Challenges of implementing a large-scale elearning and collaboration platform - The Dias Project, Cyprus

The Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) in Cyprus is focusing on moving towards transferable competencies and computer based learning environments as well as innovative models necessary for the new millennium challenges. The decision makers recognize that significant changes need to occur in several areas, but most of all concerning the use of information technology. The main objective of the project is to contribute to the development and modernization of the Cypriot educational system, by introducing and enhancing the use of information technology in the process of teaching/learning in the pre-university education. The Ministry of Education and Culture aims at encouraging innovative teaching and learning techniques and stimulating creativity among teachers and students, while offering a general framework for development of collaborative projects, allowing the actors enrolled in the educational system to participate in the information society development and the creation of the knowledge economy. This paper describes the approach that was taken for the implementation of a national eLearning implementation project in Cyprus. The paper describes the logical and physical architectures of the eLearning platforms. The paper analyses the challenges and risks faced by the project and in general by similar national-level projects in education and the main methods for mitigating them. Finally, the paper underlines lessons learnt and the degree of reusability and replicability of the implemented architecture.