72 IEEE REVISTA IBEROAMERICANA DE TECNOLOGIAS DEL APRENDIZAJE, VOL. 9, NO. 2, MAY 2014

Development of e-Learning Solutions: DifferentApproaches, a Common Mission

Juan Manuel Dodero, Francisco-José García-Peñalvo, Carina González, Pablo Moreno-Ger,Miguel-Angel Redondo, Antonio Sarasa-Cabezuelo, and José-Luis Sierra

Abstract— As result of the discussions maintained at thepanel session on Software Development for e-Learning ofthe third workshop on software engineering for e-Learning(ISELEAR’12), several points of view emerged regarding theconception, development, and maintenance of e-Learning solu-tions. This paper summarizes and confronts these points of view:1) automated approaches; 2) combination of different methodolo-gies; 3) emphasis on human and social aspects; 4) domain-specificdevelopment approaches, 5) model-driven/language-driven devel-opment and system integration approaches, and 6) grammar-oriented development. While these points of view supportdifferent approaches to the engineering process, all of themshare a common goal: to facilitate the development of complexe-Learning applications and solutions by multidisciplinary teamsof software developers, instructors, domain experts, students, andfinal users.

Index Terms— Software engineering, e-Learning.

I. INTRODUCTION

ONE of the most active sessions in the past 3rd Workshopon Software Engineering for e-Learning (ISELEAR’12)

was the Panel Session on “Software Development fore-Learning”. This session brought together several recog-nized researchers in the Spanish e-Learning community, whoexposed their own points of view on how to conceive, develop,maintain and exploit an e-Learning solution. These pointsof view, which were already summarized in [17], althoughheterogeneous, agreed on the intrinsic difficulty of suc-cessful e-Learning development and on the necessity of

Manuscript received July 27, 2013; revised Febraury 18, 2014; acceptedFebraury 18, 2014. Date of publication April 16, 2014; date of current versionMay 15, 2014. This work was supported by the Projects under Grant TIN201021695 C02-01 and Grant TIN2010-21288-C02-01 and P09 TIC 5230.

J. M. Dodero is with the Departamento de Ingeniería Informática, EscuelaSuperior de Ingeniería, Universidad de Cádiz, Cádiz 11202, Spain.

F.-J. García-Peñalvo is with the Grupo de Investigación GRIAL, Institutode Investigación en Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de Salamanca,Salamanca 37008, Spain.

C. González is with the Departamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas yAutomática y Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores, Escuela TécnicaSuperior de Ingeniería Informática, Universidad de La Laguna, Santa Cruz deTenerife 38204, Spain.

M.-A. Redondo is with the Departamento de Tecnologías y Sistemas deInformación, Escuela Superior de Informática, Universidad de Castilla-LaMancha, Ciudad Real 13071, Spain.

A. Sarasa-Cabezuelo is with Departamento de Sistemas Informáticos yComputación, Facultad de Informática, Universidad Complutense de Madrid,Madrid 28047, Spain.

P. Moreno-Ger and J.-L. Sierra are with the Departamento de Ingenieríadel Software e Inteligencia Artificial, Facultad de Informática, UniversidadComplutense de Madrid, Madrid 28047, Spain (e-mail: jlsierra@fdi.ucm.es).

Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are availableonline at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/RITA.2014.2317532

actively involving the different stakeholders in the develop-ment process: software engineers and developers, instructionaldesigners, content providers, domain experts, students andother final users, etc.

This common mission encouraged panelists and moderatorsof the Panel Session to further extend and detail their points ofview. The result of this effort, which also includes the SessionPanel moderators’ own point of view, has crystallized in thispaper. Indeed, the paper describes six different approaches toe-Learning development:

- Use of Software Engineering techniques in order toautomate different facets of e-Learning development,an approach detailed by Juan-Manuel Dodero, fromSPI&FM group, at Cadiz University.

