Development of a Learning Content Management System (LCMS) for Teaching Digital Circuits

The use of Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) is widely applied in the context of higher education, however, the development of ad-hoc solutions for specific courses is not so common. This paper attempts to show that the technology and infrastructure required for the implementation of a custom, online e-learning based software are minimal and freely available, and that, by allowing educators to develop their own tools, new ways of improving education could arise. A web application used in Logic Circuits Design courses delivered at Universidad Nacional del Sur for the Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering degrees, developed in this realm is presented. The software is called "Cipressus" and it provides a set of interactive tools that assists students in improving their problem solving skills, and by logging their interaction with the software, a large amount of data is generated which could then be used by professors and teaching assistants, not only to evaluate the performance of their students individually or as a group, but also to gain insights into the different learning styles and abilities of the course attendees.