Implementation of a Computerized System for the Orientation of the Moroccan Student in the University

Abstract

The wide use of ePortfolio (electronic portfolio) in higher education has been a great technological innovation. Currently, the ePortfolio is essentially used as a tool of learning and assessment, but less as a tool of orientation. The aim of our work is to provide IT tools to monitor, support and orientation for students in the academic and professional world. “The use of the portfolio as part of the orientation approach must engage the learner to develop a reflection on him, his education and career aspirations. The tool should be designed to promote reflection on the orientation process implemented for each learner.”(Duroisin, 2011). In this paper we propose a computerized system which allows not only the assessment of skills, but also acts as a monitoring and orientation ePortfolio of learners. Based on the Mahara technology “ISIFePortfolio” (Bentaib, et AitDaouad, 2014) is an application implemented by the research team of the computer laboratory at University Hassan II Mohammedia - Casablanca.

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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 182 ( 2015 ) 381 – 387
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
1877-0428 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Research and Education Center.
doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.797
4th WORLD CONFERENCE ON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCHES, WCETR-
2014
Implementation of a computerized system for the orientation of the
Moroccan student in the university
Guerss Fatima zahraa, Aitdaoud Mohammedb*, Douzi Khadijaa, Talbi Mohammedb,
Namir Abdelouahedb
aUniversity Hassan II Mohammedia -Casablanca, Faculty of Science and Technology, Morocco
bUniversity Hassan II Mohammedia -Casablanca, Faculty of Sciences Ben M'Sik, Morocco
Abstract
The wide use of ePortfolio (electronic portfolio) in higher education has been a great technological innovation. Currently, the
ePortfolio is essentially used as a tool of learning and assessment, but less as a tool of orientation. The aim of our work is to
provide IT tools to monitor, support and orientation for students in the academic and professional world. "The use of the portfolio
as part of the orientation approach must engage the learner to develop a reflection on him, his education and career aspirations.
The tool should be designed to promote reflection on the orientation process implemented for each learner. "(Duroisin, 2011). In
this paper we propose a computerized system which allows not only the assessment of skills, but also acts as a monitoring and
orientation ePortfolio of learners. Based on the Mahara technology "ISIFePortfolio" (Bentaib , et AitDaouad, 2014) is an
application implemented by the research team of the computer laboratory at University Hassan II Mohammedia - Casablanca.
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Research and Education Center.
Keywords: Portfolio, ePortfolio, competences, digital monitorning, orientation, Mahara, Reflectif.
1. Introduction
In recent years the Moroccan high school graduates have had the same concern occupying their thoughts: "What
will I do after high school?" This question should be asked early enough to choose the right sector and determine the
best path to follow. Unfortunately, many students do not consider this until after obtaining their Baccalaureate. Once
they obtain their diploma, they find themselves frustrated and lost.
* Aitdaoud Mohammed. Tel.:+4-345-4343-432.
E-mail address: aitdaoud.mohammed@gmail.com
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Research and Education Center.

382 Guerss Fatima Zahra et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 182 ( 2015 ) 381 – 387
It is noteworthy that the lack of direction causes a shocking void for students who are forced to make decisions
based on the personal choices of their parents or even arbitrarily. This gave rise to several projects in the emergency
plan (2009-13 / MEN Project 21: Establishment of an information and referral efficient system) to address this
problem.
The orientation is particularly useful during the implementation of the LMD reform, but it is still insufficient and
the subject of a lively scientific, professional and political debate. This debate deals with the objective, methodology,
and results of the orientation.
In order to support and monitor the student, several studies have emerged concerning the portfolio approach
(Danvers, 2009; Chauvet, 2010; Berjon, 2011; Quentric, 2012; Deslandes, 2012;etc.). The portfolio is a collection of
footprints and reflections underpinned by a process of reflective self-analysis of the author and his own activities
(Allal, 1999). This approach, therefore, seems adapted for the support goals of the orientation, as reflection is
instrumental in the professional identity construction (Jorro, 2009). The ePortfolio offers a space more or less open
to manage and exchange personal information between users. Finally, the ePortfolio requires a data-structuring
activity based on the context and/or objectives.
2. Portfolio and ePorfolio
The portfolio consists of "a collection of productions allowing for the tracking of student progress with regard to
both strengths and areas in need of improvement." (Duroisin, 2011)
"An ePortfolio is a digital collection of information describing and illustrating an individual’s learning or career,
experience, and achievements. An ePortfolio is a private space, and its owner has complete control over who has
access and how and when they have access. The content of an ePortfolio and related services can be shared with
others to:
• support the validation of acquired experience;
• supplement or update examinations;
• reflect on their learning or career;
• support the continuing professional development, planning, learning or research. (Eifel, 2007).
This definition highlights several features of the ePortfolio, mainly content that illustrates the learning of a
person's professional career, his experiences, and achievements.
“E-portfolios are stored online and have great accessibility for the portfolio owners themselves, teachers,
colleagues, and employers (Bruder 1993; Bushweller 1995; McCowan et al.2005). Eportfolios are a mechanism for
students and education institutions to improve and demonstrate their teaching/learning skills and to display
competencies to the society (Lumsden, Garis, Reardon, Unger, & Arkin, 2001). E-portfolio systems enable
administrations at all levels to survey and to conduct comprehensive assessment of teaching and learning
accomplishments (Barrett, 1994).”(Wang, 2009)
According to Wang (2009), there are multiple research studies that confirm the use of ePortfolios by several
types of users allowing the integration of the ePortfolio in academic and professional domains.
3. EPortfolio for academic and professional integration
The ePortfolio is used as a "possible interactive communication tool among learners, parents, and teachers and as
a complementary source of information about the learner. This information is used to facilitate the teacher’s
assessment of the student or to show parents the progress of their child "(Duroisin, 2011). It is also an administrative
tool to manage and organize work created with different applications and to control who can access digital portfolio
submissions (Ittelson and Lorenzo, 2005).