- Combination of methodological frameworks, as exposedby Francisco-José García-Peñalvo, Head of the GRIALresearch group, at Salamanca University.

- Emphasis on Human and Social Aspects of e-Learningsystems. This aspect is developed by Carina González,from La Laguna University.

- Development approaches adapted to specific domains(development of educational games, in particular), asdefended by Pablo Moreno-Ger, from the e-UCMresearch group, at Complutense University of Madrid.

- Model-driven / Language-driven development and systemintegration approaches, presented by Miguel A. Redondo,from the CHICO research group, at Castilla-La-ManchaUniversity.

- Grammar-oriented development, presented by José-LuisSierra & Antonio-Sarasa, from the ILSA research group,at Complutense University of Madrid.

Next sections develop these six approaches. The paper isclosed by a unifying section presenting the main conclusionsderived from the different perspectives exposed.

II. AUTOMATED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

(DODERO’s PERSPECTIVE)

Software engineering methods and techniques aim atautomating different aspects of the development and inte-gration of software artifacts. In the Technology-EnhancedLearning (TEL) field, the development of such softwareartifacts is targeted to build up personal learning environ-ments [26] on the basis of external software applications [44]and services [11]. Software engineering methods and tech-niques such as Model-Driven Engineering [16], Model-DrivenArchitecture [10], Domain-Specific modeling [39] and lan-guages [46], Domain Analysis [14] and Software Product

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DODERO et al.: DEVELOPMENT OF e-LEARNING SOLUTIONS 73

Lines [52] have been readily applied to the developmentof e-Learning platforms and software. Model-based softwareengineering techniques vindicate the adoption of e-Learningproducts at a lower cost and with fewer failures than usingtraditional software engineering approaches. Such pledges arefounded upon the interoperability of applications and systemsthat make up the final delivered TEL system.

A number of standards have emerged in recent years in thefield of TEL [11] to tackle the interoperability issue. Neverthe-less, such standards are limited concerning the personalizationand the expression of the context in which learning takesplace [18]. Adopting a particular LMS, a specific applicationor an existing web service restricts the instructional designerwith all the limitations that the technological choice imposes.This is where model-based software engineering methods andtechniques have their chance, by separating technical issuesand domain-specific (i.e. learning) aspects. That way, model-based approaches are moving the engineering effort from soft-ware programming to software configuration in the softwareprocess life-cycle. The ASCETA project (http://asceta.uca.es/)has oriented the TEL research towards the use of semantictechnologies to alleviate such configuration issues [15].

III. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING METHODS FOR

e-LEARNING SYSTEMS

(GARCIA-PEÑALVO’S PERSPECTIVE)

The complexity of e-Learning and computer-based educa-tional systems is mostly due to the nature of the projects,which might involve different actors, roles, contents, func-tionalities, services and so on. Usually a project does notstart from scratch: it would be impossible to achieve thetemporal milestones and functional requirements. Also, theseeducational products are usually able to interoperate with thirdparty products that may require mash-up approaches [38], [45]and present interoperability issues [2], [26], [27].

Due to this diversity, each project requires its own method-ological approach, with a clear differentiation depending onwhether you are in a research context or you are in a devel-opment one. For example, in a research orientation typicalaction-research cycles [68] may be adopted. This way, using alearning by doing approach, the research group works togethertrying to do something to solve and identify a problem,sees how successful their efforts were through empiricalmethods, extracts conclusions and applies those again inother cycle. In these cycles, depending of the nature of theeducational system, you may use a set of different approachesand techniques (Model-Driven Engineering [16], SoftwareProduct Line Engineering [52], Service-Oriented SoftwareEngineering [9], Usability Engineering [25], Semantic Knowl-edge Representation [63] and so on). On the other hand,concerning development and deployment of technologicalenhanced solutions, the mash-up approaches are a commonsolution defining learning ecosystems [24] that establish infor-mation and interoperability flows among the ecosystem com-ponents, for example the integration of a CMS based portalwith a social network like Facebook.

