Oussema Madhi – Laboratoire d'Informatique de l'Université du Mans

With the emergence of virtual reality, computing offers new experiences for users thanks to increasingly powerful interaction and immersion possibilities. These opportunities are of great interest in the field of learning. Virtual environments allow the creation of original and dynamic learning situations, detached from the constraints that may exist during real training (danger, cost, uncertainty) and bringing specific advantages (enrichment of situations, replay, etc.). All these learning devices using virtual reality techniques can be grouped under the acronym VRLE (Virtual Reality Learning Environment) VRLEs are used in many areas, including: learning to move for people with disabilities, training in surgery, decision making for intervention at risk sites, assembly operations, maintenance procedures, etc. VRLEs can be used in a wide range of applications. However, designing a VRLE is a new challenge. These difficulties are both technical, induced by the interdisciplinarity intrinsic to VR (graphic computing, haptic devices, distribution, etc.) and cognitive (respect for the characteristics of the task to be learned, transfer of learning to the real world, etc.). The central purpose of this thesis topic is therefore to propose solutions to the problems mentioned by providing pedagogical patterns allowing the description of pedagogical activities in a virtual environment in a generic way (applicable to several environments, whatever the field or the type of simulation to play).

Pattern-based virtual learning object platform : a new solution to facilitate the design and operationalization of pedagogical simulations in VRLE