A CONSTRUCTIVISM APPROACH TO THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THREE SMART TEST TEMPLATES: TESTA, HOT POTATOES, WONDERSHARE QUIZ CREATOR

Nowadays. E-learning is becoming more and more common among students; therefore, the issue in e-learning environments must be given a full attention. Research approves that constructivism learning theory, whose main focus is on knowledge construction based on learner’s previous experience and his/her social interaction is a good fit for e-learning and ensures learning among learners.The relationship between technology and constructivism is the complementary one, the employment of each one promoting the other. Constructivism is an approach maintaining that learning takes place in contexts, while technology refers to the designs and environments that involve learners. In this process it is unavoidable that teachers and administrators need to be actively involved in creating e-learning environments. But implementing the proper template to this end is the issue, which has been neglected i.e. teachers have used templates, which are not in line with the accepted approach to learning in digital environment, i.e. constructivism. The most used and advised templates by the teachers and administrators in Iran, TESTA and Hot Potatoes, were selected To examine the extent to which they satisfy the constructivists’ learning stipulation. The third template, Wonder Share Quiz Creator, as an unknown template was also added. To this end, Richards’ maxims of teaching for language teachers were set as the bases of describing the templates potentialities.