Research and development cycles share the iterative andincremental roots. It means both orientations may be tackled

Fig. 1. Moodbile Connector Architecture.

through agile approaches that fix time-boxes for developmentsor cycles. An agile-oriented method in both the project man-agement [28] and the process development [43] is a veryaccepted solution due to the higher risks of evolution andchanges in the requirements and systems architecture and alsoby the way of developments (or research) teams are composed.

When the project size is so huge, involving too manypopulated and distributed teams, a more formalized approachshould be taken into account for the overall development, suchas Unified Process [33]; however, the internal management ofeach iteration/increment should be agile-oriented.

In the context of GRIAL (research GRoup in InterActionand e-Learning – http://grial.usal.es) experiences, Scrum [61]based methods are the most often used as agile approach inboth research [7] and development practices [8]. Scrum is aframework for agile project management of growing interestin different application fields, including the learning projectsthat may use this methodology for management tasks, whichinvolves both software and learning contents development[48], and as team organization [69].

Moodbile project [5] may be cited as an example ofthe above mentioned methodological approach with theaim of developing a services based framework to integratemobile learning applications with a Moodle based LearningManagement System (LMS). The motivation of the Moodbileproject is to open up the most commonly used e-Learning plat-forms and LMS, originally designed as monolithic or layeredsystems, to the service paradigm. This work is an interoper-ability solution to extend LMS to other environments such asthe mobile world. Its aim is to contribute in adapting LMS tothe current generation of e-Learning 2.0. Its first LMS target isMoodle. Figure 1 shows the Moodbile Connector architecture.

A distributed development team has developed Moodbileproject. It needed to combine both research-action cycles withmore typical development increments. This project reflects sowell the ideas expressed in this section because of its mixed

74 IEEE REVISTA IBEROAMERICANA DE TECNOLOGIAS DEL APRENDIZAJE, VOL. 9, NO. 2, MAY 2014

Fig. 2. (a) Educator and Physiotherapist testing TANGO-H in laboratory, (b) Educator and Physiotherapist doing the intervention with educational videogamesin the hospital classroom with hospitalized children, (c) Computer Engineer and Physiologist in the classroom using TANGO-H with children.

research-development nature and also the changeable and notstable characteristics of its requirements that invited to use anagile approach to tackle its evolution.

IV. SOCIAL AND HUMAN ASPECTS

(GONZÁLEZ’S PERSPECTIVE)

During the last 15 years, software engineering appliedto e-Learning has focused on the process of specification,systematization and standardization of models and teaching-learning processes supported by technology [20]. From thisperspective, we can find several standards initiatives (e.g.,IMS, IEEE LOM, SCORM, LAMS, etc.), methodologies andtechniques that help teams to conduct research and develop-ment in education projects.

Currently, one of the major challenges facing softwareengineering is the representation of knowledge managementand instructional design in new open, ubiquitous, social andinformal learning environments. For example, the MassiveOpen Online Courses “MOOCs” [36], [37] are semi-automatedcourses with a characteristic instructional design (interac-tive video “pills,” self-assessment and pairs-assessment, etc.),which feeds the interactions of thousands of students allowingself-management of learning. These new course formats raiseopen, structured and interactive teaching-learning processes.So, it also generates a lot of data over which they coulddiscover patterns of interaction, learning styles and knowledgeon the teaching-learning process developed on the platform.

Moreover, another current interesting phenomenon for thefield of software engineering is the modeling and repre-sentation of learning processes carried out at micro level(microcontent, microformats, microreadings) in technologicalecosystems. This phenomenon is called “microlearning” [32]and is characterized by the learning interaction with emergingmicrocontent structures during a short time (few secondsin mobile learning, up to 10–15 minutes or more). Also,microlearning may be useful to describe informal learningprocesses, in which people acquire knowledge through micro-content structure in a microcosm or ecosystem.

