German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH) Saarbrücken, Germany Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz Course Generation as a Web-Service for E-learning Systems (CGWS) Tianxiang Lu, Carsten Ullrich, Barbara Grabowski

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE UseCase 1: Student Anton wants to learn about “derivative function” : (1) Open a web-browser (2) Login to the adaptive E-Learning System (or Web- based learning Environment) –e.g. ActiveMath (3) He starts the course generator to generate a course giving at least following information –1. pedagogical objective: “discover” –2. target concept: “derivative function”

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Overview of ActiveMath DFKI and Saarland University Adaptive E-Learning system for Mathematics Learning resources: ActiveMath Mbase –Omdoc format Book generation

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Another System - MathCoach Applied University of techniques and economics in Saarland (HTW Saarland) Professor Dr. Grabowski Intelligent content provider for mathematics Generator of interactions such as exercises and experiments Learning resources: –LaplaceScript format

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Use Case 2: An E-Learning System or content Provider (e.g. MathCoach) wants to provide not only static content, but also some dynamic services. –E.g. Course Generator to generate more adaptive course for the user. (1) The learner logs into the E-Learning System -> similar to the previous case, the system need to call Course Generator from ActiveMath remotely. (2) The learner view the content directly. -> wizard to get the learning goals and learner mastery of related content. -> Call CG from ActiveMath remotely.

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE What does CG look like? A request consists of: 1.Pedagogical objective 2.Target concept 3.Identifier of the learner JavaAPI Planner Mediator Learner model Repository Repository TOC(XML)Plan(JShop2)

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICEMotivation Problems: –Course Generator expensive to implement –Reusability Learning Resources  Standards for exchanging the Learning Objects functionality  ? Solution: provide CG as Web Service

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Overview of the talk Motivation Requirements Design and Implementation Application Summary and Outlook

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Requirements of CGWS Survey –Time: April 1 st 2006 – Mai 10 th 2006 –User System developer (principal target group) Author (secondary target group) –Mailing list: Adaptive Hypertext and Hypermedia International Forum of Educational Technology & Society Internal Mailing list of the European Network of Excellence Kaleidoscope

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Requirements of CGWS Survey covered –general interests –possible pedagogical objectives –meta data of learning objects –learner modelling –format of the generated course –additional information

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Requirements of CGWS Analysis of Questionnaire (Example) –Question: „Would a course generator be of use for you“?

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Major Problems to solve Course generator is only available within ActiveMath Integration of external Repository requires: –Extending of source code of mediator –Server need to be restarted The generated course represented in proprietary format

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Requirements Specifications 1. Generation of complete course 2. Selection of single learning object 3. Overview of pedagogical objectives 4. Overview of meta data 5. Translation between different formats (e.g. JDOM SCORM) 6. WS for registration of a new repository

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICEDesign Interfaces between the client (LMS) and Server (CGWS) Architecture of components within the server

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE CGWS Interfaces Core Interface of CGWS –getTaskDefinition() –generateCourse() Interface of Repository Registration –getMetadataOntology() –registerRepository() –unregisterRepository()

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Client Interfaces Repository: ContentAPI (for Mediator) –queryClass() –queryRelation() –queryProperty() Learner Model: LearnerPropertyAPI –queryLearner()

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Design – Extension of Mediator Web-Service Wrapper RepositoryManagement (RM) RM DataSources DataSources Mediator wrapper wrapper wrapper wrapper … … QueryComponent DataSources wrapper wrapper

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Register a repository

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Implementing process Java-API -> XML-RPC -> Web Service Java classes -> Axis2 Services –Definition of all necessary OMElements –Java Classes for Web Service implementation –Java2WSDL –Services.xml –WAR file (.aar) in Axis2 driver (folder) (ActiveMath system must run in the background!) SOAP XML-RPC ClientCGWS LMS (ActiveMath)

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Application – Using Standalone client Make sure that there exist Ontology for local Repository and it is accessible via URL. System requirements of the client system –Java JRE 1.5 Download the standalone client to test CGWS Extend the java codes to use CGWS within your web application

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE Application – DIY Do it yourself: Download or configure the server (e.g. Tomcat) and then download or configure the Axis2 engine (e.g. “axis2.war”) Deploy the web service interface for local repository Call getMetadataOntology() to get the Ontology of CGWS and write the Ontology mapping manually. Download or write the code to register your repository to CGWS Download or write the code to generate course calling our web service.

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICESummary Contribution –Course Generator as Web Service Requirements defined using survey SOA Design Implementation with Axis2 Application in ActiveMath and MathCoach –Repository Registration Web Service Ontology and its mapping to OIO (Ontology used by CGWS) Dynamic binding –Using Standards (IMS-CP-Manifest, WS standards)

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICEOutlook Possible Extension for CGWS –Learner model interface (like mediator) –Exchange of learning resources with IMS-CP Possible extension for MathCoach –User friendly presentation of Courses –Using more meta data

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICEAcknowledgement DFKI –Carsten Ullrich –Dr. Erica Melis and the ActiveMath Group –Professor Dr. Siekmann HTW Saarland –Professor Dr. Grabowski –Professor Dr. Lehser

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Tianxiang Lu - KELWICE