Patent Publication Number: US-2007122790-A1

Title: Monitoring progress of external course

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
      This disclosure relates to management and, more particularly, to monitoring progress of an external course.  
     BACKGROUND  
      Today, an enterprise&#39;s survival in local or global markets at least partially depends on the knowledge and competencies of its employees, which may easily be considered a competitive factor for the enterprises (or other organizations). Shorter product life cycles and the speed with which the enterprise can react to changing market requirements are often important factors in competition and ones that underline the importance of being able to convey information on products and services to employees as swiftly as possible. Moreover, enterprise globalization and the resulting international competitive pressure are making rapid global knowledge transfer even more significant. Thus, enterprises are often faced with the challenge of lifelong learning to train a (perhaps globally) distributed workforce, update partners and suppliers about new products and developments, educate apprentices or new hires, or set up new markets. In other words, efficient and targeted learning is a challenge that learners, employees, and employers are equally faced with. But traditional classroom training typically ties up time and resources, takes employees away from their day-to-day tasks, and drives up expenses. Many companies may not have the resources to develop and administer training and/or educational services to employees and, thus, rely on third-party providers to provide the necessary training and/or education. Accordingly, these companies must identify such providers, identify courses that are relevant to their employees, and monitor the employee during the course period, which can be time consuming and costly. Further, monitoring the employee during the course typically requires contacting the third-party providers and updating records, which consumes additional administrative cost and time.  
     SUMMARY  
      In general, the disclosure describes monitoring progress of an external course. In one embodiment, a method comprising invoking a remote learning management system to provide an external course. The method also includes enabling the remote learning management system to send tracking information to a local learning management system. Next, the method receives, from the remote learning management system, the tracking information. A local copy of a learner&#39;s progress is updated in the local learning management system based, at least in part, on the tracking information.  
      In another embodiment, a method comprises receiving a request to provide a learning course from a remote learning management system. The method further includes monitoring a learner&#39;s progress of the learning course and enabling the remote learning management system to request tracking information from the local learning management system, with the tracking information associated with the learner&#39;s progress of the learning course. The tracking information is transmitted to the remote learning management system upon receiving the request.  
      The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.  
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating an example learning environment according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;  
       FIG. 2  illustrates an example architecture of a learning management system implemented within the learning environment of  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 3  illustrates an example content aggregation model in the learning management system;  
       FIG. 4  is an example of one possible ontology of knowledge types used in the learning management system;  
      FIGS.  5 A-D illustrate data structures for managing course information within learning environment of  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 6  illustrates an example schematic for monitoring the progress of a learner enrolled in an external course; and  
       FIG. 7  illustrates example methods for monitoring the progress of a learner enrolled in an external course.  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       FIG. 1  illustrates an example environment for a learning management system  140  that may deliver a blended learning solution of learning methods used in traditional classroom training, web-based training, and virtual classrooms. At a high level, such applications  140  provide convenient information on the learner  104 &#39;s virtual workplace and at least partially control the learning process itself. The system proposes learning units based on the learner  104 &#39;s personal data, tracks progress through courses and coordinates the personalized learning experience. In addition, learning management system  140  encompasses the administrative side of the learning platform, where a training administrator  105  structures and updates the offering and distributes it among the target groups. Moreover, the course offering is usually not restricted to internally hosted content. The learning management system  140  often offers robust reporting capabilities, including ad hoc reporting and business intelligence. These capabilities may provide in-depth analysis of the entire business or organization, thereby enabling better decision making. In the case that an external learning management system  145  is relied to provide training and/or educational services, learning management system  140  may provide a logical identifier (e.g., network address) such that information updated at external learning management system  145  may automatically be updated at local learning management system  140 . As a result, environment  100  reduces, minimizes, or eliminates data inconsistencies between learning management system  140  and external learning management system  145  and administrative cost and time. Learning management system  140  typically helps improve the quality of training and cut costs by reducing the travel and administrative costs associated with classroom training while delivering a consistent learning offering. Training administrators  105  may customize teaching scenarios by using web services to integrate external content, functions, and services into the learning platform from a remote or third party content provider  108  or an external (or remote) learning management system  145 , typically (but not always) provided by a third party.  
      The training administrator  105  can administer internal and external participants (or learners  104 ) and enroll them for courses to be delivered via any number of techniques. Training management supports the respective organization, entity, or learner  104  in the day-to-day activities associated with course bookings. Booking activities can be performed by the training administrator in training management on an individual or group participant basis. For example, training administrator  105  can often request, execute, or otherwise manage the following activities in a dynamic participation menu presented in learning management system  140 : i) prebook: if participants are interested in taking certain classroom courses or virtual classroom sessions, but there are no suitable dates scheduled, learners  104  can be prebooked for the course types. Prebooking data can be used to support a demand planning process; ii) book: individual or group learners  104  (for example, companies, departments, roles, or other organizational units) can be enrolled for courses that can be delivered using many technologies; iii) rebook: learners  104  can book a course on an earlier or later date than originally booked; iv) replace: learners  104  can be swapped; and v) cancel: course bookings can be canceled, for example, if the learners  104  cannot attend.  
      Environment  100  is typically a distributed client/server system that spans one or more networks such as external network  112  or internal network  114 . In such embodiments, data may be communicated or stored in an encrypted format such as, for example, using the RSA, WEP, or DES encryption algorithms. But environment  100  may be in a dedicated enterprise environment—across a local area network or subnet—or any other suitable environment without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Indeed, while generally described or referenced in terms of an enterprise, the components and techniques may be implemented in any suitable environment, organization, entity, and such. Turning to the illustrated embodiment, environment  100  includes or is communicably coupled with server  102   a , one or more learners  104  or other users on clients, and network  112 . In this embodiment, environment  100  is also communicably coupled with external content provider  108  and external learning management system  102   b  via external network  112 .  
