Enabling Process-Based Collaboration in Moodle by Using Aspectual Services

Moodle is the most used of open-source learning management systems (LMSs). In relation with its support of collaborative learning, Moodle counts with a number of collaborative tools which allow participants to collaborate freely. The main drawback in current Moodle approach to collaboration is that free collaboration does not guarantee that learning is produced. To enhance the learning outcome, interactions among participants, as well as the information they interchange, have to be structured. These process-based collaboration structures are named learnflows, in analogy with the workflow domain. In this paper we propose a method to extend Moodle with learnflow capabilities, by using a generic-purpose workflow engine exposed as a Web service to execute the learnflows, and by doing the intervention at the Moodle side in an aspect oriented software development (AOSD) fashion.