The utility of computer-based teaching-learning systems is generally accepted but several relevant issues remain unsolved in the design of those systems, namely, how to adapt to a learner´s specific needs; how to plan corrective feedback; how to fit teaching-learning-assessment techniques to a specific educational context; how to choose the educational tools more appropriate to a teaching-learning-assessment method; how to choose a language to express a pedagogical model; how to adequate the teaching-learning-assessment activities deployment to a specific educational format (distance, face-to-face or blending learning). The aim of this paper is threefold: first, it surveys the most relevant computer-based teaching-learning systems since 1960. Second, it describes the learning design paradigm supported by specific modelling languages. Finally, it presents some reflections on educational material design, more specifically teaching-learning activities, that should be considered by teachers. Those considerations aim at bridging the gap between relevant theoretical aspects and the teachers’ daily activities in the design of teaching-learning scenarios.