      Internal server  102  comprises an electronic computing devices operable to receive, transmit, process and store data associated with environment  100 . Generally,  FIG. 1  provides merely one example of computers that may be used with the disclosure. Each computer is generally intended to encompass any suitable processing device. For example, although  FIG. 1  illustrates internal server  102  that may be used with the disclosure, environment  100  can be implemented using computers other than servers, as well as a server pool. Indeed, server  102  may be any computer or processing device such as, for example, a blade server, general-purpose personal computer (PC), Macintosh, workstation, Unix-based computer, or any other suitable device. In other words, the present disclosure contemplates computers other than general purpose computers as well as computers without conventional operating systems. Server  102  may be adapted to execute any operating system including Linux, UNIX, Windows Server, or any other suitable operating system. According to one embodiment, servers  102  may also include or be communicably coupled with a web server and/or a mail server. Server  102  may also be communicably coupled with a remote repository over a portion of network  112 . While not illustrated, the repositories may be any intra-enterprise, inter-enterprise, regional, nationwide, or other electronic storage facility, data processing center, or archive that allows for one or a plurality of clients (as well as server  102 ) to dynamically store data elements, which may include any business, enterprise, application or other transaction data. For example, the repository may be a central database communicably coupled with one or more servers  102  and clients via a virtual private network (VPN), SSH (Secure Shell) tunnel, or other secure network connection. This repository may be physically or logically located at any appropriate location including in one of the example enterprises or off-shore, so long as it remains operable to store information associated with environment  100  and communicate such data to at least a subset of plurality of the clients (perhaps via server  102 ).  
      As a possible supplement to or as a portion of this repository, servers  102  normally include some form of local memory  137 . Memory  137  may include any memory or database module and may take the form of volatile or non-volatile memory including, without limitation, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), removable media, or any other suitable local or remote memory component. For example, memory  137  may store or reference a large volume of information relevant to the planning, management, and follow-up of courses or other content. This example data includes information on i) course details, such as catalog information, dates, prices, capacity, time schedules, assignment of course content, and completion times; ii) personnel resources, such as trainers who are qualified to hold courses; iii) room details, such as addresses, capacity, and equipment; and iv) participant data for internal and external participants. Memory  137  may also include any other appropriate data such as VPN applications or services, firewall policies, a security or access log, print or other reporting files, HTML files or templates, data classes or object interfaces, child software applications or sub-systems, and others. In the illustrated embodiment, memory  137  includes local course catalog  142   a  and user profiles  144 .  
      Course catalog  142  includes one or more entries or data structures operable to identify courses that a user may enroll in and associated aspects of the courses. Aspects may include attributes (e.g., location dependent, schedule dependent), specific checkings (e.g., personal shift schedule, capacity), available actions (e.g., billing, cancellation conditions), and/or other suitable aspects of a course. The courses may be provided directly by local application  140 , external management system  145 , content provider  108 , or other suitable sources. Generally, the course catalog  142  includes one or more of the following for each available course: title, course ID (internal or external), access, course type, capacity, schedule, location, billing procedures, cancellation procedures, delivery method, enrolled users, and/or other aspects. In the event that a course is provided by external management system  145 , course catalog  142  includes an information operable to identify external management system  145  and how to transmit associated information and/or request. In some embodiments, course catalog  142  includes information indicating specific checks that may be performed for a course. For instances, course catalog  142  may indicate inquiries that may be made as to a course such as whether the course has been rescheduled, its current capacity, if it has a valid license, or others. As to delivery method, course catalog  142  may indicate that the delivery method is one or more of the following: a classroom, a virtual classroom, a web-based training, an online test, a curriculum, a static web-based training, an external web-based training, an external classroom, an external virtual classroom, an external online test, or others. Course catalog  142  may store information as one or more tables in a relational database described in terms of SQL statements or scripts. In another embodiment, the memory may store information as various data structures in text files, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents, Virtual Storage Access Method (VSAM) files, flat files, Btrieve files, comma-separated-value (CSV) files, internal variables, or one or more libraries. But any stored information may comprise one table or file or a plurality of tables or files stored on one computer or across a plurality of computers in any appropriate format. Indeed, some or all of the learning or content data may be local or remote without departing from the scope of this disclosure and store any type of appropriate data.  
      User profiles  144  includes one or more entries or data structures operable to identify courses associated with an individual as well as statuses of each course. For example, user profile  144  may indicate that a user is enrolled both internal and external courses as well as their current results or progress in the courses. A status of a course may indicate a step, an activity, progress, a result, or other information associated with the user&#39;s participation in the course. In any case, user profile  144  may include information associated with a user such as name, address, past courses, past results, current courses, current progress, billing information, or other suitable information associated with the user. Each user profile  144  may be associated with a different individual or a plurality of individuals or a plurality of user profiles  144  may be associated with a single individual. User profile  144  may be any suitable format such as, for example, a text file, binary file, an XML document, a flat file, a comma-separated-value (CSV) file, a name-value pair file, a Structured Query Language (SQL) table, one or more libraries, or others. User profile  144  may be dynamically created or populated by server  102 , a third-party vendor, any suitable user of server  102 , loaded from a default file, or received via network  112  or  114 . The term “dynamically” as used herein, generally means that the appropriate processing is determined at run-time based upon the appropriate information. In addition, user profiles  114   a  may be created, deployed, and maintained independently of user profiles  114   b.    
      Server  102  also includes one or more processors. Each processor executes instructions and manipulates data to perform the operations of server  102  such as, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a blade, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Although this disclosure typically discusses computers in terms of a single processor, multiple processors may be used according to particular needs and reference to one processor is meant to include multiple processors where applicable. In the illustrated embodiment, the processor executes enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution  135 , thereby providing organizations with the strategic insight, ability to differentiate, increased productivity, and flexibility they need to succeed. With software such as ERP solution  135 , the implementing entity may automate end-to-end processes and extend those processes beyond the particular organization to the entire system by incorporating customers, partners, suppliers, or other entities. For example, ERP solution  135  may include or implement easy-to-use self-services and role-based access to information and services for certain users, thereby possibly boosting productivity and efficiency. In another example, ERP solution  135  may include or implement analytics that enable the particular entity or user to evaluate performance and analyze operations, workforce, and financials on an entity and individual level for strategic and operational insight. ERP solution  135  may further include or implement i) financials to control corporate finance functions while providing support for compliance to rigorous regulatory mandates; ii) operations to support end-to-end logistics for complete business cycles and capabilities that improve product quality, costs, and time to market; and/or iii) corporate services to optimize both centralized and decentralized services for managing real estate, project portfolios, business travel, environment, health and safety, and quality. In the illustrated embodiment, ERP solution  135  also includes or implements some form of human capital management (in this case, learning) to maximize the profitability or other measurable potential of the users, with support for talent management, workforce deployment, and workforce process management. In certain cases, ERP solution  135  may be a composite application that includes, execute, or otherwise implement some or all of the foregoing aspects, which include learning management system  140  as illustrated.  
