A software product line for interactive learning modules

Educational software provide many benefits for teachers and students, from reducing repetitive tasks to offering assignments impossible with the use of only blackboard and paper. Interactive Learning Modules (iLM) are a family of educational systems which offer interactive assignments integrated with Learning Management Systems. The development of iLM, similarly to other software created in context of academic projects, faces issues related to software maintenance and evolution, which hinder their contributions to society. This is mainly caused by code degradation with time and to ad-hoc methods used, without a systematic process and explicit considerations to prevent these problems. With the goal of improving this process, this work presents a Software Product Line (SPL) for the development of iLM. The method used to create this SPL involved an analysis of the domain, which are the existing iLM, the creation of a system model in order to define the responsibilities of mandatory, variant and optional features among systems, and the implementation of an application framework. Therefore, the SPL consists of this framework and its manuals for internal operation, utilization and evolution, providing code, architecture and process reuse. Contributions of this work were evaluated by a proof of concept and a study case. The proof of concept describes the development of a new iLM called iTangran, presenting the possibility of using the SPL for this task. The study case investigated more deeply the SPL impact on the refactoring process of an existing iLM, iVProg. Results show that a guide and an architecture for the tasks undertaken by programmers have a significant influence on the perceived productivity and their satisfaction while working, also contributing to code and documentation quality, which are essential factors to prevent development problems such as those faced nowadays. (AU)