The Use of Automated Software Tools in Evaluating an e-Learning Platform Quality

This paper proposes an expert system which can be used to evaluate the quality of an e-learning platform. The proposed expert system is using the modified version of the SEEQUEL Core Quality Framework and it was built using CLIPS expert system generator. The SEEQUEL Core Quality Framework originated from the collaboration between the e-learning Industry Group (eLIG) with a number of European expert organizations and associations, coordinated by the MENON Network, is a framework used to build the quality tree by selecting the quality characteristics from a list of common characteristics applicable to the whole e-learning experience. CLIPS is a productive development and delivery expert system tool which provides a complete environment for the construction of rule based expert systems. In the first part of this paper the SEEQUEL Core Quality Framework and CLIPS expert system generator are presented showing the advantage of using an expert system for this task. In the second part, a case study of evaluating an e-learning platform is presented. The final conclusion of the experiment was that an expert system can successfully replace a human expert for the proposed task.