ICOPER Deliverable D-6.2 - Production flow description and prototype for the two platforms under study (Moodle and .LRN) including the required steps to exchange the material in both platforms

Álvaro Agea, Raquel Crespo García, Carlos Delgado Kloos, Israel Gutiérrez, Derick Leony, Abelardo Pardo

    Research output: Book/ReportDeliverable

    Abstract

    In deliverable D6.1, assessment formats were studied from a language-theoretic point of view. In this deliverable D6.2, the analysis is done from a practical, tool-oriented point of view, with particular emphasis on interoperability. More precisely, the objective of this deliverable is twofold. First, to provide an in-depth analysis of interoperability and present a step-by-step procedure for exchanging e-learning material in two open source learning management systems (Moodle and .LRN). This procedure is then framed in the more general evaluation and production flow, which is analysed in order to enhance e-learning material. The first part thus addresses mainly tool developers, whereas the second is focused on final users related to assessment content, particularly content developers or even teachers. The exchange of assessment material between learning management systems is not a trivial issue. The usage of IMS QTI for this purpose provides us with the advantages of a well-known assessment specification, but with the disadvantages of its complexity (due to its high flexibility) and instability of versions. A prototype solution has been developed that, making use of IMS QTI 1.2.1, succeeds in this task. Although this solution is not complete, as it just covers a subset of the IMS QTI specification, it serves as a proof of concept for describing the detailed procedure for exchanging material between the two aforementioned open source LMSs (and also with Clix). Thus, users of LMSs have a step-by-step guide to exchange assessment material among these platforms. On the basis of the experience gained from the development of this prototype, a series of recommendations for assessment interoperability have been proposed. The first part of these recommendations is related to the idea of extending the QTI specification in order to link it to other e-learning fields. This integration brings some benefits, which emerge in the context of e-learning material repositories with several types of content, i.e., learning assessments, units of learning, learning outcomes, etc. A complete chapter has been devoted to the integration of assessment material in the Open ICOPER Content Space. For that purpose, a prototype is being developed for .LRN that covers a predefined set of assessment scenarios. These scenarios have been defined based on the assessment use cases that are part of the ICOPER Reference Model (IRM). Besides, this prototype implementation is helpful for evaluation of assessment recommendations and the IRM itself. Additional recommendations are also made about the usage of the IMS QTI specification per se. Nevertheless, to complete these recommendations is still work in progress. They will finally be presented in the last deliverable of Work Package 6. Regarding production flow, there are no unified procedures to carry it out in the studied European institutions. In addition, the platforms under study (Moodle and .LRN) do not provide support for it. Mechanisms for course evaluation and review are not supported by the platforms, because they tend to implement a more agile content production flow (e.g. the instructors themselves can edit the content in the final production system directly). In order to solve this problem, an example of a production flow and a series of quality assurance parameters have been presented.
    Original languageEnglish
    PublisherICOPER
    Number of pages46
    Publication statusPublished - 28 Feb 2010

    Keywords

    • ICOPER
    • assessment
    • QTI
    • prototypes
    • .LRN
    • moodle

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