<h3>Platform-independant Interface to Manage Legacy IMS/SCORM Content in an LMCS
</h3>
<h2>Overview
</h2>While the IEEE LOM, IMS LOM and ADLNet SCORM Standards have increased the development
of platform independant course material the standards are only applicable when you have
a final draft of a course that simply needs to get shared.
Some LMCS provide editing facilities right on the platform to create course
material successively. This functionality is nice but limits the author to a given platform
editing environment. The initial goal of platform indepence should also apply to authors
and not only to content.
<h2>Goal
</h2>The goal is to design a standard webbased interface to manage existing ims/scorm content
in a platform. This interface should be used by authoring systems to control the structure
of courses in a platform.
The following use cases exist
- Authentication
- Connecting to the LMCS
- Authenticating author via username and password
- Course Synchronization
- Searching the course catalog for existing courses
- Mapping remote and local courses via unique Id
- Automatically finding differences between local and remote course
- Differences in course structure, like
- Missing items
- Changed item position
- Changed item title
- Differences between resources basically by comparing a hash value
- Suggesting synchronization for each item and resource
- Item management
- Does an item with a given Id exist?
- Add a new item to a course organisation
- Remove an existing item
- Move an existing item
- Edit an existing item's title
- Delete an item and associated resources
- Resource management
- Does a resource with a given Id exist?
- Add a new resource
- Add a new resource version
- Remove an existing resource
- Move an existing resource
<h2>Implementation options
</h2>The preferred way to carry out to implement these use cases on the server side is using HTTP and any
technology on the authoring system side to extend it's functionality.
Unclear is which technology should be used to manage the above described use cases:
- WebDAV for file resource management?
- XML/RPC or Web Services for item management and authentication?
