Towards Flexibility of Synchronous e-learning Systems

In this paper we present principles and the architecture of the Meeting Room Platform (MRP) as an example implementation of a synchronous communication and collaboration system. Our main goal is to achieve a highly flexible system as follows: First of all, the system itself should be easily capable of being integrated into other systems like Learning Management Systems (LMS). Secondly the approach allows integrating new components, respectively existing resources without the need to adapt the whole system. Finally, the system is configurable, so the user can choose a set of services that he wants to provide in his online meetings. With these three aspects of flexibility the concept of the MRP system differs from existing systems and constitutes therefore a new approach in designing synchronous e-learning environments. Furthermore, various use cases (of the system) as described in this paper show the benefit of this approach more detailed.