      As briefly described above, learning management system  140  is any software operable to provide a comprehensive enterprise learning platform capable of managing and integrating business and learning processes and supporting all methods of learning, not restricted to e-learning or classroom training. As described in more detail in  FIG. 2 , learning management system  140  is often fully integrated with ERP solution  135  and includes an intuitive learning portal and a powerful training and learning management system, as well as content authoring, structuring, and management capabilities. Learning management system  140  offers back-office functionality for competency management and comprehensive assessment for performance management, and offers strong analytical capabilities, including support for ad hoc reporting. The solution uses a comprehensive learning approach to deliver knowledge to all stakeholders, and tailors learning paths to an individual&#39;s educational needs and personal learning style. Interactive learning units can be created with a training simulation tool that is also available.  
      Further, learning management system  140  may be operable to integrate courses from an external course catalog  142   b  into internal course catalog  142   a  and provide services associated with the external courses. For example, learning management system  140  may transmit a request for specific course types to external management system  145 . In other words, learning management system  140  may transmit a request inquiring as to whether a specific course type has been created and incorporated in external course catalog  142   b . In the event that learning management system  140  receives a message confirming such a course, learning management system  140  generates the course and may include the external course ID and incorporates the external course into local course catalog  142   a . In addition, learning management system  140  may perform additional operations with external course catalog  142   b  such as updating (e.g., rescheduling), deleting, or others. In some embodiments, these operations are performed by transmitting a request to external management system  145  to perform the operation on external course catalog  142   b . In this case, internal course catalog  142   a  may not updated to reflect the operations until a confirmation message is received from external management system  145 . As a result, environment  100  may reduce, minimize, or eliminate inconsistencies between internal course catalog  142   a  and external course catalog  142   b . In the course of inquiring as to whether a course type has been created in external management system  145 , learning management system  140  may also determine an associated delivery method of the external course (e.g., web-based training, classroom, virtual classroom, static classroom, static web based training, test, curricula). In this case, learning management system  140  may also determine aspects of the delivery method such as attributes, specific checkings, available operations, or others. The delivery method and the associated aspects of the external course may be integrated into the internal course catalog  142   a . Aside from integrating external courses into internal course catalog  142   a , learning management system  140  may also provide operations to specific users with regarding to external courses. For example, learning management system  140  may provide enrollment services, billing services, cancellation services, progress evaluations, or others. In some embodiments, learning management system  140  inserts a flag in a user profile  144  associated with the user so learning management system  140  transmits a request to external management system  145  for information regarding the user&#39;s progress in the external course. This process may be in response to any suitable events such as the learner accessing an external course, expiration of an interval, a request by a user, or others. In the case that tracking information is received, learning management system  140  updates the associated user profile  144  with the tracking information or information based, at least in part, on the tracking information. The tracking information associated with the external course may be requested when the learner launches an external course, quits an external course, completes an external course, or other activity associated with the learner. Learning management system  140  may also provide a batch report which may schedule an overnight run to request tracking information associated with the learner. Simply, user profile  144  may be updated with tracking information associated with external courses.  
      Regardless of the particular implementation, “software” may include software, firmware, wired or programmed hardware, or any combination thereof as appropriate. Indeed, ERP solution  135  may be written or described in any appropriate computer language including C, C++, Java, J#, Visual Basic, assembler, Perl, any suitable version of 4GL, as well as others. For example, returning to the above described composite application, the composite application portions may be implemented as Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs) or the design-time components may have the ability to generate run-time implementations into different platforms, such as J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition), ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) objects, or Microsoft&#39;s .NET. It will be understood that while ERP solution  135  is illustrated in  FIG. 1  as including one sub-module learning management system  140 , ERP solution  135  may include numerous other sub-modules or may instead be a single multi-tasked module that implements the various features and functionality through various objects, methods, or other processes. Further, while illustrated as internal to server  102 , one or more processes associated with ERP solution  135  may be stored, referenced, or executed remotely. For example, a portion of ERP solution  135  may be a web service that is remotely called, while another portion of ERP solution  135  may be an interface object bundled for processing at the remote client. Moreover, ERP solution  135  and/or learning management system  140  may be a child or sub-module of another software module or enterprise application (not illustrated) without departing from the scope of this disclosure.  
      Server  102  may also include an interface for communicating with other computer systems, such as the clients, over networks, such as  112  or  114 , in a client-server or other distributed environment. In certain embodiments, server  102  receives data from internal or external senders through the interface for storage in the memory and/or processing by the processor. Generally, the interface comprises logic encoded in software and/or hardware in a suitable combination and operable to communicate with networks  112  or  114 . More specifically, the interface may comprise software supporting one or more communications protocols associated with communications network  112  or hardware operable to communicate physical signals.  
      Network  112  facilitates wireless or wireline communication between computer server  102  and any other local or remote computers, such as clients  104 . Network  112 , as well as network  114 , facilitates wireless or wireline communication between computer server  102   a  and any other local or remote computer, such as local or remote clients, a remote content provider  108 , or external server  102   b . While the following is a description of network  112 , the description may also apply to network  114 , where appropriate. For example, while illustrated as separate networks, network  112  and network  114  may be a continuous network logically divided into various sub-nets or virtual networks without departing from the scope of this disclosure. In some embodiments, network  112  includes access points that are responsible for brokering exchange of information between the clients. As discussed above, access points may comprise conventional access points, wireless security gateways, bridges, wireless switches, sensors, or any other suitable device operable to receive and/or transmit wireless signals. In other words, network  112  encompasses any internal or external network, networks, sub-network, or combination thereof operable to facilitate communications between various computing components in system  100 . Network  112  may communicate, for example, Internet Protocol (IP) packets, Frame Relay frames, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) cells, voice, video, data, and other suitable information between network addresses. Network  112  may include one or more local area networks (LANs), radio access networks (RANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs), all or a portion of the global computer network known as the Internet, and/or any other communication system or systems at one or more locations. Turning to network  114 , as illustrated, it may be all or a portion of an enterprise or secured network. In another example, network  114  may be a VPN between server  102   a  and a particular client across wireline or wireless links. In certain embodiments, network  114  may be a secure network associated with the enterprise and certain local or remote clients.  
