On entry to the university, there are students with a large heterogeneity in the levels of technological and information skills. The CERTITUDE project proposes to measure skills for these two areas. The project is innovative in many ways. It is based on an assessment that several complementary dimensions, based on the profile of skills developed by Magellan and REPTIC, with significant production. For this aspect, the project focuses on issues based on a formal context augmented by multimedia, simulations, in situ production in Word and Excel tools and finally treasure hunts. Methodology, tools and new Moodle question types developed under this project will be presented.

1. CERTITUDE
Automatic evaluation of Excel and
Word productions in Moodle
Canada Moodle Moot, Vancouver, 2013
Robert Gérin-Lajoie, Gilles-Philippe Leblanc, Université de
Montréal
February 2013

2. Why computer and information literacy?
• Today’s college students need technological skills to search
for, process and present information. In order to perform tasks
related to research, projects and other work, students use ICT
(information and communication technology) to collaborate at a
distance and communicate their results.
• Extract from the Quebec ICT profile, see http://reptic.qc.ca

3. CERTITUDE PROJECT INITIAL GOALS
o Increase synergy
o between levels of colleges and universities to jointly develop
a national standard for information literacy
o Develop a series of tests
o online assessment of students' skills Quebec college network
intending to university
o Aim for certification
o for graduates of the college system in Quebec, and
information technology skills, considered necessary for the
pursuit of academic
o Allow universities to use tools
o ICT skills assessment for online training and technological
upgrading informational for students who have not
acquired the skills associated with certification

4. CHALLENGE
o Assess skills in real situations (in situ)
oAvoid as much as possible too theoretical
assessments tend to measure knowledge
rather than skills (In ICT, knowledge that
worth?)
o Ensure an automated correction
oThe Challenge of challenges: ensuring an
automated correction while raising two
other challenges

5. PROJECT STEPS
o Refine competency profile
o Develop a platform for quiz production compose
tests and assessments (diagnostic, formative or for
certified)
o Produce a library of questions and tests
o mainly in situ
o Validate the question bank
o Recognized by statistical tests

6. HOW TO EVALUATE SKILLS
• Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) increased by
multimedia
• Simulations with flash
• Treasure hunts
▫ Find a specific document in a school library
• “In situ” achievements
▫ Excel
▫ Word

7. In situ achievements in Excel
• New type of Moodle question
▫ A variant of description called « Saisies multiples »
• The professor workbench generate an Excel file containing the work
to be done.
• The professor workbench generate a list of expected tokens, one for
each question.
• The questions are constructed in Moodle.
• The student do the assignment in Excel. Excel formulas generate
tokens encoding the student work, one for each question.
• The student send back the tokens in Moodle. Each one is compared
against the expected token.

14. Evaluating Word results
• New type of Moodle question
▫ « Manipulation de fichier Word »
• Each question of this type test a regular expression onto the
document.xml file inside a docx.
• Each question can test the number of occurrence: more or equal
than the minimum and less or equal than the maximum stated.

19. • Thanks to
▫ Technical experts
 Gilles-Philippe Leblanc, Université de Montréal
 Mathieu Petit-Clair, Moodle developper
▫ Educational experts
 Jean Allard and Michel R Pronovost, Collège Jean-de-
Brébeuf
▫ Direction committee
 Robert Gérin-Lajoie, Université de Montréal
 Richard Guay, Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf
 Françoise Marceau, CEGEP@Distance
 Jacques Raynauld, HEC-Montreal, MATI-Montréal