An application framework for the distance learning domain (AFDL). (c2002)

Abstract

"Object-oriented application frameworks is a very important issue for the software industry as well as academia at this time when software systems are becoming increasingly complex. We believe that object-oriented application frameworks will be at the core of leading-edge software technology of the twenty-first century". With these few words, Mohamed Fayad, Douglas Schmidt, and Ralph Johnson, a well reputable team of authors in the field of software architecture, opened their first statement on framework overview. Software reuse has been one of the main goals for the past decades in the field of software industry, which is not a simple matter. In the past some efforts were focusing on small black-box components before the new emerging technology: Object-oriented programming. This new technology, which is based on the reuse of larger components, defined the term object-oriented application frameworks. Frameworks attracted and still many of software engineers and researches, this is due to it's advantage in increasing reusability and software productivity hence reducing time to market applications. Application Frameworks in it's own is a wide field of research for anybody to tackle. So, there was the need for selecting a domain. This selection was based on some interesting research on the domain of Distance Learning, which is quite a new subject itself. Today there are no specialist in the application of information technology to education and training. However, the domain of Distance Learning is considered to be one of the fastest growing areas on the Internet, due to the recent perception of the enormous potential for the use of Web resources for this purpose. This potentiality has attracted the attention of researchers in industry and the academic world, which are currently developing various models and products for Web-Based education and training.