End-User Development in Higher Education Technology
Summary
End-User Development (EUD) in the context of higher education refers to the set of methods, tools and environments that enable academic staff and students—without formal software engineering training—to create, adapt or extend educational technologies. Such approaches range from graphical authoring systems and mash-up frameworks to no-code and low-code platforms designed for course design, assessments and interactive learning resources. The expansion of EUD follows a global shift towards personalised, flexible and scalable digital learning, accelerated by the emergency remote teaching measures during the pandemic. Key challenges include ensuring usability and accessibility, aligning tools with pedagogical objectives, and providing sufficient training and institutional support. At the same time, EUD fosters innovation by empowering educators to prototype novel learning interventions rapidly, adapt content to local contexts and engage students in active creation of learning artefacts. Emerging research explores integrations with learning analytics dashboards, mobile app builders for student projects and collaborative visual programming environments. As academic institutions worldwide pursue digital transformation, EUD stands out as a practical route to bridge the gap between pedagogical ambitions and technical implementation, promoting more responsive, learner-centred educational ecosystems.
Research from Nature Portfolio
No recent Nature Portfolio content available.
End-User Development in Higher Education Technology publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in end-user development in higher education technology across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
End-User Development (EUD): A paradigm in software design and educational technology enabling non-professional developers—such as teachers and students—to create or adapt applications through intuitive interfaces rather than traditional coding.
No-Code Platform: A software environment offering visual, component-based constructs (for example drag-and-drop modules) that allow users to assemble fully functional applications without writing code.
Open Educational Resources (OER): Teaching, learning and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain or are released under an open licence permitting free use, adaptation and redistribution.
References
- PROGRAMAÇÃO NO-CODE NO ENSINO SUPERIOR: POSSIBILIDADES DE AVALIAÇÃO E APRENDIZAGEM ATIVAS. Revista Valore (2023).
- Analysis on Use of Open Educational Resources during EmergencyRemote Education due to Covid-19: A Case Study in Turkey. SAGE Open (2022).
- Impact of Virtual Assistant on Programming Novices’ Performance, Behavior and Motivation. Acta Electrotechnica et Informatica (2022).
About these summaries
This Nature Research Intelligence Topic summary is created with the cited references and a large language model. We take care to ground generated text with facts, and have systems in place to gain human feedback on the overall quality of the process in line with our AI principles. We strive to create accurate and useful summaries for people unfamiliar with the research topic and that supports this goal. These pages are a beta release and will be updated as we learn how best to help people gain value from a research topic summary.
Turn complex research questions into confident strategic decisions
When you're under pressure to set direction, justify investment, or understand your competitive position, you need more than raw data — you need trusted insights you can act on.
Benchmark your performance against global peers using robust, methodologically sound analysis.
Combine quantitative metrics with qualitative expert insight to uncover strengths, gaps and emerging opportunities.
Gain tailored, decision-ready recommendations aligned to your strategic priorities.
Talk to us to learn more about our data dashboards and bespoke strategy reports.
Grow research skills, confidence and careers with training built for every stage of the research lifecycle.
Developed with Nature Portfolio journal Editors and internationally renowned experts. Discover three ways to learn:
Self-paced, online courses in convenient bite-sized units, covering key skills across scientific writing, publishing, grant writing, data analysis, and more.
Expert trainer-led workshops with hands-on exercises and real-time feedback across core research skills, delivered via interactive group sessions.
Editor-led workshops combining core principles in writing and publishing, personalised 1:1 feedback from Nature Portfolio Editors and hands-on exercises.
Explore course catalogues and workshop agendas, enquire about the options or request institutional pricing.