Structural Challenges in the Educational System Meet a Federated

IT-Infrastructure for Education: Insights into a Real Lab

Alexander Knoth

, Franziska Blum

, Erwin Soldo

and Ulrike Lucke

German Academic Exchange Service, Markgrafenstr. 37, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Institute of Computer Science, University of Potsdam, An der Bahn 2, 14476 Potsdam, Germany

Keywords: Education, Digitalization, Educational Service, Educational Infrastructure, Open Education, Federated

Services.

Abstract: This position paper describes the need and the proposed solution for a federated educational infrastructure

currently developed in a national flagship project in Germany. Existing technologies and standards, tools, and

services are brought together in a heterogeneous yet consistent infrastructure by a distributed middleware.

These technical developments are accompanied by consulting and organizational activities. The article

describes the expected outcomes of this pilot project that will be available as an interoperable prototype

throughout the year 2022. This also includes the international perspective of such a solution.

1 INTRODUCTION

We are facing a structural change in the education

system: Digitalization is changing IT infrastructures

and thus access to and participation in education just

as fundamentally as it is changing the structures of the

education system itself (Komljenovic, 2018;

Williamson 2018). This affects all sectors of the

education system, with the digital transformation

proceeding at different paces. In terms of

teaching/learning artefacts and other educational

information, digitalization rather contributes to

individualizing and personalizing content, which at

the same time has the potential to expose the tension

between digital and traditional educational offers and

to rethink the latter (Komljenovic, 2019; Reckwitz

2017).

Worldwide communication and networking

through the Internet and the steadily growing, digital

description and penetration of almost all areas of life

should enable borderless information, personalized

communication, and global mobility. At the same

time, the landscape of digital services, IT

infrastructures and data formats is paradoxically

becoming increasingly fragmented (Glass, 2001).

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4674-6003

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5921-2783

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4049-8088

International standards have thus far been unable to

establish themselves, as both software systems and

education providers insist on their processes and

structures; interoperable IT systems are still in short

supply in the global education system. This

circumstance indicates that singular or locally limited

approaches have little chance of success in digitally

paving the way for learners and preparing them for

the labor market.

Digital infrastructures enable both new

interactions between learners as well as

interconnections between existing IT-systems that are

reminiscent of railroads and highways (Peters, 2017),

but at entirely new speeds. These emerging,

networked infrastructures have a primarily private-

sector character, leading to a so-called

"extrastatecraft" (Easterling, 2014) that makes it

increasingly difficult to distinguish between the

private and the public sector (Hartmann & Kjaer,

2018). It is hence becoming more and more important

to strengthen public information and educational

offers while at the same time considering and – if

possible - integrating the potentials of private-sector

production and supply logic into digital educational

ecosystems.

Knoth, A., Blum, F., Soldo, E. and Lucke, U.

Structural Challenges in the Educational System Meet a Federated IT-Infrastructure for Education: Insights into a Real Lab.

DOI: 10.5220/0011085800003182

In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2022) - Volume 1, pages 369-375

ISBN: 978-989-758-562-3; ISSN: 2184-5026

369

The use of digital media in educational systems

and processes has been researched for decades – from

computer- or web-based training to networked and

mobile applications or learning games to virtual

reality or AI-supported methods for preparing new

fields of knowledge. However, the findings have not

yet found widespread adaptation in educational

practice. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need

for change has become even more apparent for all

sectors of society. Universities were rather quick to

switch from analogue to digital (remote) teaching (in

particular due to their expertise in digital education);

this shift was much more difficult for schools and

vocational training institutions.

The underlying reasons are manifold: By their

very nature, evidence-based policy changes in the

education system take a long time. It often takes years

until the effects of successful interventions and

experimentations have been politically recognized. In

addition, the federal education system makes it

difficult for the different tiers to agree on core issues;

these include, for instance, the definition of quality

standards, the use of digital media and e-learning

tools in education, as well as increasing digital

literacy among learners. On the user side, there is on

the one hand the necessity to act maturely and

sovereignly in a digitalized world; but on the other

hand, there is still a lack of knowledge when it comes

to basic operations of digital media and their usage in

digital education.

