2 Using an Instructional Engineering Method and a Modeling Tool to Design IMS-LD Units of Learning

This chapter discusses how to build IMS learning designs focusing on three aspects, instructional engineering, modeling tools and graphical design techniques. First, we propose that instructional de-signers use a systemic and systematic instructional engineering method to build Units of Learning conforming to the IMS-LD speci-fication. MISA, a mature instructional engineering method will serve as the basis to our design approach. Second, we present a graphical modeling tool, MOT+, and a representation technique that was created to support instructional engineering. In MOT+, con-cepts, procedures and principles are used to describe all IMS-LD components as well as their relationships. We believe this graphical language to be closer to instructional designers, in that it represents a more pedagogical viewpoint than software engineering graphical languages like UML, while still enabling an automatic translation from graphical models into a machine-readable IMS-LD XML. Third, we will provide an example of the design processes involved in building learning designs, from the preliminary analysis to the definition of a unit of learning method, the central part of the IMS Learning Design