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API: The term formerly
used by O.K.I. to describe interface specifications. See OSID for
a definition of the new term.
Architecture: The
overall structure, components, and interrelationships of a program.
Architectural specification: A
formal document to describe in detail a program's Architecture.
Common Services: The
set of OSIDs commonly used by applications.
Educational infrastructure: Educational
infrastructure is the information technology, including the software
systems, content repositories, and digital services, that support
teaching and learning. The transformation of information technologies
into enterprise-wide systems has occurred to support the business
of higher education and subsequently to support the core activity
of academy, the creation and transmission of knowledge. Educational
infrastructure supports education in a manner comparable to those
systems that have provided fiscal, resource, and administrative
services.
Extensible: An architectural
property of a program that allows its capabilities to expand. OSIDs
are intentionally extensible.
Factory: A factory
is the mechanism that binds the implementation of an OSID to the
application using the OSID. An OSID consists of a set of entities
needed by the OSID. For the most part, these entities are Java
interfaces. Since Java interfaces cannot be instantiated by an
application, the OSID Factory is how the application asks the implementation
of an OSID to create OSID objects that it can use. Depending on
the OSID, the Factory's functionality in manipulating OSID objects
may be quite extensive.
Implementation: The
code that does the work of an OSID.
Interfaces: This
is the Java mechanism for specifying functionality. O.K.I. implementation
objects implement an OSID's interfaces. An application uses the
OSIDs to access implementation objects.
LMS: Learning Management
System is a broad term used for a wide range of systems that organize
and provide access to online learning services for students, teachers,
and administrators. These services usually include access control,
provision of learning content, communication tools, and organization
of user groups. (from Paulsen, M. F. 2002. Online Education Systems:
Discussion and Definition of Terms)
Methods: Method
is the term used in many object oriented programming languages
to describe what in functional programming languages would be called
a function or procedure. Java is one of those object oriented programming
language. Programming in Java is concerned with creating Objects.
Java Objects consist of variables and methods to manipulate the
variables. Although Java Objects can expose variables to an application,
most Java Objects require that the application call a method to
extract information from or otherwise manipulate the variables
of an Object.
Modular: Is an architectural
property of a program that indicates that the program is implemented
as modules or chunks of code that are internally cohesive and loosely
coupled to other modules. OSIDs facilitate modularity.
Open licensing: In
software licensing, the public display of specifications which
may be freely implemented by any developer in order to encourage
transmission of innovation.
OSID: We use the
term O.K.I. Service Interface Definition (OSID) to differentiate
O.K.I. from the broad class of application programming interfaces.
Our architecture exposes a carefully selected collection of services.
The definition of these services enforces a programming model that
maintains a sharply delineated boundary between O.K.I. compliant
applications and O.K.I. service implementations. We believe that
Service Interface Definition is a better description of our intent
that the more generic application programming interface.
Pedagogical: Indicates
that what is being described is related to the practice of teaching.
In the context of educational technology, it is the range of methods
for teaching in multimedia and/or distance learning environments.
Scalable: An architectural
property of a program which allows it to expand in size to accommodate
a broad range of users.
Service Interface Definition: See
OSID.
Sustainability: An
architectural property of a program which allows continued viability.
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