Nevertheless, a transformative process is needed

to change existing structures, processes, and systems.

At the same time, IT-developers and users must be

involved in an iterative approach alternating between

small-scale networking and disruptive innovation.

This urgent demand can be exemplified by previously

dysfunctional transition points.

 vertical transitions:

Users are often confronted with different

educational platforms and learning scenarios

when moving across sectors, e.g. between

school and higher education. Personal data and

collected materials must be repeatedly

composed along with one's educational

biography. This applies particularly

to(prospective) teachers, who are at the same

time teachers and learners in different contexts.

 horizontal transitions:

Media disruptions also create user barriers for

instance when students move from one

institution to another within the same education

sector, e.g., when they change universities or

spend some time abroad. This change directly

interferes with the compilation of personal

learning portfolios and also impedes formal

recognition processes of study achievements.

Every switch between the services used by individual

education providers still requires a new registration

and a manual transfer of materials and personal data.

The horizontally and vertically fragmented

responsibility structures that become visible here are

a factor that must also be addressed in the design of

digital education infrastructures. This requires a

suitable architectural approach that respects the

formal boundaries of subject areas and areas of

responsibility while making certain components

interoperable. A federated IT system in which the

need for a central, potentially superordinating

structure is reduced to a minimum through mutual

trust between different components could achieve this

goal by considering the principle that the IT structure

must follow the organizational structure. In this

paper, we want to elaborate on how to interlink

existing and new digital education platforms into a

nationwide (and European-connectable) federated

infrastructure. An ecosystem of mutually independent

education services will be created that will offer users

support on their path through the educational sectors.

2 STATUS QUO

The contextualization of the proposed transformation

process builds on preliminary work from both

education policy and research perspectives:

The European “Digital Student Service

Infrastructure” (EDSSI) is developing a system that

will enable higher education institutions to exchange

and authenticate student data seamlessly and

securely. This project is aiming at providing a single

point of access to services across Europe. The system

tries to interlink the EU Student eCard core service

platform and extends the Erasmus without Paper data

exchange network and the MyAcademicID and

European Student Card authentication solutions

based on a common IT architecture to establish a

harmonized authentication system.

On this basis, the exchange of teaching and

learning opportunities and digital student mobility

(e.g., to foster "internationalization at home") can be

supported throughout Europe. Following this

approach, the barriers between universities and their

local infrastructures can be removed.

European University Alliances represent an

important point of reference for the socio-technical

networking of education in Europe. From a technical

point of view, the development of inter-university

campuses, in particular, poses several challenges and

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370

requires interoperability, openness and scalability so

that isolated solutions do not emerge as detached

“islands”, but rather as interlinked networks that can

be expanded effortlessly with seamless transitions

becoming natural.

The Digital Education 2021-2027 Action Plan

pursues the goal of the already launched "European

Student Card Initiative" to facilitate the secure

electronic exchange and verification of student data

and academic records, thus becoming a substantial

added value for universities by simplifying the

management of their students' mobility.

From a German perspective and following the

student journey, the project "Digital Campus" should

be mentioned. The project aims at linking existing

digital services for information, recruitment as well

as linguistic, subject-related, and cultural preparation

of international prospective students (Pineda &

Knoth, 2020).

The "Platform for International Student Mobility"

develops the conceptual and technical framework for

a system that has the potential of simplifying the

recognition of academic achievements. This

information, which is not standardized and not always

machine-readable, is the fuel for many workflows,

such as the creation of individual learning paths based

on recognized teaching and learning opportunities.

