When approaching the design of a system designed to author content for learning, we have to best attempt to allow the author to freely express their ideas. The author should be able to communicate their vision with clarity and a way that allows for impact. 


It has been shown that students learn more information through Web-based exercises than traditional tools \cite[12]{compare}, so how can we build these systems? Previous attempts at studying the design of learning systems has proven its difficulty: 


\begin{quotation}
It is difficult to establish a framework to symbolize and express learning contents design because the design of the target phenomenon, i.e. learning, is so abstract \cite[294]{learning}. 
\end{quotation}
Learning is too abstract! They key is to realize that \emph{it is too abstract to abstract} into a graphical user interface. The author of a learning system should use a generalized framework to support the authorship of learning concepts, and thus, a programming language, or language of the sorts should be used directly by the author. 


Their conclusion is a result of the fact that what they developed was simply {\it their own expression} of a system to design learning systems. For the last century, teachers and books have proven to work as a ``learning environment''. Any graphical interface is simply creating more distance between the idea of what needs to be expressed and the actual articulation. The existing instructional systems are working---if it's not broken, don't fix it. Language is what teachers and academics should be using to create books. 


Design of Learning Systems