Development and application of a proxy server for transparently, digitally signing E-learning content

Abstract

Integrity as minimal requirement for successful protection of the learning process is neglected by most learning management systems. To implement integrity protection independent of existing e-learning systems we present the concept of a proxy server that digitally signs outgoing messages to the learning management systems and verifies the signature of incoming messages accordingly. We illustrate the architectural design and give specification details. Realization deliberations are outlined with respect to the hypertext transfer protocol. Finally, we discuss the approaches on the case study of the open-source learning management system MOODLE. © 2007 International Federation for Information Processing.