A Recommendation for the Use of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to Bridge the LMS to LOR Data Movement Interoperability Gap for Education

The purpose of this discussion paper is to explain why we are convinced that Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the best alternative to resolve the data movement interoperability gap that exists between LMSs and LORs. An example of a successful implementation of SOA in the Healthcare and Insurance industries is discussed, followed by a recent endorsement of SOA by the Instructional Management Systems (IMS) Global Learning Consortium. An example of the use of SOA for Internet data movement between LMSs and LORs is presented. Network Centric System (NCS) architectures are defined, followed by a comparison of SOA with the relevant alternative architectures.