Hierarchical Structures of Content Items in LMS

Of the many applications enabled by new technologies, the most commonly used in higher education are Learning Management Systems (LMSs), e.g, Moodle, BlackBoard, which enable a wide range of Web-supported courses. LMSs enable the instructors to develop websites for their courses to support face-to-face teaching by means of different tools. Although most of the LMSs offer an enriched environment that goes beyond the usual content management tools (including communication tools and course management modules), these systems are mainly used for transferring information and increasing accessibility of learning materials [1-3]. Usually, the content modules in these systems enable the construction of a hierarchical repository of information items; consequently, the instructor is able to create folders and upload files creating variety of repository structures, which are presented to students in the course site.