Software Architectures for Adaptive Mobile Learning Systems: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Adaptive Mobile Learning Systems (AMLSs) are technological tools that incorporate adaptive learning to generate an individual teaching–learning process for each student. Despite the proliferation of AMLS, their development is often hindered by a lack of standardization and the poor quality of existing software architectures in terms of requirements correctness and coverage. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) of software architectures oriented to developing AMLS reported in the state of the art. For this SLR, we searched the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Science Direct, Springer, and SCOPUS. Studies published in English that describe and evaluate a software architecture to develop AMLS were included. Twenty-two primary works were relevant to the present study. Based on the obtained results, we have identified key aspects that must be considered in a software architecture proposed for developing an AMLS in terms of requirements, quality attributes, stakeholders, services provided to users, views and architectural styles, components, and implementation technologies. The main finding of this work is the lack of a reference software architecture that considers all the requirements and quality attributes needed for developing AMLS. This gap hinders the effective development and standardization of quality AMLSs, suggesting a critical need for a comprehensive reference software architecture.