Seamless cross-platform integration of educational resources for improved learning experiences

The main contribution of this work in progress is an open source architecture for seamless integration of open access educational resources located in heterogeneous learning management systems (LMS) distributed across the network. One of the main advantages of the proposal is the simplicity in creating, managing and making available new content that builds on the existing material in different repositories. Some previous works addressed similar issues but either in simpler environments, i.e., when the distributed systems were homogeneous, or they require extensive knowledge to take advantages of the integration, from the point of view of both the content creator and the manager of each learning system. Our solution exploits the possibilities offered by the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) interface typically present in many content repository platforms allowing users to browse and interact with contents stored in several heterogeneous places. Some preliminary results show that it is possible to efficiently combine engineering learning material taken from our technical university with other online resources made available from different educational institutions. Moreover, two extensions, currently in development, aim at providing seamless videoconferencing integrations between the teacher and the learners as well as at supporting remote laboratory sessions by means of controlling programmable objects in remote laboratories with real-time video feedbacks for the students.