A TOUR OF LEARNING TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS

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A TOUR OF LEARNING TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS

• Robby Robson,
• Chair, IEEE Learning Technology Standards
  Committee

The slides in this work are each separately
licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License
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Outline

1. Standards in general
2. Learning technology standards
3. Some technical details
4. Whats next
5. Open discussion

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No results found
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Standards Can

1. Specify the form and function of technology
2. Determine how information is exchanged
3. Require procedures to be followed
4. Define acceptable outcomes

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Standards Can

• Specify the form and function of technology
• Determine how information is exchanged
• Require procedures to be followed
• Define acceptable outcomes

Learning technology standards define
technological infrastructure
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Effective Standards Operate Invisibly
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This .
Screenshot from Dreamweaver 8 Design View
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And not necessarily this .
Screenshot from Dreamweaver 8 Code View
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We converse today about the details so that we
may not converse about them tomorrow and the day
after.
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Why Bother With Standards?

• Standards define and catalyze new technology
• Standards enable new solutions
• Standards solve existing problems

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Why Bother With Standards?

HELP THE CONSUMER

• Standards prevent lock-in
• Standards accelerate commoditization
• Standards increase reliability
• Standards enable competition

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Why Bother With Standards?


BUILD MARKETS

• Standards can lower design, development and
  production costs
• Standards help modularize supply chains
• Standards build consumer confidence
• Standardization distributes effort

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When Does Standardization Occur?
INOVATION
HELP THE CONSUMER
BUILD MARKETS
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Education is an influential community
(But not the only one)
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What is the state of Learning Technology
Standards?
INOVATION
HELP THE CONSUMER
BUILD MARKETS
MOSTLY HERE
SOME HERE
STARTING HERE
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We will now talk about standards organizations
and standards
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But must remember
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Nothing is a standard until it is acknowledged
and adopted by the community it serves.
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History of Relevant Standards Organizations
DLF (1995)
But few new ones since 2001
EICA
SISO (1994)
OKI
IEEE LTSC
AICC (1988)
CanCore
CEN/ISSS WS-LT
SIF
EdNA (1994)
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
ARIADNE
ADL
JTC1 SC36
ebXML
IMS
Dublin Core (1995)
HR-XML CONSOR- TIUM
AEN
OASIS
ALIC
MERLOT
W3C (1994)
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Learning technology standardization efforts have
been

• Driven by
• Young companies
• A few key consumer groups
• Focused on
• Search Discovery
• Learning Content
• Learning Delivery Systems (e.g. LMS)
• Specialized to Learning
• Relatively little adoption of other standards

including new divisions within large software
vendors
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Leading to a diverse portfolio of organizations
and standards
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The Players

• ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning initiative)
• AICC (Aviation Industry CBT Committee)
• CEN (CEN / ISSS Technical Committee on Learning
  Technology)
• HR-XML (The HR-XML Consortium)
• IMS (IMS Global Learning Consortium a
  consortium representing Higher Education)
• LTSC (IEEE Learning Technology Standards
  Committee an accredited standards body)
• SC36 (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 Standards for
  Learning, Education and Training)
• WSIL (Web Services in Learning, a vendor effort)

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Mature Standards with wide Adoption

• Metadata
• Search Discovery
• SCORM (and AICC equivalents)
• Content / LMS interoperability
• Made up from IMS IEEE standards
• Question Test Interoperability
• XML representation of Quizzes and test banks

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Standards Specifications with Less Adoption

• IMS Enterprise
• Interface between an LMS and SIS
• OKI Service Interface Definitions
• Used in Higher Education
• Learning Technology Systems Architecture
• IEEE standard used by some U.S. Defense
  contractors
• Learner Information Package
• Education Training Records
• IMS e-portfolio

• IMS Learning Design
• High level instructional design
• IEEE Digital Rights Expression Languages
• Recommended practice for education and training
• IMS Repository
• Really more of an architecture reference model
• IMS Sharable State Persistence
• Integration of LMS / SIM

Based on observation, not hard data
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New Consumer-driven Efforts

• Frameworks
• Not standards but frames for conversations
  about standards
• Quality Standards
• Address the development of digital learning
  content
• CORDRA
• Content Object Repository Discovery Resolution
  Architecture
• Just an architecture and recommended practice
• SCORM / SIM Interoperability
• Driven by military simulation community

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New Provider-driven Efforts

• Competencies
• Defining and modeling learning objectives,
  skills, knowledge, ability, tasks
• Web Services in Learning
• Handling LMS / Content Server architecture
• Handling catalog update
• IMS Common Cartridge
• Exchange of courses for academic LMS

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And Some Other Work

• Search / Query / Harvesting standards
• Several of these, many from other communities
• Efforts updating standards by updating view
  points
• Research Aggregation Model (ontology)
• Content packaging ? UML version / some updates
• LOM / Dublin Core Abstract Model

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Do I need to pay attention to all that?
(Probably Not)
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What does a Consumer need to know?

