Abstract
Experiments on cognitive processes require a detailed analysis of the contribution of many participants. In the case of cognitive processes in writing, these experiments require special software tools to collect gestures performed with a pen or a stylus, and recorded with special hardware. These tools produce different kinds of data files in binary and proprietary formats that need to be managed on a workstation file system for further processing with generic tools, such as spreadsheets and statistical analysis software. The lack of common formats and open repositories hinders the possibility of distributing the workload among researchers within the research group, of re-processing the collected data with software developed by other research groups, and of sharing results with the rest of the cognitive processes research community. This paper describes the development of Hand Spy, a collaborative environment for managing experiments in the cognitive processes in writing. This environment was designed to cover all the stages of the experiment, from the definition of tasks to be performed by participants, to the synthesis of results. Collaboration in Hand Spy is enabled by a rich web interface. To decouple the environment from existing hardware devices for collecting written production, namely digitizing tablets and smart pens, Hand Spy is based on the InkML standard, an XML data format for representing digital ink. This design choice shaped many of the features in Hand Spy, such as the use of an XML database for managing application data and the use of XML transformations. XML transformations convert between persistent data representations used for storage and transient data representations required by the widgets on the user interface. Despite being a system independent from a specific collecting device, for the system validation, a framework for data collection was created. This framework has also been highlighted in the paper due to the important role it took in a data collection process, of a scientific project to study the cognitive processes involved in writing.

Abstract
In the last two decades, there was a proliferation of programming exercise formats that hinders interoperability in automatic assessment. In the lack of a widely accepted standard, a pragmatic solution is to convert content among the existing formats. BabeLO is a programming exercise converter providing services to a network of heterogeneous e-learning systems such as contest management systems, programming exercise authoring tools, evaluation engines and repositories of learning objects. Its main feature is the use of a pivotal format to achieve greater extensibility. This approach simplifies the extension to other formats, just requiring the conversion to and from the pivotal format. This paper starts with an analysis of programming exercise formats representative of the existing diversity. This analysis sets the context for the proposed approach to exercise conversion and to the description of the pivotal data format. The abstract service definition is the basis for the design of BabeLO, its components and web service interface. This paper includes a report on the use of BabeLO in two concrete scenarios: to relocate exercises to a different repository, and to use an evaluation engine in a network of heterogeneous systems.

Abstract
We present an application of constraint logic programming to create multiple-choice questions for math quizzes. Constraints are used for the configuration of the generator, giving the user some flexibility to customize the forms of the expressions arising in the exercises. Constraints are also used to control the application of the buggy rules in the derivation of plausible wrong solutions to the quiz questions. We developed a prototype based on the core system of AGILMAT [18]. For delivering math quizzes to students, we used an automatic evaluation feature of Mooshak [8] that was improved to handle math expressions. The communication between the two systems - AgilmatQuiz and Mooshak - relies on a specially designed LATEX based quiz format. This tool is being used at our institution to create quizzes to support assessment in a PreCalculus course for first year undergraduate students.

Abstract

Abstract
E-Learning frameworks are conceptual tools to organize networks of elearning services. Most frameworks cover areas that go beyond the scope of e-learning, from course to financial management, and neglects the typical activities in everyday life of teachers and students at schools such as the creation, delivery, resolution and evaluation of assignments. This paper presents the Ensemble framework - an e-learning framework exclusively focused on the teaching-learning process through the coordination of pedagogical services. The framework presents an abstract data, integration and evaluation model based on content and communications specifications. These specifications must base the implementation of networks in specialized domains with complex evaluations. In this paper we specialize the framework for two domains with complex evaluation: computer programming and computer-aided design (CAD). For each domain we highlight two Ensemble hotspots: data and evaluations procedures. In the former we formally describe the exercise and present possible extensions. In the latter, we describe the automatic evaluation procedures.

Abstract
While object-oriented programming languages are good at modelling real-world concepts and benefit from rich libraries and developer tools, logic programming languages are well suited for declaratively solving computational problems that require knowledge reasoning. Non-trivial declarative applications could take advantage of the modelling features of object-oriented programming and of the rich software ecosystems surrounding them. Linguistic symbiosis is a common approach to enable complementary use of languages of different paradigms. However, the problem of concepts leaking from one paradigm to another often hinders the applicability of such approaches. This issue has mainly been reported for object-oriented languages participating in a symbiotic relation with a logic language. To address this issue, we present LogicObjects, a linguistic symbiosis framework for transparently and (semi-) automatically enabling logic programming in Java, that aims to solve most of the problems of paradigm leaking reported in other works. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.