Architectures to Support Authoring and Content Management with Learning Design

3.6 Conclusion

The Reference Architecture proposed by the Valkenburg Group is a useful framework for identifying and specifying the components of an architecture for authoring and managing learning designs. It is sufficiently abstract to support a wide range of implementations (such as a single integrated authoring and content management application, a distributed network of web services and thin clients, or a collection of standalone generic applications used in a particular fashion) yet it still provides a useful framework to assist in the design of authoring and content management environments. The models proposed are also congruent with current frameworks for learning technologies, including the OKI and the IMS Abstract Framework.

It is important to note that, although this reference architecture specifies a number of packages, many of these packages can be provided by existing generic software components, rather than requiring the development of new specialist LD tools. Where specialist tools are needed - for the LD Editor, the Learning Designs Repository and the Reference Runtime — there has been a great deal of effort by Valkenburg Group members to research and develop the relevant technologies, using models like the flexible LD Editor architecture model as a point of reference. Again, this is something explored in subsequent chapters. Chapter 7 explores the topic of LD tooling in more depth.