A service-based framework to facilitate the interoperability between personal and institutional learning environments

Abstract

The application of the Information and Communications Technology to teaching and learning processes implies a revolution in the tools employed to carry out learning activities. Especially the learning platforms are one of most relevant tools; they provide services both for teachers and students to facilitate their work. However, such platforms are mostly focused on the course and the institution and no so much in the specific needs of the user. This means that other kind of environments are needed, the personal learning environments. Institutional learning platforms and personal learning environments coexist, so they should interoperate between them. In this work a framework approach is proposed. It uses using web services and interoperability specifications facilitate such integration. The architecture provides the functionalities to make possible that institutional functionalities were exported to personalized environments and the activity that is carried out in them can be tracked from the institutional environment. With this approach it is possible to show that interoperability between this two contexts is possible and it can improve the learning and teaching processes.