Towards Reusability and Tailorability in Collaborative Learning Systems using IMS-LD and Grid Services

Abstract

CSCL applications are complex distributed systems that pose special requirements towards achieving success in educational settings. Flexible and efficient design of collaborative activities by educators is a key precondition in order to provide CSCL tailorable systems, capable of adapting to the needs of each particular learning environment. Furthermore, some parts of those CSCL systems should be reused as often as possible in order to reduce development costs. In addition, it may be necessary to employ special hardware devices, computational resources that reside in other organizations, or even exceed the possibilities of one specific organization. Therefore, the proposal of this paper is twofold: collecting collaborative learning designs (scripting) provided by educators, based on well-known best practices (collaborative learning flow patterns) in a standard way (IMS-LD) in order to guide the tailoring of CSCL systems by selecting and integrating reusable CSCL software units; and, implementing those units in the form of grid services offered by third party providers. More specifically, this paper outlines a grid-based CSCL system having these features and illustrates its potential scope and applicability by means of a sample collaborative learning scenario.