Title: Adaptive educational hypermedia interoperability and content creation with a web service-based architecture

Authors: Maram Meccawy, Craig D. Stewart, Helen Ashman

Addresses: School of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK. ' Department of Electronic Engineering, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK. ' School of Computer and Information Sciences, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Adelaide, Australia

Abstract: The take-up of Adaptive Educational Hypermedia (AEH) by the educators has been slow, in part due to the complexity of authoring and the often short |lifetime| of the AEH software. AEH system interoperability can address these problems. This paper reports on a web services architecture for AEH interoperability that builds upon prior translation-based conversion processes between AEH systems. We describe a case study in the development of a web service using Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and SOAP that is capable of converting My Online Teacher (MOT) materials to Web-based, Hierarchical, Universal, Reactive Learning Environment (WHURLE). This web service is flexible and easily extensible, and represents the first step in developing an interoperable middleware for AEH conversions.

Keywords: adaptive systems; authoring; interoperability; content creation; education; web services; adaptive educational hypermedia; AEH; Web Services Description Languages; WSDL; Web-based Hierarchical Universal Reactive Learning Environment; WHURLE; learning technology; interoperable middleware.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLT.2007.015445

International Journal of Learning Technology, 2007 Vol.3 No.3, pp.269 - 285

Published online: 17 Oct 2007 *

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