The iQTool project:

Developing a quality assurance tool for

eLearning
Polyxeni Arapi
xenia@ced.tuc.gr
Technical University of Crete/Laboratory of Distributed Multimedia
Information Systems and Applications (TUC/MUSIC)
http://www.music.tuc.gr

Quality assurance - QA

QA addresses the need to ensure suitability of products for their

intended purpose

It is related to quality control of final products by specifying

critical parameters that need to be tested

It also identifies issues for quality improvement

It can be applied, with appropriate adaptation, to any production

process

QA in eLearning

Learning and eLearning special case of production process

need QA methodologies to meet the needs of Learners

Learning services, materials products quality should be

ensured and controlled

Quality in eLearning is significant in two perspectives:

Quality through eLearning

Quality for eLearning

The need to produce quality eLearning products is widely

accepted

However, most of the eLearning organizations do not apply QA

methodologies (quality gap)

Need to promote a quality culture in a systematic manner

The iQTool aim and consortium

General Information

Leonardo Da Vinci project

Start: December 2007

Duration: 2 years

6 partners from 5 countries

Enables VET institutions to

embrace a quality culture

Quality assurance
methodology

Open source software tool for

quality control of training
services and materials

Training material on quality

management

Pilot testing

iQTool Evaluation Component

Self-standing component that can be used in many LMSs with
minimal adaptation each time

It can also be used for evaluation in other contexts (not only elearning)

By integrating this component in an LMS, the Evaluator can

evaluate what (s)he actually experiences

It can store the answers related to the quality simultaneously

when the training material pages are displayed on the screen.

Standards-based and service-oriented

Functionality of Evaluation Component

iQTool Evaluation Component

Architecture

The Evaluation Component

Repository
User Profiles

Represented using IMS LIP

Web services allowing:

Creation, retrieval, update, export, import of user profiles

Assessment Objects (items/tests)

METS, LOM, QTI

Web services allowing:

Creation, retrieval, update, searching of Assessment Objects

(boolean and fuzzy filters)

Responses

Represented using QTI

Web services allowing:

Storage, retrieval, update of responses

The Metadata Encoding and

Transmission Standard (METS)
A widely-accepted Digital Library standard
A flexible, but tightly structured container for all metadata

necessary to describe, navigate and maintain a digital

object (XML):

Descriptive,

Administrative and

Structural metadata

Each type of metadata is described in a separate section,

which is linked to its counterparts by internal identifiers

These metadata (any preferred scheme) may be physically

stored within the METS file, or in external files referenced

from within the METS document

The Metadata Encoding and

Transmission Standard (METS)

IMS Question and Test

Interoperability Specification v2.1
Describes a data model for the representation of

questions (assessmentItems) and tests (assessmentTests) data

and

their corresponding results reports

It allows for the exchange of items, tests and results data

between authoring tools, item banks, test constructional tools,

learning systems and assessment delivery systems
(interoperability)
The interchange of items and tests is done with appropriate

XML documents

IMS Question and Test

Interoperability Specification v2.1
Assessment Item (AI):

smallest exchangeable object that can be used for

assessment
encompasses the information that is presented to a
candidate and information about how to score the item
it can be considered as a simple Question, but it is more.
It contains:
the question and instructions to be presented,
the response processing rules to be applied to the
candidates response(s), and
the feedback that may be presented (including hints and
solutions)

IMS Question and Test

Interoperability Specification v2.1
Assessment Test (AT):

An organized collection of Items questionnaire

It contains all necessary instructions to enable

the sequencing of the items, and

the calculation of the outcome values (e.g. the final test score)

Using METS in the case of iQTool

Additional Services of the Evaluation

Component Repository
Specification of evaluation (quality control) parameters

Who evaluates, what, when and how

Specification and presentation of statistics

Statistical processing of responses given in the context of an

evaluation (quality control) process

Simple and combined statistics

Special kind of questions/questionnaires are used to address

the need for extensibility of user profiles

Conclusions Future work

In the first phase of the iQTool project

Develops an appropriate QA methodology for its target

groups

Designs and develops a flexible Evaluation Component to

support quality control in eLearning

Integrates the Evaluation Component with ILIAS LMS

In the second phase of the iQTool project

Specific assessment objects will be created implementing

the iQTool QA methodology

Courses for the usage of the specified QA methodology and

the Evaluation Component

Pilot testing

iQTool project Web Site: http://www.iqtool.eu/

Thank you for your attention!

Questions?