Evaluation of the usage of an object-oriented lesson model to be implemented in medical virtual learning environments

One of the main aims of learning platforms is to guide students towards interaction with learning activities. Pedagogically, these activities should be connected and well-integrated in a coherent environment. Faced with the increasing demand of medical school faculty and for online delivery of course materials, we designed an integrated and generic lesson model. This was implemented in an original virtual-learning environment. The platform was programmed within an object-oriented content management system embedding a workflow engine. This paper provides a description of the lesson model and the comparative evaluation of its usage by students of two medical curricula. Web usage mining techniques were applied to identify navigation patterns. The monitoring of student behavior in terms of usage is discussed to help student follow-up and optimize tutoring arrangements.