Authoring and Reengineering of IMS Learning Design Units of Learning

Abstract

Educational Modeling Languages (EMLs) are notations that allow instructors to formally describe educational processes, including teaching and learning interactions and activities. The description of a specific teaching process using an EML is called a learning design. EMLs, where IMS Learning Design (IMS LD) is becoming a de facto standard, address aspects such as the interoperability and reusability of teaching practices across learning management systems. However, the actual application of EMLs is being hindered by different problems such as the technical skills required to use typical EMLs and the difficulty of understanding and maintaining preexisting learning designs. Thus, to promote the adoption of EMLs, it is necessary to provide more user-friendly tools and methodologies to facilitate their assimilation and reduce the workload required to use them. In this paper, we present the e-LD system, which provides a graphical notation to design or redesign learning designs, an import-modification-export process to reengineer IMS LD learning designs, and a tool to generate and analyze dependencies between different IMS LD elements.