Françoise Le Calvez

A practical approach to using the IMS-QTI specification

The advent of the web has deeply modified educational practices. Teachers and learners like having many exercises available for training or for assessing. A solution to this is to allow many authors to create and share resources; this involves gathering together several communities using the same format. A study of the most used LMSs has shown that IMS-QTI is the most accomplished specification to express interactive and parameterised exercises. Moreover, to ensure that instantiated exercises have the same level of difficulty, it is necessary to define constraints between parameters. But IMS-QTI is limited here. Therefore, we have extended IMS-QTI to express the constraints between interdependent parameters. To validate this approach, we have implemented tools for teachers: an editor for creating interactive exercises with constrained parameters and feedback; a translator of IMS-QTI files to play interactive exercises on the web without web services; a classification for storing the exercises. The proposed extensions have been agreed by the IMS-QTI group.

Targeted Detection: Application to Error Detection in a Pedagogical System

In a learning environment (tutorial system), the problem of the detection of students’ errors is fundamental. When an error is detected, the tutorial system can choose the best time to provide information and explanations in order to help the student make progress. The mechanism of error detection must be able to draw from knowledge about the studied domain and to adapt itself to various pedagogical strategies. In an interactive system, the problem of the detection of students’ errors arises in an incremental manner, at each input of information.

Design Patterns pour l’évaluation des apprenants dans un EIAH

Dans cet article nous presentons un premier ensemble de 17 Design Patterns (DP) pour la conception d’EIAH qui evaluent des apprenants en situation de resolution de problemes. La demarche d’evaluation decrite par ces DPs comporte trois etapes : premierement, recueil et analyse des informations sur un seul apprenant pour un seul exercice, deuxiemement construction d’une vue generale sur l’activite individuelle d’un apprenant sur un ensemble d’exercices et, troisiemement elaboration d’une vue generale sur l’activite de toute une classe sur un meme ensemble d’exercices. Nous montrons que cet ensemble de DPs capitalisant l’experience de plusieurs projets menes par les co-auteurs rend compte egalement de la conception de l’evaluation des apprenants dans d’autres EIAH decrits dans la litterature. Nous soutenons que l’approche Design Pattern facilite la communication entre les disciplines intervenant dans la conception des EIAH et permet de capturer leur experience de conception pour faciliter la reutilisation dans des projets a venir. L’ensemble de DPs presentes ici est un premier pas en ce sens.