17.5: Common Standards for E-Learning

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“Standards are always out of date. That’s what makes them standards”. – Alan Bennett (Corliss, 2004)

While standards will vary from organization to organization, generally they address core aspects of e-learning including data specification, format, security, and exchange between systems, as well as content structure, cataloguing, and retrieval. Other standards attempt to address accessibility, engagement with the learner, instructional design, etc.

The key to understanding standards is to determine which apply to your instructional practice and support learning. The point of having a standard is to support and enhance practice, not to limit it. This is best captured by a policy of the International Open Forum. (2004, p. 3) which states:

Standardization is one of the essential building blocks of the Information Society … The development and use of open, inter-operable, nondiscriminatory and demand-driven standards that take into account needs of users and consumers is a basic element for the development and greater diffusion of ICTs and more affordable access to them, particularly in developing countries. International standards aim to create an environment where consumers can access services worldwide regardless of underlying technology.

Standards have been applied to the architecture of learning management systems (LMS) and learning content management systems (LCMS), as well as the development and metadata tagging of learning objects for presentation on these systems. Learning architecture standards set specifications for exchanging data with other learning systems and database programs (library resources, demographic or records information systems), and providing an environment to locate, manage, and deliver learning objects. Learning object standards set specifications for metadata tagging (how to make information about the learning object such as name, publisher, learning objectives, description of the content, visible), and how to integrate with a learning system (track learning, set mastery level, assess, and report on the learning that occurs using the learning objects).

The benefits of learning architecture and learning object standards and specifications to date have been:

the ability to use learning objects from any compliant publisher or developer on multiple technological delivery platforms;
data interoperability among different learning systems and database platforms; and
the ability to use and manage learning objects as resources.

Common standards for e-learning include:

Data specification
- What data must be available for exchange with another system (items such as learner information, learner demographics, learning assignments, performance).
- What each data item is to be called and what format it should be in (text, integer, decimal number, etc.).
Data format
- How data is packaged for exchange (comma-separated data, spreadsheet data, XML).
- XML (a structured text format where every piece of data is preceded by its name) is the format most widely used.
Message packaging
- Details the protocol for sending the data from one system to another. (HTTP has become the standard).
- Transaction management
- Details the protocol for what the receiving system is to do with the data (such as creating a new learner, updating a learner record, creating a new performance record).
Security management
- Details how data is to be secured, and how to authenticate the sender of the data to make sure the sender has rights to send data and perform the transaction indicated.
Content container specification
- Details the environment that the learning management system will provide for the content it launches. (The least complicated and least capable container is a new browser window. More capable containers are browser windows that get data such as user identification information from the learning management system, bookmarks and sends data such as score and performance data).
Cataloguing and metadata creation
- Refers to the process of creating structured descriptions that provide information about any aspect of a digital resource (the information may include technical information about the digital entity or describe the process of digitization).
- Types of specific process metadata may be administrative metadata, technical metadata and preservation metadata.