Generalized e-learning University context

Abstract

Academic institutions in Sri Lanka are seeking quality improvements for their activities, and therefore subjected to change their processes with the aid of Information Technology. This has led the universities to deploy e-Learning systems, and hence the competitive advantage over others. Different universities follow different academic administrative strategies. This has caused individualized adoption of e-Learning systems, and hence many incompatibilities exist nationally, as well as globally. However, the analysis on the learning content shows that many things exist in common. This implies that if the learning management can be separated from the content management, content management framework can be made generalized and distributed. At the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at university of Moratuwa, we ventured on a blended e-Learning project to implement a generalized e-Learning framework. The system has undergone periodic evaluations. The system's architecture has a separate LMS (Learning Management System) and a separate CMS (Content Management System). LMS provides the necessary platform to manage the personal profiles, resources and other means of administrative activities considering the university specific requirements. It carries out activities such as student registration, student enrolments to subjects, management of resources such as tutors, classrooms and laboratories, etc. CMS is responsible for managing the learning content and the knowledge sharing in a generalized manner. It provides the means of managing content such as lecture notes, video and audio resources, application tools, assignments, forums, discussions, progress monitoring, etc.