      Each client is any computing device operable to connect or communicate with server  102  or other portions of the network using any communication link. At a high level, each client includes or executes at least GUI  116  and comprises an electronic computing device operable to receive, transmit, process and store any appropriate data associated with environment  100 . It will be understood that there may be any number of clients communicably coupled to server  102 . Further, “client” and “learner,” “administrator,” “developer” and “user” may be used interchangeably as appropriate without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Moreover, for ease of illustration, each client is described in terms of being used by one user. But this disclosure contemplates that many users may use one computer or that one user may use multiple computers. As used in this disclosure, the client is intended to encompass a personal computer, touch screen terminal, workstation, network computer, kiosk, wireless data port, smart phone, personal data assistant (PDA), one or more processors within these or other devices, or any other suitable processing device or computer. For example, the client may be a PDA operable to wirelessly connect with external or unsecured network. In another example, the client may comprise a laptop that includes an input device, such as a keypad, touch screen, mouse, or other device that can accept information, and an output device that conveys information associated with the operation of server  102  or other clients, including digital data, visual information, or GUI  116 . Both the input device and output device may include fixed or removable storage media such as a magnetic computer disk, CD-ROM, or other suitable media to both receive input from and provide output to users of the clients through the display, namely the client portion of GUI or application interface  116 .  
      GUI  116  comprises a graphical user interface operable to allow the user of the client to interface with at least a portion of environment  100  for any suitable purpose, such as viewing application or other transaction data. Generally, GUI  116  provides the particular user with an efficient and user-friendly presentation of data provided by or communicated within environment  100 . As shown in later figures, GUI  116  may comprise a plurality of customizable frames or views having interactive fields, pull-down lists, and buttons operated by the user. GUI  116  may be a learning interface allowing the user or learner  104  to search a course catalog, book and cancel course participation, and support individual course planning (e.g., by determining qualification deficits and displaying a learner&#39;s completed, started, and planned training activities). Learner  104  also may access and work through web based courses using the learning interface. The learning interface may be used to start a course, reenter a course, exit a course, and take tests. The learning interface also provides messages, notes, and special course offerings to the learner  104 . GUI  116  may also be a course editor allowing the content developer to create the structure for the course content, which may be associated with certain metadata. The metadata may be interpreted by a content player of learning management system  140  (described below) to present a course to learner  104  according to a learning strategy selected at run time. In particular, the course editor may enable the author or content developer  106  to classify and describe structural elements, assign attributes to structural elements, assign relations between structural elements, and build a subject-taxonomic course structure. The course editor generates the structure of the course and may include a menu bar, a button bar, a course overview, a dialog box, and work space. The menu bar may include various drop-down menus, such as, for example, file, edit, tools, options, and help. The drop-down menus may include functions, such as create a new course, open an existing course, edit a course, or save a course. The button bar may include a number of buttons. The buttons may be shortcuts to functions in the drop down menus that are used frequently and that activate tools and functions for use with the course editor. The remaining portions of the example course editor interface may be divided in to three primary sections or windows: a course overview, a dialog box, and a workspace. Each of the sections may be provided with horizontal or vertical scroll bars or other means allowing the windows to be sized to fit on different displays while providing access to elements that may not appear in the window.  
      GUI  116  may also present a plurality of portals or dashboards. For example, GUI  116  may display a portal that allows users to view, create, and manage historical and real-time reports including role-based reporting and such. Generally, historical reports provide critical information on what has happened including static or canned reports that require no input from the user and dynamic reports that quickly gather run-time information to generate the report. Of course, reports may be in any appropriate output format including PDF, HTML, and printable text. It should be understood that the term graphical user interface may be used in the singular or in the plural to describe one or more graphical user interfaces and each of the displays of a particular graphical user interface. Indeed, reference to GUI  116  may indicate a reference to the front-end or other component of learning management system  140 , as well as the particular interface or learning portal accessible via client, as appropriate, without departing from the scope of this disclosure. In short, GUI  116  contemplates any graphical user interface, such as a generic web browser or touch screen, that processes information in environment  100  and efficiently presents the results to the user. Server  102  can accept data from the client via the web browser (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) and return the appropriate HTML or XML responses to the browser using network  112  or  114 , such as those illustrated in subsequent figures.  
      In aspect of operation for integrating external courses with learning management system  140 , learning management system  140  transmits a creation request to external management system  145  via network  112  for a course type. For example, the course type may include a subject (e.g., Calculus) and a level associated with a subject (e.g., Vector Calculus). After receiving their creation request, external management system  145  identifies the course type and determines that external catalog  142   b  includes such a course or create such a course if not exists. In response to identifying the course, external management system  145  transmits a confirmation message to internal learning management system  140 . The confirmation message may include a delivery method, external course ID, and/or other aspects of the external course. Local management system  140  may identify aspects of the external course base, at least in part, on the delivery method. For example, the aspects may include attributes, specific checking, and/or available operations. In response to at least the confirmation message, local learning management system  140  generates the course based, at least in part, on the confirmation message and/or information generated from the confirmation message and integrates the external course into internal course catalog  142   a . In the event that learner  104  wants to cancel an external course, learning management system  140  identifies the external course in internal course catalog  142   a  using any of the associated aspects. In particular, learning management system  140  determines whether the external course may be canceled and, if so, determines what criteria must be met in order to cancel the external course. For instance, the course catalog  142   a  may indicate that the external course may not be canceled after a particular date, if the learner&#39;s progress is below a particular threshold, or other criteria. During the external course, learning management system  140  may receive tracking information from external management system  145  regarding the learner&#39;s progress, step, activity, and/or results. Learning management system  140  may use the tracking information to update the associated user protocol  144  and, as a result, may maintain consistency between the two learning systems  140  and  145 .  
