ICICES2014 - S.A.

Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

e-Learning Management System Using WebServices

1 2
N.Partheeban and Dr.N.SankarRam
1 1
Associate Professor , Department of Information Technology, S.A.Engineering College, Chennai
2
Professor, RMKCET , Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chennai
1 2
partheeban@saec.ac.in and n_sankarram@yahoo.com

Abstract: E-learning fulfils the thirst of knowledge and When beginning to create e- Learning content, the
offers online content that can be delivered for the students’ profiles and courses have to be stored in the system
learner at anywhere, anytime and any age through a database and presented using web application to facilitate the
functionality of building an e-Learning management system.
wide range of e-learning solution while compared with
traditional learning system. It also provides the rapid Service-based architectures take legacy application
access to specific knowledge and information. With the functionality and expose it to the Internet in a reliable, highly
rapid growth of voluminous information sources and available, scalable, flexible, manageable and secure manner,
the time constraint the learning methodology has easy and reliable internet-based method to create and access
changed. Learners obtain knowledge through e- learning.
Learning systems rather than manually teaching and Web service technology has emerged as a new paradigm
learning. In this research paper proposes the e-learning of distributed computing. The Service-based architectures are
layered on the top of standard transfer protocols for
management system with web services oriented frame
transmitting messages that currently, the most common ones
work and SOA. This system supports the cross browser are the XML-based specification Simple
and fully integrated with different databases. This Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Universal Description,
system focused around the several features namely Discovery and Integration (UDDI) and Web Service
Content Management, Content Protection, Learning Description Language (WSDL
Management, Delivery Management, Evaluation The proposed system is an advanced, 3-tier, database-
management, Access Control, etc., and mainly focused driven using Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 with VB.NET. The
on integrated platform needed for e-learning and system is divided into several phases; each phase describes a
managements. number of actions. The model used in building the system is
the “Evolutionary Model”, because it is easy to use, it allows
small systems to be developed rapidly and it allows user
Key words: e-Learning ,Knowledge
engagement with the application.
Management, SCORM, Web Services Evolutionary development model uses small, incremental
evolutionary model, 3-tier architecture, service product releases, frequent delivery to users and dynamic plans
oriented architecture and processes.

INTRODUCTION
e-Learning is a general term used to refer to a form of learning
in which the instructor and student are separated by space or
time where the gap between the two is bridged through the use
of online technologies.
Many technologies can be and are, used in e- Learning,
including:
• Blogs and wikis
• Collaborative software Computer aided assessment
• Discussion boards Fig. 1: A data-flow of the evolutionary model
• Electronic performance support system
• Learning management systems
• Virtual classrooms
• Web-based teaching materials
• Web-based component services
ISBN No.978-1-4799-3834-6/14/$31.00©2014 IEEE
 ICICES2014 - S.A.Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
new content should be added to existing content without
costly redesign, reconfiguration, or recoding Allow
students to locate and access instructional components
from one remote location and deliver to other locations

