Personal Learning Environments as a Key Element in a SOA Architecture with University Educational Services: Integrated and Inclusive

Abstract

Currently, higher education institutions (HEIs) must offer dynamic, flexible, comprehensive, and inclusive educational services based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) without affecting the architecture of the institutional technological infrastructure. However, at the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes (UAA), there are several ICT-based educational services that are scattered across different servers, accessible only to certain devices and through different applications. This causes these educational services to be underutilized, generating confusion and little interest for students. Methodologically, this study follows the Design Science Research (DSR) paradigm, drawing on a contextual diagnosis based on UAA institutional records regarding its student population, including students with disabilities, and on a limited and random review of specialized literature as the instrument used to conceptually ground and validate the design of the proposed architecture. This article proposes a service-oriented architecture for education based on SOA architecture, incorporating a significant number of educational services, grouped into a single general interface corresponding to each student's personal learning environment (PLE). As an architectural solution that can integrate all the services available from the UAA for its students, also considering the inclusive learning needs of some of them to meet their specific accessibility demands.