       FIG. 2  illustrates one example implementation of learning management system (LMS)  140 . In the illustrated embodiment, LMS  140  comprises four example components, namely i) a management system core  202 , which controls learning processes and manages and handles the administrative side of training; ii) a learning portal  204 , which is the learner&#39;s springboard into the learning environment, which allows him to access the course offering and information on personal learning data and learning activities; iii) an authoring environment  210 , where learning content and tests are designed and structured; and iv) a content management system  220 , where learning content is stored and managed. Generally, LMS  140  is aimed at learners  104 , trainers  105 , course authors  106  and instructional designers, administrators, and managers.  
      Learners  104  log on to their personalized learning portal  204  from the client via GUI  116 . The learning portal  204  is the user&#39;s personalized point of access to the learning-related functions. Generally, learning portal  204  presents details of the complete education and training offering, such as traditional classroom training, e-learning courses (such as virtual classroom sessions or web-based training), or extensive curricula. Self-service applications enable learners  104  to enroll themselves for courses, prebook for classroom courses, and cancel bookings for delivery methods, as well as start self-paced learning units directly. If learner  104  wants to continue learning offline, he can often download the courses onto the client and synchronize the learning progress later. The learning portal  204  may be seamlessly integrated in an enterprise portal, where learner  104  is provided with access to a wide range of functions via one system. Such an enterprise portal may be the learner&#39;s single point of entry and may integrate a large number of role-based functions, which are presented to the user in a clear, intuitive structure. The learning portal  204  often gives learner  104  access to functions such as, for example, search for courses using i) find functions: finding courses in the course catalog that have keywords in the course title or description; and ii) extended search functions: using the attributes appended to courses, such as target group, prerequisites, qualifications imparted, or delivery method. Additional functions may include self-service applications for booking courses and canceling bookings, messages and notes, course appraisals, and special (or personalized) course offering including courses prescribed for the learner  104  on the basis of his or her role in the enterprise or the wishes of the respective supervisor or trainer and qualification deficits of learner  104  that can be reduced or eliminated by participating in the relevant courses. The learning portal  204  may also provide a view of current and planned training activities, as well as access to courses booked, including: i) starting a course; ii) reentering an interrupted course; iii) downloading a course and continuing learning offline; iv) going online again with a downloaded course and synchronizing the learning progress; v) exiting a course; and vi) taking a test.  
      On the basis of the information the learning management system  140  has about learner  104 , the learning management system core  202  proposes learning units for the learner  104 , monitors the learner&#39;s progress, and coordinates the learner&#39;s personal learning process. In addition, the learning management system core  202  is often responsible for managing and handling the administrative processes. Targeted knowledge transfer may use precise matching of the learning objectives and qualifications of a learning unit with the learner&#39;s level of knowledge. For example, at the start of a course, the management system core  202  may compare learning objectives already attained by the respective learner  104  with the learning objectives of the course. On the basis of this, core  202  determines the learner&#39;s current level and the required content and scope of the course. The resulting course is then presented to the learner  104  via a content player  208 .  
      The content player  208  is a virtual teacher that tailors learning content to the needs of the individual learner  104  and helps him navigate through the course; content player  208  then presents the learning course to the learner  104 . In certain embodiments, the content player  208  is a Java application that is deployed on a Java runtime environment, such as J2EE. In this case, it is linked with other systems such as a web application server and ERP solution  135  via the Java Connector. The individual course navigation may be set up at runtime on the basis of the learning strategy stored in the learner account. Using the didactical strategies, content player  208  helps ensure that the course is dynamically adapted to the individual learning situation and the preferences expressed by learner  104 . At this point, content player  208  then calculates dynamically adjusted learning paths and presents these to learner  104 —perhaps graphically—to facilitate orientation within a complex subject area. Learner  104  can resume working on an interrupted course at any time. At this point, content player  208  guides the learner  104  to the spot at which training was interrupted.  
      The offline player  206  generally enables learners  104  to download network or other web-based courses from the learning portal  204  and play them locally. Locally stored courses are listed in the course list with an icon indicating the status of each course. The offline player  206  may guide the learner  104  through the course according to the preferred learning strategy. It may also dynamically adjust the number and sequence of learning objects to the learner&#39;s individual learning pattern. If the learner  104  interrupts a course, the offline player  206  reenters the course at the point of interruption the next time. The learner  104  can, at any point in time, resynchronize his offline learning progress with the learning portal  204  and either continue learning online or set the course to a completed status.  
      LMS core  202  may also include or invoke training management that would be an administrative side of LMS  140 . This typically includes course planning and execution, booking and cancellation of course participation, and follow-up processing, including cost settlement. In training management, the training administrator  105  creates the course offering and can, for example, define training measures for individual learners  104  and groups of learners  104 . The training administrator  105  creates the course catalog in training management and makes it available (partially or completely) to learners  104  in learning portal  204  for reference and enrollment purposes. The training administrator  105  can typically administer internal and external participants and enroll them for courses to be delivered using various technologies and techniques. Training management supports numerous business processes involved in the organization, management, and handling of training. Training management can be configured to meet the requirements, work processes, and delivery methods common in the enterprise. Training measures are usually flexibly structured and may include briefings, seminars, workshops, virtual classroom sessions, web-based trainings, external web-based trainings, static web courses, or curricula. Training management includes functions to efficiently create the course offerings. Using course groups to categorize topics by subject area enables flexible structuring of the course catalog. For example, when training administrator  105  creates a new subject area represented by a course group, he can decide whether it should be accessible to learners  104  in learning portal  202 .  
      Reporting functions  214  in training management enable managers to keep track of learners&#39; learning activities and the associated costs at all times. Supervisors or managers can monitor and steer the learning processes of their employees. They can be notified when their employees request participation or cancellation in courses and can approve or reject these requests. LMS  140  may provide the training manager with extensive support for the planning, organization, and controlling of corporate education and training. Trainers need to have up-to-the-minute, reliable information about their course schedules. There is a wide range of reporting options available in training management to enable the trainer to keep track of participants, rooms, course locations, and so on.  
