Unified modeling language

Draft

Definition

• “The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a non-proprietary, object modeling and specification language used in software engineering. UML includes a standardized graphical notation that may be used to create an abstract model of a system: the UML model.” (Wikipedia:Unified Modeling Language).

• UML is not a method by itself, however it was designed to be compatible with any sort of object-oriented software development methods. As such it can be used to describe almost any sort of information processing architecture (including what learners do since learners can be modelled in terms of human information processing or what happens in an organization since an organization can be described in terms of information flows and procedures).

Modeling and diagram types

This section needs a lot of work ...

With UML you can model most every phase and object of the software development process. A model is usally some sort text plus a diagram). In UML 2.0 there are 13 types of diagrams.

According to Koper (2004), UML provides a collection of models and graphs to describe the structural and behavioural semantics of any complex information system. Some of the models provided are:

• Use case models and scenario's to capture the user requirements and functionality of the system. Scenarios are instances of use cases.

• Class and object diagrams to specify the semantic information structure of a system. Object diagrams are instances of class diagrams.

• Activity diagrams to specify workflows.

• State diagrams to describe the dynamic behaviour of an object in a system.

• Interaction diagrams (sequence and collaboration diagrams) to model how groups of objects collaborate in some behaviour.

• Physical diagrams (deployment and component diagrams) to model the implementation structure of a system.

For the moment, this Wiki only mentions:

• UML use cases
• UML class diagram

UML in education

Design of educational software

Since UML is general formalism to describe information processing phenomena (like what people do, how systems are built, how programs interact etc.), UML can be used for educational software design, e.g. see Fle3's UML diagrams or Giesbers et al. (2007).

Description of pedagocial scenarios

• Some researchers use UML to describe pedagogical scenarios, see also educational modelling languages

Definition of pedaogical modeling languages

• Some educational modelling languages are also described as UML diagram, e.g. the semantic information model of IMS Learning Design (and former EML) has been expressed in UML. “The semantic, conceptual model has been expressed as a series of UML models, from which several bindings were generated automatically. E.g. for the IMS Learning Design specification a XML schema has been derived that keeps the semantics in the tag-names. However other bindings (RDF Schema/OWL, Topic Maps, SGML schema's, relational database schema's) could in principle be generated as well. This implies that the UML model is the dominant part of the specification; it captures the semantic structure and allows other representations to be generated from it. [.... ] It is expected that the semantic model underlying LD, as expressed in UML, is a critical component for the realisation of the Educational Semantic Web, because it provides a tested, generic and (within the IMS community) accepted semantic notation. Whether this model is implemented in XML, RDF-Schema, OWL,Topic Maps etc. depends which tools and technologies are used at any moment in time.” (Koper, 2004).

Definition of pedagogical use cases

• See use case

Links

• UML diagrams of FLE3.

References

• Arlow, J., & Neustadt, I. (2002). UML and the Unified Process, London: Pearson Education.

• Booch, G., Jacobson, I., & Rumbaugh, J. (1998). Unified Modelling Language User Guide, Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley.

• Fowler, M. (2000). UML distilled (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley.

• Giesbers, B., van Bruggen, J., Hermans, H., Joosten-ten Brinke, D., Burgers, J., Koper, R., & Latour, I. (2007). Towards a methodology for educational modelling: a case in educational assessment. Educational Technology & Society, 10 (1), 237-247. PDF

• Joosten-ten Brinke, D., van Bruggen, J., Hermans, H., Burgers, J., Giesbers, B., Koper, R., & Latour, I. (in press). Modeling assessment for re-use of traditional and new types of assessment. Computers in Human Behaviour.

• Koper, R. (2004). Use of the Semantic Web to Solve Some Basic Problems in Education: Increase Flexible, Distributed Lifelong Learning, Decrease Teacher's Workload. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2004 (6). Special Issue on the Educational Semantic Web. ISSN:1365-893X [1]

• Randy Miller, Practical UML: A Hands-On Introduction for Developers, Borland Developer network. (This is a very short general UML tutorial).

• Donald Bell, UML basics: An introduction to the Unified Modeling Language, IBM Developper Works / Rational Rose. (IBM has a lot of UML and use case tutorials, needs some searching skills)

OMG-UML (2003). UML Specification, version 1.4. Retrieved October 14, 2003, from http://www.omg.org/technology/documents/formal/uml.htm