8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

1/12

SARAS 2008 eLearning Application Framework

Page 1 of 12

SARAS Unified Learning Platform with

Service Oriented Architecture

WHITE PAPER

AbstractThis article presents an approach taken to design and build SARAS Unified Learning Platform. Our

experience in learning domain and association with customers enabled us to understand the learning

dynamics, constant change in standards, turn around time to market. These drivers helped us design and

build cost-effective, flexible and agile solutions for our customers.

8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

2/12

SARAS 2008 eLearning Application Framework

Page 2 of 12

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 3

Our Approach to Unified Learning Platform .............................................................................................. 3

SARAS Unified Learning Platform Architecture .......................................................................................... 3

SARAS Architecture ......................................................................................................................................... 4

Conceptual View ........................................................................................................................................ 4

SARAS 2008 eLearning Application Frameworks Components ................................................................. 5

Logical View of a Service ............................................................................................................................ 7

Architecture Deliverables ........................................................................................................................... 8

Extendible User Interface ...................................................................................................................... 8

Standards Compliance ........................................................................................................................... 8

Reusability ............................................................................................................................................. 8

Scalability............................................................................................................................................... 8Extensibility ........................................................................................................................................... 8

Performance .......................................................................................................................................... 8

Manageability ........................................................................................................................................ 8

Interoperability...................................................................................................................................... 8

List of Services ............................................................................................................................................ 9

Domain Services .................................................................................................................................... 9

Common Services .................................................................................................................................. 9

System Technical Flow Diagram ............................................................................................................... 10

Technical Highlights ................................................................................................................................. 11

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 11

8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

3/12

SARAS 2008 eLearning Application Framework

Page 3 of 12

IntroductionSARAS is primarily designed to achieve the vision of an agile enterprise with a flexible eLearning solution

platform that enables to respond to changes in business in best possible way. As learning dynamics

change and new methods emerge, the learning platform need to be able to respond quickly and provide

solutions to address new methods of learning before the business opportunity disappears. This is possiblewithin reasonable costs only through reuse of existing investments. This is where SARAS eLearning

application Framework comes in; they are based on the principal of developing reusable business services

and building applications by composing those services instead of building monolithic applications in silos.

Our Approach to Unified Learning Platform

SARAS Unified Learning Platform is designed with clear vision, goal, a set of core guiding principles, and a

systematic process.

The goal is to provide Unified Learning Platform with both infrastructural and domain components that

are needed to develop enterprise application for learning and education sectors based on Service

Oriented Architecture concepts. Some of the guiding principles that helped developing Unified LearningPlatform are:

Driven by requirements

Simple to use

Standards-based and pattern-driven

Should not be outdated quickly

Reuse anything existing instead of building it again.

SARAS Unified Learning Platform Architecture

SARAS Unified Learning Platform is a set of services having elearning domain specific services and

common framework services. Services are designed with reusability in mind and ease of maintainability.

New services can be added with little cost as each service is deployed as an independent entity.Architecture adheres to SOA governance model and harvests on the strengths of SOA architectures to

deliver scalability and performance.

8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

4/12

SARAS 2008 eLearning Application Framework

Page 4 of 12

SARAS Architecture

Conceptual View

The above conceptual view shows the technology architecture of SARAS eLearning Application

Framework. The view shows strength of the SARAS 2008 eLearning Application Framework to support

product and project offerings.

SARAS products, SARAS applications and customers products are built on top of same framework. This not

only gives reusable advantage but also provides cost advantage.

SARAS 2008 Unified Learning Platform (ULP), the application framework, is a set of services using SOAP

protocols, having e-learning domain specific services and common framework services. Services are

designed with reusability in mind and ease of maintainability. New services can be added with little cost

as each service is deployed as an independent entity. Architecture adheres to SOA governance model and

harvests on the strengths of SOA architectures to deliver scalability and performance.

8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

5/12

e earn ng pp cat on ramewor

Pa e 5 of 12

SARAS 2008 eLearning Application Frameworks Components

8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

6/12

SARAS 2008 eLearning Application Framework

Page 6 of 12

Following are the components of SARAS 2008;

1. UI Framework Designed as reusable components, and can used across multiple applications.

This is described in the section Extensible User Interface

2. Services Implements functionality required example for Authoring, services such as Item

Authoring, Compose (Assessment & Plan), Learning Design are used.

Logical view of a Service depicted below.

3. Data Access Layer and Data Store Currently SARAS 2008 natively supports ADO.NET to store

data on database. Data Access Layer can be replaced to support any other data store such as

Documentum.

8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

7/12

SARAS 2008 eLearning Application Framework

Page 7 of 12

Logical View of a Service

The logical view shows the major functional elements of a service in framework such as Item Authoring,

Assessment, Metadata etc. that provides support for enterprise-scale operational requirements and their

interrelationships.

8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

8/12

SARAS 2008 eLearning Application Framework

Page 8 of 12

Architecture Deliverables

The strength of the architecture is in its ability to deliver on the following fronts:

Extendible User Interface

The User Interface architecture is built using Model-View-Controller architecture and has the capability tosupport different views with minimal changes to the architecture. Another highpoint of the User Interface

architecture is the reusability of the various controls (web and custom) giving an easy maintenance and

quick development time for the new manifestations.

Standards Compliance

The architecture enables the application to be compliant to various industry standards in the e-learning

domain such as SCORM and QTI. The architecture is flexible to absorb future enhancements and changes

as directed by these standards from time to time.

