A Bot Spooler Architecture to Integrate Virtual Worlds with E-learning Management Systems for Corporate Training

Leonel Morgado (INESC TEC and Universidade Aberta, Portugal)

Hugo Paredes (INESC TEC and UTAD - Universidade de Tres-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal)

Benjamim Fonseca (INESC TEC and UTAD - Universidade de Tres-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal)

Paulo Martins (INESC TEC and UTAD - Universidade de Tres-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal)

Alvaro Almeida (UTAD - Universidade de Tres-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal)

Andreas Vilela (Altice Labs, Portugal)

Filipe Peixinho (Altice Labs, Portugal)

Arnaldo Santos (Altice Labs, Portugal)

Abstract: Joining efforts of academic and corporate teams, we developed an integration architecture - MULTIS - that enables corporate e-learning managers to use a Learning Management System (LMS) for management of educational activities in virtual worlds. This architecture was then implemented for the Formare LMS. In this paper we present this architecture and concretizations of its implementation for the Second Life Grid/OpenSimulator virtual world platforms. Current systems are focused on activities managed by individual trainers, rather than groups of trainers and large numbers of trainees: they focus on providing the LMS with information about educational activities taking place in a virtual world and/or being able to access within the virtual world some of the information stored in the LMS, and disregard the streamlining of activity setup and data collection in multi-trainer contexts, among other administrative issues. This architecture aims to overcome the limitations of existing systems for organizational management of corporate e-learning activities.

Keywords: computer uses in education, games, learning environments, learning management systems, software architectures, standards and interoperability

Categories: D.2.11, K.3.1