Integrating Schema-specific Native XML Repositories into a RDF-based E-Learning P2P Network

As its name implies, a native XML repository supports storage and management of XML in the original hierarchical form rather than in some other representations. In this paper we present our approach for integrating native XML repositories into Edutella, a RDF-based E-learning P2P network, through mapping native XML database schemas onto the Edutella Common Data Model (ECDM) and further translating ECDM's internal query language Datalog into XPath, the local query language of native XML repositories. Due to the considerable incomparability between the ECDM and the XML data model, a generic integration approach for schema-agnostic native XML repositories is found to be unrealistic. Thus our investigations are focused on three schema-specific native XML repositories respectively based on the DCMES, LOM/IMS, and SCORM XML binding data schema. Since these three metadata sets are the most popularly applied learning resource metadata specifications in E-Learning, our integration approach satisfactorily addresses the current usage of Edutella in E-Learning despite that a generic integration approach for schema-agnostic native XML repositories has not been implemented.