Understanding Content Management in e- Learning Perspective

In plain simple terms content management is nothing but management of the content. Then you may like to know what is content here. Content is again nothing but digital information and this digital information is called as digital content or more precisely content. The digital information or the content can be in any formof text for example documents. The digital information can also be seen in the form of multimedia file [audio files or video files].

Whatever may be the form of digital information or content, it certainly requires management for safe storage and usage. Hence the process or the technology that is used to support the management and life cycle of the digital information or content is called as content management.

There are six phases in the life cycle of the digital content or content. They are creating phase, updating phase, publishing phase, translating phase, archiving phase, and retire phase.

For example if an author or group authors may write an article. This creation. This content or article is edited. This is called updation. Some other editor may approve this article to publish. Just giving the content to others is also called publishing. Providing the digital access to others is also called publishing. After some time the same content can be superseded by content and removed. This is called retiring.

E-learning

E-learning is nothing but training enhanced by computer. E-learning in general is delivered through personal computor. There are various methods of e-learning. They are online tutorials, lectures, simulations, games, job aids, and performance support systemsetc. For effective e-learning you need to blend all the above mentioned methods.

E-learning can also be considered as an approach that facilitates learning through both communication technology and computer. The devices that are used in e-learning include computer, television, m 3 players, mobile telephones etc. communication technology makes use of e-mail, internet, collaborative software etc.

E-learning is also used for distance learning. For this wide area network [WANS] are used. Just in time learning is also possible in e-learning.

Content management roles and responsibilities

Content management is not just a simple process or technology. This is collaborative technology. There are some basic responsibilities and roles as far as content management is concerned. Let us discuss about them here.

Author of the content- creating the content and editing the same is the primary responsibility of the content author. Editor of the content- the primary responsibility of the content editor is tuning the content. The tuning includes correcting the style of delivery, localization and translation.

Publisher- the responsibility of the publisher is publishing the content. Administrator-the permission for accessing the content will be managed by the administrator. Administrator will manage the access to the files and folders in which the content is stored.

Consumer- these are the persons who views the content that is published. Consumers are also known as guests or viewers. There is important aspect as far as content management is concerned. That is managing the versions of the content. To make the version control easy the authors need to store the older version of the contents that are edited.

Content management system and the features that it supports

Content management system is an automatic process or technology. This content management system supports various features. Let discuss about them here.

Content management system supports creation and import of multimedia material and documents. Key users and their role identification are supported by content management system. Content management system supports the ability to give roles and responsibilities to different content category instances.

Content management supports or helps in defining workflow tasks. Hence the content managers are informed whenever the content changes. Content management system helps to find and manage the multiple or various versions of the contents. Content management helps the content to be published in the repository. Thus published content can be accessed with ease.

Different forms of the content management system

Content management system can take different forms. Here they are. web content management system-this is a soft ware management of web site. Content management can also take a workflow form for article publication.

Document management system is another form of content management system. Content management system for single source is the other form of content management system. Here the contents are stored in relational data base in the form of chunks.