Towards a Domain Model for Learning and Teaching

In software engineering, a domain model is a conceptual model that represents the concepts and relationships within a particular domain (education, banking, transportation, etc.) by modelling the behaviour and data of these concepts and relationships. This paper presents a novel domain model for learning and teaching in higher educational institutions, addressing the evolving needs of digitized education systems. We integrate concepts from domain engineering, model-driven architecture, and business archetypes to construct a comprehensive framework. Our model, developed by a team of experts from Tallinn University of Technology and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, focuses on the interplay between various educational components, including curriculum design, student assessment, and personalized feedback mechanisms. Two educational scenarios - providing feedback on student assignments and managing workplace-based learning - are examined to evaluate the model’s usability. Our contribution lies in offering a structured framework for modelling educational processes, thereby paving the way for more universal and interoperable domain models and ontologies that also support personalized learning and feedback.