Web-service-based, Dynamic and Collaborative E-learning

This paper describes an on-going effort to investigate problems and approaches for achieving Web-service-based, dynamic and collaborative e-learning. In this work, a Learning Content Definition Model is used to model distributed and sharable learning resources as content objects. Distributed and sharable software systems/components for supporting e-learning are modeled as software objects. Both types of objects are uniformly published as Web-services in a constraint-based Web-service registry and made sharable and reusable. An extended Web-service infrastructure provides a standard framework for the modeling, registration, discovery, binding and invocation of these objects. In this work, we also introduce a Learning Process Definition Model and a Learning Process Execution Engine for specifying and executing learning process models, which represent instructional modules in the forms of activity trees. An Event-Trigger-Rule Server is integrated with the Learning Process Execution Engine to make learning process models active, flexible, customizable and adaptable. It is also used to facilitate the interaction and coordination among learners, administrators, authors, and other personnel involved in collaborative elearning.