      Authoring environment  210  contains tools and wizards that content develops  106  and instructional designers can use to create or import external course content. External authoring tools can be launched directly via authoring environment  210  to create learning content that can be integrated into learning objects and combined to create complete courses (learning nets). Attributes may be appended to content, thereby allowing learners  104  to structure learning content more flexibly depending on the learning strategy they prefer. Customizable and flexible views allow subject matter experts and instructional designers to configure and personalize the authoring environment  210 . To create the HTML pages for the content, the user can easily and seamlessly integrate editors from external providers or other content providers  108  into LMS  140  and launch the editors directly from the authoring environment  210 . The authoring environment often includes a number of tools for creating, structuring, and publishing course content and tests to facilitate and optimize the work of instructional designers, subject matter experts, and training administrators  105 . Authoring environment  210  may contain any number of components or sub-modules such as an instructional design editor is used by instructional designers and subject matter experts to create and structure learning content (learning nets and learning objects), a test author is used by instructional designers and subject matter experts to create web-based tests, and a repository explorer is for training administrators and instructional designers to manage content.  
      In the illustrated embodiment, course content (such as learning objects, course information, and others) is stored and managed in the content management system  220 . Put another way, LMS  140  typically uses the content management system  220  as its content storage location. But a WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) interface (or other HTTP extension) allows integration of other WebDAV-enabled storage facilities as well without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Content authors or developers  106  publish content in the back-end training management system. Links to this content assist the training administrator  105  in retrieving suitable course content when planning web-based courses. A training management component of LMS  140  may help the training administrator  105  plan and create the course offering; manage participation, resources, and courses; and perform reporting. When planning e-learning courses, the training administrator  105  uses references inserted in published courses to retrieve the appropriate content in the content management system for the courses being planned. Content management system  220  may also include or implement content conversion, import, and export functions, allowing easy integration of Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)-compliant courses from external providers or other content providers  108 . Customers can create and save their own templates for the various learning elements (learning objects, tests, and so on) that define structural and content-related specifications. These provide authors with valuable methodological and didactical support.  
      The LMS  140  and its implemented methodology typically structure content so that the content is reusable and flexible. For example, the content structure allows the creator of a course to reuse existing content to create new or additional courses. In addition, the content structure provides flexible content delivery that may be adapted to the learning styles of different learners. E-learning content may be aggregated using a number of structural elements arranged at different aggregation levels. Each higher level structural element may refer to any instances of all structural elements of a lower level. At its lowest level, a structural element refers to content and may not be further divided. According to one implementation shown in  FIG. 3 , course material  300  may be divided into four structural elements: a course  301 , a sub-course  302 , a learning unit  303 , and a knowledge item  304 .  
      Starting from the lowest level, knowledge items  304  are the basis for the other structural elements and are the building blocks of the course content structure. Each knowledge item  304  may include content that illustrates, explains, practices, or tests an aspect of a thematic area or topic. Knowledge items  304  typically are small in size (i.e., of short duration, e.g., approximately five minutes or less).  
      Any number of attributes may be used to describe a particular knowledge item  304  such as, for example, a name, a type of media, and a type of knowledge. The name may be used by a learning system to identify and locate the content associated with a knowledge item  304 . The type of media describes the form of the content that is associated with the knowledge item  304 . For example, media types include a presentation type, a communication type, and an interactive type. A presentation media type may include a text, a table, an illustration, a graphic, an image, an animation, an audio clip, and a video clip. A communication media type may include a chat session, a group (e.g., a newsgroup, a team, a class, and a group of peers), an email, a short message service (SMS), and an instant message. An interactive media type may include a computer based training, a simulation, and a test.  
      Knowledge item  304  also may be described by the attribute of knowledge type. For example, knowledge types include knowledge of orientation, knowledge of action, knowledge of explanation, and knowledge of source/reference. Knowledge types may differ in learning goal and content. For example, knowledge of orientation offers a point of reference to the learner, and, therefore, provides general information for a better understanding of the structure of interrelated structural elements. Each of the knowledge types are described in further detail below.  
      Knowledge items  304  may be generated using a wide range of technologies, often allowing a browser (including plug-in applications) to be able to interpret and display the appropriate file formats associated with each knowledge item. For example, markup languages (such as HTML, a standard generalized markup language (SGML), a dynamic HTML (DHTML), or XML), JavaScript (a client-side scripting language), and/or Flash may be used to create knowledge items  304 . HTML may be used to describe the logical elements and presentation of a document, such as, for example, text, headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, or image references. Flash may be used as a file format for Flash movies and as a plug-in for playing Flash files in a browser. For example, Flash movies using vector and bitmap graphics, animations, transparencies, transitions, MP3 audio files, input forms, and interactions may be used. In addition, Flash allows a pixel-precise positioning of graphical elements to generate impressive and interactive applications for presentation of course material to a learner.  
      Learning units  303  may be assembled using one or more knowledge items  304  to represent, for example, a distinct, thematically-coherent unit. Consequently, learning units  303  may be considered containers for knowledge items  304  of the same topic. Learning units  303  also may be considered relatively small in size (i.e., duration) though larger than a knowledge item  304 .  
      Sub-courses  302  may be assembled using other sub-courses  302 , learning units  303 , and/or knowledge items  304 . The sub-course  302  may be used to split up an extensive course into several smaller subordinate courses. Sub-courses  302  may be used to build an arbitrarily deep nested structure by referring to other sub-courses  302 .  
      Courses may be assembled from all of the subordinate structural elements including sub-courses  302 , learning units  303 , and knowledge items  304 . To foster maximum reuse, all structural elements should be self-contained and context free.  
      Structural elements also may be tagged with metadata that is used to support adaptive delivery, reusability, and search/retrieval of content associated with the structural elements. For example, learning object metadata (LOM) defined by the IEEE “Learning Object Metadata Working Group” may be attached to individual course structure elements. The metadata may be used to indicate learner competencies associated with the structural elements. Other metadata may include a number of knowledge types (e.g., orientation, action, explanation, and resources) that may be used to categorize structural elements.  
