learning - Academic Conferences Limited

Nabil Ben Abdallah and Françoise Poyet
object interactions, as well as community-object interactions. According to the nature of the analyzed
activity, the two other mediators of the activities system (rules and division of work) can influence the
mediation around of the activity tool.
To analyze and understand the role of these mediators in the achievement of an activity, we initially
decompose the global activity system in subsystems represented by triads consisting of three
elements including a mediator. Each subsystem is composed of the following elements: the subject or
community, the object and a mediating element (tool or rules or division of labor). There are therefore
six triads: (subject, tool, object), (subject, rules, object), (subject, division of labor, object),
(community, division of labor, object), (community, tool, object) and (community, rules, object).
The theoretical framework of activity theory (primarily its concepts and its principles) makes it possible
to identify various evaluation questions which an appraiser must ask to determine the various factors
which can influence the global acceptability of the VLE. This is essentially the contextual factors of the
interaction with the VLE whose determination helps to identify and to understand social and practical
acceptability. Here we are suggesting a few series of questions which can be formulated around each
the activity system triads. The data analysis collected from these questions must take into account the
global nature of the activity, and the fact that the application of a given principle inevitably triggers the
application of the other principles. For example, analysis of the impact of the VLE on learning must
take into account the hierarchical structure of activity, object-oriented nature of the activity, the
acquisition of knowledge through the process internalization / externalization, and development of
system activities.
Table 1: Examples of questions
(subject, tool, object)
(subject, rules, object)
(subject, division of
labour, object),
(community, tool, object)
(community, rules,
object)
(community, division of
labour, object)
Aspects of individual activity
- Did you find the VLE useful to perform the work?
- Did you meet with obstacles during the use of the VLE?
- Did the rules of the work organization pose problems to you?
- is the use of the VLE compatible with the rules of the work organization?
- Did you agree with the allocation (whether agreed or implicit) of tasks?
- Does the division of labour imposed by the use of the VLE facilitate the
performance of work?
Aspects of collective activity
- Do you wish to use a VLE to complete a collective work?
- Are the functionalities of the VLE related to collective work easy to use?
- Did the rules of the work organization pose problems to you?
- Is the use of the VLE compatible with the rules of the work organization?
- Was there a collective definition of the different roles in the team?
- Was there was an evolution of roles of the team members according to operations
carried out (query writing, information filtering,) and the intermediate results?
- Does the division of labour imposed by the use of the VLE facilitate the
performance of work?
To demonstrate this process, we would like to provide an example. In this example, groups of
students carry out information searches on a given topic. Each group must produce a report gathering
and synthesizing retrieved information. The Representation of the activity according to Engeström
model enables us to understand the work of a student (subject) engaged in the production of a report
(object) in collaboration with the members of its group (community). The relation which links a student
with a group is determined by explicit rules (duration of work, mandatory work participation, collective
presentation of work, concurrent teams, etc) imposed by the learning device which has been set up.
The mediation between the subject and the object is carried out, among other things, by tools offered
by a VLE. The division of work is based on an internal organization for each group, the lecturers do
not operate in the allocation of tasks among group members.
Among other things, collected data show us that the students consider the VLE as a communications
tool, as well as a production of intermediate documents tool, and especially as an information sharing
tool among the members of the same group. The tested functionalities appeared useful to the
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