Introduction When I started researching SCORM in preparation for developing content and implementing an LMS, what I remember most was my frustration at the lack of any concise, hands-on information that was available about SCORM. Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) has the complete specification (all 400+ pages of it) readily available on their site, but I was looking for a quick, "get your hands dirty" explanation that skipped all the mumbo-jumbo and would let me dive in and start trying things out. Hopefully, you've found this whitepaper early in your search and avoided that frustration. My purpose is to give you a "real world" explanation of SCORM that you can actually use to begin understanding the details of what you'll find in the specification itself. I'll skip the e-learning history, theory and other vague ramblings as I'm sure you can find an abundance of it elsewhere with relative ease.
Overview The SCORM specification, developed by Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL - http://www.adlnet.org), is a set of rules that learning management systems (LMS) and learning content follow in order to be compatible with each other. This theoretically allows the content to be loaded into, launched and tracked by any learning management system using a common rule set. Imagine your typical kitchen toaster and its electric plug that you plug-in to your wall socket. That same wall socket can have a blender, electric can opener or coffee maker plugged into it because all those appliances, along with the socket itself, comply with a set of rules dictating plugs and sockets. Things such as the number of prongs, shape and dimensions of the prongs, polarity and voltage have been published as a standard that manufacturers follow to insure that their plugs and sockets all work together. The SCORM specification is no different. Your learning management system is the wall socket. Your content is the toaster, blender, coffee maker or whatever else you plug into that socket.
Introducing the SCO… E-Learning content is delivered as a single unit called a Sharable Content Object or SCO. SCOs are independent, self-contained, transportable packages that represent the lowest level of granularity that is tracked by a learning management system. In other words, SCOs are mini-applications that when launched from an LMS report, among other things, one score and pass/fail status. Your SCOs should contain all the necessary files required to function, have or require no knowledge of any other SCO or external information, and as a matter of design, should remain relatively small such that they can be easily reused.
We generally design our SCOs (which we also refer to as lessons) to be able to be completed by a learner in less than 15 minutes. We've found that this avoids information overload and gives the learner well spaced stopping points.
And since the spec indicates that SCOs shall be transportable, you could infer that they should also be platform independent, although this is not explicitly stated. Server dependencies such as Coldfusion, Perl, ASP or server-based databases are problematic as a particular LMS might be running on a server that does not have those services available. So unless you are working in a tightly controlled internal environment, your SCOs should only be using client-side technologies such as HTML, Flash and Javascript.
…and the Content Package Now before we get into the details of the SCO, realize that we must to be able to transport it - even if that only means getting it from our desktop computer where we created it to the server where our LMS is hosted. To do so, we use a Content Package. Going back to our wall socket analogy, imagine that the content package is the box in which the toaster is packed and transported. In reality, it is simply a single compressed file containing all the files (html, images, flash swf, etc) necessary for the SCO to function. The content package may contain more than one SCO (a toaster and coffee-maker perhaps) and a single manifest file which describes the contents of the package. The LMS will use the manifest file to properly find and import each of the SCOs.
Web-Based and Script Enabled While there is no specific requirement that learning management systems be web-based, SCOs must be. This requirement gives developers a common platform (the web browser) to design and develop their content to function within, thereby removing unnecessary barriers to compatibility and transportability. Of course, even with the current maturity of web-browsers, they are not all created equal and SCORM makes no mention of a specification to be followed to ensure web-browser compatibility. Compliance with the latest W3C standards however, is a safe course of action to ensure compatibility with a wide range of current web-browsers. And in order for a SCO to communicate data to and from the LMS as well as potentially provide interactivity and quizzing functionality, it's going to require more than just client-side HTML. SCORM specifies that SCOs use an ECMA Standards compliant scripting language to communicate with the LMS. The most notable ECMA compliant language is one you've probably heard of - JavaScript.
SCO and Content Package Summary So what we've covered regarding Sharable Content Objects can be summarized as follows: SCOs are mini-applications containing the content itself. SCOs are self-contained and transportable - all required files are included and compressed into a single content package. Content packages contain a single manifest file and may contain more than one SCO. SCOs are web-based and script-enabled - consisting of HTML, Javascript and any other client-side technology (images, Macromedia Flash, etc). SCOs are the smallest level of granularity tracked by an LMS - they report, among other things, only one score and status.
The Details Now that you understand some of the high-level layout, we'll explore the fundamental details to understanding SCORM. Realize that this is by no means an exhaustive exploration, but it should provide a good foundation of knowledge. Be sure to download and read the complete SCORM specification as there are many details that will not be mentioned here.