• What problems are being addressed ?
• What problems have been solved?
• How to ask the right questions
• Hint Do you conform to X? is not the right
  question

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Problems Being Addressed

• Separating content from delivery systems
• Making it easier (or possible) to find the right
  stuff
• PREVENTING LOCK-IN
• Getting learning systems to talk to other systems

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Problems Being Solved

• Separating content from delivery systems
• This is what IMS Content Packaging, SCORM, IMS
  Question Test, and AICC standards do.
• So far this works well but not perfectly.
• Applies only to Web-based content and assessments
• Content still needs to be tweaked for specific
  systems
• Making it easier to find the right stuff
• This is what metadata does
• The biggest problem is the lack of (good)
  metadata
• PREVENTING LOCK-IN (MORE AND MORE)
• Getting learning systems to talk to other systems
  not really, not yet.

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How to get an honest and useful answer

• Dont ask about standards, ask about solutions
• After I have developed 100 one-hour courses in
  your system, what will be the cost to migrate
  them to a different system? What have you done to
  make this easy for me?
• Dont ask about conformance ask for details
• What is the minimum set of tags associated with a
  title in your catalog? Provide a screenshot of
  your search screen that shows which tags are
  searchable. Show / explain how authors generate
  tags in your tools.

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What does a Content Developer need to know?

• How content interoperability standards such as
  SCORM (and its components) work and what they do
• Which standards are used by authoring tools and
  supported by delivery systems

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What does a Technology Developer need to know?

• Where standards are along the adoption and
  implementation curve
• Details and best practices for standards relevant
  to the technology being developed and that are
• Being used in the market
• - or-
• Provide solutions to specific problems (e.g.
  integrating with a SIS)
• - or-
• Confer a competitive advantage

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Example 1

• Publishing content as a business
• Accepted standards
• Metadata, DOI, SCORM / AICC, OAI-PMH, SRU/SRW,
  SQI
• Emerging standards
• CORDRA
• Possible relevant standards
• Query standards, Digital Rights Expression
  Language, Quality standards
• Standards that address the functionality of
  content, e.g. Sharable State Persistence if the
  content interacts with simulations or games or
  Learning Design
• Specifications to watch
• IMS Common Cartridge (academic), Web Services in
  Learning

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Example 2

• Building a serious simulation / game
• Accepted standards
• Metadata, High Level Architecture, OpenGL (and
  Simple DirectMedia Layer)
• Emerging standards
• Not sure
• Possible relevant learning technology standards
• SCORM, Sharable State Persistence, e-portfolio
• Specifications to watch
• SIM/SCORM Study Group

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Details on SCORM

• WHAT IT DOES
• HOW IT WORKS

THESE SLIDES HAVE BEEN REPURPOSED FROM A SCORM
TUTORIAL GIVEN IN APRIL, 2006.
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Some slides in this presentation were produced by
and used with permission of the Advanced
Distributed Learning initiative (www.adlnet.org).
Others were reused / repurposed from
previous workshops and presentations
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WHAT IS SCORM?

• A REFERENCE MODEL A set of profiles of standards
  and specifications that tells you how to do
  something useful
• A SOLUTION Solves the problem of separating
  Web-based training content from delivery systems
• A STANDARD
• Adopted by most commercial LMS products
• Required by government directives (U.S., Korea )
• SCORM 2004, 3rd Edition, is on track to being
  standardized as an ISO technical report
• SCORM means SCORM 2004 in this presentation

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SCORM 1.2 / AICC ADOPTION COMPILED IN 2004
Sources Various Brandon-Hall Reports (Excepting Last Column)  1997/8 LMS 2000 LMS 2001 LCMS 2003 LMS 2003 LCMS 2004 Authoring Tools Current Course Management Systems
Number of Systems 27 56 29   23 43 23
               
AICC Support 41 52 83   87 65 26
Certified 7   13 9
Compliant 76   74 56
Support Planned 23   4 0
No AICC Exists / Planned 59 25 17   9 35 74
               
SCORM Support 17 83   87 72 43
1.2    83 63 39
Other   4 9 4
Support Planned 2 7   13 5
No SCORM Exists / Planned 100 80 10   0 23 52
               
IMS Metadata 34   43
IMS Metadata Planned 25  
IMS Content Packaging   61
IMS QTI   22
IMS (not specified)   9
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ADL Timeline
Jan. 99, Executive Order 13111 tasking DoD to
lead collaborative standards development
Nov. 97, White House Co-sponsors ADL Kick-off
Meeting
Dec. 04, SCORM 2004 2nd Edition
Jun 01, Executive Order 13218 21st Century
Workforce Initiative
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
1997
1998
1999
Jan. 98, Executive Memo citing ADL as a model
for federal agencies
Feb. 05, Plugfest 9
Apr. 99, Opened the ADL Co-Lab in Alexandria, VA
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A SCORM IS BREWING
1999
2001
2000
2002
2003
2004
2005
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SCORM ASSUMES

