FR2690267A1 - Distance education system and method of establishing a course usable in this system. - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a tele-tuition system for students wishing to remotely take courses in a desired field. The system is characterized in that it is comprised of a course server station (1), a plurality of student data processing terminals (2) connected to the server (1) by means of transmission lines (5) for transmitting the subject to be taught, and a teacher station (3) connected to the student terminals by means of data transmission lines (5), each student terminal (2) being adapted to converse with the server (1) and with the teacher terminal (3), most conveniently by exchange of electronic mail. The invention is applicable to tele-tuition.

Description

 The invention relates to a distance learning system for students wishing to remotely follow courses in a desired field and a method of establishing a course usable in this system.

 Known systems of this type have the disadvantage of being rigid and inefficient. In particular, they are not adapted to take into account students' ability to learn more or less quickly, for example because of a state of knowledge that varies from one student to another and their ability to study. which is not the same for all students.

 The present invention aims to provide a telecommunication system that does not have the disadvantage mentioned above and is flexible and adaptable to each student.

 To achieve this goal, the system according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises a course server station, in which the subject to be taught is organized in the form of sequences of teaching sections, each identified by parameters of identification and viewable on a display screen of a computer terminal in the form of one or more images, a plurality of student computer terminals connected to the server by transmission lines of the subject to be taught, each of which includes a display screen. visualization, a control device that allows dialogue with the server and write and emit including questions relating to the teaching subject received in section form and is adapted to associate each question with the identification parameters of the student who asked the question and the section that generated it, and a teacher terminal connected to student terminals by tran lines smission of data such as questions and answers to these questions, particularly in the form of e-mail.

 According to an advantageous characteristic of the invention, the remote teaching system comprises an archive and knowledge base device connected to the student and teacher terminals by data transmission lines and adapted to increase its storage capacity of the data banks. knowledge by memorizing the data exchanged between the student and teacher terminals, with the associated identification parameters.

 According to another characteristic of the invention, the identification parameters of a section include an identification index, a title and the name of the teacher who prepared the section.

 According to yet another advantageous characteristic of the invention, since the subject to be taught comprises a plurality of different teaching domains, each selectively selectable by a student terminal, the server contains a selection part of said teaching domains. , which has a hierarchical structure and includes a menu and submenus so that the access path to a domain is formed by a sequence consisting of said menu and a number of sub-menus, each menu and sub-menus. menu being designed to be viewable on the terminal screens in the form of an image and having for each possibility selectable at least one identification index and an indication parameter of the next corresponding sub-menu, to be selected.

 According to another feature of the invention, the growing capacity knowledge base includes means for assessing the level of knowledge of each student by exploiting test scores and exercises, exams, and student questions.

 According to yet another advantageous characteristic of the invention, the knowledge base with increasing capacity includes means of establishing a course of teaching a profile relating the questions asked by the students and the different sections of a course, this profile being a means to tell the teacher where and how to complete this course.

 According to yet another characteristic of the invention, a course can be modified by replacing a course section with a new section or by adding at least one loop of additional sections, each loop being selectable using a menu inserted in the main course suite of the course.

 According to yet another advantageous characteristic of the invention, the knowledge base is provided with means of automatic recognition of the questions asked by the students, such as means of the type with keywords, and means comparators of each question coming from received the stored questions and sending means to the sending terminal of a question where the answers already stored in a question or questions considered by the recognition means as corresponding to the question just received.

 According to yet another advantageous characteristic of the invention, the system comprises means of routing a question from a student terminal first to the knowledge base and then to the teacher terminal if the knowledge base. does not remember an answer to this question.

 According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the teacher terminal and the knowledge base are adapted to allow the teacher who has received a question to search the knowledge base for an appropriate answer already stored.

 The method of preparing a new field of teaching and insertion thereof in the teaching subject diffusable by the server is characterized in that it consists in writing a teaching field according to a hierarchical structure comprising chapters and sub-chapters, to associate to each chapter or sub-chapter the identification parameters used by the server and to organize the subject to be taught in the form of sections identifiable by identifying parameters used in the server, and to bring the server to insert the new domain thus organized into the teaching subject already present in the server, using the parameters established for the new domain.