The ability for a Web-based Learning Management

System (LMS) to launch content that was authored using
tools from different vendors and to exchange data with
that content
The ability to launch the same executable content and to
exchange data with that content during execution while
utilizing Web-based LMS environments from different
vendors
The ability for multiple Web-based LMS environments to
access a common repository of executable content and to
Fig. 2: The incremental development process of the electronic launch such content
learning management system System description and analysis: The system runs on
Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 with VB.NET, which is a fully object-
In Fig. 1 the objective is to evolve a final system from an oriented computer language that can be viewed as an evolution
initial outline specification starting with well- understood of Microsoft’s Visual Basic (VB) implemented on the
requirements and adding new features as proposed by the end Microsoft .NET framework. The system is fully integrated
users. with different databases; MS SQL Server, MS Access, Oracle
and LDAP. It supports Single Sign On technology. Most of
In this study, the basic concept about the
transactions with the database are developed using client-
development process in several modules has been scripting in order to enhance the performance of the system.
presented. Rather than deliver the system as a single
delivery, the development and delivery is broken down The system is divided into three phases: Layout, database
into increments with each increment and web services. Each phase describes specific actions taken
delivering part of the required functionality. in several locations. They are described in detail below.
Figure 2 shows the incremental development process of
the Electronic Learning Management System. Early Layout Phase: In this phase, the main concepts of the web
increments act as a prototype to help elicit requirements application design facilities in the system are
for later increments. As shown from the diagram; after the introduced. The
system definition, the architectural design has been specified following tools in web design are used: HTML, JavaScript,
and then divides the system into small increments. The system Adobe Photoshop CS, AJAX custom extended controls
at that time needs to be built with these small increments and and cascading style sheet.
HTML, an initialize of Hypertext Markup Language, is
validated. This process will be repeated until a final system the predominant markup language for Web pages. It
has been delivered. provides a means to describe the structure of text-based
information in a document-by denoting certain text as
Aims of the system: The main aims of the system are:
links, headings, paragraphs, lists and so on-and to
supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded images
Improve learning accessibility that is, eliminating barriers and other objects.
to learning that many learners have found in traditional The images in each web page will be created using Adobe
classrooms Photoshop. A variety is given to the layout of each web page
Improve the interaction between students and instructors. of the system.
The system has a question bank facility where the The system is a robust, cross browser system. The user
students can ask questions and send them to their interface is largely the same in Microsoft Internet Explorer,
instructors Firefox and Opera. There are no menus or editors driven by
Speed up the reaching for required data and facilitate the DHTML, or the like, that can fail to work in some
interaction with database records environments.
Keep data secure. Each student has an account to Asynchronous JavaScript And XML (AJAX) is a group of
authenticate into the system interrelated web development techniques used for creating
Facilitating personalized delivery of content based on the interactive web applications or rich Internet applications. This
individual learner’s knowledge and learning preferences feature has to be used in the login process where the JavaScript
Providing tracking and assessment of learners to measure can communicate directly with the server, using the JavaScript
effectiveness and compliance XMLHttpRequest object. With this object, the JavaScript can
Promoting knowledge sharing through collaborative trade credentials with a web server, without reloading the page.
learning Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a simple mechanism for
The number of articles and amount of information that adding style (e.g., fonts, colors and spacing) to Web
students can access is unlimited documents. Using CSS, the HTML documents can be
Providing participants with an extensive list of displayed using different output styles. In this system a
summaries of related resources that they can choose to standard CSS files has to be used to view the web pages.
read, or archive for later use
Building durable e-Learning contents, regardless of Database phase: This phase is connected with all other
changes or evolutions in technology. This means that modules. In this phase, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 has
 ICICES2014 - S.A.Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
to be used as web storage. It includes native support for
managing XML data, in addition to relational data.
Web services phase: In this phase, web services are used as
references in most database actions. For example, the data
manipulation is done through web services.
All web services are web methods of functions that
perform specific actions. Web services allow the system
greater flexibility over the Internet by allowing it to work with
other systems through the Internet as if it was a standard LAN
network.
It uses XML to transmit the data to and from different
sources. Web services can also be considered as connectivity Fig. 4: Use case diagram-the instructor use case
tool-objects, data sets and even cached objects can be passed
to and from other servers. Business Logic layer: It serves as an intermediary for data
System stakeholders: The main stakeholders of our system exchange between the presentation layer and the data access
layer.
are:
Administrators Data access layer: In this layer the data is set to the database
Instructors back and forth. This layer only interacts with the database.
Students Written database queries or stored procedures are used to
Guests access the data from the database or to perform any operation
to the database. It will get the data from the business layer and
System architectural design: Various learning systems send it to the database or get the data from the database and
have been developed in the past decade; the majority of these send it to the business layer.
systems are implemented either with client-server
architecture or are centralized server based. The client- Security modes: In this system there are four modes;
server and centralized server approaches are metaphors of guest, student, instructor and administrator modes.
student-teacher and repository centric which reflect real
world learning scenarios in which teachers act as the content System components: The following components are provided
producers while students act as the content consumers by the web application of the system:
(Yang,
2006). Online exams
Our learning environment provides an interoperable, Assignments
pervasive and seamless learning architecture to connect, Chat
integrate and share three major dimensions of learning Discussion forums
resources:
Glossary
Quizzes
Learning collaborators
Surveys
Learning contents
Wikis
Learning services
Virtual class rooms
SCORM packager
In order to provide these dimensions, the three-tier
Resources manager
system architecture is used.

Three-tier architecture: A the 3-Tier architecture has the

following three layers (Fig. 3).

