Interoperability on e-learning 2.0: the PEACE case study

The confluence of education with the evolution of technology boosted the paradigm shift of the face-to-face learning to distance learning. In this scenario e-Learning plays an essential role as a facilitator of the teaching/learning process. However new demands associated with the new Web paradigm require that existent e-Learning environments characterized mostly by monolithic systems begin interacting with new specialized services. In this decentralized scenario the definition of a strategy of interoperability is the cornerstone to ensure the standardization communication among systems. This paper presents a definition of an interoperability strategy for an e-Learning environment at our School (ESEIG) called PEACE – Project for ESEIG Academic Content Environment. This new interoperability model relies on the application of several coordination and integration standards on several services, controlled by teachers and students, and included in the PEACE environment such as social networks, repositories, libraries, e-portfolios, intelligent tutors, recommendation systems and virtual classrooms.

Integration of repositories in elearning systems

The wide acceptance of digital repositories today in the eLearning field raises several interoperability issues. In this paper we present the interoperability features of a service oriented repository of learning objects called crimsonHex. These features are compliant with the existing standards and we propose extensions to the IMS interoperability recommendation, adding new functions, formalizing message interchange and providing also a REST interface. To validate the proposed extensions and its implementation in crimsonHex we developed a repository plugin for Moodle 2.0 that is expected to be included in the next release of this popular learning management system.