Design and Development of a Reusable Digital Learning Resource: A Case Study Teaching Japanese Script

This chapter describes the collaborative design and development process of a digital learning object in terms of roles, resources and user requirements. The example used to illustrate this process is a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) adaptation of a colour-based method of teaching one of the phonetic Japanese writing systems to zero beginners. This learning object combines as many of the positive features as possible of previous teaching methods with the advantages of mobile learning, facilitating autonomous learning on demand. It is time and cost effective and contains additional resources best supplied by a digital resource. The chapter also discusses the role and development of digital repositories in higher education.