The idea of portal solutions has been pursued

several times. The driving forces in Germany behind

these developments were mainly federal programs

supporting digitalization in education financially,

especially the "Quality Pact for Teaching" (Kiy et al.,

2017) and the previous programs "New Media in

Education". Since 2001, for example, the

CampusSource network is representing the interests

of the use of open-source systems at universities;

online platforms and portal solutions play an

important role here. Among other things, there is a

lively exchange of plug-ins for the Liferay software

to simplify local developments and operating

processes (Bußler et al., 2021), as well as to support

connectivity across institutions (Kiy et al., 2014). One

example of a university portal based on Liferay is

“Campus.UP” which has been developed at the

University of Potsdam (Lucke & Strickroth, 2020).

Initial prototypes could already demonstrate that such

a networked teaching and learning environment can

be created: innovation spaces can easily be created by

simply connecting what is already operational in

place.

3 A FEDERATED NATIONAL

INFRASTRUCTURE FOR

EDUCATION

The main objective of the proposed infrastructure is

the prototypical implementation of a technical

backbone for a so-called “Digital Education Space”.

That space forms the basis for the integration of

existing portal solutions as well as teaching and

learning service providers into a federated education

infrastructure. The following measures are being

implemented for this purpose: (1) The technical

context is made up of technical developments.

(2) The usage context is addressed by consulting

measures. (3) The transfer context is expressed by

organizational measures. To successfully carry out

the project, expertise is involved not only from the

field of technical development, but also from the

areas of system administration, media didactics,

media design, public relations, and project

management.

3.1 Technical Measures

The focus of the project lies in technical development.

These include in particular:

 Implementation of a prototype for federated

education infrastructure, incl. comprehensive

functionalities for all educational sectors

 Provision of interfaces for the connection of

further components and services

 Consideration of the “Digital Campus” as the

international client of the portal prototype

Two areas are of particular importance for the

technical developments: the portal and the network

layer distributed middleware. The resulting

architecture is depicted in Figure 1. Details are given

below.

As a communication and collaboration

environment, the portal (upper layer) represents the

access point to the national digital education platform

that is visible to all users. The tools for interaction

between users and the system (shared

teaching/learning and workspaces, e-learning tools

for documentation, collaboration, and reflection) are

interlinked here. The open-source framework Liferay

is used as the technical foundation for the networked

approach. The portal is considered the visible

counterpart of the middleware, which serves as a

reference implementation for other educational

software to be connected to the middleware in future

scenarios of a Federated Educational Infrastructure.

Structural Challenges in the Educational System Meet a Federated IT-Infrastructure for Education: Insights into a Real Lab

371

Figure 1: The heart of the architecture of the German National Infrastructure for Education is a distributed middleware.

Among others, the following components are part

of the portal:

 Information access by searching the connected

repositories or browsing curated catalogues.

 Personal profile containing preferences,

achievements, and certificates of the user.

 Collaboration tools complementing the possibi-

lities offered by connected service providers.

 Chatbot providing targeted and tailored

information for certain pathways along the

student journey.

The underlying distributed middleware (networking

layer) serves as an intermediary layer between the

portal and the other service providers connected in the

Digital Education Space. The connection is made via

clearly defined interfaces without deeper intervention

in the systems of the education providers themselves,

thereby minimizing efforts and obstacles. Among

others, the following components are part of the

distributed middleware:

 Identity and access management providing

information on the identity of the users, their

roles, and their authorization for access to the

connected services as well as single sign-on.

 Workflows facilitating the planning and

implementation of the individual user journey.

 Personal data wallet to manage acquired

achievements and certificates, and to exchange

them between the connected service providers

and the portal upon user request.

 A mailbox for handling special (protective and

safety-relevant) messages (acknowledge

receipt, the timestamp when sending and

receiving, and others).

 Metadata management for educational content

in connection to various curated catalogs (e.g.,

OERsi).

 Data cockpit to enable the user to decide which

service provider receives which data and when.

 Data trustee to manage anonymized data

(beyond personal data in the users’ wallets) for

monitoring and optimization purposes.

