Asynchronous eLearning overcomes geographical and temporal constraints transforming learning into a process that can occur at the independently determined convenience of instructor and student. Demand has been developing both by corporations seeking to extend the skills of their employees and by individuals pursuing life long training for the achievement of their career goals. While a wealth of educational material is available throughout Europe, a large number of institutions do not currently offer organized distance education programs. Furthermore, it is desirable to promote existing distance education initiatives through information dissemination. The eCMS project aims to support asynchronous eLearning through an open, federated content management system that facilitates the publication, dissemination, and access to possibly distributed educational content through a single point on the web. eCMS provides content discovery and retrieval services for learners, publication and editing services for content providers, development of structured courses and management services for course managers (course organizers), and repository management and statistics analysis services for administrators. In addition, a basic on-line collaboration environment is available to facilitate the learning process through learner-learner and learner- instructor communication. The core of the system is an open middleware architecture for the publication, discovery, retrieval, and integration of educational content. The system supports the publication of standalone educational modules and structured courses as well as the integration of organized external repositories.  Learners  Content Providers  Course Managers  Administrators The system is implemented as a 3-tier web-based JAVA database application. Minerva Action Project CP GR-MINERVA-M October 2001 – October 2003 eCMS Architecture Services for Implementation Web-based User Interface Content Hosting External Collection Statistics DB Standalone Content Metadata DB search retrieval statistics Retrieval Service Publication Service Collabo- ration publication Discovery Service External Collection Content Mgmt Node Contact Information Web Site: Efthimios Providas Hariklia Tsalapata Content Management Middleware for the Support of eLearning across Europe - eCMS University of Thessaly Sor Trondelag University College Education & Culture Metadata Content Apps Server Public Services Provider Services Course Services Admin Services Middle TierBack End Front End Public Providers Course Managers Admins Statistics

Asynchronous eLearning overcomes geographical and temporal constraints transforming learning into a process that can occur at the independently determined convenience of instructor and student. Demand has been developing both by corporations seeking to extend the skills of their employees and by individuals pursuing life long training for the achievement of their career goals. While a wealth of educational material is available throughout Europe, a large number of institutions do not currently offer organized distance education programs. Furthermore, it is desirable to promote existing distance education initiatives through information dissemination. The eCMS project aims to support asynchronous eLearning through an open, federated content management system that will facilitate the publication, dissemination, and access to possibly distributed educational content through a single point on the web. eCMS provides content discovery and retrieval services for learners, publication and editing services for content providers, development of structured courses and management services for course managers (course organizers), and repository management and statistics analysis services for administrators. In addition, a basic on-line collaboration environment is available to facilitate the learning process through learner-learner and learner- instructor communication. The core of the system is an open middleware architecture for the publication, discovery, retrieval, and integration of educational content. The system supports the publication of standalone educational modules and structured courses as well as the integration of organized external repositories.  Learners  Content Providers  Course Managers  Administrators The system is implemented as a 3-tier web-based JAVA database application.

Asynchronous eLearning overcomes geographical and temporal constraints transforming learning into a process that can occur at the independently determined convenience of instructor and student. Demand has been developing both by corporations seeking to extend the skills of their employees and by individuals pursuing life long training for the achievement of their career goals. While a wealth of educational material is available throughout Europe, a large number of institutions do not currently offer organized distance education programs. Furthermore, it is desirable to promote existing distance education initiatives through information dissemination. The eCMS project aims to support asynchronous eLearning through an open, federated content management system that will facilitate the publication, dissemination, and access to possibly distributed educational content through a single point on the web. eCMS provides content discovery and retrieval services for learners, publication and editing services for content providers, development of structured courses and management services for course managers (course organizers), and repository management and statistics analysis services for administrators. In addition, a basic on-line collaboration environment is available to facilitate the learning process through learner-learner and learner- instructor communication. The core of the system is an open middleware architecture for the publication, discovery, retrieval, and integration of educational content. The system supports the publication of standalone educational modules and structured courses as well as the integration of organized external repositories.  Learners  Content Providers  Course Managers  Administrators The system is implemented as a 3-tier web-based JAVA database application.

Asynchronous eLearning overcomes geographical and temporal constraints transforming learning into a process that can occur at the independently determined convenience of instructor and student. Demand has been developing both by corporations seeking to extend the skills of their employees and by individuals pursuing life long training for the achievement of their career goals. While a wealth of educational material is available throughout Europe, a large number of institutions do not currently offer organized distance education programs. Furthermore, it is desirable to promote existing distance education initiatives through information dissemination. The eCMS project aims to support asynchronous eLearning through an open, federated content management system that will facilitate the publication, dissemination, and access to possibly distributed educational content through a single point on the web. eCMS provides content discovery and retrieval services for learners, publication and editing services for content providers, development of structured courses and management services for course managers (course organizers), and repository management and statistics analysis services for administrators. In addition, a basic on-line collaboration environment is available to facilitate the learning process through learner-learner and learner- instructor communication. The core of the system is an open middleware architecture for the publication, discovery, retrieval, and integration of educational content. The system supports the publication of standalone educational modules and structured courses as well as the integration of organized external repositories.  Learners  Content Providers  Course Managers  Administrators The system is implemented as a 3-tier web-based JAVA database application.

Asynchronous eLearning overcomes geographical and temporal constraints transforming learning into a process that can occur at the independently determined convenience of instructor and student. Demand has been developing both by corporations seeking to extend the skills of their employees and by individuals pursuing life long training for the achievement of their career goals. While a wealth of educational material is available throughout Europe, a large number of institutions do not currently offer organized distance education programs. Furthermore, it is desirable to promote existing distance education initiatives through information dissemination. The eCMS project aims to support asynchronous eLearning through an open, federated content management system that will facilitate the publication, dissemination, and access to possibly distributed educational content through a single point on the web. eCMS provides content discovery and retrieval services for learners, publication and editing services for content providers, development of structured courses and management services for course managers (course organizers), and repository management and statistics analysis services for administrators. In addition, a basic on-line collaboration environment is available to facilitate the learning process through learner-learner and learner- instructor communication. The core of the system is an open middleware architecture for the publication, discovery, retrieval, and integration of educational content. The system supports the publication of standalone educational modules and structured courses as well as the integration of organized external repositories.  Learners  Content Providers  Course Managers  Administrators The system is implemented as a 3-tier web-based JAVA database application.