I forgot this is a book chapter that describes the software evelopment methodology used for dotFolio and some of the other projects developed at WEG.
Rafael A. Calvo, Robert A. Ellis, Nicholas Carroll, Lina Markauskaite "eLearning software development processes with the student experience of learning", In Angela Brew & Judyth Sachs (Eds). The Transformed University: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Practice. Sydney University Press. (to appear in 2007)
This chapter proposes a software engineering methodology based on the traditional spiral methodologies, but extended for educational software. We explain how the proposed ‘spiral-Ed’ methodology has been designed to allow the systematic inclusion of the student learning experience in the development process. We also look at how this methodology was used for several eLearning software development projects and how resulting evidence-based research into the students’ experience informed the ongoing development process. By using results from research into the student experience, we argue that established software development can be improved to produce a better informed design process that is more likely to support effective learning.
The book will appear in 2007 but if you want a copy earlier let me know
regards
Rafael
