Systematic courseware development using an integrated engineering style method

In industry, there is a lack of high-quality courseware for the training of the workforce. Therefore, the number of projects producing courseware is increasing. In order to avoid that these projects suffer from the same problems as traditional software projects, i.e. schedule and budget overruns, Fraunhofer IESE developed the IntView methodology for efficient high-quality courseware development. IntView defines an engineering-style process that combines existing courseware development approaches with established and evaluated software engineering methods and techniques. Particular focus is put on the integration of life-cycle encompassing quality assurance activities. This paper presents the IntView life-cycle model with its phases and main products. Furthermore, it illustrates the lifecycle encompassing quality assurance through an example. The efficiency of the IntView methodology is shown through the comparison of effort data from a pilot application of IntView with data from previous courseware development where IntView was not yet available. Finally, the IntView life-cycle model is put into relation to the descriptions of existing courseware development approaches and of hypermedia as well as software engineering approaches. 1 Challenges in courseware development Technology enabled learning using the web and the computer is becoming more and more important especially in continuing education of the workforce. One of the main bottlenecks of a broader use of the new learning opportunities is the availability of high-quality courseware. By courseware we mean any instructional system delivering content or activities via computers in order to support learners as well as teachers in their educational efforts, in all technical and instructional ways. Courseware development has to cover four different dimensions of a courseware: its content, its content presentation style, its instructional strategy, and its functionality. The development of high quality courseware is a very expensive and labor-intensive process [Iss97]. This is especially due to the fact that courseware development is a multidisciplinary team approach. Disciplines involved are instructional design for multimedia courseware, media psychology, graphical design, specialized content writing, software as well as hypermedia engineering, multimedia engineering, and quality assurance (see, for instance [HaWo98] or [SaSc96]). As in the early days of software development, courseware is still developed mostly from scratch. Welldefined, explicit, detailed, and integrated processes to provide sufficient guidance and support for all disciplines in everyday courseware development work are rather seldom. That is, the development process used and thus the quality of the courseware produced often depends heavily on the experience, knowledge and skills of the team members and their ability to cooperate. Only highly qualified people working together longterm as a team are able to produce high quality courseware within given time and budget constraints. Often, this prerequisite is not given. As a consequence, most of the courseware development projects today face problems with meeting schedule, staying within budget, and producing quality courseware at the same time [LeOw00]. Even new life-cycle models for systematic courseware development (e.g., [LeOw00]) neither fully support all disciplines involved in courseware development, nor do they provide life-cycle encompassing quality assurance. This raises the need for a systematic courseware development methodology increasing the probability to avoid schedule and budget overruns and to produce high-quality courseware. Systematic development is a synonym for the application of engineering principles, in particular, principles of hypermedia and of software engineering combined with existing courseware development approaches. This paper presents the outline of such a systematic courseware development methodology, the IntView lifecycle model. The second chapter presents the key concepts of this model. The third chapter presents first results of the application of the IntView methodology in a courseware development case study. The fourth chapter compares the IntView life-cycle model with already existing courseware development and hypermedia as well as software engineering approaches. The fifth chapter presents conclusions and a short outlook on the future of the IntView life-cycle model and of the IntView methodology it is integrated in. 2 The IntView life-cycle model The IntView courseware development methodology was development by the Fraunhofer IESE in order to overcome the problems with exceeding development time and effort restrictions. As a comprehensive development methodology, IntView integrates all important views of high quality courseware development (i.e., managerial, content-instructional, and graphical-technical views on the process with a view comprising several roles) dealing with all four dimensions of courseware (that is, con tent, instructional strategy, content presentation style, functionality).Furthermore, IntView introduces a set of intermediate quality assurance activities inspired by state-of-the-art software engineering principles that verify the quality of intermediate work products. The instructional, technical, and managerial views on courseware development are derived from existing courseware approaches (e.g., [LeOw00], [McJo98], [Ssh95]), software engineering approaches (e.g., [Rom97]), and hypermedia engineering approaches (e.g., [Gin98], [LoHa99]). The life-cycle encompassing quality assurance methodology is adapted from software engineering. On a high abstract level, the resulting IntView courseware methodology can be described as product-centered life-cycle model, as shown in Figure 1. This life-cycle model comprises all phases necessary to produce the main products of courseware development, and their temporary relationships according to the software engineering product model defined by Rombach [Rom97]. Following the overall development process for web applications defined by Ginige [Gin98], such a life-cycle model is the basis for choosing the development process in the context of a specific project. Courseware projects start with the problem specification. The product of this phase, the problem statement (1), is the basis for the decision to develop the planned courseware. The problem statement describes the planned courseware and the technical environment as well as the learning situation it will be used in (also called delivery environment). This is done in a concise but comprehensive manner from the viewpoint of the customer and the planned audience, taking under consideration of all four dimensions of courseware. It also contains a market analysis for the courseware and a preliminary project and risk plan. This information is used to define critical factors for project success as well as the probability of project success and the achievable cost effectiveness of development