Employing Object-Oriented Design Principles in the Design of Learning Objects in a Software Engineering Course

This paper describes a study aimed at exploring the design of learning objects based on object-oriented design principles. We present and discuss experiences gained in applying object-oriented software engineering principles to the development of learning objects. While key results indicate that the approach leads to the production of high-quality learning objects, results also reveal that the application of software engineering principles is not sufficient by itself. There is a need to integrate both instructional design and software design principles during the learning object development process.