      As shown in  FIG. 4 , structural elements may be categorized using a didactical ontology  400  of knowledge types  401  that includes orientation knowledge  402 , action knowledge  403 , explanation knowledge  404 , and resource knowledge  405 . Orientation knowledge  402  helps a learner  104  to find their way through a topic without being able to act in a topic-specific manner and may be referred to as “know what.” Action knowledge  403  helps a learner to acquire topic related skills and may be referred to as “know how.” Explanation knowledge  404  provides a learner with an explanation of why something is the way it is and may be referred to as “know why.” Resource knowledge  405  teaches a learner where to find additional information on a specific topic and may be referred to as “know where.” 
      The four knowledge types (orientation, action, explanation, and reference) may be further divided into a fine grained ontology. For example, orientation knowledge  402  may refer to sub-types  407  that include a history, a scenario, a fact, an overview, and a summary. Action knowledge  403  may refer to sub-types  409  that include a strategy, a procedure, a rule, a principle, an order, a law, a comment on law, and a checklist. Explanation knowledge  404  may refer to sub-types  406  that include an example, an intention, a reflection, an explanation of why or what, and an argumentation. Resource knowledge  405  may refer to sub-types  408  that include a reference, a document reference, and an archival reference.  
      Dependencies between structural elements may be described by relations when assembling the structural elements at one aggregation level. A relation may be used to describe the natural, subject-taxonomic relation between the structural elements. A relation may be directional or non-directional. A directional relation may be used to indicate that the relation between structural elements is true only in one direction. Directional relations should be followed. Relations may be divided into two categories: subject-taxonomic and non-subject taxonomic.  
      Subject-taxonomic relations may be further divided into hierarchical relations and associative relations. Hierarchical relations may be used to express a relation between structural elements that have a relation of subordination or superordination. For example, a hierarchical relation between the knowledge items A and B exists if B is part of A. Hierarchical relations may be divided into two categories: the part/whole relation (i.e., “has part”) and the abstraction relation (i.e., “generalizes”). For example, the part/whole relation “A has part B” describes that B is part of A. The abstraction relation “A generalizes B” implies that B is a specific type of A (e.g., an aircraft generalizes a jet or a jet is a specific type of aircraft).  
      Associative relations may be used refer to a kind of relation of relevancy between two structural elements. Associative relations may help a learner obtain a better understanding of facts associated with the structural elements. Associative relations describe a manifold relation between two structural elements and are mainly directional (i.e., the relation between structural elements is true only in one direction). Examples of associative relations include “determines,” “side-by-side,” “alternative to,” “opposite to,” “precedes,” “context of,” “process of,” “values,” “means of,” and “affinity.” 
      The “determines” relation describes a deterministic correlation between A and B (e.g., B causally depends on A). The “side-by-side” relation may be viewed from a spatial, conceptual, theoretical, or ontological perspective (e.g., A side-by-side with B is valid if both knowledge objects are part of a superordinate whole). The side-by-side relation may be subdivided into relations, such as “similar to,” “alternative to,” and “analogous to.” The “opposite to” relation implies that two structural elements are opposite in reference to at least one quality. The “precedes” relation describes a temporal relationship of succession (e.g., A occurs in time before B (and not that A is a prerequisite of B). The “context of” relation describes the factual and situational relationship on a basis of which one of the related structural elements may be derived. An “affinity” between structural elements suggests that there is a close functional correlation between the structural elements (e.g., there is an affinity between books and the act of reading because reading is the main function of books).  
      Non Subject-Taxonomic relations may include the relations “prerequisite of” and “belongs to.” The “prerequisite of” and the “belongs to” relations do not refer to the subject-taxonomic interrelations of the knowledge to be imparted. Instead, these relations refer to the progression of the course in the learning environment (e.g., as the learner traverses the course). The “prerequisite of” relation is directional whereas the “belongs to” relation is non-directional. Both relations may be used for knowledge items  304  that cannot be further subdivided. For example, if the size of the screen is too small to display the entire content on one page, the page displaying the content may be split into two pages that are connected by the relation “prerequisite of.” 
      Another type of metadata is competencies. Competencies may be assigned to structural elements, such as, for example, a sub-course  302  or a learning unit  303 . The competencies may be used to indicate and evaluate the performance of a learner as learner  104  traverses the course material. A competency may be classified as a cognitive skill, an emotional skill, a senso-motorical skill, or a social skill.  
      FIGS.  5 A-D are interface views of data structures  510 ,  520 ,  530 , and  540 , respectively, for managing course and/or learner information within learning environment  100 . Data structures  510 ,  520 ,  530 , and  540  are described with respect to environment  100  of  FIG. 1  but each could be used by any other systems or components. Moreover, environment  100  may use any other suitable data structures for managing course and/or learner information. Thus, many of the elements in these structures may take be combined and/or in a different orders as shown. Environment  100  may also use data structures with additional elements, fewer elements, and/or different elements, so long as the course and/or learner information is appropriately managed.  
      Referring to  FIG. 5A , data structure  500  illustrates an organization of data that may be used to generate and/or process an enrollment request for external learning management system  145 . The data elements are organized in a hierarchal structure enabling tree processing. Each node may be expanded or collapsed using the appropriate interface (e.g., mouse). The root node “CourseEnrollmentRequest” indicates the relevant operation associated with data structure  500 . Sub-nodes indicate additional information that may be included and/or processed when generating an enrollment request. For example, data structure  500  includes the sub-nodes  502  and  504  titled “LearnerParty” and “Course,” respectively. Sub-node  502  outlines data that may be used to identify a particular learner such as ID or family name. Sub-node  504  outlines data that may be used to identify the external course that may be enrolled in. In operation, learning management system  140  may retrieve information from use profile  144  or present GUI  116  request information associated with sub-node  502  and  504 . In this case, the enrollment request may include at a minimum information operable to identify the learner and the external course.  
      Referring to  FIG. 5B , data structure  510  illustrates an organization of data that may be used to generate and/or process an enrollment confirmation from external learning management system  145 . The data elements are organized in a hierarchal structure enabling tree processing. The root node “CourseEnrollmentConfirmation” indicates the relevant operation associated with data structure  510 . Sub-nodes indicate additional information that may be included and/or processed when processing an enrollment confirmation. For example, data structure  510  includes the sub-nodes  512  titled “Course.” This example sub-node  512  outlines data that may be used to identify the external course that the learner has enrolled in. In operation, learning management system  140  may receive an enrollment confirmation from external learning management system  145  and, using data structure  510 , identify information relevant to update course catalog  142   a  and/or user profile  144  indicating that the learner is enrolled in the external course.  
