GLUE!: an architecture for the integration of external tools in virtual learning environments

Abstract

The integration of external tools in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) aims at enriching the learning activities that educational practitioners may design and enact. Traditionally, external tools have been integrated by means of ad hoc developments, being this solution very ine cient as the number of VLEs and tools employed by practitioners increases. Besides, those generic approaches tackling the integration of multiple external tools in multiple VLEs have not found a broad adoption, mainly because of the high development e ort required to integrate new tools and VLEs, and the restrictions imposed on VLE and tool providers. Some recent works tried to overcome these two limitations by proposing a lightweight integration of tools. Nevertheless, these works do not facilitate the instantiation and enactment of collaborative learning situations, which signi cantly precludes practitioners from employing VLEs distinctive collaborative features for the management of users and groups. This dissertation proposes a middleware integration architecture called GLUE! (Group Learning Uniform Environment) that enables the lightweight integration of multiple existing external tools in multiple existing VLEs, overcoming these limitations. GLUE! fosters this integration by imposing few restrictions on VLE and tool providers, as well as by expecting an attainable e ort from developers. Besides, GLUE! facilitates the instantiation and enactment of collaborative learning situations within VLEs, leveraging the VLEs distinctive features for the management of users and groups. By means of GLUE!, practitioners may use external tools as if they were VLE built-in tools, and without having to give up the VLEs they are used to. GLUE! has been evaluated using three authentic collaborative learning situations that were designed to meet the pedagogical needs of three di erent higher education courses. These three situations were employed in four di erent experiments involving real educators and students. The results of this evaluation show that GLUE! allows the instantiation and enactment of collaborative learning situations that require the integration of external tools, reduces the burden associated to the instantiation of complex collaborative activities, and facilitates students the realization of these activities in collaboration. Interestingly, the development e ort required by the proposed integration software was similar to that in other lightweight generic approaches that o er a lower degree of functionality.