A course-assistant based on a curriculum structure and XML resources

Abstract

We propose a curriculum that provides a XML representation for a specific domain of knowledge and enables the teacher to closely follow the learning process of each student. Our curriculum is constructed using three kinds of elements: topics, units and links. An area of knowledge can be seen conceptually, or can be organized for a teaching or for a learning purpose. Therefore, the topics of a specific domain can be arranged according to different views using various kinds of link. In our framework, we provide the basic information in a simple collection of XML documents and let the computer generates dynamically a curriculum with its links on the XML resources. Essentially, we use a curriculum to organize an existing set of resources. The current version uses a CGI program written in C++ with a homemade XML parser.