SOA Initiatives for eLearning: A Moodle Case

Mobile learning applications introduce a new degree of ubiquitousness in the learning process. There is a new generation of ICT-powered mobile learning experiences that exist in isolated contexts: experiences limited to small learning communities. These rising mobile learning experiences appear while Web based learning, specially learning management systems (LMS), are consolidated and widely adopted by learning institutions, teachers and learners. The innovation techniques breeding in the experimental world of mobile learning need to be translated into the mainstream echosystems. Mobile learning is not intended to replace e-learning or Web based learning, but to extend it. So, mobile learning applications need to be integrated somehow in the Web based LMS. To do so is needed to address interoperability issues on both ends: the LMS and the mobile application. Web Services and service oriented architecture offer a standardized and effective way to achieve interoperability between systems. This paper presents an architecture that allows a two-way interoperability between LMS and mobile applications: access LMS contents from the mobile device, and to be able to embed part of the mobile applications inside the LMS framework. This architecture incorporates elements from famous interoperability standards (IMS LTI and OKI) and has been validated with two projects related to the open source LMS Moodle.