Middleware to integrate heterogeneous Learning Management Systems and initial results

Abstract

The use of the Learning Management Systems (LMS) has been increased. It is desirable to access multiple learning objects that are managed by Learning Management Systems. The diversity of LMS allow us to consider them as heterogeneous systems; each ones with their own interface to manage the provided functionality. These interfaces can be Web services or calls to remote objects. The functionalities offered by LMS depend on their user roles. A solution to integrate diverse heterogeneous platforms is based on a middleware architecture. In this paper, a middleware architecture is presented to inte- grate different Learning Management Systems. Furthermore, an implementation of the proposed middleware is presented. This implementation integrates two different Learning Management Systems, using Web services and XML-RPC protocols to access student-role users capabilities. The result is a transparent layer that provides access to LMS contents.