Software Product Line to Express Variability in E-Learning Process

Abstract

As a consequence of the massive adoption of internet, many platforms such as Moodle, WebCT and Claroline aim to ease and improve the teaching/learning process by means of taking advantage of internet technologies. However, available systems do not satisfy all the needs of different institutions/teachers, which push them to develop their own systems. Our contribution is the proposition of a general model for collaborative learning processes. The proposed process is modeled with the BPFM (Business Process Feature Model) notation which is a combination of BPMN (Business Process Model Notation) and FM (Feature Model). In fact, BPMN offers almost no means to model process variability. It becomes then necessary to find an efficient solution that allows the fast development of systems and overcomes the afore-mentioned issues. We strongly believe that adopting a software product line (SPL) approach in e-Learning domain can bring important benefits. Knowing that Business Process Management (BPM) is a potential domain in which Software Product Line (SPL) can be successfully applied, we propose in this paper to use the Business Process Feature Model (BPFM) notation that combines in a new notation concepts coming both from feature modeling and from BP modeling to create a reusable and reconfigurable e-learning process.