Abstract:

In this paper, we introduce the concept of sharing educational content and functionalities provided by modern Learning Management Systems (LMS). An LMS typically serves as a comprehensive repository for educational materials, announcements, discussion forums, news boards, assignment submissions, and file exchange facilities. Sharing educational content and functionalities is often understood as the process of reusing these resources outside the LMS, without requiring direct access to the platform itself.

We explore two primary technologies that facilitate this sharing: Application Programming Interfaces (API), and Wizards. An API consists of various entry points to the LMS server that facilitate access to educational content through predefined HTTP requests. For instance, one request might retrieve a list of available announcements, while another could fetch the details of a specific announcement.

Wizards are small applications that can be easily embedded into other applications or operational environments. For example, a WEB wizard may offer a certain part of the LMS functionality as a JS file. Thus, we can speak about course announcements wizard, course curriculum wizard, course library wizard, file uploading wizard, etc. All the wizards can be simply embedded into other WEB applications by means of referring to the JS file. There may be wizards implemented by means of another technology. For example, small python applications may communicate to the LMS via the API and support fragments of the LMS functionality. Thus, the users may see the course announcements or the course calendar directly on the user’s desktop. Moreover, selected wizards from different courses may be combined, and we can speak about personal learning environment on the desktop.

While APIs and Wizards are crucial for integrating with other systems and services, they also pose challenges regarding user access. We review existing technological solutions that utilize user roles and tokens, highlighting the significant limitations inherent in these approaches.

The traditional model limits access to course-enrolled users, complicating content sharing via APIs and Wizards. Users outside the LMS may require access, but the current framework does not facilitate this seamlessly. While user roles can define access levels, their implementation across shared content complicates login procedures and user experience. Each isolated application or wizard would need a robust mechanism to validate user roles without full LMS integration. Additionally, isolating shared content from the LMS can lead to inconsistencies in access control, making it challenging to enforce uniform access policies.

In this paper, we propose utilizing API templates for access restrictions, centered around a concept we call "reuse tickets" for course content. Each user leveraging the course content receives:
- A course API description
- A set of wizards
- A reuse ticket

The reuse ticket is a string secured as a blockchain structure, containing a generated password and a list of API templates. Each API transaction is accompanied by the reuse ticket and password as a separate encrypted string. When the LMS server receives an API request, it verifies the password's validity and matches the request to one of the templates specified in the reuse ticket.

This method is evaluated for its advantages and disadvantages, with a particular emphasis on the common challenge of diversifying data access for LMS users.

Keywords:

e-learning, LMS, Sharing content, API, Wizard.