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Extending Commercial LMSs with Adaptivity

Patrick Pekczynskiimc information multimedia communication AG

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About the speaker• Senior Research Professional at New Business department of

IMC http://www.im-c.com

• joined GRAPPLE in July 2009

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Areas of work• European research projects http://www.grapple-

project.org

• National research projects http://www.sabine-

projekt.de

• LMS software engineeringCLIX LMS

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What are you going to hear?

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The ‘G’ in GRAPPLE• GRAPPLE is generic:

• provides a generic solution• integrates different learning

management systems (LMSs)

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What different LMSs?Open Source Commercial

Claroline

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Why LMSs in GRAPPLE?

LMS

User (Learner)

Enrollment in courses

Delivery of learning material Assessmen

t and evaluations

Portfolio

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Connect an LMS to GRAPPLEHow can we exchange

information?

Slide 8

LMS GRAPPLE

GRAPPLE Event Bus (GEB)

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LMS integration – A recipe

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Ingredients• Standardise LMS-events by

converting them (GRAPPLE conversion

component [GCC])

• Connect to communication framework

(GRAPPLE Event Bus [GEB])

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GEB-Connector

LMS

GCC

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Conversion component

IMS-LIP

nameFirst

fNameFirst

name

• Different LMSs name the same information differently• Use IMS – LIP as

common standard for information exchange

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Connect an LMS to GRAPPLE• What kind of events?

• Access to a course• Tests/quizzes• Registration• User Login• Role change • Access to a learning activity• Learning activity change• Learning activity addition• Learning activity removal

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GEB Connector (2 parts)GEB-Client

• send messages• individual for each LMS

EventListener

• receive messages• common interface every LMS

must implement

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Couple with GEB• Register the LMS with the GEB

• http://www.learning-demo.eu/grapplix/eventEventListenerService?wsdl

• Specify what events you want to listen to, i.e.:• listen to every user info change (setUMData)

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GEB Benefits• communication between GRAPPLE

components• LMS can ask:

• for data about a user (GUMF)• for a list of available adaptive courses

• LMS can tell:• user has completed a test• user has accessed learning activity

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Connect an LMS to GRAPPLE

• Wait a minute! • How do you know what user you

are talking about?

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Shibboleth

• Single sign-on (SSO) functionality• One general GRAPPLE identifier (GID)

• access to all federated resources in GRAPPLE

• identify learner across GRAPPLE system

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Shibboleth• LMS needs Shibboleth Service

Provider• Depending on your LMS:

• Configuration (if Shibboleth is already supported)

• Implementation (if Shibboleth module is missing)

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Ingredients - Summary

GEB-Connector

LMS

GCC

Shib

bole

th

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Connect an LMS to GRAPPLE

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LMS GRAPPLE

GRAPPLE Event Bus (GEB)

GRAPPLE Identity provider (Shibboleth)

Communication

AuthenticationIdentification

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LMS integration – A recipeIntegrating an LMS in GRAPPLE is essentially a 3-fold task. Implement:

1. Conversion component (GCC)2. GEB-connectivity3. Shibboleth Service provider

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Can I put in my LMS in there?

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What is CLIX?

• Learning Management System developed by IMC

• One of the commercial LMSs in the project

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CLIX – Some facts• Java based J2EE web application• GRAPPLE integration with CLIX 9.0

• Integration also compatible with new version CLIX 2010

• Shibboleth service provider component already integrated

• Manager user skills / competencies

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CLIX – Some facts• Already a “learning logic” inside• Possible to define order of course modules

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Let’s look at the integration

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What do we get?• Federated access:

• A GRAPPLE user can use any associated learning environment (LMS and ALE)

LMS AdaptiveLearningEngine

GALE

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Federated Access via CLIX

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What do we get?• Normalisation of user events

• usage of IMS-LIP standard(learner information packaging)

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IMS-LIP user events in CLIX

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What do we get?• Availability of adaptive learning

resources in the LMS• usage of adaptive course from the

adaptive learning environment (GALE)

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Availability of adaptive learning resources in CLIX

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What do we get?• Centralised user information:

• Get information from other federated components like Assessments Knowledge Competencies

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What do we get?• 2-way communication

• Adaptive course in GALE uses information the LMS has sent to GUMF

• Can include: Knowledge update after test completion Deduce knowledge about conceptes from

learner competencies

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What do we get?

LMS GALE

Send test result

Access adaptive course

Lookup knowledgeabout concept

Return knowledge level

GUMF

Recommend concept

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What do we get?• Visualisation

• Display information about current learning status in an adaptive course

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GRAPPLE visualisations in CLIX

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What do we get?• Adaptive authoring from within

the LMS• Integrate a link to GRAPPLE authoring toolset

(GAT) directly in your LMShttp://pcwin530.win.tue.nl/GAT/

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Adaptive authoring from within the LMS

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Questions?

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Backup slides

24.01.2011Slide 41

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Relevant deliverables• D5.2b: Conversion components between

GRAPPLE and LMSs• D7.1c: Final specification of the operational

infrastructure• D7.2c: Data models and related

documentation - final version• D7.5: Operational infrastructure - final

release with documentation

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GRAPPLE architecture

24.01.2011Slide 43

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Extending an existing LMS

LMS Shibboleth

Conversion Component

Event Listener

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MAYBE (PP) Example cycle• Complete assessment in LMS• LMS sends result to GUMF• Learner accesses adaptive course via

LMS• Adaptive can query knowledge status

of learner from GUMF• Course presents adapted content to

User