Note that the main objective of software engineeringfor e-Learning is the design and development of usableand accessible systems and services, in order to reach endusers maximizing their user experience and facilitating theteaching and learning. This goal can only be achievedthrough working in interdisciplinary teams and using agileuser centered methodologies, including experts and users of

applications and services throughout the design process. Themost important roles involved in the learning process areteachers and students. Thus, we need to pay attention to thesetwo different roles involved in the development of e-Learningplatforms. In this sense, we have successfully employedlightweight Agile and User Centered Design (UCD) method-ologies during the development of our e-Learning projects,with a multidisciplinary team and having the educationalexperts and learners present throughout all the design process.This methodological approach has been satisfactorily used inthe e-Learning developments of our research team, such asULLMedia [31], SAVEH [4], SALUD-in [51], VIDEM [67],or TANGO-H [64]. For example, Figure 2 shows the iterativevalidation process of our educational videogames in the con-text of TANGO-H (http://tangoh.iter.es/) with different experts,users and real contexts.

V. CHALLENGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL

GAMES (MORENO-GER’S PERSPECTIVE)

The use of digital games and game-like simulations(referred henceforth as serious games) has increased theirpresence in Technology-Enhanced Learning in the last fewyears [30], [66]. The notion has been gaining traction over thelast ten years, and it has currently become an established trendwell accepted by the academic community.

However, this acceptance is not easily resulting in anincreased deployment of serious games in real applicationenvironments. There are, in fact, many barriers which arepreventing a widespread adoption of serious games: socialaspects (games are commonly perceived as either toys for kidsor dangerous media that corrupt young players [62]), lack ofinfrastructure, teacher resistance and even student rejection.However, the most important issue is typically the enormouscost demanded by serious games development projects.

Indeed, the inspiration to use games in education comesfrom observing the engagement provided by top of the linecommercial games. However, such games are backed bymulti-million budgets, and developed by highly skilled teamsof programmers, visual artists, writers and game designers.Unfortunately, educational games rarely have such budgets orhuman teams, and other approaches are required.

From a technical perspective, there is an imperative needfor adequate software engineering techniques and developmentmodels are required to reduce the development costs and bringthem in line with typical educational budgets. There are two

DODERO et al.: DEVELOPMENT OF e-LEARNING SOLUTIONS 75

main propositions in this line: using specific languages andgame engines especially crafted for (serious) games, or usingauthoring tools that reduce the development costs and facilitatethe participation of content experts in the authoring process[3], [40].

A. Languages and Specific Engines for Video Games

Following the idea of raising the level of abstraction, mostmodern video games separate the low level logic and thehigh-level constructs that define the behavior of the game(AI management, level design, game script, events, etc.).Thus, the heart of these developments is typically a veryefficient engine that manages aspects of graphics, physics,sound or visual effects. In turn, the game is built using script-ing languages that are usually easier to use by non-experts.Some examples of commonly used game engines in non-professional developments are Ogre (http://www.ogre3d.org/)and jMonkeyEngine (http://jmonkeyengine.com/). However,the programming requirements for these engines are still toohigh for the typical serious games applications, and moreabstract tools are typically required.

B. Game Authoring Tools

As far as possible from the requirement to have program-ming skills, there are a variety of tools that allow authorsto create their own games. Obviously, these initiatives need toreduce their expressiveness to achieve their goals of simplicity,and games that can be created are often very similar. Thispotential lack of expressiveness is often compensated with astrong focus on engaging narratives, as opposed to intenseaction and complex interactions [41].

Using such authoring tools, game creators can employsimple drag and drop procedures. Some commercial exam-ples of such tools are Game Salad (http://gamesalad.com/)or Unity (http://unity3d.com/). Similarly, e-Adventure (http://e-adventure.e-ucm.es) is a specific example created to facilitatethe development of educational games (see Figure 3), whichallows the instructors to create their own educational gamesusing a visual interface.

