LETSI and the Future of SCORM

1. LETSI and the Future of SCORM Avron Barr, ADL Initiative I/lTSEC, Orlando November 27, 2007

2. The Sharable Content Object Reference Model A software model that defines the interrelationship of course components, data models, and protocols such that content “objects” are sharable across systems that conform with the same model. Philip Dodds (1951-2007) Inventor of SCORM Chief Architect, ADL Initiative

3. The State of SCORM Adoption • Hundreds of LMS and content authoring products have been certified to be SCORM conformant • SCORM is the de facto international standard for eLearning content • The ADL Initiative supports adopting organizations and product vendors around the world as SCORM’s steward • Adoption is past the point where it is reasonable to expect the ADL to carry the burden alone • Many adopters see the need for a new international, learning-focused, stewardship organization

4. How Do Standards Promote DL Adoption? • Technology vendors and major adopters need to see some areas of stability in the always changing landscape, in order to justify investment and major purchases. • Standards help create and stabilize markets: • Increasing effective market size for all vendors • Reducing costs and risks for consumers • Producing more stable code than custom solutions • Enabling policy makers to guide adopters • Allowing technology in two or more areas to evolve separately – easier entry for new innovations. • But to be effective at promoting innovation, standards must be agnostic about how they are applied, and they must be applied strategically.

5. SCORM’s Strategic Impact • SCORM is required in all training procurement in the US DoD, and a central registry of all content is being developed to: • Enable sharing plug-and-play content components • Reduce DoD market Balkanization • Realize savings from reuse of existing materials • Spur infrastructure-enabled innovations in training • Korea Cyber Home Learning System • 16 autonomous regional school districts • MedBiquitous • 65 autonomous healthcare organizations • Chrysler/BBDO – new car sales training • Enterprise Learning Management at the SCO level

6. LETSI - SCORM’s New Steward • The federation for Learning-Education-Training Systems Interoperability - an international, not-for-profit organization • A catalyst for global eLearning adoption across all market sectors: compulsory education, higher education, corporate training, military training, and on-the-job performance support • A community of teachers and technologists • Collaborating with standards bodies and industry associations • Supporting national eLearning standards efforts • Encouraging innovation in eLearning technology • The future steward of SCORM – a public trust • LETSI will continue the open process that has characterized ADL’s stewardship of SCORM

7. LETSI Founding Sponsors - 2007 • Adobe Systems Incorporated • Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADL) • Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee (AICC) • Booz Allen Hamilton • IEEE Computer Society • IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC) • Fraunhofer Institute Digital Media Technology • Korea Institute for Electronic Commerce (KIEC) • Latin American Institute of Educational Communication (ILCE) • Masie Learning Consortium (enterprise training) • MedBiquitous Consortium (healthcare education and training) • Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA)

8. The Forces on SCORM Competing Approaches Evolving Standards and Requirements for International Standardization Modern Enterprise SW Architecture IP Rights Issues Installed Base: Diverse Communities of Practice SCORM Changing Market Structure and Vendor Demands New Learning Technologies Costs for SCORM Support, Promotion, and Management

9. SCORM Today and Tomorrow • New Learning Technologies • Simulations, games and virtual worlds • Performance support, S1000D tech manuals • Mobile systems • Intelligent tutoring systems • Team training • Collaboration and on-line resources • Stable – SCORM 2004 • Maintain & Support • Facilitate Implementation • Promote Adoption • Listen to Users • New Enterprise Architectures • Distributed content • Service-oriented architecture • Content management and repositories • Future LMS architectures • HR Competency/skills management Today

10. How Will SCORM Evolve? 4th Edition SCORM2.0 SCORM 2004 LETSI: AICC, DoD, TWG, SIFA, Korea, DEST, MedBiquitous ISO/LETSI Study Group ISO Core SCORM

11. SCORM-Based Content Interoperability • Suppose you could: • Use multiple vendors to develop different parts of a course • Save time & money by re-using content from the Registry • Choose to have a new vendor add or update an individual SCO, vs. relying on the original vendor for the entire life of the course • Allow students to skip segments they’ve seen before in another course • When it works, the ADL’s vision of content objects, interoperability, sequencing, and sharing can transfer power from the vendor to the customer and to the student • And it is working • In Korea • At Chrysler • But not in the DoD?

12. Barriers to Adoption in the DoD • The ADL has addressed content interoperability and the repository federation infrastructure required for finding, sharing and re-using content • To succeed, the Services must change organizational and individual incentives, and then: • Establish and enforce SCORM procurement policies • Establish content development procedures, design templates, SCO-size guidelines, metadata requirements, version control, work flow, etc. to assure interoperability and reusability of content • Commit to content management as a modern enterprise imperative • Eventually this will lead to the need for repositories, which in turn are a prerequisite to the ADL-Registry having an impact

