Learning Management Systems and Digital Repositories

Modern education is unimaginable without digital technologies that simplify course organisation, enable the sharing of learning materials, and support the monitoring and assessment of student activities. Two key groups of digital tools in this context are Learning Management Systems (LMS) and digital repositories. Although both store and distribute educational content, their functions, purposes, and capabilities differ significantly.

Learning Management Systems

Learning Management Systems such as Moodle are central platforms for delivering online learning or supporting face-to-face instruction. In an LMS, teachers can:

• structure a course into thematic units or modules;

• upload various learning materials (texts, presentations, videos, links);

• plan and deliver activities (forums, workshops, quizzes, surveys);

• manage deadlines, assignments, and submissions;

• communicate with students through messages, announcements, or discussion forums;

• track student progress via activity logs, gradebooks, and reports;

• provide feedback and conduct assessment.

The main advantage of an LMS is that it integrates all the essential functionalities for planning, implementing, and evaluating teaching in one environment. Access is usually restricted through user authentication, ensuring controlled access to course materials. Moodle, one of the most widely used LMSs globally and in Croatian higher education (e.g., the Loomen platform by SRCE), also supports the integration of external tools (such as H5P, Turnitin, Edpuzzle), extending its pedagogical capabilities.

Digital Repositories

Digital repositories, such as Edutorij, MERLOT, or Europeana, are primarily used for storing, sharing, and searching educational resources. Their main characteristics include:

• support for storing various file types (documents, images, videos, audio, interactive content);

• access available to the public or selected user groups;

• metadata tagging systems (title, author, keywords, licence);

• support for different licensing models (e.g., Creative Commons);

• ability to link repository materials to LMS platforms via URLs or embed codes.

Unlike LMSs, repositories are not environments where teaching takes place; instead, they function as archives or libraries of digital instructional resources. Teachers can use them to search for high-quality materials for their courses or to share their own resources with other educators. This fosters open education and promotes collaboration among educators at both national and international levels.