E-learning Design as a Traceable, Adaptive Activity

This paper discusses some instructional design (ID) concepts that are critical in the systematic development of computer-mediated educational experiences. We emphasize that the outcome of an ID process should comprise both e-learning material and the specification of learning/teaching activities. We discuss the need for reuse of both kinds of design artifacts to support the intrinsically dynamic, adaptive nature of the ID process. We highlight the importance of traceability for adaptive reuse, to explicitly document the conceptual relationship from educational resources to teachers' and learners' goals, requirements, and contexts of use. We sketch a model for representing the outcome of an ID process that supports traceability. Finally, we pinpoint how the proposed approach can contribute to the definition of a pattern language for e-learning, and ultimately open new design perspectives for the development of adaptive educational hypermedia systems.