17.1: Introduction
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Standards exist for many things, from safety standards in home construction and manufactured goods to standards of professional practice. Implementing e-learning requires that you adopt standards and specifications for both the development and delivery of content. Standards allow e-learning content, technological infrastructures, educational technologies and learning systems to be inter-operable.
Because the gauge of railroad track was standardized, locomotives led the way for the industrial economy. Similarly, the Internet was born from the standardization of TCP/IP, HTTP, and HTML protocols for the World Wide Web. Historically, standards emerge when proprietary technology does not integrate with other technologies. Users of the technology demand changes that allow new products to work with existing ones (for example, the Blue Ray—High Definition DVD battle recently). This convergence provides the basis for a set of standards that ensures the consumer of longevity and consistency.
For the purposes of this chapter, the term standard refers to document descriptions containing technical specifications and criteria to be used as rules and guidelines to ensure content materials, delivery processes, and services meet their intended purpose.
Establishing e-learning standards began as part of a shift away from local, site-only content or programs to web-accessible ones. The migration away from proprietary systems and methods to common, shared ones, built the foundation for the development of standards. Today those standards form the basis on which e-learning can continue to develop and evolve. The standards enable the exchange of learning objects (content) and the technical integration of content, learning systems, and delivery platforms.