 Digital certificate infrastructure to generate,

exchange, verify and, if necessary, withdraw

certificates.

For the components to function, the data storage layer

also needs to specify data standards for harmonized

storage and machine-readable data exchange without

media discontinuity (e.g., of formal or informal

certificates). For this purpose, European and national

standards are used.

An overview of possible tools available in the

current state of the prototype is presented in Figure 2.

The navigation menu is shown on the left. On the

right is the inclusion of a curated catalogue for

learning/ teaching materials. Below is a collaborative

text editor. In the center are three functionalities: a

news board, a task managing application, and the

single-sign-on to continue with a connected service.

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Figure 2: The prototype of the Educational Infrastructure combines tools from different providers in flexible workspaces.

On the right, the management of different

collaborative text editors and an incorporated video

conferencing tool, as well as a chat.

Further platforms of education providers are to be

connected via the middleware, as shown on the right-

hand side, including existing services as well as new

educational developments or platform components by

“sister projects” funded by the same governmental

program. Within the framework of the Online Access

Act (OZG) and the Single Digital Gateway

Regulation (SDG), additional building blocks are to

be considered in the ongoing work process. These

include the integration of additional components such

as a federal public key infrastructure.

3.2 Consulting Measures

The second area of core activities is consulting. This

includes a bidirectional exchange with users of the

Digital Education Space and various target groups:

 Learners who want to take advantage of digital

educational opportunities.

 Teachers who want to design and supervise

digital educational offers.

 Education providers who would like to join the

Digital Education Space.

 Service providers who implement this

connection on a technical level.

The goal of the exchange is to support these

stakeholder groups in connecting to and using the

distributed education infrastructure and, in turn, to

systematically capture their needs in the context of a

Digital Education Space. Both precise requirements

for the design of individual use cases and general

recommendations (guidance) for the development

process can be derived from this exchange. Therefore,

the specific use cases can be generalized into broader

scenarios or associated templates that promote the

further design process and thus sustainable

development.

Finally, the Digital Education Space addresses

two complementary content areas:

 Teaching and learning scenarios of different

disciplines.

 Teach-the-Teacher training on digital literacy.

This comprises the provision of learning units via

educational certificates that can be acquired or reused

by other teachers. And in particular, the promotion of

exchange between teachers, since this type of peer-to-

peer exchange (within individual institutions and

beyond) has proven to be a key success factor for

digital educational offers.

Quality assurance measures are closely linked to

these issues, including the establishment of quality

criteria for the linked educational offers (which are

also applied in the curation of content for the portal)

and the systematization of the consulting services,

e.g., through guidelines and checklists, to ensure the

quality of the consulting processes.

Structural Challenges in the Educational System Meet a Federated IT-Infrastructure for Education: Insights into a Real Lab

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3.3 Organizational Measures

The third area of core activities consists of

organizational measures. They address the

environment of the outlined project, both during the

project term and with regard to a later transfer of the

project results. Four individual measures are planned

for this purpose:

 Support for further development and

application projects:

The Digital Education Space perceives itself as

the core of a digital education infrastructure

that can and should accommodate further

providers and offers. We expect great interest

from the relevant stakeholders and hope for

supportive funding from the federal and state

governments. The connection to the

infrastructure described above will require

negotiation processes to select suitable

components and partners within the framework

of the federated overall system. Regular

meetings are used to coordinate interfaces and

technologies, to transfer know-how where

necessary, and thus promote the merging of

systems that have so far operated in isolation.

 Contact with further, relevant projects:

A systematic coordination process is conducted

with the existing initiatives for the emergence

of individual aspects of a federated

infrastructure to identify common objectives

and thereby avoid both, contradictory and

duplicate developments. The goal of this dialog

is to maintain heterogeneity while preserving

interoperability.

