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Improving the Interoperability of the OpenDSA eTextbook System

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dc.contributor.authorWonderly, Jackson Danielen
dc.contributor.committeechairShaffer, Clifford A.en
dc.contributor.committeememberSeyam, Mohammed Saaden
dc.contributor.committeememberEdwards, Stephen H.en
dc.contributor.departmentComputer Scienceen
dc.date.accessioned2019-10-08T08:00:25Zen
dc.date.available2019-10-08T08:00:25Zen
dc.date.issued2019-10-07en
dc.description.abstractIn recent years there has been considerable adoption of the IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard among both Learning Management Systems (LMS), and learning applications. The LTI standard defines a way to securely connect learning applications and tools with platforms like LMS, enabling content from external learning tools to appear as if it were a native part of the LMS, and enabling these learning tools to send users' scores directly to the gradebook in the LMS. An example of such a learning tool is the OpenDSA eTextbook system which provides materials that cover a variety of Computer Science-related topics, incorporating hundreds of interactive visualizations and auto-graded exercises. Previous work turned OpenDSA into an LTI tool provider, allowing for OpenDSA eTextbooks to be integrated with the Canvas LMS. In this thesis, we further explore the problem of connecting educational systems while documenting challenges, issues, and design rationales. We expand upon the existing OpenDSA LTI infrastructure by turning OpenDSA into an LTI tool consumer, thus enabling OpenDSA to better integrate content from other LTI tool providers. We also describe how we expanded OpenDSA's LTI tool provider functionality to increase the level of granularity at which OpenDSA content can be served, and how we implemented support for several LMS, including challenges faced and remaining issues. Finally, we discuss the problem of sharing analytics data among educational systems, and outline an architecture that could be used for this purpose.en
dc.description.abstractgeneralIn recent years there has been considerable adoption of the IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard among Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Blackboard and Canvas, and among learning tools. The LTI standard allows for learning tools to be securely connected with platforms like LMS, enabling content from external learning tools to appear as if it were built into the LMS, and enabling these learning tools to send users’ scores directly to the gradebook in the LMS. An example of such a learning tool is the OpenDSA online textbook system which provides materials that cover a variety of Computer Science-related topics, incorporating hundreds of interactive visualizations and auto-graded exercises. Previous work enabled OpenDSA textbooks to be connected with the Canvas LMS using LTI. In this thesis, we further explore the problem of connecting educational systems while documenting challenges, issues, and design rationales. We expand the existing OpenDSA system to allow OpenDSA to better integrate content from other learning tools. We also describe how we expanded OpenDSA’s features to increase number of ways that OpenDSA content can be consumed, and how we implemented support for adding OpenDSA content to several LMS, including challenges faced and remaining issues. Finally, we discuss the problem of sharing analytics data among educational systems, and outline a potential way to connect educational systems for this purpose.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:22195en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/94391en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectlearning tools interoperabilityen
dc.subjectlearning analyticsen
dc.subjectcontent reusabilityen
dc.subjectcomputer science educationen
dc.titleImproving the Interoperability of the OpenDSA eTextbook Systemen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineComputer Science and Applicationsen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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