Enhancing IMS QTI assessment with web maps

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Enhancing IMS QTI assessment with web maps

• José Bouzo, Helena Batlle, Toni Navarrete, Josep
  Blat
• (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
• TENCompetence Open Workshop on Current research
  on IMS Learning Design and Lifelong Competence
  Development Infrastructures
• Barcelona, 21st-22nd June 2007

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Introduction

• Humans have used maps since the Stone Age to
  represent parts of the Earth

Catal Hyük, Turkey (6200 BC) Source Cartographic
Images http//www.henry-davis.com/MAPS
Map of Ga-Sur (2300 BC) Original and
reconstruction Source Cartographic
Images http//www.henry-davis.com/MAPS
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Introduction

• Maps are the most widely used tool to represent
  those features and phenomena that have a spatial
  component
• Widely used in
• Our everyday life
• Geography
• Other disciplines
• History
• Economics and Business
• Sociology
• Politics
• Biology
• Environmental Science
• ...

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Maps in education

• Maps play a key role in education
• Learning how maps work
• Scale
• Orientation
• Distances
• ...
• Understanding the local and global environment,
  and how human activities take place in these
  environments

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Maps in eLearning

• Maps as static images
• Web map services offer the possibility of
  incorporating more elaborated maps in the
  learning process
• More interactivity
• New learning possibilities

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Maps in the assessment process

• Maps are often needed to evaluate the acquisition
  of competences in Geography and related fields
• Objective of our work integration of interactive
  maps in an eAssessment platform
• Visualisation of maps (and typical interaction
  operations)
• Answer questions by
• clicking on key elements on the map
• sketching points, lines or polygons on the map to
  represent geographic elements

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General view
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Assessment specifications

• QTI (Question Test Interoperability) is the IMS
  specification for assessment
• Last versions
• QTI 2.0 items (questions)
• QTI 2.1 tests

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QTI tools

• Engine/player
• APIS (Assessment Provision through Interoperable
  Segments)
• Original version by University of Strathclyde,
  supporting a few types of QTI 2.0 interactions
  (types of questions)
• Largely upgraded by UPF to support
• More interactions types (types of questions)
• More data types and more types of expressions (to
  obtain the corresponding result)
• Assessment tests (QTI 2.1)
• Internal structure of tests sections and parts
• Processing the outcome for the whole test
• Lack of editors

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Google Maps

• Google Maps is a simple web-based map viewer
• Google Earth is a richer desktop application that
  provides 3D visualization
• They are very popular because
• Provide free cartography
• Enable non-expert users to visualise their own
  data (KML files)
• Google Maps has a simple API (JavaScript and AJAX)

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Examples of Google Maps
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Connecting APIS and Google Maps
MIDDLEWARE
APIS
Google Maps
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Connecting APIS and Google Maps the middleware

• It generates the Google Maps JavaScript functions
  to show a map
• It also processes the actions of the user on the
  map and converts them into QTI responses that can
  be processed by APIS
• The middleware encapsulates all the Google Maps
  code, and consequently the APIS engine does not
  need changes
• Providing support for WMS would require
  modifications in the middleware, but not in APIS

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Inserting a map in a question
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Inserting a map in a question

• ltitemBodygt
• ltpgtLook at the map and answer the
  question below lt/pgt
• ltpgt
• ltmap src"GoogleMaps2.xml"/gt
• lt/pgt
• ltchoiceInteraction responseIdentifier"RES
  PONSE" shuffle"false" maxChoices"1"gt
• ltpromptgtWhich is the peninsula that
  you can see on the maplt/promptgt
• ltsimpleChoice identifier"ChoiceA"gtIta
  lian Peninusulalt/simpleChoicegt
• ltsimpleChoice identifier"ChoiceB"gtIbe
  rian Peninusulalt/simpleChoicegt
• ltsimpleChoice identifier"ChoiceC"gtBal
  kan Peninusula lt/simpleChoicegt
• ltsimpleChoice identifier"ChoiceD"gtKola
  Peninusula lt/simpleChoicegt
• lt/choiceInteractiongt
• lt/itemBodygt
• ...

lt?xml version"1.0" encoding"UTF-8"?gt ltGoogleMaps
gt ltInteractionTypegtChoicelt/InteractionTypegt ltCen
tergt ltlatitudegt40.747257lt/latitudegt ltlengthgt-3
.460693lt/lengthgt ltzoomgt5lt/zoomgt lt/Centergt lt/Goo
gleMapsgt
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Processing answers through the map
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Processing answers through the map

• ltresponseDeclaration identifier"RESPONSE"
  cardinality"single" baseType"identifier"gt
• ltcorrectResponsegt
• ltvaluegtBarcelonalt/valuegt
• lt/correctResponsegt
• lt/responseDeclarationgt
• ltitemBodygt
• ltpgtLook at the map and answer the
  question below lt/pgt
• ltpgt
• ltmap src"GoogleMaps.xml"/gt
• lt/pgt
• ltchoiceInteraction responseIdentifier"RES
  PONSE" shuffle"false" maxChoices"1"gt
• ltpromptgtWhich is the largest city in
  Catalonia?lt/promptgt
• ltsimpleChoice identifier"GMapInteract
  ion"gtlt/simpleChoicegt
• lt/choiceInteractiongt
• lt/itemBodygt

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Processing answers through the map

• lt?xml version"1.0" encoding"UTF-8"?gt
• ltGoogleMapsgt
• ltInteractionTypegtChoicelt/InteractionTypegt
• ltCentergt
• ltlatitudegt41.38lt/latitudegt
• ltlengthgt2.18lt/lengthgt
• ltzoomgt7lt/zoomgt
• lt/Centergt
• ltResponsesgt
• ltOptionMarkergt
• ltimagegt"OpcioA.gif"lt/imagegt
• ltinfogtGironalt/infogt
• ltlatitudegt41.981219lt/latitudegt
• ltlengthgt2.823443lt/lengthgt
• lt/OptionMarkergt
• ltOptionMarkergt
• ltimagegt"OpcioB.gif"lt/imagegt
• ltinfogtBarcelonalt/infogt
• ltlatitudegt41.387918lt/latitudegt

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Other ways of interacting with the map
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Other ways of interacting with the map

• Map interaction how the user interacts with the
  map to produce the response
• In the example
• Interaction type (type of question) simple
  choice question, Italy or outside Italy
• Map interaction pointIntoPolygon
• The middleware has to check whether the user has
  clicked on a polygon containing Italy (defined in
  the xml file) or not
• Depending on the case, it passes to APIS one of
  the two choices Italy or outside Italy
• Other types of map interactions
• Drawing lines, compared to a valid response
  consisting in a line widened up to a certain
  distance
• Dragging elements, to fit inside polygons
• ...

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Other ways of interacting with the map
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Conclusions

• The use of interactive maps in assessment
  introduce the possibility of new ways of
  interacting with questions
• Clicking
• Drawing
• Dragging elements
• The middleware approach enables the definition of
  mapping services for assessment that involve just
  minor changes to the APIS QTI engine
• First step towards
• Combination of different specifications to
  provide richer contents and interactions in
  eLearning
• A collaborative and multimedia assessment

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Future work

• Editor, enabling authors to graphically create
  map-enabled questions and map interactions
• Definition of more new types of map interactions,
  supporting more spatial operators
• Support to OGC Web Map Service specification

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Thanks for your attention