Patent ID: 7369808

Claim:
A method performed in an electronic learning system, the method comprising: organizing content associated with an electronic course into two or more structural elements, at least one of the structural elements comprising a collaboration element that defines a collaboration activity; the collaboration activity including (i) a collaboration process that defines a way to accomplish a goal associated with the electronic course, (ii) participant information that defines who may participate in the collaboration process, and (iii) dataflow information that defines how data is to be transferred in the collaboration process; storing, separate from the structural elements, a collaboration pool identifying points of collaboration defined in structural elements of the electronic course, including a point of collaboration corresponding to the collaboration activity, the collaboration pool comprising, for the collaboration activity: information including a type of collaboration, a state of collaboration, and availability of participants for the collaboration; aggregating the structural elements into two or more levels, where a higher level structural element refers to a lower level structural element; and assembling the structural elements into the electronic course.