Creation of E-Learning Systems by Applying Model-Based Instructional System Development Environment and Platform Independent Models

Abstract

The design and implementation of e-Learning platforms is essential for the development and future of information and communication technologies in knowledge management in the teaching/learning process. Universities and companies require a methodology for developing versatile and flexible e-Learning applications that are, at the same time, capable of storing the large volumes of information required by these educational processes and efficiently conveying this information to their users. This situation is a catalyst revealing the vital need for the efficient and timely development of a teaching/learning process based on e-Learning platforms that takes into account the needs of the student/teacher and achieves optimum quality. To achieve this goal a methodology is required that standardizes the conception, design and implementation of this type of systems based on the creation of basic artefacts that can be used equally well across the different platforms developed. The methodology proposed should be based on a systematic approach for the development of e-Learning systems considering systematic methods coming from both e-Learning and software development communities, involving a series of stages each containing work flows and phases and a set of artefacts (cards, reports, templates, etc.) that can form the basis of the design and development of any e-Learning platform. By doing so, we aim at the development of, what we have named, a Model-Based Instructional System Development Environment (Mb-ISDE), to include eLearning development in the current trends of model-based software development. In this chapter, our interest is focus on platform-independent models useful for e-Learning development and concretely on the Task & Domain models, these models will be analyzed in detail and how we they are used for the development e-Learning systems following a model-based instructional system development. Our proposal, Model-Based Instructional System Design Environment contains several and different models and these models can be divided and classified into different ways based on multiple criteria. Currently, creating product software, and e-Learning software is not an exception, comes with a lot of compatibility issues. Existing application landscapes within e-Learning consist of a lot of different applications, facilities, operating systems, programming languages, etc. In an ideal scenario new software build in such a context is compatible with all existing and future systems. Users of professional software shouldn't have to deal with compatibility issues. However, there are simply too many platforms in existence, and too many conflicting