 Dissemination:

Beyond these two coordination processes with

direct cooperation partners, further measures

are carried out to involve relevant stakeholders

(e.g. from the field of education policy, the

open education community). The precise

proceedings and the planned communication of

the project results are to be determined in close

consultation with the Federal Ministry of

Education and Research. In addition, targeted

community building is also important in the

education and science landscape to promote the

transfer and thus sustainability of the project.

 Quality assurance and transfer:

All measures carried out – especially in

technical development, but also in consulting

and organization – are documented

systematically and thoroughly. Established IT

service management process models are used

for this purpose. The goal is to achieve a high

level of maturity, which supports the

transferability of the general approach, the

developed measures, and the development

results. This is where quality management

comes in, linking internal evaluation

mechanisms with external evaluations,

enabling the preparation of a tender for a later

productive system (with then broad

implementation).

Agile project management forms the structuring

backbone behind the detailed conception,

implementation, and success monitoring of the three

outlined bundles of measures across the project.

4 INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH

From the perspective of the prototypical development

of the National Digital Education Platform as a

federated IT infrastructure and the building block of

a Digital Education Space, the DAAD initiative

Digital Campus represents the “sister project”

focusing on internationalization. The Digital Campus

and its interlinked services, such as the DAAD

information and advice service My GUIDE and other

qualification services for prospective international

students, provide know-how on processes of

international mobility and exchange procedures on

the one hand. On the other hand, testing a

teaching/learning service tailored to the target group

'international students' is also of high importance.

Tools, accessible via the portal, for digitally enhanced

collaboration, documentation, and reflection are

additional functionalities required by the target

groups. A cooperation agreement is concluded with

the Digital Campus and a jointly coordinated division

of labor is developed within the framework of agile

product management.

European (and worldwide) connectivity

represents one of the most important goals of

transversal infrastructure projects. When it comes to

learner data exchange, the EU’s approaches for

“European Digital Credentials for Learning” and the

“Europass” data model (EDCI) need to be considered.

Despite the standard agnostic approach of the

described prototype, synergies should be identified,

and the implementation of an educational standard

should be supported. The European University

Alliances also play a crucial role in this context.

These higher education networks represent both, an

experimental space for various forms of (political,

social, and infrastructural) collaboration and a unique

source of knowledge. The described prototype could

be tested and validated by applying to exemplary

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alliances. The gained experiences can help to improve

technological concepts and to prove whether learner-

driven, collaborative, and cross-campus teaching

scenarios can be realized or not. Finally, direct user

feedback will provide evidence on how such an

infrastructure impacts education. The first steps have

been made in this direction, a few more should follow

during the funding period of the presented research

and development project.

5 CONCLUSIONS

At the end of the project duration, the following

results will be produced by the national flagship

project described in this article:

 Prototype of a federated IT service

infrastructure for education.

 Proof of concept for integration mechanisms

for service offers (single sign-on, metadata

management, user-centric data management,

and communication).

 Platform for the interactive, cooperative design

of subject-specific use cases (teaching and

learning scenarios).

 Contribution to further tender documents for

the design of a national education space.

The development and usage conditions are explored

to such an extent that the achieved project results will

be available in the form of technical developments

(e.g. interfaces, components, etc.) and documented

project knowledge to be either perpetuated or

transferred to other development projects.

Thus, the initiative for a Federated Educational

Infrastructure in general and the described project for

developing the prototype of a Digital Education

Space will bring education significantly forward

across all sectors by elevating the use of digital

technology to a new level of interoperability. Mainly

access to and participation in education is increased

through seamless digitalization processes which

allow for new dimensions of individual and

institutional cooperation and pave the way for

individual student journeys. For educational services

providers, the coverage of learning opportunities is

increased while their provision is facilitated by clear

interfaces at the same time.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The work described in this article is funded by the

German Federal Ministry of Education under contract

16NB001. We are deeply grateful to our project

partners, the experts in the funding ministry, and the

project management agency for the fruitful

discussions promoting this valuable work.

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