The pedagogical resources in WIMS include:
- exercises with automatic feedback and correction, which allow the learners to work at their own pace;
- interactive exercices with randomly assigned data, which allow the learners to work on the same type of exercise but with different data and as often as they wish;
- exercises with an automatic scoring system, which enhances learner motivation;
- user-friendly graphics and calculation tools;
- dexplanatory documents that are hyperlinked to the relevant exercises that function with randomly selected data.
These resources are available in different subjects and at several levels for each subject. Their use does not require any specific skill, and they can easily be adapted by teachers.
Virtual classes :
Virtual classes provide a framework where the teacher can include selected resources in a specific study program and provide a specific study schedule for the learners.
Institutional classes” allow the learner to access all of his study programs in different subject matters with a single login procedure.
Several free access WIMS sites are available for teachers wanting to create a “virtual class” (all you need is an Internet connection and a web browser).
The open source WIMS software is constantly under development due to :
- a community of highly motivated users at universities, high schools and secondary schools;
- an ever growing series of training sessions to help users;
- a growing number of resources created by teachers with creative ideas;
- constant upgrades which make it possible to integrate new possibilities in exercises.
Lhe teaching/learning modules (exercises, documents, tools, administrative modules) are not interdependent and can be created by different people, thereby allowing for the creation of a large variety of exercises and a lot of flexibility when used. The teaching/learning materials on WIMS are created with the help of high quality open source software for science (Maxima, Gnuplot, Pari/Gp, Octave). The tools (equation calculators, graphics calculators, statistical tools, matrix calculators) are available for everyone.