      Referring to  FIG. 5C , data structure  520  illustrates an organization of data that may be used to generate and/or process a course query (e.g., tracking data) for external learning management system  145 . The data elements are organized in a hierarchal structure enabling tree processing. The root node “CourseQuery” indicates the relevant operation associated with data structure  520 . Sub-nodes indicate additional information that may be included and/or processed when generating a course query. For example, data structure  520  includes the sub-nodes  522 ,  524 , and  526  titled “CourseQuery,” “LearnerParty” and “Course,” respectively. Sub-node  522  outlines data that may be used to identify a particular query to be posed to external learning management system  145 . Sub-node  524  outlines data that may be used to identify a learner such as ID or family name. Sub-node  526  outlines data that may be used to identify the external course that may be enrolled in. In operation, learning management system  140  may retrieve information from use profile  144  or present GUI  116  requesting information associated with sub-nodes  522 ,  524 , and  526 . In this case, the course inquiry may include at a minimum information operable to identify the learner, the external course, and the query.  
      Referring to  FIG. 5D , data structure  530  illustrates an organization of data that may be used to generate and/or process a progress response received from external learning management system  145 . As with the others, the data elements are organized in a hierarchal structure enabling tree processing. The root node “LearningProgressResponse” indicates the relevant operation associated with data structure  530 . Sub-nodes indicate additional information that may be included and/or processed when processing a progress response. For example, data structure  530  includes the sub-nodes  532 ,  534 , and  536  titled “LearnerParty,” “Course,” and “LearningProgressData,” respectively. Sub-node  532  outlines data that may be used to identify a learner such as ID or family name. Sub-node  534  outlines data that may be used to identify the external course that the learner is enrolled in. In operation, learning management system  140  may receive a progress response from external learning management system  145 . In this case, learning management system  140  may use data structure to identify and/or process information in the progress response. In this case, the progress response may include at a minimum information operable to identify the learner, the external course, and the learner&#39;s progress in the external course.  
       FIG. 6  is a schematic  600  for illustrating an example data flow involved in determining the progress of learner  104  in an external course. Schematic  600  is described with respect to environment  100  of  FIG. 1  but each could be used by any other systems or components. Moreover, environment  100  may use any other suitable data structures or data flows for monitoring course and/or learner information. Thus, many of the elements in schematic  600  may take be combined and/or in a different orders as shown. Environment  100  may also use process with additional steps, fewer steps, and/or different steps, so long as the course and/or learner information is appropriately monitored.  
      As illustrated in schematic  600 , learner  104  starts an external course through learning management system  140 , and learning management system  140 , in turn, launches the external course through external learning management system  145 . In connections with these steps, learning management system  140  inserts a flag in user profile  144  indicating that the tracking information in user profile  144  is not current. External learning management system  145  generates a presentation of the external course and displays the external course via GUI  116 . After exiting the external course, external learning management system  145  transmits an indication to local learning management system  140  that learner  104  exited the course and external learning management system  145  may store the learner&#39;s progress in an associated storage device. In addition, learning management system  140  may also include a request for tracking information for learner  104 . In this case, learning management system  140  may also transmit a logical identifier indicating where external learning management system  145  should transmit the tracking information. External learning management system  145  may store the learner&#39;s progress in an associated storage device as well as transmit tracking information to learning management system  140  as indicated by “SetUserTracking.” After receiving the tracking information, learning management system  140  may delete the flag from the associated user profile  144 .  
      Learning management system  140  may also request tracking information in response to other events. For example, learning management system  140  may identify user profiles  144  with flags during the night and transmit a request for tracking information for associated users. As a result, nighttime processing may reduce the load on learning management system  140  during normal working hours. In this case, learning management system  140  transmits a request including a logical identifier to external learning management system  145 . In some embodiments, the request also includes a learner ID and course ID or other similar data or attributes. External learning management system  145  retrieves the tracking information from an associated storage device and transmits the tracking information to learning management system  140  using the logical identifier. After receiving the tracking information, learning management system  140  updates the associated user profiles. As a result, the progress of a learner may be monitored as the learner participates in the course.  
       FIG. 7  is flow diagram illustrating example methods  700  for monitoring a learner&#39;s progress while executing or completing an external course provided by external learning management system  145 . Method  700  is described with respect to environment  100  of  FIG. 1 , but method  700  could be used by any other system or components. Moreover, environment  100  may use any other suitable techniques for performing these or similar tasks. Thus, many of the steps in this flowchart may take place simultaneously and/or in different orders as shown. Environment  100  may also use methods with additional steps, fewer steps, and/or different steps, so long as the methods remain appropriate.  
      Method  700  begins at step  702  where learning management system  140  receives a request to load or otherwise initiate an external course provide by external learning management system  145 . Learning management system  140  may receive a selection by learner  104  through GUI  116 . At step  704 , learning management system  140  inserts a flag in user profile  144  associated with learner  104  to indicate that the associated user profile  144  may not be up to date or current. In response to an event, learning management system  140  identifies the flag in the associated user profile  144 . For example, the event may be learner  104  exiting the external course, the end of a period of time, a request from an administrator, or other suitable events. Learning management system  140  transmits a request to external learning management system  145  for tracking information at step  706 . In some embodiments, the request includes a logical identifier of learning management system  140 , a course ID, and a learner ID. At step  708 , learning management system  140  receives tracking information from external learning management system  145 . The tracking information may also include a course ID and learner ID and indicates the progress of learner  104 . For example, the progress may identify the current steps completed, scores from testing, activities completed, or others. After receiving the tracking information, learning management system  140  updates the associated user profile  144 . The updated profile  144  may enable an administrator to monitor a learner&#39;s progress as they complete portions of the external course. In response to updating user profile  144 , learning management system  140  deletes the flag from user profile  144  at step  714 .  
      Although this disclosure has been described in terms of certain embodiments and generally associated methods, alterations and permutations of these embodiments and methods will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the above description of example embodiments does not define or constrain this disclosure. Other changes, substitutions, and alterations are also possible without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure.