Presents a model for design and development of educational software for users with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

1. ADAPTING A GENERAL
EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT MODEL
FOR THE NEEDS OF SPECIAL EDUCATION
Temenuzhka Zafirova-Malcheva
Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski“
Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (Bulgaria)
EDULEARN
2015
***
7th
International
Conference
on
Education
and
New Learning
Technologies
*Barcelona*
6th - 8th
July 2015

2. Their problems and educational needs can strongly vary and they need special learning approach.
Therefore knowledge about the users group is critically important in the software design for SEN.
This is a large group that includes children and students with various types and degrees of
disabilities.
So the educational component involves the Instructional design elements that helps to define
learning problem, objectives and content of the software.
The third area Special education provide knowledge about the users group – students with
SEN – which is very specific.
The character of educational software supposes that it has specific educational content and
addresses specific learning goals.
Software engineering provides the methods and tools to build software products.
Design and development of educational software for users with SEN requires knowledge and
skills from three different areas - software engineering, education, and special needs.
Main factors for design and development of
educational software for SEN
Software engineering Education Special needs
Methods Tools
Learning
problem
Learning
objectives
Learning
content
Various types and
degrees of disabilities

3. At each stage the model allows a return to the previous one and make changes if necessary. It
makes the model flexible and adaptable.
The last three stages of the model – Design, Implementation, and Testing & Evaluation – are
related to Design & Development phase. They concern the use of elements from the software
design models
The first three stages – Needs analysis, Audience analysis, Task analysis – belong to the Analysis
phase. They are related to the use of instructional design elements.
The ESDD model consist of two general phases: Analysis, and Design & Development. They
include six stages.
The main goal of Educational Software Design and Development (ESDD) model is to serve as a
tool through which students can easily build systematic knowledge on design and development
of educational software.
Audience
analysis
General educational software design and
development model
Testing
& Evaluation
ImplementationDesign
Needs
analysis
Task analysis
Analysis Phase Design & Development Phase
Redesign Deployment
The final step is software deployment and maintenance.

4. As a whole, the basic structure and elements of the ESDD model are saved. The main change in
the new model is the shift of focus from the Needs analysis to the Audience analysis and
particular additional elements and relations are added to this stage.
Therefore in this case, before to make needs analysis, we need first to make an audience
analysis.
This change is very important because when we talk about special needs software design the
specifics of the users group plays very important role. The knowledge of users’ abilities and
problems help us to identify their needs.
The adaptation of the ESDD model for the needs of Special Educational Software Design and
Development (SESDD) requires some changes. The main change affects the order of the ESDD
model stages.
Adapting a general ESDD model for users
with special needs
Audience
analysis
Testing
& Evaluation
ImplementationDesign
Needs
analysis
Task analysis
Analysis Phase Design & Development Phase
Redesign Deployment

5. In the following slides each stage and its elements will be presented separately.
As we already noted SESDD model keeps the stages of the general ESDD model, only invert the
sequence of the first two stages and adds some additional elements to Audience analysis stage.
Stages in SESDD model
Testing
& Evaluation
ImplementationDesign
Needs
analysis
Develop
software
prototype
Technical
software
testing
Needs
analysis
Learning
problem
Learning
goals
Information
-processing
analysis
Learning
objectives
Learning
prerequisites
Software
requirements
Learning
content
Learning
activities
and tasks
Interface
design
Software
functionalities
Testing
software
functionali
ties
Evaluation
End users
testing
Expert
testing
Task analysis
Analysis Phase Design & Development Phase
Software
activities
and tasks
Define
type of
software
and
scenario
Redesign Deployment
Audience
analysis
Type of
disability
Problems
User
group
General software
and system
requirements

6. This stage is unlikely to be modified, but it can come back to it at a later stage in the software
process.
General software and system requirements defined in this stage will be used later in the stage of
design.
This may not be a learning problem for users without hearing problems because they do not
need such kind of knowledge and skills, to express their needs, and to communicate with each
other. But these skills are critical for deaf persons.
For example, if we have deaf users, they may need to learn a Sign Language. This is specific
learning problem because it is typical for this particular group of users.
Specific learning problems are related with problems that disability causes and person need to
acquires some specific abilities, knowledge or skills to overcome the limitation caused by the
disease.
The specific learning problems identified in this stage are very important because, based on
them, in the next stage a software learning problem will be defined.
These requirements actually are very important for the users with SEN because they help to
make software more accessible, and to overcome user limitations. Only then we can search an
answer to other needs.
For example, if our potential users are with low vision, we may require: software to provide
custom settings for text and objects size, text and background color; software to maintain
assistive technology products, such as screen readers and Braille displays, etc.
Based on the physical problems that disability causes, some general software and system
requirements can be identified.
Defining users group includes to describe their type of disability, to identify the problems that it
cause, and the needs that arise. We need to define clear both physical and specific learning
problems that disability causes.
The first stage in the SESDD model is the audience analysis. It starts with defining the group of
users with SEN for which software will be designed.
Audience analysis
Problems
User group
Redesign
Type of disability
General software and
system requirements
Design
Needsanalysis