The invention will be better understood, and other objects, features, details and advantages thereof will appear more clearly in the following explanatory description made with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings given solely by way of example illustrating a embodiment of the invention, and wherein
FIG. 1 shows in the form of a block diagram the structure of a remote teaching system according to the present invention
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the organization of the subject matter to be taught in a course server according to the invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a remote teaching system according to the invention essentially comprises a server station 1 which provides distance learning, a number of computer terminals 2, each associated with a student and connected to the server so as to it can serve as a conversational tool, a teacher terminal 3 and an archive and knowledge base device 4, the student and teacher terminals and the device 4 being also connected by data transmission lines. The different components of the distance education system are generally geographically distant from each other. The server 1 may be a computer of the Unix type and the smart terminals 2 and 3 may be of the personal computer type,
Macintosh or DEC or SUN workstations.The terminals and the server are interconnected by a data transmission network indicated at 5, which could be the telephone network, by means of a communication box and, in the case of a normal network, of interfaces of the MODEM type or, in the case of a digital telephone network, of an interface called SO with NUMERIS. The system of remote teaching consists, in terms of system software, of a set utility programs associated with the Unix computer, and comprising for example a text editor of the type known under the name "vi", electronic mail, compilers of the type for example known under the names "C't," C ++ " visual communication programs, for example of the type known under the name "TALK" and "PHONE", communication between programs of the real-time type, for example known under the name ROCKETS, and emulation by example known as "vt 100" and "terminal X".

 The telecommunication system provides for teaching on several levels of information. The information provided can be texts. In this case the students and the teacher, each equipped with his terminal, use, to communicate, unmarked household terminals under the emulation "vt 100", connected for example by a protocol of the type known under the name Kermit to the course server 1, a computer running Unix. The connection between the course server 1 and the telephone network may be of the PABX type, that is to say, auto-switch. The connection between the server and the ETHERNET network can be of the TCP / IP type. The courses may also contain graphics. The terminals must then be intelligent and the students and the teacher use to communicate computers in Terminal-X emulation connected to the class server 1, a VAX computer operating under the software known under the name X -window. Distance learning may also involve sending pictures, accompanied by sound, in the classes taught. For this purpose, the various components of the system include links involving appropriate software under video terminal type emulation.

 Referring to Figure 2 will be described below the organization of the material to be taught in the course server 1. Each course is broken down into sections 7. Each section is a concept adapted to be represented on the screen of the terminals student in the form of one or more images. Each course may be accompanied by practical exercises designed to familiarize students with the subject for which the course was developed. Tests and an examination are used to check the level of the student.

 The totality of the subject to be taught generally comprises a plurality of courses. For the selection of courses, there is provided a selection part which has a hierarchical structure and comprises a menu and sub-menus so that the access path to a course or test or examination is formed by a sequence constituted by the menu and a number of submenus. FIG. 2 shows at 8 an access path which comprises the menu 9 and two sub-menus 10.

 The following table 1 shows, by way of example, the organization of the input menu 9 made in the form of a file which comprises a first index column giving the domains or subjects that can be selected and which are 3 in number. the example shown, a second column containing the titles, a third column which indicates the authors called teachers and finally a fourth column which indicates the nature of the subject, namely whether it is a course, as in the example shown, of an exercise, test or examination. The screen, that is, the image that represents the contents of the file lists only the title of the courses as shown next to the file. In the example, the student selects physics as the teaching domain. This choice refers to the physical file that is a submenu and has the same structure as the input menu file. Next to this sub-menu is the corresponding screen image.

If the student chooses magnetism in the field of physics, he will cause the server to select the magnetism sub-menu file with the appropriate simplified screen. By continuing to select on each screen one of the indicated possibilities, the student finally reaches the desired course.

