“Standards are industry’s way of codifying obsolescence”. – Anonymous
Technology changes rapidly. Accordingly, the development of standards for e-learning is like a moving target. Many institutions and organizations first laid claim to “the standard” for online content and delivery. Several organizations have gained prominence in developing e-learning standards including:
- Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC)
- Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM)
- IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS)
- Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Learning Technology Standards Committee (IEEE— LTSC)
- Canadian Core Learning Resource Metadata Application Profile (CanCore).
While compliance to standards and membership in any organization is voluntary, most major content developers and technology providers conform to some or all of the standards recommended by these organizations. In many cases regulatory bodies reference a set or sub-set of each other’s standards. Others list only specifications and guidelines rather than standards, as the development and/or adoption of what will become a standard will continue. The following provides a brief background on each organization. The References section at the end of the chapter lists additional organizations and websites that may be of interest. AVIATION
Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC)
The Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC) is an international association of technology-based training professionals. The AICC develops guidelines for the aviation industry in the development, delivery, and evaluation of CBT and related training technologies. The AICC has developed methods that allow learning management systems to exchange information and track the results of contents.
Although AICC primarily attends to the aviation industry, their focus has led to very well developed specifications for learning, and particularly for computer-managed instruction. As a result, a wide range of learning consortiums and accredited standards groups adapt the AICC guidelines to their suit their own industries. The main link for the AICC is http://www.aicc.org /index.html.
Shareable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM)
The Department of Defense and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy launched the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative in 1997 to develop an open architecture for online learning. Its purpose was to support access to quality education and training resources tailored to individual learner needs and available as required.
The ADL Shareable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM) specification provides a common technical framework for computer and web-based learning that attempts to foster the creation of reusable learning content as "instructional objects". SCORM is based on AICC and the IMS Global Learning Consortium specifications. The ADL provides interoperability testing laboratories and intends to establish a certification program. The main website for SCORM is: http://www.adlnet.org/.
IMS Global Learning Consortium
The IMS Global Learning Consortium represents a number of large and small educational institutions, training organizations, government and software vendors interested in incorporating learning resource metadata into their software products. IMS is developing and promoting open specifications for facilitating online distributed learning activities such as locating and using educational content, tracking learner progress, reporting learner performance, and exchanging learner records between administrative systems. The IMS Project is funded solely by membership (the highest level of participation is the contributing member, with an annual fee of $50,000). The main link for IMS is www.ims project.org/.
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Learning Technology Standards Committee (IEEE-LTSC)
The Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC), part of IEEE, is a formal standards body that produces standards with legal standing. The formal standardization process is generally based on existing process; in the case of the LTSC, the other organizations listed here provide input. The LTSC itself comprises several working groups that are developing technical standards, recommended practices, and guidelines for software components, tools, and technologies. They also design methods that facilitate the development, deployment, maintenance, and inter-operation of computer implementations of education and training components and systems. The URL for the LTSC is http://ieeeltsc.org/.
Canadian Core Learning Resource Metadata Application Resource (CanCore)
CanCore interprets and simplifies the IMS metadata specification, which is a subset of the SCORM specifications. SCORM has been developed in the context of military and training applications, whereas CanCore’s authors and audience have been the public and educators. CanCore enhances the ability of educators, researchers, and students in Canada and around the world to search and locate material from online collections of educational resources. CanCore is based on, and fully compatible with, the IEEE Learning Object Metadata standard and the IMS Learning Resource Meta-data specification. However, the IMS and IEEE are global consortia of educational, industry, and government bodies and the standards they produce are cumbersome and complicated. (Some standards require support of a set of metadata with more than 80 single elements). CanCore was developed to identify a minimum baseline of elements that end-users and institutions could agree were essential, simplifying complexity and providing guidance on general details related to the use of content..
Successful implementation of e-learning requires consistent interpretation of a standard’s purpose and CanCore was devised to realize economies of scale in this process. Since its inception, CanCore has:
- conducted research into the field of learning object metadata;
- devised a workable, consensual sub-set of the IMS learning Object Meta-data Information Model, known as the CanCore Element Set (http://www.cancore.ca /guidelines/drd/);
- become a participant in IMS through the sponsorship of Industry Canada;
- developed informal ties with Dublin Core;
- written and presented numerous papers in the field of learning object metadata;
- created an XML-record bank showcasing sample CanCore records; and
- written the CanCore Learning Resource Metadata Profile Guidelines.
The key documents on which the CanCore Guidelines were based are:
- IMS Learning Resource Metadata Information Model (www.imsproject.org/metadata/imsmdv1p2p1 /imsmd_infov1p2p1.html);
- IMS Learning Resource Metadata Binding Specification (www.imsproject.org/metadata/imsmdv1 p2p1/imsmd_bindv1p2p1.html);
- IMS Learning Resource Metadata Best Practices and Implementation Guide (http://www.imsproject.org /metadata/imsmdv1p2p1/imsmd_bestv1p2p1.html).
- The IMS Learning Resource Information Model is itself based on the IEEE LOM.
The guidelines were also developed with consideration of the Dublin Core Initiative (www.dublincore .org/), particularly its element descriptions (www .dublincore.org/documents/dces/), qualifier descriptions (http://www.dublincore.org/documents/dcmes-qualifiers/), and usage guide (http://www.dublincore.org/documents /usageguide/).
E-Learning Standards Advisory Council of Canada
The E-learning Standards Advisory Council of Canada enables different provinces to work together to identify common requirements of their respective educational systems and to communicate requirements to those who develop standards. As there are multiple standards in development, eLSACC was intended to ensure standards being developed meet Canadian needs. eLSAAC was initially supported by the Minister of Education of Quebec and Council of Ministers of Education of Canada. Five provinces, including British Columbia, have agreed to fund eLSAAC for a five-year period. The eLSAAC can be found at elsacc.ca.
