9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6 , further comprises of accessing user update preferences associated with each of the viewing users; and wherein role-based notifications are provided to each of the users consistent with corresponding user update preferences.
6. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having tangibly embodied thereon a program of instructions executable by a processor for performing a method for generating role-based notifications in a modular learning system, the method comprising: maintaining a database of activity items, each activity item associated with a set of user roles permitted to access the activity item by a plurality of kinds of users on a plurality of kinds of electronic user devices; monitoring activities of each of the plurality of the kinds of users; receiving notification generation requests from multiple ones of the plurality of user devices operated by a plurality of viewing users; determining, for each of the plurality of viewing users, a respective user role associated with the corresponding notification generation request; validating each of the user roles associated with the corresponding notification generation request by determining, for each of the user roles, a corresponding user role associated with each respective one of the plurality of viewing users to determine items to be displayed to the respective view user such that at least one of the items displayed to a first of the viewing users is not displayed to a second of the viewing users based on the respective roles of the first and second viewing users; for each of at least some of the viewing users, accessing the database of activity items and retrieving activity items that include the corresponding user role in the set of user roles permitted to access the activity item after validating the corresponding user role; for each of the at least some viewing users, generating role-based notifications for retrieved activity items for the corresponding user role such that different sets of role-based notifications are generated for the first and second viewing users; for each of the first and second viewing users, updating role-based notifications based on user role preferences of respective ones of the first and second viewing users; denying a request for role-based notification generation from one of the viewing users when a role of said viewing user is different from a role associated with the requested role-based notification; and causing to be displayed to respective ones of the user devices of the first and second viewing users, the corresponding items or updated role-based notifications that the respective first and second viewing users are permitted to view and are based on their respective user role preferences including at least one role-based notification for an activity related to the retrieved activity item conducted by an other one of the users on the modular learning system.