Review of e-Learning Systems Convergence from Traditional Systems to Services based Adaptive and Intelligent Systems

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as a design pattern that presents systems as collection of reusable services that can be exposed and consumed on the Internet with standard interfaces has many advantages that can be achieved on technical, managerial, and implementation aspects of the system. Integrating University Management Information Systems (UMIS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) can be achieved effectively, efficiently, and with minor modifications of both systems via SOA utilization. SOA can also be useful in integrating long decades and efforts of adaptive and intelligent features of eLearning in today’s information systems. Both UMIS and LMS; as the two major components of learning information systems can make use of adaptive and intelligent features became available over decades. Adaptive and intelligent features in information systems are many, and they can be utilized in new learning systems. Presenting adaptive and intelligent features as services with standard interfaces will allow different e-Learning systems to adopt them, so they will be reusable and newly introduced information systems will not have to redo the work again, besides, wrapping adaptive and intelligent features with standard interfaces will present a separation of interests that help adaptive and intelligent features’ researchers and developers to focus more on their target and transfer the responsibility of utilizing those features in different information systems to information systems specialists. Today’s e-Learning information systems’ architects can make use of SOA in integrating major e-Learning components together, side by side with adaptive and intelligent features to provide students with personalized learning environment. This article reviews the e-Learning different models and the challenges facing e-Learning nowadays, supposing solution to those challenges. Reviewing the e-Learning proposed systems, architectures, and frameworks starting from traditional e-Learning systems through adaptive e-Learning systems supported by intelligent eLearning features, methods, and techniques yields eLearning researchers to Services based Adaptive and Intelligent e-Learning Systems.