• A particular content lifecycle (next slide)
• Web-based content
• A single learner
• A small set of pedagogically relevant data
• Time spent with content
• Scores on tests
• Status of objectives

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SCORM CONTENT LIFECYCLE
Repository
Learning Content Authoring Tools
Create
Existing Content
Repurpose
Chunk
Assemble Sequence
Learning Catalog
Find
Import
LMS
Track
Deliver
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A SET OF BOOKS
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THE SCORM BOOKS
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SCORM Content Aggregation Model
Content Package
Manifest
SCOs
(XML document)
lt?xml version"1.0" encoding"UTF
-8" standalone"no"?gt
All the physical
ltmetadatagt
files needed for
ltschemagtADL SCORMlt/schemagt
ltschemaversiongt1.2
this package
lt/schemaversiongt
8
Including the structure with
ltlom xmlnshttp//
Content
sequencing behaviors/rules
www.imsglobal.org/imsd_rootv1p2"gt
Package
lt/metadatagt
Metadata
ltmanifest
identifierIRS_IFS_COURSEgt
CD-ROM
ltorganizations
defaultxp_man0_toc1"gt
Package Interchange Format
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SCORM Runtime Environment
Learning Management System
(LMS)
LMS Server
Server Side
Launch
Client Side
Data Model
Actual data sent
Web Browser
back and forth
between a SCO
and LMS
Asset
Communication
SCO
with backend
Asset
Asset
server is not
specified in
API
SCORM.
Asset
ECMAScript
Instance
API

Communications Link between a SCO and LMS
Data Model

Data retrieved from and stored in the LMS from
the SCO
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Sequencing Navigation

• Activities are aggregated and organized into a
  tree.
• A default traversal path can be modified by a
  learning designer.
• Traversal is triggered by a sequencing request.
• Request is triggered either by the learner
  through navigation events or by the delivery
  system.
• Sequencing rules are evaluated at runtime and can
  be conditional.
• Activities are delivered one at a time.
• Actual content resides in leaves of the tree

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Remediation Using Objectives
Rule Exit if Obj_1 AND Obj_2 are Satisfied.
Else, Continue.
Rule Skip Lesson 1 if Obj_1 is Satisfied
Rule Skip Lesson 2 if Obj_2 is Satisfied
Rule Set Satisfaction Status for Obj_1
Rule Set Satisfaction Status for Obj_2
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Remediation Using Objectives
Learner experiences Lessons 1 and 2 then takes
Assessment
Learner Fails Test Item 1
Learner Passes Test Item 2
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Remediation Using Objectives
Assessment sets Satisfaction Status for Obj_1 and
Obj_2
Learner Failed Test Item 1
Learner Passed Test Item 2
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Remediation Using Objectives
Rule Exit if Obj_1 AND Obj_2 are Satisfied.
Else, Continue
Rule Skip Lesson 1 if Obj_1 is Satisfied
Rule Skip Lesson 2 if Obj_2 is Satisfied
Learner Failed Test Item 1
Learner Passed Test Item 2
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Example Web-based Content Created in a SCORM
Authoring Tool
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Content exported to a SCORM package
Type of content package to export
Export destination
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Exported Content as a SCORM Package
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Sign on to LMS and Import Content
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Launch Content Student Name Comes from LMS
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Status, Score, Accesses, Time Sent to LMS
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XML SCORM Studio

• Joint ADL Co-Lab 2006 Prototype
• Prototype available on Source Forge on Halloween,
  2006
• LIVE DEMO

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WEB 2.0 ITS NOT YOUR TEACHERS WEB ANY MORE
BUT, LIKE ALL STANDARDS, SCORM IS OLD SCHOOL
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SO WHATS NEXT?
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TRENDS ISSUES

• Underlying Topology
• Client / Server replaced by a distributed model
  with multiple content servers
• Underlying Philosophy
• Provider broadcast replaced by user collage
• Mass production replaced by mass customization
• Learning Technology
• Learning Management Systems replaced by
  personalized learning environments
• Passive learning replaced by interactive control

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In general

• Learning is becoming more embedded
• Learning technology is becoming less
  distinguishable from other technology
• Learning technology standards are borrowing more
  from other domains
• The problem is no longer managing learning The
  problem is letting learning take place and
  managing everything around it.

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Buzzwords Watch List

• Personal learning environments (CETIS project)
• Web services
• Web Services based on a specific set of
  standards that solve enterprise scalability
• Web services based on a different collection of
  standards that solve Web 2.0 scalability
• Competencies the neglected building block of
  learning
• Repository standards, because we still need to
  get to seek, and ye shall find.

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QUESTIONS?

• robby_at_computer.org