A Research Study for the Development of a SOA Middleware Prototype that used Web Services to Bridge the LMS to LOR Data Movement Interoperability Gap for Education

This research study involved the development of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) middleware prototype that provided a solution for the data movement interoperability gap that exists between learning management systems (LMS) and learning object repositories (LOR). The prototype extracted and transferred Learning Object data from a LMS to a LOR using Web Services and FTP. The design of the prototype was based on the 28 functional requirements that were provided by a panel of Computer Information Systems (CIS) experts that participated in a five-stage, web-based, anonymous Delphi process to establish a valid set of criteria for the middleware application. During the requirements gathering process, the panel approved and ranked 28 functional requirements for the prototype. The prototype was then developed and consisted of five major components, a Web-based user interface that was developed using C# ASP .Net, an Oracle 11g Metadata Repository, a Web Service Coordination Program that leveraged the PHP programming language, a LMS (Moodle) and a LOR (FLORI). Keywords: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Learning Object Repository (LOR), Learning Management System (LMS), Learning Object (LO), Web Services, C# ASP .Net, Oracle 11g, PHP, Moodle, FLORI