Hierarchical role-based design of web-based educational systems for blended learning in higher education

Educational software should be designed by development teams with actual teachers. Thus, implementations of this type of software would be able to cover most teaching requirements and to adjust to different teaching principles. Moreover, some more work should be done to abstract common patterns in educational software so that software engineering methods can be adapted to suit educational needs. We propose an abstraction of system users by defining a role hierarchy which fits web-based collaborative educational systems. This proposal, which can significantly improve software adaptability and usability, has been used to develop Tutor, a web-based educational software system to promote a blended learning environment in Higher Education.