A Model and Infrastructure for Federated Learning Content Repositories

Abstract

In order to assist in the discovery and access of learning content from the diverse, extant collection of content repositories, we are developing a reference model that describes how to build an interoperable repository infrastructure through the creation of federations of repositories. Such federations provide a single point of discovery and access. They collect the metadata from the contributing repositories into a central registry. The CORDRA activities surrounding this work include development of a model of federated repositories, their behavior, services and interfaces, defined through a reference model. This reference model is a profile of a collection of open interoperability specifications detailing the characteristics and behavior of the federation. Individual communities of practice may then implement their own federation, with their own technology choices and policy and business rules, following the overall model, but tailoring it to their needs. The project also aims to build an operational infrastructure that will include a master federation of federations.