A Supporting Architecture for Generic Service Integration in IMS Learning Design

Learning Design offers the possibility of capturing the process, activities, user organization and resources used in a learning experience. But a wider set of scenarios appear when generic services are considered. Integrating such services in a Unit of Learning is difficult due to the lack of a defined bi-directional protocol for information exchange. In this paper the Generic Service Integration paradigm is presented. It extends the Learning Design specification to use generic services, first at the design stage of a Unit of Learning, and then at the deployment and run times. The framework allows for bi-directional exchange of information between a Unit of Learning and a service. The consequences of the approach are that services can be configured to suit the needs of activities in a learning environment, and a Unit of Learning may adapt its behavior based on the events that took place in any of the used services.