The case for a technical framework to support MLEs and e-Learning Benefits to teachers and learners Supporting pedagogic diversity Enabling pedagogy-driven implementations Benefits to institutions Providing better returns on technology investment Enabling faster deployment of technology Providing a modular and flexible technology base. Making collaboration between institutions easier Why do we need a technical framework What does the framework do? What is "Service Oriented Architecture"? How does the framework help? How does the framework provide value for money? How sustainable is this activity? Key Concepts Building on prior work Unified solutions, piecemeal implementation Open systems Building on successful technologies The Role of Standards Service-level Abstractions Managing Identity and Security The Layered Services Framework Application Services Common Services Service Specifications Implementation Integrating Legacy Applications Use of standard integration components Implementing with Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Implementing using JINI Implementing using Web Services Implementing using .net Descriptions of Application Services Sequencing Learning Flow Collaboration Activity Management Course management Group management Scheduling Resource management Resource Discovery Content Management Cataloguing Packaging Activity Authoring Resource List Archiving Rating/Annotation Terminology Assessment Grading Competency Learner Profile Management EPortfolio User Preferences Descriptions of Common Services Service Registry User Messaging Authentication Digitial Rights Management (DRM) Logging Identifier Resolver Filing Authorization Workflow Search Harvest Alert Metadata Registry Detailed description of Course and Group Management Services Overview Services Deployment and use Group Management Service definition Interfaces and data models Bindings Implementations Membership Management Service definition Interfaces and data models Bindings Implementations Member Management Service definition Interfaces and data models Bindings Implementations Resources