Presentation layer: In this tier the user interface has to be

built to display data to the user or accept input from the user. It
will contain controls like text boxes, dropdown lists, gridviews
and labels

Fig. 5: Use case diagram-the student use case

Fig. 3: A graphical representation of the 3-tier

architecture
 ICICES2014 - S.A.Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Fig. 9: Sequence diagram-storing the number of hits

Fig. 6: Use case diagram-the administrator use case
Figure 8 shows the procedure of encrypting student
password when creating his profile by the administrator.
Figure 9 shows how a new hit is stored in the database
when a guest visits the system. The IP addresses with the date
of access have to be stored only once a day.
The administrator, instructor, or student requests the
login page and enters the username and password. The system
verifies the credentials and checks whether the user is
authorized or not. If the user is authorized then he can access
the pages, otherwise a notification will be displayed to inform
that the access is failed (Fig. 10).
In Fig. 11, the web classes contain the methods and
functions used to access the database. The web configuration
Fig. 7: Sequence diagram-student data access component is used to configure the system functionality and to
System model design: In this phase, the overall system model specify the application settings. The web services component
design is explained using the necessary UML models. is used to transfer the data as xml from the database. All of
Figure 4 describes most possible interactions between the these components form the web components of the
instructors and the system. application.
Figure 5 describes most possible interactions between the
students and the system.
Figure 6 describes most possible interactions
between the administrator and the system.
Figure 7 describes the functionality of access student
pages and viewing the marks. First, the student enters
username and password to access the pages and then he views
the contents of the student mode. After that, he can view the
marks directly. Fig. 10: Component diagram-system components

Fig. 8: Sequence diagram-password generation

Fig. 11: Package diagram-system packages

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Today’s e-Learning standards provide a strong new

framework, creating a bridge from abstract programmable
components to the practical world of implementation.
According to new recent studies, the e-Learning
standards are of value in that they support investments in:
 ICICES2014 - S.A.Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Interoperability: That allows the Learning Object to Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is
communicate with management systems, databases a collection of standards and specifications for the packaging
and web applications. This communication and sequencing of learning and assessment material in the form
with a management system takes place through web of shareable, reusable content objects. A SCORM learning
transport protocols (XML data, HTTP, HTTPS, or object comprises a collection of assets, which in SCORM
URL encoded data). The purpose is to exchange terminology designate pieces of instructional or educational
or update metadata information about the use of the material. Assets within an object admit different organizations,
Learning Object. This may involve variables, such as different forms of aggregation and sequencing oriented towards
learner scores, preferences, completion times and a definite learning purpose (Gonzalez-Barbone and Anido-
Rifon, 2008).
progression, identifying which Learning Object to
deliver next Durability: e-Learning content should Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): In the learning
be durable, regardless of changes or evolutions in system, the development of dynamic contents is transformed
technology. This means that new content should be from using normal HTML to XML. XML provides the answer
added to existing to creating dynamic online user experiences. Extensible
content without costly redesign, reconfiguration, Markup Language, more commonly known as XML, has been
or recoding (Joubert, 2006) Compatibility with major accepted as the de facto standard for developing web
technology platforms: Such as Microsoft.NET applications that give users a much richer online experience
and SUN Java Environment than the simple “page turning” typical of an HTML
Manageability: Defined by enabling value to be application. Able to store organization-relevant information in
assessed a single database, XML has already become a favorite tool for
Dynamic reusability: Using learning objects as developers because it expresses and manages content
programmable components. Content developers and independently from content delivery and management
learners should be able to extract relevant e- Learning services.
content such as modules from different courses and XML offers great promise that many believe will be the
reassemble them into a new course, application, or final “tipping point” toward a broad-based acceptance of e-
context (Joubert, 2006) Learning as a legitimate enterprise learning strategy. Many
Accessibility: e-Learning content should be easy to find believe that XML will help establish a new benchmark for
creating dynamic online
based on the classification of the content. Users should be
learning experiences that inspire and empower learners,
able to locate and access instructional components from
rather than test their patience slow-loading text and graphical
one remote location and deliver to other locations
elements, page after page after page (Himes and Wagner,
(Joubert, 2006)
2006).
SCORM: The SCORM is not a standard in itself, but a Service-based architectures take legacy application
reference model to be used to ensure that content and functionality and expose it to the Internet in a reliable, highly
management systems are compatible. It stands for Shared available, scalable, flexible, manageable and secure manner,
Content Objects Reference Model. The initial version of the easy and reliable internet-based method to create and access
SCORM was centered on Web-based learning content and was learning.
intended to enable the following: Web service technology has emerged as a new paradigm
of distributed computing. The Service-based architectures are
The ability for a Web-based Learning Management layered on the top of standard transfer protocols for
System (LMS) to launch content that was authored using transmitting messages that currently, the most common ones
tools from different vendors and to exchange data with are the XML-based specification Simple Object Access
that content Protocol (SOAP), UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery
The ability to launch the same executable content and to and Integration) and Web Service Description Language
exchange data with that content during execution while (WSDL)
utilizing Web-based LMS environments from different The web service architecture is illustrated in
vendors Fig. 13. A web service is a stand-alone software component
The ability for multiple Web-based LMS environments to that has a unique URI (Uniform Resource Identifier).
access a common repository of executable content and to Web services architecture aims to provide a
launch such content standard
The ability to move an entire course from one LMS based platform for Service-Oriented Computing. It defines
to another itself as a set of specifications that support an open XML-
based platform for description, discovery and
SCORM content must be in HTML form-viewable within interoperability of distributed, heterogeneous applications as
a standard web browser. However, this does not limit services (Tai et al., 2004). It is based on the interactions
developers and designers to text or even text and images. between three roles (Ambrosi et al., 2006); service provider,
Multimedia and other content, such as Flash, Video, or Audio service registry and service requestor. These interactions
objects, can be SCORM conformant, because nearly anything involve publishing, find and bind operations and these roles
that can be embedded in a web page can be SCORM and operations act upon the Web Services
conformant. The SCORM includes a mechanism for artifacts.
describing the specific requirements of a piece of content, such The scenario of Web services consists in four stages
as required plug-ins (Brown, 2002). as below in Fig. 12 and those stages are (Al- Ajlan and
Our learning system supports the facility of SCORM Zedan, 2007):
compliant. The instructors can develop their learning objects
using authoring tools and publish the output as SCORM files.
Then, theses files can be deployed into our learning system as
an IMS content package.
 ICICES2014 - S.A.Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
The service provider is deploying and publishing the description lists, gridviews and labels.
of its services to service registry and hosting these services and
controlling access to them
The service requester works with the service broker to
discover the optimal services that meet and satisfy the
specifications of register
The service broker sends the services that have been found
to the service requestor
The final stage, service requester negotiates with the service
providers to bind services after they have been found
Fig. 14: SOA layers
The application UI can be the client program, which
discovers and invokes the business processes or services from
the service registry. The services being invoked can be a
single service or a composite service depending on the user
learning goals.
As users vary according to ability, prerequisite
knowledge, learning pace and learning objectives, it is ideal to
provide customized e-Learning services to them. The services,
which are published to the service registry can be discovered
Fig. 12: Web service and invoked through the interface- Web Service Description
Language (WSDL). The service registry is the dynamic
components library that will contain all services in our system.

