A GENERAL MODEL FOR EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

The paper presents a general model for Educational Software Design and Development (ESDD). The ESDD requires knowledge and skills from two main areas - software engineering and education. To address the needs of the learners, software developers should understand both software and educational design, and know the needs of the target group(s). The paper reviews some of the popular Software Design (SD) and Instructional Design (ID) models. Based on specific components of these models, a new ESDD model is devised. It combines components of ID with SD. ID components are used to define the learning problem, user needs, learning goals, learning content and activities. SD components are used to define software functionalities and features, the interface design, to realise software implementation, testing, evaluation, deployment and maintenance. The model consists of six stages: needs analysis, audience analysis, task analysis, design, implementation, and testing and evaluation. These stages provide the educational software process framework.