Providing instructional layers of abstraction in authoring tools for engineering education content

In the context of the authoring process of educational material in e-learning, the notion of learning specification has been considered the fundamental step for the development of an e-learning industry, based on reusability and interoperability of interchangeable components. However, when considering authoring based on instructional and pedagogical aspects, it is necessary to avoid being driven by LT specifications, and better rely on an abstract reference model based on instructional semantics. This paper proposes this instructional layer stack to provide independence from content specification in the authoring process and develop an authoring tool based on it with exporting capabilities to IMS specifications.