Using Web services to promote integration of mobile applications in distance learning domain

Abstract

Joining mobility and learning environments to provide a great flexibility and reuse are main goals to educational software developers. Those requirements allow the user to deal with a lot of learning objects anytime and anywhere in simple handhelds. The integration provided by Internet and mobile device changes the developer methodologies to the issue of creating new subjects. The question that then arises is no longer "how to produce the software I need", but "where to find it and how to integrate it with the software already used in devices to construct a customized educational environment". Integrations imply modifications in the source code, usually requiring hard work on source code modifications with a high cost. However, those environments are still developed in a monolithic way, out of a development view based on a composition of learning objects, much easier to match. This paper describes a architecture which promotes software integration through the utilization of Web services.