In this paper, we propose an approach for the engineering of web based educational applications. The applications that we focus require advanced functionality for regulating and tutoring learners' activities (dynamics of learning). Our approach aims at proposing models, not only to describe details of such learning situations, but also to characterize the constraints that the Learning Management System exploiting such situations must satisfy; in this sense, this approach also contributes to the specification of the Adaptive Web Based Educational System (AWBES) fitted to a particular learning situation. Moreover, this approach for the engineering of learning situations conforms to current software engineering research works. Categories and Subject Descriptors General TermsDesign, Human Factors, Languages. KeywordsArchitectures and designs for web-based learning delivery environments, specification of educational applications, Models and Metamodels, UML Language.

Cet article examine les apports des langages visuels pour la scénarisation pédagogique d'un EIAH. Basée sur l'évaluation de différents langages visuels, notre étude examine les modèles conceptuels que ces langages permettent de produire. Plusieurs apports sont identifiés et discutés : les langages visuels sont des outils exploratoires qui aident les concepteurs à définir les contours d'un EIAH; ces langages permettent aussi aux différents acteurs d'échanger des points de vue au sein d'une équipe de développement pour aboutir à une solution viable. La discussion souligne qu'au-delà de leurs aspects graphiques, l'expressivité des langages visuels devrait s'appuyer sur trois piliers essentiels : des primitives de conception tangibles pour les acteurs impliqués dans l'équipe de développement, une capacité à exprimer différentes perspectives d'un EIAH et différents niveaux d'abstraction pour ces perspectives .

Recent research has attested the implementation and the effectiveness of Geographic Information Systems in geographic teaching [1, 2]. Different works and experiments have shown that current Web Mapping Services and frameworks are partially unfitted for the design and easy programming of web applications dedicated to the teaching of geographic information. Our research problem is enabling to teachers to design by themselves an Active Reading Learning Scenario [3] making use of geographical information avoiding any programmer intervention. In this article, we report on Web Interaction Design (WIND), a web interaction lightweight programming model that we designed to help users to describe interactions between textual, map and calendar components. We present the core concepts of WIND (event-reaction-interaction processing), its API and we exemplify the WIND model from different examples. The main characteristics of WIND are then presented and discussed: WIND is integrative (it combines textual, map and calendar components; it also combines Web Mapping Services, etc.). WIND is fully executable (thanks to the WIND JavaScript API). WIND promotes lightweight programming. WIND is object-oriented: users can consistently describe interactions whatever the source and target components are. WIND is a declarative model enabling users to design web interactions between textual, map and calendar components. We present different examples and source codes that pinpoint the added-value of the WIND model and its API.

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This work reports an evaluation of two Educational Modeling Languages for the design of environments dedicated to Problem-Based Learning (PBL) situations. Firstly, we assess the expressivity of the IMS-LD language against the requirements of the Smash case-study. Considering the limits of the IMS-LD language, we present some capabilities of the CPM language to describe other views representing contextual didactic choices (actions and events) that IMS-LD cannot afford.An analysis of the details of these CPM views has shown that they refer to learning/tutoring actions to be performed from the semantics of the electronic documents exploited in the Smash situation. Since it is a widely shared tendency to specify learning activities that take advantage of the information embedded in documents, we present some techniques, methods and tools to engineer together the educational capabilities of a corpus of electronic documents and the dynamics of learning activities enhancing the value of such a corpus. The only documents addressed by these research works are those embedding spatial and temporal information.Index Terms-Innovative uses of technology for teaching and learning; Educational Modeling Languages (EML); Information Retrieval and ExtractionThe authors are member of the