A Comparison of Visual Instructional Design Languages for Blended Learning

Visual Instructional Design Languages (VIDLs) are powerful tools for building conceptual models of instructional designs. E-learning courses appear to be a very suitable “playground” for VIDLs, as they usually provide a plethora of design options (e.g., tools, materials, delivery channels). Today there are a lot of different approaches to visual modeling of learning designs. In this paper we give a brief introduction to four VIDLs suitable for e-learning purposes: E2ML, the Person-Centered e-learning pattern approach, the EduWeaver modeling framework, and IMS Learning Design. Subsequently, an evaluation framework is proposed and the VIDLs are compared according to proposed criteria based on modeling experience with a complex blended learning course at the authors’ institution.