E-studium: blended e-learning for university education support

In the changing framework of education and training, the e-studium project proposes a dynamic and versatile education system, effectively managing the learning process and using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to respond to the specific characteristics of a variety of different degree programmes and courses and, at the same time, to the individual needs of a wide audience of students disseminated throughout Italy. The organisation model adopted in e-studium is an integrated multiple instances e-learning system. At the kernel of e-studium is MetaLearn, a software integration component which connects the different information and authentication sources, such as the academic registrar (information about students) and faculties databases (data on lecturers and programmes) with the target multiple e-learning platforms. In the experiment the MetaLearn architecture has been implemented on top of a set of target Moodle Course Management System (CMS) instances, thus realising the blended e-learning approach. In this work the main architectural features of MetaLearn and the different phases of development and implementation of the e-studium project are presented. The results also include usage analysis and a discussion on the impact of the quality of teaching on students, and on the requirements posed on the academic members who participated in the project.