In particular, e-Adventure has been used successfully tocreate and deploy games for different educational fields such asMedicine [47], Language-Learning [12], Culture/History [22],First-Aid training [42] or IT training [19].

VI. MODEL-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT, LANGUAGE-DRIVEN

DEVELOPMENT AND SYSTEM INTEGRATION

(REDONDO’S PERSPECTIVE)

The development of e-Learning systems, as a particular caseof software systems, requires systematic methods to guidethe process and to reduce production costs. For this purpose,Model-driven Development (MDD) methods and techniquesare very valuable approaches, especially when the purpose is tobuild systems for Computer Supported Collaborative Learning(CSCL). Indeed, having tools or e-Learning platforms thatsupport practical work and work in-group such as can be foundin student-training production environments is a recurrent need

Fig. 3. A screenshot of the e-Adventure serious games development platform.The games are created using drag and drop actions and do not require anyprogramming.

in e-Learning scenarios. Thus, it is mandatory to ensure thatthese tools are integrated with usual e-Learning platforms, forexample, by means of Personal Learning Environments [50].

Widespread environments, such as the Eclipse platform,includes support for MDD as a method of development. Forthis, it uses technologies such as EMF, GMF, ATL, Ecore,etc. In [23] there are examples of the application of thesetechnologies. This kind of environments can be successfullyspecialized in e-Learning tools. As a particular example, [35]describes the role of Eclipse in the scope of learning in groupof group-programming (or pair programming). In this scope,it is possible to highlight COALA, a computer assisted envi-ronment for learning algorithms. Figure 4a shows a screenshotof the main view of this environment.

Indeed, Eclipse also allows the application of this approachin other domains in which activities of design are performedin order to learn and acquire specific skills [23]. An exampleof this claim could be seen in Figure 4b where a screenshotof a collaborative modeling tool is showed. This tool supportslearning of design of Use Case Diagrams.

In addition, in other cases, a similar approach that makes useof techniques used for the construction of Language Processorscan be used. These language-driven techniques are used forbuilding specific modules of learning systems. For example,modules of assessment, advice, personalized feedback, etc.can be developed with this approach [6]. One example ofthis approach is ProleTool, that is, a tool that allows usersto specify their own learning activities, to add alternativesolutions and to receive an evaluation from the system so thatthey are guided in their learning process. It is developed usingformal languages to specify activities and their solutions, andalso on the use of language processors for such languages, sothat it is possible to build a computable model that solves theactivities and analyzes the solutions. Figure 4c shows the userinterface of ProleTool for the specification of problems andsolutions.

Finally, it is worthwhile to notice that, when this devel-opment approaches are applied, important aspects like

76 IEEE REVISTA IBEROAMERICANA DE TECNOLOGIAS DEL APRENDIZAJE, VOL. 9, NO. 2, MAY 2014

Fig. 4. (a) Main view of COALA environment; (b) Screenshot of a collaborative modeling tool for design of Use Case Diagrams; (c) User interface ofProletool for the specifications of problems and solutions.

integration and interoperability have to be considered. Regard-ing these aspects, different approaches may be cited, includingstandards-based architectures, modeling languages or tuplespaces based architectures [34]. However, new paradigms andtechnologies such as Cloud Computing could change all theseapproaches.

VII. GRAMMAR-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT (SIERRA &SARASA-CABEZUELO’S PERSPECTIVE)

Complexity in the development of e-Learning solutions canbe managed along many different dimensions. For those, thefollowing two are particularly relevant:

- Software architecture and organization. Indeed,e-Learning systems and applications are complexartifacts involving many different components that mustbe successfully orchestrated. Indeed, typical e-Learningapplications are deployed in web contexts, thereforeinvolving a whole plethora of server and client frame-works and technologies. In addition, these applicationsare highly interactive, which lead to the adoption of rich-internet applications (RIAs) approaches [21] built on topof sophisticated collections of e-Learning services [11],the use of complex server-based interaction architectures[29], or a mixture of both. Also, successful e-Learningsolutions are intrinsically modular and extensible in orderto accommodate the particular needs of individual usersand user communities. Finally, these applications must

integrate rich bodies of highly structured educationalcontents, as well as to be able to interoperate withother applications, systems and platforms by adhering towell-established specifications and standards [11].