RESULTS

The fully object-oriented language used in the

implementation of the system improves the ability to deploy
several web services.
Web services provide a better alternative as services are
loosely coupled and can be subscribed anytime any place.
Furthermore, leveraging web standards in an e-Learning
Fig. 13: The scenario, roles and operations of web services environment will facilitate the dynamic integration of systems
distributed over the web and encourage reuse of learning
The typical learning management system is built based on objects.
a component-based architecture. However, Web services In the learning system, the development of dynamic
provide a better alternative as services are loosely coupled and contents is transformed from using normal HTML to XML.
can be subscribed anytime any place. Furthermore, leveraging XML provides the answer to creating dynamic online user
web standards in an e- Learning environment will allow the experiences. Extensible Markup Language, more commonly
dynamic integration of applications distributed over the web known as XML, has been accepted as the de facto standard for
and encourage reuse of learning objects . developing web applications that give users a much richer
online experience than the simple “page turning” typical of an
The typical learning management system is built based on HTML application.
a component-based architecture. However, Web services
provide a better alternative as services are loosely coupled and CONCLUSION
can be subscribed anytime any place. Furthermore, leveraging The system can facilitate personalized delivery of contents based
web standards in an e- Learning environment will allow the on the individual learner’s knowledge and learning preferences.
dynamic integration of applications distributed over the web It will provide participants with an extensive list of summaries
and encourage reuse of learning objects of related resources that they can choose to read, or archive for
later use. A middleware for uniform access
to all thesis resources that belong to different
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) layers: As shown in administration areas is proposed. New technologies are
Fig. 15, the application UI layer represents the presentation described, including web services, single sign on and AJAX and
layer for the clients. This layer is described as a presentation how they can be used in the development of our system.
tier in the 3-tier architecture. In this tier the user interface has In this study, a 3-tier architectural e-Learning system is
to be built to display data to the user or accept input from the defined. The objective of this architecture is to supply a basis
user. It will contain controls like text boxes, dropdown for designers, developers and instructors to construct
practicable strategic e-Learning models suitable for their
individual e-Learning environments.
The proposed framework using the Web Service approach
will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of collaborative
learning in terms of Reusability, Interoperability, Accessibility
and Modularization
 ICICES2014 - S.A.Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

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