Portlets-Based Portal for an E-learning Grid

This paper describes a portlet-based portal that provides user interfaces for access to a Grid-based e-learning platform. E-learning platforms that exploit resources and computing power of Grid infrastructure define the concept of "e-learning Grid". For the development of our e-learning Grid, we have used open source Globus Toolkit as core middleware and a Web e-learning application containing Learning Management System and Authoring Tools that supports Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). The users access Learning Management System and Grid resources through the Grid portal, developed in JSR-168 portlet technology, with GridSphere portlet container and Vine portlets for Grid-specific operations. The Grid portal supports users\´ authentication and authorization, credential delegation and single-sign on based on session credentials. The solution adopted provides very flexible opportunities for development and maintenance.