The MDENet Education Platform: Zero-Install Directed Activities for Learning MDE

Steffen Zschaler; William Barnett; Artur Boronat; Antonio Garcia-Dominguez; Dimitris Kolovos

doi:10.1007/s10270-025-01292-3

The MDENet Education Platform: Zero-Install Directed Activities for Learning MDE

Steffen Zschaler, William Barnett, Artur Boronat, Antonio Garcia-Dominguez, Dimitris Kolovos

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Setting up and configuring Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) tools is not straightforward because the MDE tooling landscape is highly fragmented and because many MDE tools are research prototypes with limited documentation. This creates significant accidental complexity for learners of MDE, who have to overcome installation and configuration hurdles before they can even begin to focus on the core MDE concepts they should be learning. This is further complicated by the complexity of modern MDE tools, which can overwhelm new learners, making it difficult for them to work out what they should do next to achieve a given goal. To address these challenges, we have developed a web-based playground platform that enables learners to engage with MDE learning activities without the need to install anything. The playground metaphor allows teachers to expose only those functionalities directly required for the completion of a particular learning activity. We present the general architecture of the platform, our approach to the declarative integration of new MDE tools, and the way in which teachers can flexibly and declaratively define new MDE learning activities. We have used our platform in a range of different contexts, from live tutorials and 10-week university courses, to developing documentation webpages for MDE tools. We describe examples of such uses, showcasing the flexible configurability of the platform for different types of activities and contexts.

Original language	English
Article number	102665
Journal	Software and Systems Modeling
Early online date	2 Jun 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-025-01292-3
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 2 Jun 2025

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10.1007/s10270-025-01292-3Licence: CC BY

mainAccepted author manuscript, 6.93 MBLicence: CC BY
The MDENet_ZSCHALER_Publishedonline2June2025_GOLD VoR (CC-BY)Final published version, 3.41 MBLicence: CC BY

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abstract = "Setting up and configuring Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) tools is not straightforward because the MDE tooling landscape is highly fragmented and because many MDE tools are research prototypes with limited documentation. This creates significant accidental complexity for learners of MDE, who have to overcome installation and configuration hurdles before they can even begin to focus on the core MDE concepts they should be learning. This is further complicated by the complexity of modern MDE tools, which can overwhelm new learners, making it difficult for them to work out what they should do next to achieve a given goal. To address these challenges, we have developed a web-based playground platform that enables learners to engage with MDE learning activities without the need to install anything. The playground metaphor allows teachers to expose only those functionalities directly required for the completion of a particular learning activity. We present the general architecture of the platform, our approach to the declarative integration of new MDE tools, and the way in which teachers can flexibly and declaratively define new MDE learning activities. We have used our platform in a range of different contexts, from live tutorials and 10-week university courses, to developing documentation webpages for MDE tools. We describe examples of such uses, showcasing the flexible configurability of the platform for different types of activities and contexts.",

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The MDENet Education Platform: Zero-Install Directed Activities for Learning MDE

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