A Proposal for a Component-Based LMS in Accordance with PoEML

Nowadays many LMSs are available providing a broad range of functionalities and services to support teaching and learning. These systems are appropriate for most common pedagogical approaches, but they are not suitable enough for collaborative and practice-based scenarios. EMLs were proposed several years ago in order to provide a general solution to this problem. Particularly, the well-known IMS learning design specification is intended to support the description or educational units in accordance with different pedagogies. Nevertheless, this language uniquely solves one part of the problem, as a corresponding LMS that process such descriptions is required. At this point the main concern is the large size of such a system, provoking high-development and maintenance costs. To solve this problem this paper introduces a modular-based LMS engine, based in a very structured EML, that facilitates the development of whole LMSs in an incremental and customized way.