E-learning with WebTeach - a prototype system for exam delivery and on-line teaching

The WebTeach project has been started in 1999 as a prototype to handle our exams. At this moment it consists of three main components: WebCheck, handling exam sessions through a web interface, WebWrite, web based tool for teaching on-line, and WebTest, for the generation and correction of multiple-choice quizzes. The system, described in the following pages, is now used by more than 70 teachers and handles 180 subjects, 800 exams and 5500 students. Despite these figures, the project keeps its prototypical flavor and it’s improved every day following teachers’ and students’ suggestions. The system is developed using only free software. It’s possible to cooperate to its development, adapt it to special needs and use it in other frameworks. The following extensions are planned: • Usage of SMS messages for teacher-student communication, to be added to the e-mail messages already used. • Development of a system to collect tests’ results through optical reader/SMS/email/web and development of a graphic interface for quiz generation. • Management of class reservation/usage. • Development of a system which will generate/configure automatically a course, given a simple specification of: - pre/post requisites of each lesson, - the target knowledge produced by the course, - the initial/current knowledge of the single student. The WebWrite system has been chosen also to teach on-line to jailed students through the “Polo Universitario Penitenziario”.