[Paper Review] Individual and Social Requirement Aspects of Sustainable eLearning Systems

Ahmed D. Alharthi, Maria Spichkova|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jan 16, 2017

Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods4 citations

TL;DR

This paper proposes a requirements engineering (RE) framework for sustainable eLearning systems, focusing on individual and social dimensions to enhance human and social sustainability. By synthesizing findings from multiple studies, it identifies key requirements—such as collaboration, learner-centred design, leadership development, and material reuse—that improve teaching quality and long-term system viability.

ABSTRACT

Internationalization of the higher education has created the so-called borderless university, which provides better opportunities for learning and increases the human and social sustainability. eLearning systems are a special kind of software systems, developed to provide a platform for accessible teaching and learning, including also online access to learning materials and online support for learning and teaching. The aim of our current work is to extract, analyse, and combine the results from multiple studies in order to develop an RE framework for sustainable eLearning systems. We call a system sustainable, if it has a positive effect on and whose direct and indirect negative impacts resulting from its development, deployment, and usage are minimal. Sustainability has various dimensions. We classify sustainability requirements of eLearning system to five dimensions: individual (human), social, technical, environmental, and economic. In this paper, we focus on human and social aspects (i.e., individual needs the relationship of people within society), as the eLearning systems have a very strong impact on human dimension of sustainability, where their impact on environmental dimension is rather small. This also provides us a basis to identify the corresponding requirements for sustainable eLearning systems. These requirements include collaboration, learner-centred features, leadership development and the reuse of the learning materials. As a result, achieving individual and social requirements for eLearning systems would provide higher quality of leaning and teaching, as well as better opportunities for learning and increasing the human and social sustainability.

Motivation & Objective

• Address the growing need for sustainable eLearning systems in the context of internationalized higher education.
• Identify and analyze sustainability requirements beyond technical and environmental aspects, emphasizing human and social dimensions.
• Develop a comprehensive requirements engineering framework tailored for sustainable eLearning systems.
• Highlight the critical role of learner-centred features and social collaboration in enhancing long-term system sustainability.
• Provide a foundation for improving teaching quality and social inclusion through sustainable eLearning design.

Proposed method

• Conduct a systematic synthesis of results from multiple existing studies on eLearning and sustainability.
• Classify sustainability requirements into five dimensions: individual, social, technical, environmental, and economic.
• Focus specifically on individual and social dimensions, given their dominant impact on human sustainability.
• Extract and analyze recurring requirements related to collaboration, learner-centredness, leadership development, and content reuse.
• Integrate findings into a structured requirements engineering framework for sustainable eLearning systems.
• Validate the framework's relevance through alignment with existing literature on eLearning and sustainability.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 What are the key individual and social requirements that contribute to the sustainability of eLearning systems?
• RQ2 How do individual and social dimensions compare in impact to technical and environmental dimensions in eLearning sustainability?
• RQ3 What specific features in eLearning systems support human and social sustainability?
• RQ4 How can collaboration, learner-centred design, and material reuse be integrated into a sustainable eLearning framework?
• RQ5 What is the role of leadership development in enhancing the long-term sustainability of eLearning systems?

Key findings

• The individual and social dimensions are the most impactful for human and social sustainability in eLearning systems.
• Collaboration features in eLearning systems significantly enhance social sustainability and learner engagement.
• Learner-centred design is essential for improving teaching quality and user satisfaction.
• Leadership development through eLearning supports long-term social sustainability and institutional resilience.
• Reuse of learning materials reduces redundancy and increases efficiency, contributing to sustainable system operation.
• The proposed RE framework effectively integrates individual and social requirements into a cohesive model for sustainable eLearning system development.