Approaching Instrumental Conflicts During an Assessment Activity with an Interactive Learning Environment.

Word processors are still supporting artefacts for the realization of learning activities by allowing higher education students to increase their writing skills. They can be hosted in Interactive Learning Environment (ILE) or desktop based. These artefacts are based on graphical interfaces which forces students to manage instrumental genesis that crosses the effects of didactic, pedagogical and technical artifacts between them, during the learning activity. Our paper investigates the impact of instrumental conflicts on the cognitive load of the students, during an assessment activity with Docyrus, an adaptable ILE. In particular, after a literature review on the instrumental approch and the cognitive load theories applied to the Human Computer Interaction (HCI, the empirical work (N=104) examines how far the customisation of the graphical user interface of an ILE, during the learning activity, influences the final achievment of a quiz. The main goal behind our approach is to understand from the educational engineering point of view, and within the framework of the instrumental approach, the adapted use of these environments with regard to the learning activities to take place there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]