To allow multiple professionals to design and realise together a specific learning object (LO) by using a repository that store and index their several modifications, we need to represent the different steps followed by a LO and its metadata throughout its lifecycle. Here, we study various initiatives related to this issue and notice significant differences between them in the terms of terminology and sequences. Thus, we infer a generic representation that can be applied to any given learning situation. Finally we validate this representation by connecting it to the International E-Miage approach (computer methods for companies? management), a French "digital campus", basis of our experimentation.