Bi-directional Distribution of eLearning Content for Cross-technology Learning Communities

This article describes the use of a service-oriented architecture to bridge the gap between different eLearning types and tools. The basic concept is a bi-directional distribution of web services provided by different eLearning environments. This is exemplarily verified by a combination of lectures that are held in a modern media supported lecture room with tools of the computer-aided face-to-face learning paradigm and within a virtual learning environment (Second Life). The new service-based approach allows a flexible and systematic coupling of virtual and face-to-face teaching and learning to a cross-technology learning community. 1 eLearning Scenarios and Approaches for their Integration Today, computer-aided face-to-face learning is the most popular teaching and learning type. This includes the replacement as well as the extension of spoken and written content by digital media (like powerpoint slides, simulations, demonstrations, etc.). These media can than easily be made available to learners in order to support their wrap-up phase. Therefor, the lecturer is mostly required to upload his slideshow and lecture notes manually into a web-based eLearning platform in an asynchronous manner. As another example, online or virtual learning simulates real-life educational processes and enriches them with specific communication and collaboration elements where applicable (e.g. chats, forums, or shared whiteboards). eLearning platforms are often used to implement these processes, for instance for teleacademies. In this context, 3D virtual worlds hold a significant innovation potential for eLearning as they simulate the perceived social presence of a lecturer and learners [COT07]. The commmunication mechanisms of the platform are synchronous and the individual learning processes take place at the same time. However, these environments are decoupled from real-life scenarios. In particular in virtual 3D worlds, virtual learning is a comparative emerging paradigm. Nevertheless, the number of education activities is increasing. For instance, the virtual world Second Life [Lin09b] has around 50 registered education events per day. The reasons for the success are the advantages over other solutions like chats, instant messaging and classical learning platforms in terms of communication and felt presence. For instance, IBM’s conference space [Lin09a] shows that virtual worlds really encourage people to socialize with each other. The virtual event participants truly felt as if they had attended