The increasing phenomenon of benchmarking in education is highly useful in measuring the performance of students, teachers, and schools, and consequently evaluate and compare the education system. The test preparation industry has emerged concomitantly with the extensive standardization of the education sector in the US. This standardization essentially refers to the provision of exam preparation services for students to help them score well in entrance tests. The test preparation providers make available supplementary educational materials, mock tests, and guides in classroom-based or online learning modes to help the students in their endeavors. Apart from that, test preparation companies in the US help the students prepare for various university and high school level exams such as SAT and ACT, as well as certification exams such as MCAT and GMAT. The scope for such test preparation companies is high, driven by the rise in demand from students seeking admission in better schools and colleges.

Online education is a form of learning on an online platform. In this form of learning, instruction and content are delivered primarily electronically.

Lecture capture solutions refer to technologies that capture, create, manage, broadcast, and archive lectures. These technologies record the presenter's content, synchronize it with any visual aid and either stream the content live, or archive it for on-demand viewing on a computer or mobile device. In addition to these features, interactivity, and the solution's ability to paint any presentation content with the trainer's audio and video accelerates its usage in the academic, corporate, government, healthcare, and education sectors. The global lecture capture solutions market is expected to reach $672.25 million by 2019, growing at a CAGR of 19.45% during the period 2014-2019. The market is still in its growth stage and is yet to expand worldwide. North America holds a dominant position with 51.36% of the market share, owing to widespread online education in schools and colleges in that region. Next is Europe, which is also expanding with a 23.12% market share. The APAC is the fastest growing market and is expected to generate substantial revenues at the end of the forecast period. Both Latin America and the MEA, being emerging regions, are expected to grow rapidly, even though they hold comparatively small market shares.

Digitization has a crucial role in the education sector as it increases online learning and open education. The use of technology while imparting education helps bridge the digital gap between students and teachers as well as among families. The rise in competition in the labor market and widening skill gaps have led to an upsurge in the education standards in terms of productivity and performance delivery. Therefore, the education industry has adopted digital learning and is significantly fueling the demand for desktops, projectors, and sound systems to enhance the quality of education and make the learning environment more conducive to learning. Educational tools and devices are increasingly influencing the learning environment and have widespread applications either in delivery or recording of classroom lectures and improving student-teacher interaction.

The increasing phenomenon of benchmarking in education is highly useful in measuring the performance of students, teachers, and schools, and consequently evaluate and compare the education system.

This research develops computational models of teaching and learning and combines these models with machine learning algorithms to interpret learners’ actions and customize instruction based on these interpretations. This approach results in frameworks that can be adapted to a variety of educational domains, with the frameworks clearly separating components that can be shared across tasks and components that are customized based on the educational content. Using this approach, this dissertation addresses three major questions: (1) How can one diagnose learners’ knowledge from their behavior in games and virtual laboratories? (2) How can one predict whether a game will be diagnostic of learners’ knowledge? and (3) How can one customize instruction in a computer-based tutor based on a model of learning in a domain?