Philippe Cottier

Engineering of Open Learning Scenarios - The Case of Hop3x Learning Scenarios

Within an educational context, adaptation could improve the learning’s quality. Many researches are done in the learning-situations adaptation field. The Educational Modeling Languages (EML) and tools provided currently to the teacher for a learning design, as preexistent means in our sense, remain useless by practitioners. In our work we aim to support the practitioner teacher to design and adapt his/her learning scenarios which are by nature open, influenced by the context in which they are executed. The approach adopted is the combination between Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) and Domain-Specific Modeling (DSM). In this paper we present a model of open learning scenario. So we take the learning scenarios of Hop3x as a case study.

Re-engineering of the Apprenticeship Electronic Booklet: Adaptation to New Users Requirements

In this article we illustrate and discuss a techno-centric aspect of re-engineering realized on an existent TEL system: the Apprenticeship Electronic Booklet. Although this system has been designed with end-users following a participatory process, the first version had also been found too rigid in regard to the roles management and to the underlying academic structures. In order to improve this TEL system, two approaches of re-engineering have been conducted. The first solution focuses on an internal modification of the system functionalities and parametrization facilities. The second re-engineering work follows a Domain-Specific Modeling approach that led us to propose a graphical editor communicating with the TEL system. This external component aims to provide end-users with a more user-friendly facility to configure booklets. This second work is particularly illustrated and discussed in regard to the promising underlying re-engineering process.

L'usager concepteur en situation: Conception collective d'un livret électronique d'apprentissage (LÉA)

This article presents a research and development study conducted in a project named « LEA ». An environment was designed to evaluate apprentices in their apprenticeship training. The implementation approach is inspired by the participatory design, which is user-centered. The design and development process is described and analyzed through observations of the design of the produced and handled artifacts. The Metamodels that describe scenarios are identified from this analysis. They are used to produce an environment that we detail in this paper.

Dialogue in context, towards a referential approach in collective learning

In this article, we present research in the making of a collective work environment within the framework of a distance education course. We base our theoretical and methodological standpoints on examples of dialogical discourses recorded within the framework of this CSCL system called Symba. In fact, the results of previous research lead us to rethink our vision of the study of collaborative moments between participants in a computer-supported human learning environment that proposes several communication tools. Redefining the methodological process aiming at finding and understanding these rich learning moments is also necessary. We intend to describe “socio-technical” instances during which these collaboration phases appear. More generally speaking, our aim is to draw up both new theoretical and methodological perspectives that would be reusable in CSCL environments; in view of the nature of these two perspectives, and the diversity of the domain knowledge (sociology, cognitivism, linguistics, philosophy, statistics, etc.) brought to bear in the study of the environment in question, our approach constitutes a trans-disciplinary reassessment of the uses of the communication tools—and the study thereof—proposed.

Domain-Specific Modeling Approach to Support Instructional Design Rationale

We investigate in this paper the instructional design rationale of open pedagogical scenarios. We use the Domain-Specific Modeling (DSM) approach for proposing Domain-Specific Educational Modeling Languages (DSEML) and dedicated editors to teachers/designers in order to allow them to work at a high-level of abstraction. Thanks to EMF tools we have realized a first implementation of our proposal about learning sessions of Hop3x. The Hop3xs DSEML is described by a metamodel and accordingly a first version of specific editor has been generated.

Learning with the Artificial Sciences

In what follows, we look into the intellectual history of Distance Education. We study the methodological, political and epistemological aspects of the shift of paradigms in the scientific thought used to construct distance learning objects. A global (not meaning exhaustive) coverage of the various ways in which instructional communication has been mediated is given. We consider e-learning’s objects to be socio-technical in nature and thus that their history stems from the very beginnings of Artificial Intelligence.