Abstract: An e-learning course may include a number of structural elements that are aggregated into one or more levels. Each higher level may refer to any instance of a lower level. The structural elements include a course, a sub-course, a learning unit, or a knowledge item. The structural elements may include metadata. The structural elements also may include relations between structural elements. The course and its structural elements do not enforce any sequence of structural elements that the learner may use to traverse the course. In addition, the structural elements may be reused and reassembled to form different courses. A content repository is configured to store course data and its structural elements. A content player is configured to access the stored course data and assemble the structural elements.

Abstract: A course authoring system may include an author station to create a course, a content management system to store content and structure associated with the course, a learning management system to determine learning content to present to the learner based on a learning strategy applied to the content and the structure, and a communications link to transfer the course from the author station to the content management system. The author station may include an author tool configured to add structural elements to the course. The structural elements may include one or more of a course, a sub-course, a learning unit, or a knowledge item. The author tool is configured to associate the content with the structural elements. The course and its structural elements do not enforce a sequence of the content associated with the structural elements that a learner should use to traverse the course.