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Fig. 1. The different purposes of ePortfolio.
Creating an ePortfolio enables the student to store and organize the acquired evidence of his training and both
professional and extracurricular experience. The construction of an ePortfolio can have two functions:
• serve as an educational and vocational guidance tool,
• give evidence of acquired experience (justification) of the student and thus favors his employability.
We deduce that the ePortfolio can be used as a tool for the detection of skills and to provide educational support
for students, which will help them to plot a proper academic course. In addition, it may also be the link between the
pedagogical monitoring of learning and the certification of skills helping to take the learner to a new level thanks to
the assessment which paves the way for socially-recognition status.
But beyond the benefit of the individual, the ePortfolio can also become a tool for sharing (collaboration),
presentation, and recognition of knowledge within a professional community. Indeed, a "knowledge society"
requires new ways of learning and assessment to meet these new requirements. Tools such as ePortfolios can help in
the evolution of information management (Bennaghmouch, Nosal, 2002). They provide the possibility of having a
skills map of the group and, consequently, better knowledge management.
4. Ontology of orientation
4.1. Some definitions of orientation
Orientations at the end of the third year of the baccalaureate and immediately afterwards play a key role in the
potential paths taken during the following school term (general industries, technological or vocational choice of
learning) and the level of education attained at the end of the educational system.
One can find several descriptions of orientation in the areas of research, a few of which are cited as follows:
"The orientation was conducted using psychometric tests and measures of intelligence" (Bourgin, 2011).
"The orientation is dependent on the social, educational, economic, and political systems of a country" (Solaux,
2005).
The orientation takes into consideration the desires and motivations of individuals in addition to those of the
society which has its own needs and requirements. The choice of training is a complex phenomenon that concerns

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primarily students but also their immediate and extended families, family friends, teachers, and those responsible for
the orientation (Moumoula, 2005).
Several levels of contradictions deduced between the individual and collective dimensions involved in the
orientation (Moumoula, 2005):
• The desires of the "families" and the needs of national competence standards
• The desire of the learner and the desire of parents
• The gap between desire of the learner and the availability of training
• The level of the learner (abilities, skills)
All these intra-individual and extra-individual contradictions between concerned individuals, availability of
training, and skill requirements explain the complexity of career choice and the difficulty of “orienting oneself” and
of “being oriented by others”.
According to the above descriptions, we can deduce that the orientation will help to build a well-defined
academic and career plan as it is related to the knowledge of the learner. The orientation is related to several
learning objects (Bourgin, 2011). As a result, these objects can be classified using the ontology techniques (Namuth,
Fritz, King, & Boren, 2005; Smrz, 2004; SNAE & Brueckner, 2007; Wang, 2008; Zouaq Nkambou, & Frasson,
2007). However, there are rarely research reports that discuss ontology orientation.
4.2. Ontology:
Ontology has now become inseparable to the semantic web. Ontology, however, is not new; it is the science of
existence (Welty & Guarino, 2001) explored by philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. Ontology (computer
science) has distanced itself from the studies addressed at the intersection of metaphysics and philosophy.
Many definitions of ontology have been given, including that of Gruber (1993) and Neches & al. (1991). Gruber
offered a very abstract but widely accepted definition in the literary community: "an ontology is an explicit
specification of a conceptualization." Neches suggests the following: "an ontology defines the terms and the basic
relationships of the vocabulary of a domain and conference Laîttre the rules for combining terms and relationships
in order to expand the vocabulary." Gruber’s definition has two main characteristics of ontology--firstly, the
development of an abstract model of the existing object (conceptualization) and, secondly, its formalization for
exploitation by a computer (explicit specification)
4.3. Ontology of orientation
According to the aspects discussed above ontology is used as a concept for the orientation of the learner toward
proper academic course with respect to his profile and skills.
The figure above illustrates the orientation as follows:

