INTEROPERABILITY IN PEDAGOGICAL ELEARNING SERVICES Ricardo Queirós CRACS/FCUP & DI-ESEIG/IPP, Porto, Portugal ricardo.queiros@eu.ipp.pt Keywords: eLearning; Interoperability; Service Oriented Architectures. Abstract: The ultimate goal of this research plan is to improve the learning experience of students through the combination of pedagogical eLearning services. Service oriented architectures are already being used in eLearning but in this work the focus is on services of pedagogical value, rather then on generic services adapted from other business systems. This approach to the architecture of eLearning platforms raises challenges addressed by this work, namely: conceptual modeling of the pedagogical eLearning services domain; interoperability and coordination of pedagogical eLearning service; conversion of existing eLearning systems to pedagogical services; adaptation of eLearning services to individual learners. An improved eLearning platform will incorporate learning tools adequate to the domains it covers and will focus on the individual learner that uses it. With this approach we expect to raise the pedagogical value of eLearning platforms 1 MOTIVATION The majority of the eLearning platforms available today follow a component-oriented architecture. These systems assemble a collection of generic tools - such as forums or multiple choice quizzes - that are considered to be useful for all subjects. Despite their success, they have also been target of criticism that led to recent initiatives to adapt Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to eLearning. The pressure to adopt SOA in eLearning is mostly fuelled by managerial needs of academic institutions, rather than pedagogical concerns of teachers. In some cases is an internal need, of combining infrastructures of autonomous departments with different responsibilities within an academic institution. In other cases results from external pressure, of linking with other institutions in order to offer join eLearning programs. An alternative view of eLearning services is to use them to extend the pedagogical features of eLearning platforms. Traditionally, these features are added to eLearning systems by integration of new components. These components are system specific and tend to be very general, in order to be reusable in as many situations as possible. As for components, services are easy to add and replace in a system but, unlike components, services are easy to restructure to implement new processes, usually business processes. This approach can also be extended to learning processes in order to create an instructional environment more adapted to the student needs and requirements. For instance, existing eLearning platforms do not provide specific tools for solving programming exercises in computer science courses, playing business games in management courses, or simulating a human patient in life sciences courses. These tools would be too specific to incorporate in a eLearning platform. Even if they could be provided as pluggable components, the burden of maintaining them would be prohibitive to institutions with few courses in those domains. On the other hand, a programming exercise evaluation engine, a business game engine or a patent simulator can provide their services to many eLearning systems. In turn, these services can be clients of other services, such as repositories of specialized Learning Objects (LO), or generators of LO. The selection of LO can be mediated by another service that adapts its results to the needs and preferences of students. The ultimate goal of this work is to improve the students’ learning experience through the combination of pedagogical eLearning services. To