Control Your eLearning Environment: Exploiting Policies in an Open Infrastructure for Lifelong Learning

Abstract

Nowadays, people are in need for continuous learning in order to keep up to date or to be upgraded in their job. An infrastructure for life-long learning requires continuous adaptation to learners' needs and must also provide flexible ways for students to use and personalize them. Controlling who can access a document, specifying when a student may be contacted for interactive instant messaging or periodical reminders in order to increase motivation for collaboration are just some examples of typical statements that may be specified by e.g., learners and learning management system administrators. This paper investigates how existing work in the area of policy representation and reasoning can be used in order to express these statements while at the same time obtaining the extra benefits policies provide (e.g., flexibility, dynamicity and interoperability). The paper analyzes existing policy languages and integrates one of them as part of a demonstration of its feasibility in providing more advanced and flexible eLearning environments.