An Evaluation of the QTI E-Learning Standard in Resource-Limited Environments

Omar, Muammar and Dalwai, Afzal and Suleman, Hussein (2005) An Evaluation of the QTI E-Learning Standard in Resource-Limited Environments, Proceedings of 7th Annual Conference on World Wide Web Applications, 29-31 August, Cape Town.

PDF www_2005_qti_final_edited_hs.pdf Download (188kB)

Abstract

Early Learning Management Systems (LMSes) were often criticised for their lack of interoperability. This situation is now being addressed by a cohesive standardisation effort in the form of IEEE-LOM, IMS-QTI and related specifications. While these standards are now supported by numerous LMSes, it is not known if they can be broadly applied to different types of LMSes developed for different communities, with widely varying facilities and requirements. This question was the focus of this study, where the IMS Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) standard was investigated for its applicability in a learning environment where not all learners have access to computers. It was proposed that alternative electronic learning management systems could focus on the teacher, with a shift in learning medium (to paper) at the interface between educators and students. To test this new philosophy for building LMSes, the QTI standard was used as the basis for a Web-based application to design questions and compose tests. Individual questions, collections of questions and entire tests were stored as linked and threaded collections of IMS-encoded records. The system then provided the ability to render a collection of questions for printing to paper. Analysis of the system building process revealed that the QTI standard is ambiguous and not easily applied in non-traditional situations where the focus is not on online testing. In spite of this shortcoming, a formal evaluation using a sample of educators confirmed that the system's use of the QTI standard was virtually transparent and that the system was indeed usable.

Item Type:	Conference paper
Subjects:	Social and professional topics > Professional topics > Computing education Information systems > Data management systems > Database design and models
Date Deposited:	11 Nov 2005
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2019 15:35
URI:	http://pubs.cs.uct.ac.za/id/eprint/275

Actions (login required)

View Item