- Rational distribution of roles. As indicated in previoussections, development of e-Learning solutions involvesdifferent categories of experts with heterogeneousexpertise and interests. Indeed, it is not only applicableto the aforementioned division among developers,instructors and final users (students), but also to finerdivisions of each type of role. For instance, concerningdevelopers, this community could integrate data modelers,data managers and database experts, programmers ofbasic server-side services and functionalities, expertsin server-side architectures and frameworks, expertsin client-side RIA development, web and graphicdesigners, etc, according to the typical divisions arisingin web-based development approaches [21], [29].

Thus, the adoption of development paradigms allowing thesimultaneous addressing of these dimensions can result inrealizable benefits during the development process.

At ILSA (the UCM research group on Implementation ofLanguage-Driven Software and Applications), we are exper-imenting with the use of formal grammars for achievingthis goal. For this purpose, we start by considering thestandard syntax-directed organization of a conventional lan-guage processor [1]. As Figure 5a makes apparent, this

DODERO et al.: DEVELOPMENT OF e-LEARNING SOLUTIONS 77

Fig. 5. (a) Classical syntax-directed organization and development of a language processor; (b) 1. Adaptation of (a) for XML processing; 2. Further automationwith attribute grammars and XLOP; (c) 1. Use of XLOP in the construction of <e-Tutor>; 2. Use of XLOP in the construction of the OdA constraint checker.

organization comprises a scanner, which is in charge of tok-enizing an input text in a sequence of tokens, and a translator(a parser augmented with semantic actions), which is in chargeof processing the sequence of tokens by imposing on thissequence a syntax structure and by using this structure to carryout the processing steps. As Figure 5a also makes apparent,these components can be automatically generated from highlevel specifications (regular expressions-based specifications,in the case of the scanner, translation schemes –context-freegrammars augmented with semantic actions, in the case of thetranslator).

This organization can be connected with the problem ofaddressing the “software architecture and organization” andthe “distribution of roles” concerns as follows:

- Concerning software architecture and organization, thesyntax-directed organization splits the language proces-sor in two well-differentiated layers: a linguistic layer,according to which the input text is processed follow-ing well-defined linguistic models (regular expressions,augmented context-free grammars, etc.), and a collectionof semantic actions, which are actually a collection ofconventional functionalities and services.

- Concerning role distribution, it basically affects develop-ers. Indeed, while the linguistic layer can be addressedby experts in the design and implementation of

computer languages, who are able to develop the involvedcomponents using specialized generation tools support-ing the aforementioned high-level specifications (reg-ular expressions, translation schemes…), the semanticactions involve conventional programming of simpler,basic, functionalities and services (e.g., in the processorfor a programming language, checking whether two typesare equivalent, interfacing with the symbol table, or gen-erating code). These services can be therefore developedby conventional programmers with no specific knowledgeof language processing techniques.

Thus, by conceiving an e-Learning application as a coor-dinated set of language processors, whose construction canbe largely automated in terms of formal grammar-basedhigh-level specifications, the grammar-oriented developmentapproach to e-Learning applications that is being created inthe context of ILSA arises.

In order to experiment with this approach, in the lastfour years we have focused on the language-driven process-ing of XML documents [54], [57], since XML is oneof the basic enabling technology in many of the currente-Learning platforms and systems [55]. For this purpose, westarted by adapting the basic syntax-directed organization inFigure 5a to deal with XML documents. The basic idea was toreplace conventional scanners by wrappers of standard XML

78 IEEE REVISTA IBEROAMERICANA DE TECNOLOGIAS DEL APRENDIZAJE, VOL. 9, NO. 2, MAY 2014

processing frameworks [57]. These wrappers were customizedby tables mapping basic events in the XML documents (e.g.,start of an element, end of an element, text content, etc.)into tokens expected by the translators. The rest of the orga-nization remained unaltered (see Figure 5b-1). In particular,it allowed us to use conventional compiler construction tools(e.g., JavaCC, ANTLR, CUP…) for developing XML process-ing applications using high-level, translation schema-based,specifications [1]. We developed two instantiations of thissolution: one using JavaCC as the compiler construction tooland SAX as the XML processing framework [60], and anotherone using CUP as the compiler construction tool and StAXfor dealing with the tokenization of the XML documents [56].

In order to further facilitate the approach, we have created ameta-tool called XLOP (XML Language-Oriented Processing)[54], [59] that, taking specifications based on attribute gram-mars [49] as input, is able to automatically generate all therequited stuff (the translator schemes and the customizationtables for the wrappers of the XML processing frameworks;Figure 5b-2).

XLOP has been successfully used in the refactoring of<eTutor>, a system for the generation of Socratic tutori-als described as XML documents (Figure 5c-1) [55], [65].As Figure 5c-1 makes apparent, by using XLOP it is possibleto describe the <e-Tutor> generator (i.e., the component incharge of transforming XML documents in working tutorials)as an attribute grammar, and to automatically generate thisgenerator from this high-level specification. XLOP has beenalso used in the development of a constraint checking serviceon learning objects stored in OdA, a system for the develop-ment of collections of learning objects in specialized domains[53], [55], [58]. Here, the checking service is deployed as aREST web service, which, using XLOP, can be automaticallygenerated from a description given by an attribute grammar(Figure 5c-2).

VIII. CONCLUSIONS

This paper has summarized six different ways of thinkingabout the development of solutions in the e-Learning domain.Although these positions differ in the approaches and theunderlying details, all of them share the common mission offacilitating development in this complex application domain.

Indeed, Dodero’s and Redondo’s perspectives highlight theimportant role played by generative approaches, and, in par-ticular, by model-driven and language-driven methods, in thedevelopment of e-Learning systems. This point of view is alsoshared by Sierra & Sarasa, who promote the use of formalgrammars in the development of this kind of systems.

This emphasis on model-driven and language-driven devel-opment is consistent with Moreno-Ger’s perception on theneed for the active involvement of domain experts inthe development of educational games. In addition, asMoreno-Ger arguments, domain-specific models and lan-guages are not enough, but they need to be supported bysuitable instructor-oriented educational tools.

However, as García-Peñalvo indicates, e-Learning is a verycomplex software domain. Indeed, the inherent complexity of

web development, a facet also made apparent by Redondo’sproposal of using sophisticated system integration techniquesduring e-Learning development, requires facing the complexityof coordinating multidisciplinary teams of domain-experts,instructors, students, and developers. For this purpose, García-Peñalvo highlights the benefits of adopting agile approachesas basic development techniques, a point of view also sharedwith González. However, García-Peñalvo also noted that thisshould not imply dismissing more structured approaches alto-gether. On the contrary, he claimed in favor of the consistentintegration of agile methods in conventional ones in orderto orchestrate the different development phases or iterations.Sierra & Sarasa’s grammatical approach addresses a particularaspect of this problem by distinguishing between linguisticand conventional layers and by promoting the use of formalgrammars to face development at the linguistic level.

Finally, as González arguments, regardless of aspectssuch as active involvement of domain-experts, use of well-established standards, and other methodological and techno-logical concerns, a distinctive facet in modern e-Learningsystems is the social/human dimension. Thus, facing this facetshould be a priority in any successful e-Learning developmentprocess. Concerning this subject, González highlights theemerging trend of micro-formats and micro-learning as a keytopic in the current e-Learning arena.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks are due to SIIE’12 organizers by all the facilitiesgiven to run ISELEAR’12 as a part of the main conference,and, in particular, for organizing the panel session that wasthe seed of the present work.

