Carrying on the e-Learning process with a Workflow Management Engine

In recent years e-learning systems have promised to change the way people learn. However open issues still remain, in particular actual e-learning environments do not consider learning activities as part of the process of learning. Thus, it is not possible to define structured courses and specify precise learning paths apt to guide learners through learning materials. In our approach, we define courses as workflows. By so doing we can exploit powerful procedural rules in order to define precise while flexible learning paths. In this paper we present Virtual Campus, a research project sponsored by Microsoft Research (UK) and developed at Politecnico di Milano, that exploits a workflow engine to enacts the fruition of structured courses. Our platform provides both an authoring and a fruition environment. The former allows teachers to define and customize learning paths, publishing them as workflows. The fruition environment enacts the workflows and guides learners through the related learning paths. We also describe an experience in using the platform during a Software Engineering course composed by heterogeneous activities (lectures, studying activities, cooperative sessions of work, and exams).