topic-specific discussion threads, online examinations, and
other pedagogical aids.
The overall goal of our research was to determine how to
improve online delivery of a programming course, with the
objective of advancing student engagement and learning
outcomes. We focused on providing various means of
supporting learning in a more personalized, flexible, and ondemand
manner, i.e. tailoring eLearning to meet the needs
and nature of the targeted learning audience. Even more
challenging task was to fulfill the rising need to adapt
eLearning to each individual approaching a course online.
The results of a range of studies [4] prove that
programming languages can be thought successfully in Webbased
environments, i.e. Learning Management Systems
(LMSs). Such a solution has been employed at out
Department as well, for design and implementation of
blended courses used to support classroom training. These
eCourses contain a variety of resources (quizzes, glossaries,
assignments, etc.), but the core content is presented in rather
complex eLessons.
An eLesson presents an educational sequence – a more or
less complex set of topics connected to each other. Each
topic contains an optimal amount of information which a
student should accept during the presentation. eLessons are
used as the basic form of delivering learning material to
students, since such lectures have been proven to be the most
effective way of ensuring that content is communicated
clearly, especially if topics presented are rather new and
complex [6].
Compared to face-to-face lectures, eLessons offer
additional resources, richness of multimedia applied, as well
as possibility for students to take as much time as they need
to explore their content and find ways to use it in
assignments and future work.
Certain degree of adaptability has therefore lately been
introduced to eLessons, so that students can explicitly choose
different paths through eLessons or can be directed to
different parts of the instructional material depending on
their answers to the encountered questions [11]. As essential
LMS features needed for construction of personalized
learning scenarios the following are required:
• advanced branching,
• interconnections between pages inside an eLesson,
• possibilities to reuse some parts of eLessons by
connecting them vertically,