2 ISSUES, STATE OF THE ART
AND CONCEPTION CHOICES
Depending on the context, the association needs a
light application working even offline on computers,
tablets, and smartphones, for classrooms and informal
learning, available in different languages. But it also
requires offering the possibility to add news contents,
to translate these contents quickly and flexibly,
according to the deployments planned by the
association.
2.1 Issue and Research Questions
The general issue of this project is thus to conceive an
evolutive and flexible application suited to different
contexts and cultures. We identified three main
research questions while treating this issue: how to
allow non-computer scientists to create contents for
this app (Q1); how to consider the multilingual and
multicultural context of the project (Q2); and, how to
consider the different contexts of use of the app (Q3).
2.2 State of the Art and Choices
For our first research question (Q1: how to allow non-
computer scientists to create contents), the use of
authoring tools seems to be an interesting direction.
Therefore, research in TEL (Technology
Enhanced Learning) identifies classically three ways
to create pedagogical resources (Jean-Daubias et al.,
2009): fully automatic resources generators, semi-
automatic generators, and manual generators (also
called authoring tools).
Fully automatic generators, see for example
(Burton, 1982), are complex programs specific to a
dedicated domain. They allow to produce resources
in this domain without any intervention of the
pedagogical designer. This approach is very efficient
as it can produce rapidly many resources without any
effort, but do not allow a personalisation of the
produced resources. Another disadvantage of this
approach is that it is complicated and long to conceive
and implement. It does not suit our needs, as we want
to define our resources precisely to ensure that they
will be adapted to our different contexts.
Semi-automatic generators, see for example
(Jean-Daubias and Guin, 2009), are close to
automatic generators, except that they let more place
to pedagogical designers to suit their needs: users can
intervene in the resources creation process by
specifying a set of constraints on them in order to
obtain results more suited to their needs, still in the
scope of the generator.
Manual generators (commonly called authoring
tools), see for example (David et al. 1996) and (Van
Joolingen and De Jong, 2003), guide the pedagogical
designers step by step in the resources design and
gives them a great liberty. Limits of this approach is
that it is time consuming for the user, as he must
precisely define each exercise and their solutions. In
the context of our project, the advantages of this
approach make its disadvantages acceptable.
We have therefore chosen an approach based on
an authoring tool to enable non-computer scientists’
educational designers to create educational
resources on sustainable development.
For our second research question (Q2: how to take
into account the multicultural context of the project),
a resource designed in one language cannot always be
translated directly into another: it may require
adaptation to the target culture (for example, the
operating rules for recycling waste vary according to
countries or regions). We decided to establish
different versions of the resources: each version is not
only a translation of the original resource but can also
include adaptations to the cultural context of the
concerned country or region.
So, we created a multilingual authoring tool,
adding to the classical user roles of such tools
(administrator and educational designers) a
translator role, for people in charge of adapting to
different cultures the various resources produced by
educational designers.
For our third research question (Q3: how to take
into account the different technical contexts of use of
the app), we need to propose a flexible application
easy to update and to use in different technical
contexts. In particular, the application must be usable
offline, in places where learners won’t have an easy
access to the internet. The app also needs to be able
to connect to the internet to allow updates in
particular to add new contents. The app also needs to
be available on various devices (computers, tablets,
and smartphones), depending on the devices available
in the different use contexts. A good solution to deal
with this triple need is a PWA (progressive web app):
a type of application software delivered through the
web, working on various operating systems with a
standard-compliant browser, including desktop and
mobile devices (Mozilla, 2023). We like to present
this type of website to the general public as "a website
disguised as a mobile app".
Thus, we created a multilingual (Q2) authoring
tool (Q1) producing a Progressive Web App (Q3),
usable on computers, tablets, and smartphones,
online or offline.