Reusability

The modular design of the product helps to achieve easy maintenance low operating costs and high

reusability. High reusability helps to add and functionality to the application with very little time and

having quick turnaround times.The modular design is followed both at the service design (at the framework level) and at the

manifestation level bringing greater flexibility to the offering.

Scalability

The system is highly scalable and offers flexible options for deployment and performance enhancements.

Being a SOA based architecture and services not carrying state across calls applications can scale linearly.

Additionally services having heavy processing requirements can be separately load balanced enabling

efficient use of the available infrastructure and achieve best performance.

Extensibility

The system is highly extendible as new functionality can be added with virtually zero impact on the live

system. Each of the service is deployed as a separate entity and new services can be added with little

effort and downtime.

Performance

The system has high performance, as there are no overheads in the execution of a business workflow. The

design of the supporting services such as authorization (security) is built as verticals rather than having

been embedded in the system as a horizontal layer. This helps to make optimal use of the infrastructure

facilities and enable system for high performance.

Manageability

The system is very easy to support and manage as industry proven design patterns have been used in

building various layers. MVC is used at the client side which makes the system easy to manage and

enhance.

Interoperability

The system delivers high on interoperability front and can be made to integrate with any enterprise

application conforming to the standard communication protocols. This helps to make application sit in

comfort with any application built using any technology and platform.

8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

9/12

SARAS 2008 eLearning Application Framework

Page 9 of 12

List of Services

The product support two kinds of service, one that are domain specific and common services also

classified as infrastructure features.

Domain Services

Domain services are the services are the backbone of the functional capabilities of the system. The

domain services will grow as new standards and functionality support is growing in the scope.

1. SARAS Repository

2. Content Statistics

3. Organization

4. Item Authoring

5. Compose

6. Content Rendering

7. Response Processing

8. Marking

9. Grading10. Course

11. Learner Profile

12. Role

13. Progress Tracking

14. Scheduling

15. Content Aggregation

16. Content Sequencing

17. Learning Design

18. Time Tabling

19. Enrollment

20. Publishing

21. Metadata , Indexing

22. Group

23. E-Portfolio

24. Content Versioning

25. Digital Rights Management26. Workflow

27. Database Services

28. Reporting

29. Title Management

30. Personalization

31. Standards

32. Calendar

Common Services

Common services are the services, which are available for each of the product and project manifestations.

They are the backbone of the infrastructure and non-functional aspects of the system. The services in this

category will keep on growing when infrastructure requirements keep on increasing. The commonservices will also keep on growing as new generation of communication channels are being supported.

1. Authentication

2. Authorization

3. Format Conversion

4. Logging

5. File Upload / Download

6. Exception Handling

7. Messaging (email, SMS, Alerts, Notification)

8. Feedback

9. Localization

10. Internationalization

11. Federated Search

12. Collaboration

o Chat

o Audio Video Conferencing

o Whiteboard

o Discussion Forum

13. Service Registry

14. Discovery

15. Announcement

16. Style sheet Management

17. Encryption

18. Decryption

19. Account Management

20. System Admin

21. Archiving & Retrieval

22. Message Queuing

23. Caching

24. Validation

25. Transaction

8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

10/12

July 2008

System Technical Flow Diagram

Server Platform Operating System: Windows 2003

Database:MS SQL Server 2005

Web Server: IIS 6.0

Software: .NET 3.0, ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX

End-user system configuration RAM: 512 MB and above

CPU: Minimum P2 systems and above, 233 MHz minimum

Operating System: Windows 98 or above / Linux

Internet connectivity of 56/128 kbps dedicated connectivity

or 100 Mbps LAN connectivity

Browsers Supported: IE 6.0 / 7.0, Mozilla 3.0

Platform for development .NET 3.0, ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX

Languages used for development C#, HTML, Java scripts, XML, JQuery, JSON

Protocols HTTP(S), SSL, SMTP

8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

11/12

July 2008

Technical Highlights

SOA complaint, built on Microsoft technologies Windows Communication Framework (WCF)

meant for delivering SOA based solutions. Platform Microsoft.NET 2.0 and 3.0

Supports multiple databases, shipped with the latest and rich Microsofts SQL Server 2005 Built using industry proven patterns like MVC and best practices in object oriented application

design (OOAD)

Conformance to industry driven eLearning standards such as SCORM, QTI, IMS, IEEE LOM and is

extensible.

Business rules, business logic is built using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 in C#, are reusable across

multiple modules

Microsofts best practices and recommendations for performance, security and message

contracts being adhered to

Multiple browser support for applications such as IE 6.0, IE 7.0, Mozilla Firefox 3.0

User Controls (.ascx), Custom Controls and Web parts are created that are reusable across

applications

Conformance to elearning standards defined by IMS Global Learning Consortium

ConclusionSARAS Unified Learning Platform provides benefits to customers by aligning and synchronizing with

customers business and enhances business agility. The platform enables creation of applications more

easily and quickly to meet changing business demands, and speed delivery of new services. The learning

platform provides flexibility in deployment models and support incremental deployment. Other benefits

associated are reduction in cost in application development, eliminate redundant systems, build on

existing infrastructure to protect IT investment and Inter-enterprise services reuse and process

interoperability.

8/6/2019 Microsoft Word - SARAS Technology

12/12

July 2008

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Copyright in whole and in part of this document SARAS Unified Learning Platform with

Service Oriented Architecture belongs to Excelsoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. This work may not be used,

sold, transferred, adapted, abridged, copied or reproduced in whole or in part in any manner or form or in

any media without prior written consent of Excelsoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd.