E-LEARNING SIMULATION: Creation and Delivery of Interactive Learning Object in the Mathematical and Physics Didactical Domain

In this paper we want to show our approach to the use of an innovative e-learning platform, named IWT (Intelligent Web Teacher), apt to build interactive Learning Objects (LOs) in the field of Physics. These interactive LOs are the heart of an especially didactical methodology to present a Virtual Scientific Experiment (VSE) to the learner. The VSE is a computer simulation, based on a mathematical model, which represents the real scientific scene like pendulum motion, chute etc. The VSE approach suggests a didactical situation where the learner gradually acquire new knowledge thanks to some discovers in the scene. This is made without the knowledge of the theoretical models, which are connected with the experiment in the scene. Our experience in the e-learning application, suggests that in order to produce LOs of good quality, related to a particular didactical domain, we need to translate the domain instruments and standards into the new e-learning environment. IWT is a project able to follow this reasoning and to provide us with special Drivers and Plug-Ins components by specializing the generic platform in the domain platform. In our case, we have built two Plug-Ins in order to integrate the Simulink and Dymola simulation engines in IWT, a tool for the model visual implementation and a component for the simulation output rendering. Moreover, we have also created some Drivers that use the Plug-Ins functionality to manage the interactive LO. The LO creation process merges the conventional procedure for the description of the mathematical model, with a new technique to introduce into the LO specific didactical information.