Learning content production with XML and Java

Abstract

Learning content delivery over LMS platforms has faced the problem of defining interoperable content standards. As content repository grows the ability to easily move content from one platform to another, in case of LMS change or content reallocation becomes more and more important. The use of XML compliant and application independent markup languages has become the more convenient choice because it allows complete independence from software vendors and to use open standards and universal tools for automatic content processing. In spite that these efforts have been more oriented to content packaging, nowadays there are XML languages that cover the whole range of content types (text, graphics, multimedia, etc) making XML also an interesting alternative to author individual content items. In this way interoperability and standard data processing is applied to the whole content hierarchy. Another interesting interoperable standard is Java as it is multiplatform and web oriented it allows developing web deliverable interactive learning applications with a wide range of complexity. In this work we present a summary of our experiences using XML languages and Java to produce and deliver learning content.