CTL's Weblogs
August 18, 2003
RELOAD Editor Adds Content Packaging and SCORM Authoring
CETIS-RELOAD editor adds Content Packaging and SCORM authoring
"Following a comprehensive rewrite, the 1.1 version of the RELOAD e-learning content authoring tool can now be used to edit both plain IMS as well as SCORM content packages. What started as a humble, open source metadata editor is now rapidly on the way to become a full e-learning content editor that will allow you to create plain IMS content packages or SCORM Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) in their entirety, from existing material."
August 07, 2003
Free Online Tutorial on SCORM and ADL
Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab
Do you want an introduction to the SCORM Content Model? Wonder about Meta-data or content structure? Consider the free online self-tutorial on ADL and SCORM offered by ADL Co-lab. The training modules take approximately 45 minutes. This is a good intro – though your eyes may glaze over towards the end.
July 21, 2003
IMS and OKI, the Wire and the Socket
CETIS-IMS and OKI, the wire and the socket
Last week the alt-i-lab e-learning standards conference took place at MIT in Boston, home to some of OKI’s (Open Knowledge Initiative) main developers. OKI promises greater flexibility though not necessarily cheaper costs. OKI doesn’t replace an IMS system but allows systems to talk to one another. Take a look at what universities and standards organizations are doing to increase the use of technology in higher education.
July 03, 2003
A Feature or a Bug: SCORM and Cross Domain Scripting
CETIS-A feature or a bug; SCORM and cross domain scripting
According to Jeffrey Engelbrecht, "SCORM incompatibility across multiple Web domains is not a frequently-discussed problem, but it exists, and in some organizations presents a major obstacle to enterprise-wide distributed learning." Read the CETIS June 22nd article for more information.
April 03, 2003
UW Selects New Course Management System
The March 2003 issue of DESEIN (Distance Education Systemwide Interactive Electronic Newsletter) from Wisconsin (http://www.uwex.edu/disted/desien/) announces Wisconsin's IMS choice following their statewide RFP process.
If you haven't checked out this newsletter, it may be worth a quick read.
February 28, 2003
Q of the Week: "reUsability"?
On a slightly different tack from OIT Clippings, we've been thinking that weblog software ought to enable more archived dialogue and commentary, so with that in mind, I'd like to pose a "Question of the week" - encourage folks to comment, and if you've got a question you'd like discussed, please let us know (e.g. email Mike) - so here goes:
Question of the Week: Learning "Objects" - Reuseable and otherwise
Folks ask me fairly regularly something like "Mike, what's up with "Learning Objects?" - or "SCORM"? - or "RLOs"? or other related acronyms and concepts of digital knowledge and learning management, and the specifications that are supposed to enable such use and management.
So, first an observation, and then my question.
Observation: Seems to me there's both more hype and more money chasing “LOs” in and around the discourse and practice of “training” – specifically, corporate training. Less attention (and money) is spent thinking about and developing either “LOs” for higher education, or the discourse of “LOs” within the discourse of Higher Ed.
The question then, is this: what role (or roles) and responsibility does Higher Education have to take in the discourse of “LOs,” both in order that some of the purported benefits of reusability, portability, and searchability can be realized within our bailiwick? Purview? Scope?, and in order that the tools and practices being developed under the rubric of “knowledge” or "content" management systems account for the needs and purposes of higher education?
An example of the discussion about the relationship of elearning and knowledge management:
e-Learning World: Bridging the worlds of e-learning and KM
Even though I think there are serious questions of scholarship and pedagogy that are and should be embedded within these questions, I’m hoping that the context of a weblog environment could foster a collegial dialogue around these questions, with one potential result being to foster some more elaborated collective knowledge about just which questions we should be asking in higher ed about these developments. Or something like that …
-mike
Please comment by clicking on the "Comments" link below …
February 18, 2003
MIT Open Courseware (OCW) Initiative FAQ
Learn more about MIT's Open Courseware initiative from this Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page.
"The idea behind MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is to make MIT course materials that are used in the teaching of almost all undergraduate and graduate subjects available on the Web, free of charge, to any user anywhere in the world. MIT OCW will advance technology-enhanced education at MIT, and will serve as a model for university dissemination of knowledge in the Internet age. This venture continues the tradition at MIT, and in American higher education, of open dissemination of educational materials, philosophy, and modes of thought, and will help lead to fundamental changes in the way colleges and universities utilize the Web as a vehicle for education."
February 12, 2003
Wisc-Online Learning Objects Demonstration Repository
Wisconsin Online Learning Resources
Our neighbors in Wisconsin have, with the help of grants from FIPSE and the NSF, begun making some sample learning objects available online.
Of particular interest to some may be the LOs on Bloom's taxonomy, which can be found by hitting the Wisc-Online index page, and clicking on "Professional Development" and then "Online Teacher Training." Here, the taxonomy is deployed in the context of helping faculty and instructional designers think through the complexities of formulating learning goals and objectives, and articulating those goals in terms that will lend themselves to learning assessment.
One thing to watch for: for reasons not understood, the Flash on this site and Netscape 7.0 didn't like each other all that much ... -m
January 17, 2003
ADL takes first step to repository profile
With the publication of a report on "Emerging and Enabling Technologies for the Design of Learning Object Repositories", ADL is taking the first tentative steps to designing a learning object repository application profile to complement its existing learning object reference model, SCORM.
One of the big promises of learning objects are their ability to be re-used outside the context they where first designed for. A lot of debate has therefore focussed on things like package formats and the ideal level of granularity or generality of a learning object. But none of this will matter a lot when there are no agreed means of finding, gathering, retrieving and storing learning objects. Hence the general interest in repositories that will do all of these things. That ADL is surveying standards and specifications in this area is significant beyond what they found; it indicates that the technology is both reaching maturity and in pretty urgent need to be standardised.
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