13. Overall ADL Strategy

14. The “Convincing Demonstrations” Strategy • Based on RUG feedback and the results of the Booz Allen study, the ADL plans to contract with an appropriate set of systems integration and management consulting firms to: • Operate and improve the ADL Registry, including features, portals, and applications needed by early adopters • Integrate DoD repositories and authoring environments with the Registry (“one-button” registration and search) • Help DoD components establish content management and repository management practices • Help early adopters plan and implement “convincing demonstrations” of the impact of the Registry with “before and after data” (I/ITSEC 2009) • Participants will have skin in the game • Support an open source community, CCB, and third-party implementation of CNRI/CORDRA-based registries

15. For more information: • adlregistry.adlnet.gov • And www.adlnet.gov, generally • www.adlcommunity.net • www.letsi.org

16. Extra Slides

17. eLearning Circa 1997 • New course materials were developed for a single Learning Management System, usually with the LMS’s own authoring tool. As a result: • LMS installations were isolated - useful material developed by others was not accessible. • If you found a course you wanted to use from another LMS, it wasn’t interoperable with your LMS. Courses could not be shared across installations. • New material was always developed from scratch, since it was so hard to reuse existing lessons. • When you changed out your LMS for a newer, better one, you had to re-work all the content, or buy new courses.

18. The ADL Initiative • The ADL initiative was established in 1997 to advance the use of distributed learning in the DoD and across federal agencies. • The ADL currently has the following activities: • SCORM – An international learning content standard • The ADL Registry – A DoD-wide utility for sharing learning objects • R&D – Including future DoD learning architecture and technology policy, improving the quality of DL, motivations for re-use, sims and games in managed DL, CORDRA federated architecture, and innovative tools and systems. • Outreach – To the armed services and allied forces, other Federal agencies, vendors, and the K-12, higher-education, corporate, professional, and research DL communities

19. The ADL Vision • Plug-and-play content and components vs. vendor lock-in • Gives consumers free choice of tools and components without having to rework existing content • Reduces risks in systems procurement • Innovative vendors can introduce new functionality • Larger effective market for content, tool, and systems vendors • Overcomes market balkanization • High-volume content justifies investment in quality and innovation • “Long tail” titles can also reach maximum potential • Reuse and re-purposing of existing materials • Student self-study and automated assembly of relevant content • By teachers on the fly: finding just the right lesson or video • By content developers: saving money and time • Management of learning and learning content in terms of objectives and “Sharable Content Objects”

20. Overall Plan for Implementing the Vision • Create and maintain a widely-adopted interoperability standard - SCORM • Build a central registry of all DoD training materials • Create DoD policy to guide future procurement to require SCORM conformance and content registration • Convince DoD training commands that the benefits are worth the costs and pain involved in change • Nurture the emergence of a thriving learning object economy across DoD training components and expedite institutionalization of the ADL Registry and DoD Instruction 1322.26 • Promote our vision across the Federal Government

21. Sharing is More than Interoperability • SCORM specifies how to develop & deploy content objects that can be shared & contextualized to suit the needs of the learner • SCORM provides the means to tag content for later discovery & access in a distributed environment • SCORM is silentabout discovery & access

22. Context Delivery Discovery Retrieval Identification Location Resolution CORDRA • Content Object Repository Discovery and Registration Architecture • Addresses a difficult problem • Contextualized search, discovery, identification, resolution, and retrieval and delivery The “CORDRA Triangle”

23. The ADL Registry and DoD-I 1322.26 • The ADL Registry is a DoD-wide facility where content developers can “register” a training offering located in their local repository, which can then be discovered, evaluated, and obtained by others for their own use. • The Registry contains metadata about the content – it “federates” information about what is in all the DoD repositories • Repository policy controls who can use the material under what circumstances. • DoD Instruction 1322.26 says that all acquisition programs must search the Registry for useful material before any new DL content can be developed or procured. Exactly what is meant by “useful material” is left up to the Services.

24. ADL Registry Register every content object; Register every repository; Retain local control of repository content DoD Local Handle Server Repository Metadata Index Repository Registry Content Object Registry Content Object Metadata Index Joint Marines Air Force Navy Army Distributed Repositories

25. ADL-R: Current Activity 4Q07 • ADL-R and CORDRA documentation • CNRI’s core technology development • New ADL-R website at JADL • Manual registration and search • Redesign of information architecture • A RIM application • Help desk and Registry administration now at JADL • New administration tools to smooth the process • Booz Allen Hamilton study (due next week) • Strategy to get a few convincing demonstrations of the value of the Registry and content interoperability • Identify technical and organizational roadblocks • Understand pain points, motivation, politics, etc.

26. Applications that Might be Needed Special-Purpose Portals Repository Auto- Synchronization Specialized Search Tools Version Control and Notification Recommendation Systems Meta-data and Tagging Tools Authoring Tools for Re-Use … RIM ADL-R Config of CNRI’s CORDRA Release

27. Federated CORDRA ADL Registry Instance (Operational) (Inside of DoD) CORDRA Registry of Registries (International Communities of Practice) ARMY ATSC Navy ILE DHS Registry Medical Registry Air Force AFIADL ADL ADL Registry “Federate within DoD” CORDRA “Registry Of Registries” ADL-R Oversight Board DAU DND Canada Registry JFSC NPS NATO PfP Australia Registry Repositories UK Registry (other registries)