TABLE 1 (A1) FILE (Bi) SCREEN

<tb>[<SEP> (1) <SEP> I <SEP> (2) <SEP> 1 <SEP> (3) <SEP> 1 (4) <SEP> I <SEP> I <SEP> | <SEP> | <SEP> list <SEP> of
<tb> index <SEP> I <SEP> | <SEP> title <SEP> | <SEP> prof <SEP> ttype <SEP> | <SEP> I <SEP> course
<tb> l ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ l <SEP>[<SEP> I """<SEP> I
<tb> | &num; bol <SEP> I <SEP> tbioiogiet <SEP>[<SEP>? dumas <SEP> I <SEP>> c <SEP> | <SEP> / <SEP> 1.biology
<tb> lechim <SEP> | &commat;<SEP> chemistry <SEP> I <SEP>? During <SEP> Tdurand | <SEP>> c <SEP>{<SEP>[<SEP> 2. <SEP> chemistry
<tb> liiphys <SEP> I <SEP> e <SEP> Physical <SEP> I <SEP>? Duplicate <SEP>> c <SEP> t <SEP> | <SEP> 3.physical <SEP> I
<tb> It <SEP> I <SEP> t <SEP> | <SEP> Choice: <SEP> 3 <SEP> t
<tb>[<SEP>[<SEP> I <SEP> I <SEP> I
<tb><SEP> t <SEP> (A2) <SEP> FILE: <SEP> phys <SEP> (B2) <SEP> SCREEN
<tb><SEP> I
<tb><SEP> -) <SEP> t <SEP> index <SEP> I <SEP> title <SEP> I <SEP> prof <SEP> | typed | <SEP> type <SEP> t <SEP> physical <SEP> t
<tb><SEP> t <SEP> t <SEP> t <SEP> I
<tb><SEP> t <SEP> elec <SEP> tepectric <sep>><SEP> t <SEP> t <SEP>> c <SEP> | <SEP> | <SEP> i.elec
<tb><SEP> I <SEP> I <SEP> I <SEP> t <SEP> t <SEP> t <SEP> tricity <SEP> t
<tb><SEP> I <SEP> magn <SEP> lemagnet.l? dupontl <SEP> | magnet | | dupont | <SEP>> c <SEP> | -) <SEP> - <SEP> I <SEP> 2. <SEP> magne
<tb><SEP> t <SEP> t <SEP> t <SEP> t <SEP> I <SEP> t <SEP> tism <SEP> t
<tb><SEP> t <SEP>&num; optai <SEP> Ieoptîquet? duval <SEP> t <SEP>> c <SEP> t <SEP> | <SEP> 3.optical |
<tb><SEP>[<SEP> I <SEP> I <SEP> I <SEP> Choosing <SEP>: <SEP> 21
<tb><SEP> I <SEP> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <SEP> I <SEP> t <SEP> zizi
<tb><SEP> I
<tb><SEP> etc ..
<Tb>

 Thus the succession of indices, chosen by the student, when he moves from one screen to another, defines the path to access the desired course. This route serves as a reference in all communication between students and their teachers. The index is just a parameter used by the distance learning system to determine the type of action to take depending on the menu selection. The teacher's name is another important parameter. Indeed, this one automatically becomes the recipient in all communication between the student and the institution teacher, concerning this part of the course.

 Table 2 below shows the list of parameters used by the system and the corresponding symbols.

TABLE 2

<tb> parameter <SEP> t <SEP> symbol
<tb> (1) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> security <SEP> |
<tb> (2) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> index <SEP>#
<tb> (3) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> title <SEP>#
<tb> (4) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> teacher <SEP>?
<tb> t <SEP> (5) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> selection <SEP> between <SEP>: <SEP> t <SEP>><SEP> | <September>
<tb> (5.1) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> course <SEP>> c
<tb> (5.1.1) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> color <SEP>> C
<tb> (5.1.1.1) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> red <SE>> Cr
<tb> (5.1.1.2) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> Green <SEP>> Cr
<tb> | <SEP> (5.1.1.3) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> blue <SEP> t <SEP>> Cb <SEP> I
<tb> t <SEP> (5.2) <SEP> -3 <SEP> exercise <SEP> | <SEP>> a
<tb> (5.3) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> test <SEP>> m
<tb> (5.3.1) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> question <SEP> @
<tb> (5.3.2) <SEP> - <SEP> answer <SEP> correct <SEP>: <SEP>: <SEP>
<tb> (5.4) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> exam <SEP>> f
<tb> (5.4.1) <SEP>#<SEP><SEP> question <SEP>!
<Tb>
These symbols constitute in themselves an author-language capable of characterizing the structure and organization of a course. To create his class, the teacher has the choice between being piloted by menus specially adapted for this purpose and represented in Table 1 or use the language-author according to Table 2 to define the structure of its course.

 The remote teaching system according to the invention allows students to leave a course for example for an exercise or to ask a question. Indeed, at the end of a selection path, the student is put in front of either a section of a course or an exercise, project, test or exam to pass. If the exercise is an exercise to do on a subject, the student must exit the system and execute the appropriate commands of the subject, capture the results in the file, edit these results to send to his teacher and finally return to the course.

 If the student has a question about the section of the course or the exercise in question, he or she can go into "question" mode. He can formulate his question freely without having to respect a predetermined format, using the keyboard of his terminal. His question will be sent automatically as an e-mail to either the archive or knowledge base device or the teacher, as will be explained later. Each question will be associated with the data that identifies the student, such as his / her name, an identifying parameter of the course section, which prompted the question, and the name of the class teacher. All the questions are archived in the device 4. The questions can be organized themselves in menus. When a teacher answers a question, this question is marked "answered." The administration can control how teachers respond to questions and the response time. The system manages the grades and produces a final degree. Similarly each answer to a question, from a teacher, also provided with identification parameters, is stored in the device 4. Consequently the knowledge base is enriched each time a student communicates with his teacher. . This process increases the effectiveness of the teacher, who can serve more students, focusing only on new issues, and allowing device 4 to answer the questions to which answers have been given.

