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LearnServe

We are working towards making e-learning offerings for secondary and tertiary education available through the emerging paradigm of Web services. Recent standardization efforts in e-learning concentrate on the reuse of learning material, but not on the reuse of application functionalities. Our LearnServe systems starts from the perception that a typical learning system is a collection of activities or processes that interact with learners and suitably chosen content, the latter in the form of learning objects. This enables us to subdivide the main functionality of an e-learning system into a number of stand-alone applications, which can then be out-sourced, or be realized individually or in groups as Web services. Web services, in turn, are offered by a number of providers, and can be composed into course units or complete courses.

Intuitively, learners can search for content that matches their needs, book it, pay for it, and finally consume it, all by composing various Web services appropriately. Generally, we try to design such services using tools and languages that are common in this area as far as possible. We rely upon established Web service standards such as UDDI or WSDL, since they appear sufficient for our purposes. The implementation of Web services in the area of e-learning facilitates a considerable flexibility for the users of the system both in usage of functionalities and selection of content. We also investigate novel areas that are opened up by employing Web services in this context, such as indepentent test centers, billing and payment, mediators, or variable pricing schemes.

For more details on the project see also the LearnServe project page.

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Publications related to this project

  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Why Service-Orientation Could Make E-Learning Standards Obsolete (International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning 2008 - Vol. 1, No.1/2, 85-97), 2008
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Secure Identity Management in a Service-Based E-Learning Environment (Electronic Commerce: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (ed. S. Ann Becker) Information Science Reference), 2008
  • S. Schwingel, G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Securing the Infrastructure for Service-Based E-Learning Environments (Intelligent Information Technologies and Applications, Volume II (Ed.: V. Sugumaran), ; IGI Global, Hershey, PA), 2008
  • P. Westerkamp, G. Vossen, D. Dahl: Geschäftsmodelle für Service-orientiertes e-Learning (e-Learning-Management (Hrsg.: Grob, H.L., vom Brocke, J., Buddendick, C.), Vahlen Verlag, München, Juli 2008), 2008
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Establishing Business Models for Service-Oriented E-Learning (Proc. IADIS International Conference e-Learning, Lissabon, 35-42), 2007
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Towards the Next Generation of E-Learning Standards: SCORM for Service-Oriented Environments. (The 6th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2006), Kerkrade, The Netherlands, 5.-7. July), 2006 (Abstract)
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Secure Identity Management in a Service-Based E-Learning Environment (International Journal of Intelligent Information Technologies (IJIIT)), 2006 (Abstract)
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Can Service-Orientation Make E-Learning Standards Obsolete? (Proc. Montreal Conference on eTechnologies 2006 (MCeTECH 2006), Montreal, Canada, May ), 2006 (Abstract)
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Service-Oriented Provisioning of Learning Objects, (A. Koohang and K. Harman (Editors). "Principles and Practices of the Effective Use of Learning Objects" (to appear)), 2006
  • Peter Westerkamp: Flexible Elearning Platforms: A Service-Oriented Approach, (Logos-Verlag, Berlin), 2006 (Abstract)
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Provisioning in a Service-Based E-Learning Platform (Proc. of 2nd International Conference on Inovations in Inforamtion Technology (IIT 2005), Dubai, UAE, September), 2005 (Abstract)
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Service-Oriented Provisioning of Learning Objects (A. Koohang and K. Harman (Editors). ), 2005 (Abstract)
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Turning learning objects into Web services (Miguel-Angel Sicilia & Miltiadis Lytras (eds.): Learning Objects and Learning Designs 1(1) - AIS SIG RLO , April 2005, pp. 15-28), 2005 (Abstract) (Download)
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Building a Service Platform for Electronic Learning (Proc 2nd ICIT2005, Amman, Jordan, pp. 151 --157), 2005 (Abstract)
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Mediators for Integrating Content into Service-based e-Learning Environments (Proc ICALT 2005, pp. 580-584, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, July ), 2005 (Abstract)
  • Simon Schwingel: Provisioning in Web-Service-basierten E-Learning-Anwendungen, 2004
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Maintenance and Exchange of Learning Objects in a Web Services Based E-Learning System (Electronic Journal of e-Learning Volume 2 Issue 2 2004 (292-304)), 2004 (Download)
  • Lenz, K.; Oberweis, A.; Vossen, G.; Westerkamp, P.: Rollenkonzept einer Prozessbasierten Infrastruktur für Lernszenarien (Arbeitspapier, Institut AIFB, Uni Karlsruhe, September 2004), 2004
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Intelligent Content Discovery within E-Learning Web (B. Trezzini, P. Lambe, S. Hawamdeh (eds.) People, Knowledge, and Technology: What Have We Learnt So Far?, Proc. 1st International Conference on Knowledge Management (ICKM) 2004, Singapore, 365–375), 2004 (Abstract)
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: UDDI for E-Learning: A Respository for Distributed Learning Objects (Proc. 2nd IASTED International Conference on), 2003
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Distributed Storage and Dynamic Exchange of Learning Objects (Proc. THE 2nd EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON eLEARNING (ECEL 2003), Glasgow, UK, pp. 469-478, November), 2003
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: Zur Nutzung von Web Services im E-Learning (Proc. Symposium Entwicklung Web-Service basierter Anwendungen im Rahmen der 33. GI-Jahrestagung, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, pp. 47-58, October), 2003
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: A Web Services Approach to E-Learning (Proc. 2nd GI Workshop on e-Learning, Leipzig, Germany, pp. 215-228), 2003
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: E-Learning as a Web Service (Arbeitsberichte des Instituts für Wirtschaftsinformatik, Universität Münster, Arbeitsbericht Nr. 92), 2003 (Abstract)
  • G. Vossen, P. Westerkamp: E-Learning as a Web Service (Extended Abstract) (Proc. 7th International Database Engineering and Application Symposium (IDEAS 2003), Hong Kong S.A.R., China, pp. 242-249, July ), 2003 (Abstract)
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