A reference architecture for interoperating existing e-learning systems using metadata and web services model

Abstract

The increasing demand for interoperability existing heterogeneous e-learning systems to support accessibility, reusability, and adaptability has always been one of the most challenging researches. A number of research efforts have been proposed to address this problem, ranging from development of a SCORM conformant courseware to Web services-based e-learning systems. This paper proposes a reference architecture for interoperating the existing e-learning system with the help of Web services and a metadata-UDDI model. The proposed metadataUDDI model is designed as a core component of the architecture and provided the service information for generating the lightweight communication protocols between heterogeneous e-learning platforms. As a consequence, the semantic service heterogeneity is eliminated. An XML-based data model is employed to manipulate and express the metadata-UDDI contents. The inherent flexibility of XML technology permits system-wide interoperability suitable for a Web-based environment. © 2005 IEEE.