 In the latter case, the system could include means of routing questions, first to the archival and knowledge base, and only later to the teacher, if it turns out that the new question has never been treated before. To further ensure greater flexibility of the system, the device 4 could include means for recognizing questions, for example of the type with keywords. The system can also provide for the possibility that the teacher, after receiving a question, consult the knowledge base himself to find an adequate answer. This answer will then be automatically returned to the student sending the question, of course advantageously in the form of an email.

 The knowledge base, because of the storage in this device of all the questions with their references to the different sections of courses and to the students, makes it possible to analyze, on the one hand, the level of knowledge of the students and their progress, and of discover the points of particular difficulty that the course presents. Thanks to the results of this analysis, the teacher can adapt his course to his student audience. Figure 2 illustrates very schematically how the teacher could modify his course by adding additional teaching elements. These additions are made in the form of a series of sections 7 'which form parallel loops 12 and 13 following the main sections, formed by the sections 7. A menu 14 is inserted in the main suite at the section or sections that have raised questions that indicate the need for further explanation. This menu indicates the possibilities offered to the students, either to continue the normal course, or to select one of the loops 12 or 13. This change of the course is quite punctual because of the division of the course in autonomous units, formed by the sections of which each is identifiable by identification parameters. Adding loops has the advantage that students can progress in the course more or less quickly depending on their level of knowledge and their ability to learn more or less easily. The teacher could also replace one or more sections of the course with new sections. If the teacher does not have the knowledge to answer a question, he can transfer it to an expert network that assists him.

 Although the system is mainly used in deferred time, it can be adapted to work in real time by adding a conference module. This module, known in itself, has the effect that the teacher's screen will be able to open windows. These windows will reproduce the screen of each student and the screen of each student will be identical to the teacher's screen, so that each student can follow the course in real time as if he were in class with the other students and the student. teacher and communicate with the teacher through his own window.

 The author-language according to Table 2 makes it possible to include virtually the remainder of the subject's organization with practically no change in the teaching of additional courses. If the course is based on an already existing text structured to include chapters and subchapters, according to Table 3, then it would suffice to add the identification parameters to this text, as is done in Table 4 , the parameters will be those shown in Table 2. In this table the areas indicated by dots symbolize parts of text including, where appropriate, graphics, images and sound.

Ferromagnetism by prof. DUPONT and DUVAL
1. Atomic Magnetism by DUPONT
1.1 Origin of the magnetic moment of atoms
1.2 Magnetic moment order
2. Energy in a ferromagnetic body by DUVAL
2.1 Exchange energy
2.2 Magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy
TABLE 3 e Fg # Ferromagnetism by prof. ? DUPONT and DUVAL e Ma 91. Magnetism at the atomic scale by? DUPONT> ct Ori # 1.1 Origin of the magnetic moment of atoms @ Ord # 1.2 Magnetic moment order i In 92. Energy in a ferromagnetic body by? DUVAL> ct Ene # 2.1 Energy exchange t Ena # 2.2 Magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy
TABLE 4
The system is able to automatically establish from Table 4 a hierarchical structure according to Table 1 and insert it into the structure of all the subject matter to be taught by entering the new course in the input menu of the server If the basic text contains drawings, these can be provided with their own identification parameters, if this proves interesting for the understanding of the course. Key words could be indicated in the text which will then be stored in the archive and knowledge base device 4 to be used by the recognition means, for example to recognize students' questions.

 The system according to the invention also makes it possible, to give a presentation of a subject a more spectacular effect, to prepare transparencies of different colors, which complement each other, to reveal one after another the details of a diagram. Thus, the invention has the characteristic of revealing a course in several layers. A first example is that of a student who is practicing an English text and, after answering a question of an elective test, accesses the correct answers and then the teacher's explanations. A second example is that of a computer science student who tries to test a program and, if he does not succeed, accesses the program prepared by the professor. The system according to the invention is characterized in that the "colors" is part of the author language, as shown in Table 2 which provides codes for a representation in red, green and blue colors.

 It emerges from the description of the remote teaching system according to the invention, that it has a great flexibility which ensures a very great adaptability to the levels of knowledge and the ability of students to learn, which vary from student to student. the other. The invention allows a free and unrestricted dialogue between the students and the teacher, in real time or in real time. The archive and knowledge base system which is enriched during the operation of the system, makes it become more and more automatic so that the teacher or the teachers only have to intervene for new questions.

