Reverse OAuth: A solution to achieve delegated authorizations in single sign-on e-learning systems

Current scientific and technological progress has led to the proliferation of e-learning systems known as Learning Management Systems. These systems consist of a central application for managing the sequencing of students' tasks, and also on several other educational applications that allow its users (teachers and learners) to communicate, carry out experiments, etc. However, despite the widespread use of these systems they show a usability problem when both kinds of applications require spare authentication processes. Indeed, users have to introduce several kinds of credentials, preventing them from focusing their efforts on their studies and increasing the so-called “password stress”. Several initiatives such as OAuth or Delegation Permits have dealt with the problem of delegated authorizations, but their requirements are different from those that arise from an e-learning environment. In this paper we introduce Reverse OAuth – a protocol to enable the granting of authorizations to access protected resources in educational environments.