Service-based Grid Architectures to support the Virtualization of Learning Technology Systems

Abstract

E-Learning has been a topic of increasing interest in recent years, due mainly to the fact that content and tool support can now be offered at a widely affordable level. As a result, many e-learning platforms and systems have been developed. Client-server, peer-to-peer and recently Web services architectures often form the basis. Drawbacks of these architectures are often their limitations in terms of scalability and the availability and distribution of resources. This chapter investigates grid architectures in the context of e-learning as a proposed answer for this problem. The principles and technologies of Grid architectures are discussed and illustrated using learning technology scenarios and systems.