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Fig. 2. Ontology of orientation
We describe our ontology of orientation as follows:
- An orientation is a set of components,
- A component can be either a coaching or Tutoring session, a portfolio, or an ePortfolio.
- Coaching sessions can be either a process or a technique, a guide, a video, or a exercise, etc.
- Tutoring can be a course, exercise, control, test, etc.
- A portfolio can include documents, folders, files, archives, a collection of completed work, letters of
reference, certificates, report cards, photocopies in which learning outcomes and achievements of the
experience of an individual are identified and demonstrated according to the skills, knowledge, attitudes and
behaviors. (Manitoba, 1995)
- An ePortfolio can include an ebook, picture, video, database, etc. (Abrami & Barrett, 2005).
The orientation can be conducted through coaching, tutoring, or the use of either a portfolio or an ePortfolio.
• Coaching has one or more processes, at least one technique, and one or more guides and uses supporting video
• Tutoring has multiple courses, uses exercises, and contains controls and tests
• The portfolio can contain documents and folders, uses archives, and files
• The ePortfolio can contain ebooks and images, uses a database, and videos
5. The ePortfolio of orientation
An ePortfolio can be defined as a digital container capable of storing visual and auditory content including text,
images, video and sound (Abrami & Barrett, 2005). It is characterized as a constructive learning tool whereby
learners can set specific goals and then attempt to collect, organize and present artifacts in digital formats for
attaining those goals (Hartnell-Young & Morriss, 2007; Meeus, Van Petegem, & Engels, 2009).
Through reflective writing upon the artifacts, learners have the opportunity to practice and demonstrate their
ability to construct meaning out of the disparate pieces of evidence (Abrami et al., 2008). This point of view was
given support by Barrett (2007), who added that ePortfolios are a means to support reflection that can help students
understand their own learning and to provide a richer picture of student work that documents growth over time.

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Analysis and reflection are skills expected of students at the end of their academic program; but the analysis, self -
reflection, skills, and means of progression are rarely explicitly expressed as goals (Amaury, 2010).
Developing over time, the portfolio becomes a storage space in which the posted work may be dated several
days, months or even years earlier. If desired, each user can at any time perform back-search for previously-posted
written work. So Bucheton (2003) states that "[...] The ePortfolio [...] is reflexif because the work can be paused. It
allows for a deferred return to the work, thus preventing the user from having to make decisions in the heat of the
moment, but also in academic contexts.” Similarly, the individual can retrace his performance and compare his own
work to assess his progress and achievements in order to better identify his level of learning (Gresso, Lomicka,
1999).
The implementation of the ePortfolio in student learning enables him to track the specific goals for what he wants
to do later in his academic or professional career. One could say that the ePortfolio is a very efficient means for self-
orientation.
In this context we propose a computing device "ISIFePortfolio" (Bentaib and AitDaouad, 2014) that not only
allows the monitoring and evaluation of learners but also plays the both the role of an orientation ePortfolio for
students (eg. Mahara) and a social network of the combined systems.
The Mahara ePortfolio system is open-source, fully adapted to the user. It offers many different types of data,
includes blog, resumes, can be followed by internships, etc. It manages permissions and access rights via an
interface that can be configured to the last detail allowing users to share documents and data with whom they desire
(groups, tutors, or all users), and it also helps to create online learning communities.
Based on Mahara technology, "ISIFePortfolio" is a program set up by the research team LTIM/ORDIPU of the
University Hassan II Mohammedia - Casablanca. It was incorporated into the learning management system
platform, "Education Master ISIF" for the master "Engineering Information Systems and Training."
6. Conclusion
In recent years ePortfolios have been used in higher education as a tool for learning and assessment of learning.
Due to the diversity of their structure and use, ePortfolios serve as a means to present the skills of the learner and as
a tool for personal development planning.
Using an ePortfolio to maintain a record of achievement allows the learner to reflect on his experiences and chart
a course to develop skills which will also help in planning the trajectory of his academic and professional career.
The main contribution of this work is the orientation approach that we offer to benefit Moroccan high school
graduates, by providing them with an application that stocks their personal, academic and professional information,
which give a fairly clear vision of the profile and skills of the student. Based on this massive collection of data, the
student can either “orienting him-self” or “being oriented by others”.
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