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Juan Manuel Dodero received the Degree andthe Ph.D. degree in computer science from thePolytechnic University of Madrid and the Carlos IIIUniversity of Madrid. He is currently an AssociateProfessor with the University of Cádiz. He has alsobeen a Lecturer with the Carlos III University ofMadrid and a Research and Development Engineerwith Intelligent Software Components S.A. His mainresearch interests are web science and engineering,and technology-enhanced learning.

Francisco-José García-Peñalvo received the B.S.and M.S. degrees in software engineering from theUniversity of Salamanca and the University of Val-ladolid, and the Ph.D. degree in computer sciencefrom the University of Salamanca in 1992, 1994,and 2000, respectively. He is the Head with theResearch Group in Interaction and e-Learning. Hismain research interests are e-Learning, computerand education, adaptive systems, web engineering,semantic web, and software reuse. He has led andparticipated in more than 50 research and innovation

projects. He was a Technology Innovation Vice-Rector with the University ofSalamanca from 2007 to 2009. He has authored more than 100 papers ininternational journals and conferences. He has been a Guest Editor of severalspecial issues in top international journals. He serves regularly as a ProgramCommittee Member in several international conferences and as a reviewer ofseveral international journals.

Carina González is an Associate Professor with theDepartment of Systems Engineering and Control,and Computer Architecture with the University ofLa Laguna. She received the Ph.D. degree in com-puter science, specialized in AI and HCI techniques,involved in the developing of an Intelligent TutoringSystem to support children with special educationneeds. Her main focus area in research is theapplication of AI techniques, multimedia adaptiveinterfaces, and social videogames in education. Shehas a vast experience in e-Learning best practices

and LMS systems. She was the Head with the Educational Innovation andTechnology and the Virtual Teaching Unit with the University of La Lagunafrom 2005 to 2011.

Pablo Moreno-Ger is an Associate Professor withthe Department of Software Engineering and Artifi-cial Intelligence, Complutense University of Madrid(UCM). He is a member with the e-UCM ResearchGroup and the research interests cover the differenttechnical, engineering and educational challengesfaced in the integration of educational games in thelearning flow. Within that area, his research focuseson facilitating the participation and involvement ofinstructors, through the use of simplified authoringtools as well as development of automated tracking

and reporting techniques that give instructors insight into how the studentsare learning. He has authored more than 50 scientific publications related tothese topics.

Miguel-Angel Redondo is an Associate Professorwith the Department of Information Technologiesand Systems, University of Castilla–La Mancha,Spain. His research interests are focused on the fieldsof new Information Technologies applied to Collab-orative Learning and Computer–Human Interaction.He is involved in different research projects aboutdevelopment of mobile applications and groupwaresystems for learning programming.

Antonio Sarasa-Cabezuelo is a full-time Lecturerwith the Computer Science School, ComplutenseUniversity of Madrid, Spain. His research is focusedon the language-oriented development of XML-processing applications, and on the developmentof applications in the fields of digital humanitiesand e-Learning. He was one of the developers ofthe Agrega project on digital repositories. He isa member of the Research Group Implementationof Language-Driven Software and Applications. Hewas involved in several research projects in the fields

of software language engineering, digital humanities, and e-Learning, andhe has authored more than 50 research papers in national and internationalconferences and journals.

José-Luis Sierra is an Associate Professor withthe Complutense University of Madrid ComputerScience School, where he leads the ILSA ResearchGroup. His research is focused on the developmentand practical uses of computer language descriptiontools and on the language-oriented development ofinteractive and web applications in the fields ofdigital humanities and e-Learning. He was involvedin several research projects in the fields of digitalhumanities, e-Learning, and software language engi-neering, the results of which have been published

in over 100 research papers in international journals, conferences, and bookchapters. He serves regularly as a reviewer/Program Committee Member forseveral international reputed journals and conferences.