Web-based e-learning education research and development now focuses on the inclusion of new technological features and the exploration of software standards. However, far less effort is going into finding solutions to psychopedagogical problems in this new educational category. This paper proposes a psychopedagogical instructional model based on content structure, the latest research into information processing psychology and social contructivism, and defines a blended approach to the learning process. Technologically speaking, the instructional model is supported by learning objects, a concept inherited from the object-oriented paradigm.

Educational research and development into e-learning mainly focuses on the inclusion of new technological features without taking into account psycho-pedagogical concerns that are likely to improve a learner's cognitive process in this new educational category. This paper presents an instructional model that combines objectivist and constructivist learning theories. The model is based on the concept of a learning objective which is composed of a set of learning objects. A software tool, called the Instruction Aid System (IAS), has been developed to guide instructors through the development of learning objectives and the execution of the analysis and design phases of the proposed instructional model. Additionally, a blended approach to the learning process in Webbased distance education is also presented. This approach combines various event-based activities: self-p acec j [earning, live e-leaming and the use of face-to-face contact in classrooms.

This article addresses one of the major end-user software engineering (EUSE) challenges, namely, how to motivate end users to apply unfamiliar software engineering techniques and activities to achieve their goal: translate requirements into software that meets their needs. EUSE activities are secondary to the goal that the program is helping to achieve and end-user programming is opportunistic. The challenge is then to find ways to incorporate EUSE activities into the existing workflow without users having to make substantial changes to the type of work they do or their priorities. In this article, we set out an approach to EUSE for webbased applications. We also propose a software lifecycle that is consistent with the conditions and priorities of end users without programming skills and is well-aligned with EUSE's characteristic informality, ambiguity and opportunisticness. Users applying this lifecycle manage to find solutions that they would otherwise be unable to identify. They also develop quality products. Users of this approach will not have to be acquainted with software engineering, as a framework will take them through the web-centred EUSE lifecycle step-by-step. We also report a statistical experiment in which users develop web software with and without a framework to guide them through the lifecycle. Its aim is to validate the applicability of our framework-driven lifecycle.

The Future Internet is expected to be composed of a mesh of interoperable web services accessed from all over the Web. This approach has been supported by many software providers who have provided a wide range of mashup tools for creating composite applications based on components prepared by the respective provider. These tools aim to achieve the end-user development (EUD) of rich internet applications (RIA); however, most, having failed to meet the needs of end users without programming knowledge, have been unsuccessful. Thus, many studies have investigated success factors in order to propose scales of success factor objectives and assess the adequacy of mashup tools for their purpose. After reviewing much of the available literature, this paper proposes a new success factor scale based on human factors, human-computer interaction (HCI) factors and the specialization-functionality relationship. It brings together all these factors, offering a general conception of EUD success factors. The proposed scale was applied in an empirical study on current EUD tools, which found that today's EUD tools have many shortcomings. In order to achieve an acceptable success rate among end users, we then designed a mashup tool architecture, called FAST-Wirecloud, built taking into account the proposed EUD success factor scale. The results of a new empirical study carried out using this tool have demonstrated that users are better able to successfully develop their composite applications and that FAST-Wirecloud has scored higher than all the other tools under study on all scales of measurement, and particularly on the scale proposed in this paper.

a b s t r a c tEnabling real end-user development is the next logical stage in the evolution of Internet-wide service-based applications. Successful composite applications rely on heavyweight service orchestra-tion technologies that raise the bar far above end-user skills. This weakness can be attributed to the fact that the composition model does not satisfy end-user needs rather than to the actual infrastructure technologies. In our opinion, the best way to overcome this weakness is to offer end-to-end composition from the user interface to service invocation, plus an understandable abstraction of building blocks and a visual composition technique empowering end users to develop their own applications. In this paper, we present a visual framework for end users, called FAST, which fulfils this objective. FAST implements a novel composition model designed to empower non-programmer end users to create and share their own self-service composite applications in a fully visual fashion. We projected the development envi-ronment implementing this model as part of the European FP7 FAST Project, which was used to validate the rationale behind our approach.