921, inserted into CD-ROM drive 905, and transferred to hard disk 914. Alternatively, the program may be transmitted to computer 901 via a network (not shown) and stored on hard disk 914. The program is loaded into RAM 913 when executed. The program may also be loaded directly from CD-ROM 921 or the network.

[0214] The program does not necessarily include an operating system (OS) or a third-party program that causes the computer 901 to execute the functions of the educational support device according to the above embodiment. The program may include only an instruction portion that calls appropriate functions (modules) in a controlled manner to obtain a desired result. How the computer system 900 operates is well known, and a detailed description will be omitted.

[0215] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications are possible, and it goes without saying that these modifications are also included within the scope of the present invention. [Industrial Applicability]

[0216] INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY As described above, the educational support device according to the present invention is suitable as a device for supporting education, and is particularly useful as a device for supporting education on a plurality of subjects. [Explanation of symbols]

[0217] 1 Educational support equipment 101 Grade Storage Section 102 Correlation acquisition unit 103 Correlation storage unit 104 Group Generation Section 105 Group Storage Unit 106 Academic Ability Storage Unit 107 Constraints Storage 108 Problem Storage 109 Unit Selection Section 110 Question acquisition part 111 Output section 111a Monitor 112 Reception

Claims

1. a correlation storage unit in which correlation information regarding a correlation between units obtained using two or more pieces of grade information each having information regarding grades for three or more units associated with a unit identifier that identifies the unit is stored; a unit selection unit that acquires one or more unit identifiers from among the three or more unit identifiers using the correlation information; an output unit that outputs information corresponding to one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit, The unit selection unit uses the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit to obtain importance information for each of three or more units, indicating that the stronger the correlation with other units, the more important the unit is, and the educational support device obtains one or more unit identifiers whose obtained importance information satisfies a selection condition.

2. a group storage unit for storing group information indicating groups of unit identifiers grouped into two or more groups based on the correlation information; 2. The educational support device according to claim 1, wherein the unit selection unit acquires one or more unit identifiers by using a group of the unit identifiers.

3. The educational support device of claim 2, further comprising a group generation unit that uses the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit to group the unit identifiers of the three or more units into two or more groups, and accumulates group information indicating the groups of the unit identifiers of the three or more units in the group storage unit.

4. 4. The education support device according to claim 1, wherein the unit selection unit acquires, for each of three or more units, importance information among all the units.

5. Further comprising a constraint storage unit in which constraint conditions for the selection of units are stored, The educational support device according to claim 1 , wherein the unit selection unit acquires a number of unit identifiers that satisfy the constraint condition.

6. A correlation storage unit in which correlation information regarding the correlation between units obtained using two or more pieces of grade information each having information regarding grades for three or more units associated with a unit identifier that identifies the unit is stored; a unit selection unit that acquires one or more unit identifiers from among the three or more unit identifiers using the correlation information; an output unit that outputs information corresponding to one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit; a group storage unit for storing group information indicating groups of unit identifiers grouped into two or more groups based on the correlation information; The unit selection unit utilizes the group of unit identifiers to obtain importance information within the group indicating that the stronger the correlation between a unit and other units in the group, the higher its importance within the group, using correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit for each of three or more units, including two or more correlation information between each unit and other units in the group to which it belongs, and obtains one or more unit identifiers whose obtained importance information satisfies a selection condition.

7. An educational support device as described in claim 6, further comprising a group generation unit that uses the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit to group the unit identifiers of the three or more units into two or more groups, and accumulates group information indicating the groups of the unit identifiers of the three or more units in the group storage unit.

8. A grade storage unit in which two or more grade information are stored; The educational support device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising a correlation acquisition unit that acquires correlation information between two units using two or more grade information stored in the grade storage unit and accumulates the correlation information in the correlation storage unit.

9. a question storage unit for storing one or more pieces of question information associated with a unit identifier; a question acquisition unit that acquires from the question storage unit one or more pieces of question information corresponding to each of the one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit, The educational support device according to claim 1 , wherein the output unit outputs information having one or more pieces of question information acquired by the question acquisition unit as information corresponding to one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit.

10. The system further includes an academic ability storage unit in which academic ability information having information on the academic ability of each student in each unit is stored, The education support device according to claim 1 , wherein the unit selection unit further uses the academic ability information to obtain one or more unit identifiers for the student.

11. An educational support method using a correlation storage unit that stores correlation information regarding a correlation between units obtained using two or more pieces of grade information each having information regarding grades for three or more units associated with a unit identifier that identifies the unit, a unit selection unit, and an output unit, a unit selection step in which the unit selection unit acquires one or more unit identifiers from among the three or more unit identifiers by using the correlation information; an output step in which the output unit outputs information corresponding to one or more unit identifiers acquired in the unit selection step, The unit selection step is an educational support method in which, for each of three or more units, correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit is used to obtain importance information indicating that the stronger the correlation between a unit and other units, the more important the unit is, and one or more unit identifiers whose obtained importance information satisfies a selection condition are obtained.

12. An educational support method using a correlation storage unit in which correlation information regarding the correlation between units obtained using two or more pieces of grade information each having information regarding grades for three or more units associated with a unit identifier that identifies a unit is stored, a unit selection unit, an output unit, and a group storage unit in which group information indicating groups of unit identifiers grouped into two or more groups by the correlation information is stored, a unit selection step in which the unit selection unit acquires one or more unit identifiers from among the three or more unit identifiers by using the correlation information; an output step in which the output unit outputs information corresponding to one or more unit identifiers acquired in the unit selection step, The unit selection step utilizes the group of unit identifiers to obtain importance information within the group, which indicates that the stronger the correlation between a unit and other units in the group, the more important the unit is within the group, using correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit for each of three or more units, including two or more correlation information between each unit and other units in the group to which it belongs, and obtains one or more unit identifiers whose obtained importance information satisfies a selection condition.

13. A computer that can access a correlation storage unit that stores correlation information regarding correlations between units obtained using two or more pieces of grade information each having information regarding grades for three or more units associated with a unit identifier that identifies the unit, a unit selection unit that acquires one or more unit identifiers from among the three or more unit identifiers using the correlation information; functioning as an output unit that outputs information corresponding to one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit; The unit selection unit uses the correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit to obtain, for each of three or more units, importance information indicating that the stronger the correlation between a unit and other units, the more important the unit is, and obtains one or more unit identifiers whose obtained importance information satisfies a selection condition.

14. A computer having access to a correlation storage unit in which correlation information regarding correlations between units obtained using two or more pieces of grade information each having information regarding grades for three or more units associated with a unit identifier that identifies the unit is stored, and a group storage unit in which group information indicating groups of unit identifiers grouped into two or more groups by the correlation information is stored, a unit selection unit that acquires one or more unit identifiers from among the three or more unit identifiers using the correlation information; functioning as an output unit that outputs information corresponding to one or more unit identifiers acquired by the unit selection unit; The unit selection unit utilizes the group of unit identifiers to obtain importance information within the group indicating that the stronger the correlation between a unit and other units in the group, the higher its importance within the group, using correlation information stored in the correlation storage unit for each of three or more units, including two or more correlation information between each unit and other units in the group to which it belongs, and obtains one or more unit identifiers whose obtained importance information satisfies a selection condition.

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