7. We can return to this stage later in the design process.Once the learning problem is clearly defined we can proceed to the next stage – Task analysis.
This step is essential because if we start to build educational software without prior defining the
learning problem that must be solved, the final result may not meet the user's needs. So it is
critical to "Understand the problem before you build a solution."
At this stage we must first identify the real needs of the users group, including the already
defined in the previous stage specific problems and needs, and then by analysis to select the
most essential of them that will becomes the software learning problem.
As we mentioned earlier, learning needs can be related with a specific learning problems and
any of those problems can become the software learning problem.
The second stage is needs analysis. It is aimed to detect user’s learning needs and to identify the
learning problem that software should address.
Redesign
Needs analysis
Learning
problem
Needs
analysis
Taskanalysis
Audienceanalysis

8. We can go back to this stage later in the software process.After software requirements, learning content, learning activities and tasks are defined we can
go to the next stage - Design.
From the content we define different activities and tasks through which the intended knowledge
and skills will be learned.
These requirements are related with standards in software design and they are valid regardless
of characteristics of the user’s group.
Besides, here should be described various requirements, related to best practices in the user
interface design. For example, the opportunity to return to the main menu from anywhere in
the program; the options to adjust the level of complexity, etc.
These requirements identified in this stage are related to common settings and features that the
software must support, and depend on users’ needs. For example the ability to adjust the
volume level.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills are determined for each goal. The learning objectives for each
goal and each prerequisite are defined, and based on these objectives we identify learning
content that software will represent, and main software requirements.
The third stage is task analysis. This stage is the same as in general ESDD model. Here, based on
the results from needs and audience analyses, we define software learning goals.
Task analysis
Learning
goals
Information-
processing
analysis
Learning
prerequisites
Learning
objectives
Software
requirements
Learning
content
Learning
activities
and tasks
Design
Needsanalysis
Redesign

9. As in the other stages we can go back to this stage later in the software process.After the interface design is ready we can proceed to the stage of Implementation.Another advantage when using storyboarding is the possibility to obtain a feedback from the
end users before the start of the implementation. This gives an opportunity to include
evaluation in the earlier stages of the software development.
The storyboarding helps to define and describe: the type and place of elements of each screen,
what will be their functionalities and relations with other elements. Through the storyboarding
can also be described how the use of an element will affect the behavior of the program.
To make interface design in this stage we use the method of storyboarding.Base of functionalities the interface is designed.This stage differs from the general ESDD model, because to define the software functionalities
here we use not only the requirements described in the task analysis stage, but also those that
were identified in the first stage of audience analysis.
Then the software functionalities are determined, based on the software requirements from the
stages of Audience and Task analysis and software type, scenario, activities and tasks.
According to the scenario, software activities and tasks, which will be performed by users, are
defined.
Another major advantage is that actually any of the other types of educational software, such as
drill and practice, tutorials, problems solving or simulations, can be presented in some form of
game.
When we choose the types of software we have to pay special attention to educational games
and benefits of their use with SEN students, as motivation generated by specific design of
activities, competitive element, prizes and especially entertainment.
In the stage of Design, based on the results from the Task analysis we build a model of the
software that will be developed. In this stage we specify the type of the software and the
software scenario.
Needsanalysis
Redesign
Define type
of software
and
scenario
Design
Software
requirements
Taskanalysis
Interface
design
Software
functionalities
Software activities
and tasks
Learning
activities and
tasks
Learning
content
General software
and system
requirements
Audience
analysis
Implementation

10. When the software has passed technical testing we may go to the final stage - testing software
functionalities and evaluation.
This is required because in the implementation of the prototype we can detect problems such as
lack of essential functionality or inconsistency between the requirements. Therefore it is
necessary to go back and adjust software design.
In case of identified problems in the software design the process can go back to some of the
previous stages to make particular changes.
This improvement cycle continues until the prototype start to work correctly under certain
predefined conditions.
After prototype is ready we have to test is it work properly and debugging it if it is necessary.
Usually it is necessary .
The stage of implementation is related to the development of software prototype base on the
developed software model in design stage.
Redesign
Implementation
Develop software
prototype
Technical software
testing
Design
Testing&
Evaluation

11. Depending on the evaluation results the software can go back to be improved, or can be
provided to the end users and maintained.
Collaboration with experts in the early stages of the design can save a lot of efforts and
resources in its development.
At this stage final software prototype is tested and evaluated by experts and end users.
Collaboration with experts (psychologists, speech therapists) not only in the last stage, but also
through the whole process of software design is very important.
Redesign
Testing and Evaluation
Testing software
functionalities
Evaluation
End users testing
Expert testing
Deployment
Implementation

12. At the same time it is enough flexible and can be easy adapted for any kind of educational
software and to any kind of user’s groups. The same steps can be followed in development of
educational software not only for students with SEN but also for gifted students.
This model provides an easy way to combine instructional and software design
methods and tools with knowledge from special needs area to receive the best results
in final software product.
In parallel the model is designed with special accent to the educational side of the software in
order to assure the achievement of the defined learning goals.
The SESDD puts the user in focus considering his/her specific characteristics and needs.
Conclusion
User in the
focus
Special accent to
the educational side
Assure the achievement
of the learning goals
Flexible and
adaptable
Combines instructional and software
design methods and tools with
knowledge from special needs area

13. ADAPTING A GENERAL
EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT MODEL
FOR THE NEEDS OF SPECIAL EDUCATION
Temenuzhka Zafirova-Malcheva
tzafirova@fmi.uni-sofia.bg
Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski“
Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (Bulgaria)
EDULEARN
2015
***
7th
International
Conference
on
Education
and
New Learning
Technologies
*Barcelona*
6th - 8th
July 2015