Why and how education becomes a service: An eLearning architecture based on web services

Interoperability of eLearning tools is often reduced to pure document exchange, where HTML and Word are preferred formats. Other static documents can be referenced, but not effectively integrated. Structured XML documents with dynamic, interactive elements show a higher educational potential. But, they require specific processing or ran-time environment, so their import into existing eLearning applications leads to a significant loss of functionality or is impossible. Recent work did not fundamentally change this: A mechanism to invoke the whole functionality associated with a file is needed. Web services allow for the integration of external tools into eLearning applications, which is proven in a case study. ne article compares the architectures of traditional and modem eLearning systems and shows their future potential. In this way, not only a middleware for distributed access to heterogeneous eLearning material can be achieved, but also a fundamental shift to real mobile learning.