As a result, their capacity for intervention increases, allowing them to take care of a larger number of students. We also note that the geographical distance between the students, the teacher, the server and the archive and database device is of no importance insofar as the data will be transported by an appropriate data transmission network. Another advantage of the invention lies in the fact that it can use computer hardware and software already known.

 It should also be noted that the system allows an administration to create and modify the teaching organization itself, in the same way that a teacher creates and modifies the organization of its course.

Claims (18)

 1. A distance learning system for students wishing to remotely follow courses in a desired field, characterized in that it comprises a course server station (1), a plurality of student computer terminals (2) connected to the server (1) by transmission lines (5) of the subject matter to be taught, and a teacher station (3) connected to the student terminals by data transmission lines (5), each student terminal (2) being adapted to dialogue with the server (1) and the teacher terminal (3) advantageously by email exchange.  2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the subject to be taught is dispensed by the course server (1) to the student terminals and organized in the server (1) as a series of teaching sections (7). , 7 '), each identified by identification parameters and viewable on a display screen of the student computer terminals in the form of one or more images, and in that a terminal (2) is adapted to enable the formulating and sending e-mail messages, such as messages relating to an exercise, test or examination and questions relating to the teaching subject, with each message being associated with the identification parameters of the sending student the message, the teaching section concerned and the recipient of the message.  3. System according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the identification parameters of a teaching section (7, 7 ') comprise an identification index of the subject of the section, a title, the name the teacher who prepared the section and a symbol identifying the nature of the section.  4. System according to one of claims 2 or 3, characterized in that the identification parameter of a message, such as a question asked by a student, which identifies the recipient of the message is the name of the teacher who prepared the section.  5. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises an archive device and knowledge base (4), connected to the student terminals (2) and teacher (3) by lines of data transmission (5) and adapted to increase its storage capacity of knowledge by storing the messages exchanged between the student terminal (2) and teacher (3), with the associated identification parameters.  6. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that, when the subject to be taught comprises a plurality of different teaching domains, each selectively selectable by a student terminal, the server (1) contains a part of selecting said teaching domains, which has a hierarchical structure and comprises a menu (9) and sub-menus (10) so that the access path to a domain is formed by a sequence consisting of said menu and a a number of sub-menus, each menu and sub-menu being designed to be viewable on the terminal screens as an image and having for each possibility selectable at least one identification index and an indication parameter of the sub -menu corresponding next, to select.  7. System according to claim 6, characterized in that the knowledge base (4) with increasing capacity includes means for assessing the level of knowledge of each student by exploiting the results of tests and exercises, exams, and questions of the students. students.  8. System according to one of claims 6 or 7, characterized in that the knowledge base (4) with increasing capacity includes establishment means for a course of teaching a profile relating the questions posed by the students and the different sections of a course, this profile being a means of telling the teacher where and how to complete this course.  9. System according to one of claims 6 to 8, characterized in that the knowledge base (4) is provided with means for automatic recognition of the questions asked by the students, such as means of the type with keywords, and of comparator means of each question just received to the stored questions and means of sending the sending terminal of a question where the answers already stored in a question or questions considered by the recognition means as corresponding to the question coming from to be received.  10. System according to one of claims 6 to 9, characterized in that it comprises means for conveying a question from a student terminal first to the knowledge base (4) and then to the teacher terminal (3) if the knowledge base does not have an answer to this question.  11. System according to one of claims 6 to 10, characterized in that the teacher terminal (3) and the knowledge base t4) are adapted to allow the teacher who has received a question to search the knowledge base for an appropriate response. already memorized.  12. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a course is modifiable by the replacement of a course section (7) by a new section.  13. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a course is modifiable by adding at least one loop of additional sections (12, 13), each loop being selectable using a menu ( 14) inserted in the following main questions of the course.  14. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the course server (i) is a computer of the Unix type and smart student terminals (2) and teacher (3) are of the personal computer type, Macintosh or the like.  15. System according to one of the preceding claims, in that the terminals (2 and 3) and the server (1) are interconnected by a data transmission network (5) of the telephone network type, by means of a stacker. communication and interfaces of the MODEM type, or of the digital telephone network type provided with appropriate interfaces.  16. System according to one of claims 14 or 15, characterized in that it comprises software including utility programs associated with the Unix computer.  17. System according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is adapted so that the teaching material includes texts, graphics and images and sounds.  18. A method for establishing a course usable in the system according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it consists in writing a teaching area according to a hierarchical structure comprising chapters and sub-chapters, to associate in each chapter or sub-chapter the identification parameters used by the server and to organize the subject to be taught in the form of sections identifiable by identification parameters used in the server, and to cause the server to insert the new domain as well as organized in the subject to teach already present in the server, using the parameters established for the new domain.