Systems and methods for providing extensible electronic learning systems

Abstract

An extensible electronic learning system having at least one learning management system having a learning management processor and a learning management memory operatively coupled thereto, said processor programmed for executing at least one learning management service and providing at least one extensible integration module. Each extensible integration module includes a predefined vendor services interface comprising at least one vendor services definition, and a vendor configuration upload component for receiving vendor configuration settings about at least one vendor. The at least one vendor having a vendor processor and a vendor memory operatively coupled thereto, said vendor processor programmed for executing a least one vendor services, the at least one of said vendor services implementing the at least one of said vendor service definition, and providing at least one vendor integration module, each vendor integration module comprising the predefined vendor services interface and the vendor configuration settings. The vendor configuration settings are received by the extensible integration module such that the learning management system may request the at least one of said vendor services based on the extensible integration module.

1 . An extensible electronic learning system comprising:
 a) at least one learning management system having a learning management processor and a learning management memory operatively coupled thereto, wherein at least one learning management service or at least one extensible integration module are programmatically providable by the learning management processor, each extensible integration module comprising:
 i) a predefined vendor services interface configured for requesting vendor services from at least one vendor system, the predefined vendor services interface comprising at least one vendor services definition, and 
 ii) a vendor configuration upload component configured for receiving vendor configuration settings about the at least one vendor system; and 
   b) the at least one vendor system having a vendor processor and a vendor memory operatively coupled thereto, said vendor processor programmed for providing a one or more vendor services, at least one of said one or more vendor services providing the at least one of said vendor service definition and at least one vendor integration module, each vendor integration module comprising the predefined vendor services interface and the vendor configuration settings;   c) wherein the extensible integration module is configurable based at least on one or, more settings of the learning management system and one of the vendor configuration settings and wherein the learning management system may request the at least one of said vendor services based on the extensible integration module.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the extensible integration module further comprises a predefined learning management services interface having at least one learning management services definition. 
     
     
         3 . (canceled) 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2  wherein the vendor integration module further comprises a corresponding at least one predefined learning management service interface. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the learning management processor is further programmed for actively requesting the at least one of said vendor via the extensible integration module. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 4  wherein the at least one extensible integration module is configured to receive one or more requests from the at least one vendor system. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1  wherein at least one of said learning management services is integrated with at least one of said vendor services based on the at least one vendor services definition. 
     
     
         8 . (canceled) 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 2  wherein at least one of said vendor services is deeply integrated with at least one of said learning management services based on the at least one learning management services definition. 
     
     
         10 . (canceled) 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 7  wherein the learning management processor is further programmed for not requesting vendor services from the at least one vendor system if the vendor configuration settings for the at least one vendor system are not received in the vendor configuration upload component. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the at least one vendor configuration settings comprises vendor information for requesting services from the vendor associated with the vendor configuration settings. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the vendor configuration settings comprises at least one of vendor location information, communication security information, and authentication information. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the at least one vendor system comprises a plurality of vendors. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 1  wherein software for programming the learning management processor is developed in view of the predefined vendor services interface. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 1  wherein software for programming the vendor processor is developed in view of the predefined learning management services interface. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 1  wherein software to program the processor in the learning management and the processor in the vendor are developed independently in view of at least one of the predefined vendor services interface and the predefined learning management services interface. 
     
     
         18 . A computer implemented extensible electronic learning method using a processor and a memory operatively coupled thereto comprising the steps of:
 a) providing at least one learning management system and at least one vendor system; and   b) providing at least one extensible integration module comprising a predefined vendor services interface configured for requesting vendor services from the at least one vendor sysytem, the predefined vendor services interface having at least one vendor services definition and a vendor configuration upload component for receiving vendor configuration settings from the at least one vendor system, wherein the extensible integration module is configurable based at least on one or more settings of the learning management system and one of the vendor configuration settings of the vendor system; and   c) requesting, by the learning management system, the at least one of said vendor services from the at least one vendor system based on the extensible integration module.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  further comprising the step of receiving the vendor configuration settings for requesting the at least one vendor service based on the extensible integration module. 
     
     
         20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . (canceled) 
     
     
         22 . A tangible computer readable medium including computer executable instructions which, when executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to:
 a) provide at least one learning management service; and   b) provide at least one extensible integration module comprising a predefined vendor services interface configured for requesting vendor services from the at least one vendor system, the predefined vendor services interface the predefined vendor services interface having at least one vendor services definition and a vendor configuration upload component for receiving vendor configuration settings from at least one vendor system.   
     
     
         23 . The computer readable medium of  claim 22 , wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to receive the vendor configuration settings for requesting the at least one vendor service based on the extensible integration module. 
     
     
         24 . The computer readable medium of  claim 22 , wherein the computer readable medium is non-transitory. 
     
     
         25 . (canceled) 
     
     
         26 . (canceled) 
     
     
         27 . (canceled)