Implications of learning environments on the Information Systems of educational institutions

Since the early years where they started to enter the market, Learning Management Systems (LMS) have reached a very high level of maturity, providing professional solutions to mostly any educational need referring to distance learning. In this paper, an analysis of how LMSs should evolve in the future is presented, according to authors’ experience, in terms of functionalities and services provided to users. Behind these new functionalities and services, we foresee research fields that could provide interesting and fruitful stimulus to the market and to these platforms. The foreseen direction is the one that goes towards an expansion of the collaboration services, where virtual learning environments should be mixed with typical Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) tools and approaches that put collaboration at the heart of the system. Nevertheless, also traditional e-learning services should be improved with additions coming exactly from this integration with cooperative / collaborative services. The reference point is a virtual community platform created and developed along the years, used in the authors’ institutions and in several public and private organizations. The platform is oriented towards the support of collaborative processes, where of course e-learning is one of the most important, but not the only one, and where new services supporting collaboration in different ways are constantly added.