The Content Package and Manifest File As I have mentioned, for a SCO to be uploaded to the LMS, it must be contained in a Content Package - a single compressed file conforming to the Process Interchange Format (PIF) specification. In most cases, this is simply a .ZIP file and may contain multiple SCOs.
The Content Package must also contain a Manifest File - an XML file containing information about the included SCOs and their organization. By reading the manifest file, the LMS can gather information about the SCOs that are contained in the package and will be able to launch them when appropriate.
The Manifest File must be located in the root of the Content Package and named 'imsmanifest.xml'. The remaining file structure of the content package is completely up to you, even when including multiple SCOs, as long as the references contained in the manifest file correctly identify the location of the launching files, metadata files or any other files that the LMS might need to find within the package.
Here's an example of a very basic, yet fully compliant "hello world" manifest file. Note that a fair amount of optional information not covered here is usually included in a typical manifest file. For complete details be sure to refer to Section 3, Content Package Conformance Requirements of the SCORM 2004 (1.3) Conformance Requirements (CR). xmlns="http://www.imsproject.org/xsd/imscp_rootv1p1p2" xmlns:adlcp="http://www.adlnet.org/xsd/adlcp_rootv1p2" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" ADL SCORM CAM 1.3
Hello World Course identifierref="sco_hello_ref"> Hello World Lesson
Notice that the basic structure is a manifest node containing a metadata node, an organizations node and a resources node.
The Metadata Node The required elements of this node that we have included specify the schema and schema version. Our example indicates that this content package uses the ADL SCORM schema and is compliant to the Content Aggregation Model of the SCORM 2004 (1.3) specification. Optionally, this node may also contain metadata containing extensive information about the content package including keywords, copyright information and more. This optional metadata may be included using a lom node or in an external XML file whose location would be referenced by an adlcp:location node. In either case, the lom or adlcp:location node would be located within the metadata node.
The meta-data structure, whether in-line or external is defined in Section 5 of the SCORM 2004 (1.3) Conformance Requirements (CR). Note that several other areas of the manifest also use this setup for referencing meta-data.
The Organizations Node The primary layout and relationship of the contents of our package is contained in the organizations node. Notice however, that information about the assets themselves such as file location are not included here. You'll notice a single organization in this node, although any number is allowed. Each organization that is listed in this node can be thought of as a course once it's uploaded into the LMS.
The SCORM specification does not require that an LMS recognize and import the organization structure itself - only that it be able to import and launch SCOs and assets that are defined within the resources node and referenced by item nodes within in the organizations node. Each organization listed must contain a title node to indicate the title of the organization or course.
Hello World Course We have titled our sample course "Hello World Course." Once imported, the LMS will use this as the display title of the course. Each organization may contain any number of item nodes which, in turn, may also contain any number of item nodes. There is no limit to the nesting of these nodes. The lowest level of item nodes represents the SCOs or assets contained in the content package and will each include an attribute identifierref.
An Asset is simply a file or group of files that can be launched by the LMS. Assets differ from SCOs in that they do not communicate with the LMS in any way. Our sample's identifierref value is "sco_hello_ref" which references a resource node that we will discuss shortly. An individual resource node may be referenced by more than one item node throughout the organizations node, even from within different organizations. When this occurs, the identifierref attribute for all instances should be the same. When present, upper layers of the item node nesting represent groupings or modules within the organization as shown by this example not contained in our sample: Hello World Course Module One SCO One Title
Most manifest files that you see coming from authoring programs such as Macromedia Captivate and Articulate Presenter will not nest the item nodes into modules, but rather contain only one item node (representing the SCO) within the organization. Each item node representing our SCOs and assets must contain a title node to indicate the title of the resource itself.
Hello World Lesson We have titled our SCO "Hello World Lesson" and the LMS will use this as the displayed title of the lesson once imported.
The Resources Node Whereas the organizations node defined the layout and relationship of the content, the resources node is where the actual content information is located. Each SCO or Asset that is contained within the content package will have a corresponding resource node within this node.identifier="sco_hello_ref" type="webcontent" href="index.htm" adlcp:scormtype="sco"> The identifier attribute of our resource contains the value "sco_hello_ref", which will correspond to the identifierref's value in our item node that is in the organizations node above. The href attribute lets the LMS know where the launch file for this resource is located and the adlcp:scormtype attribute indicates that this resource is a SCO rather than simply an Asset. So in our sample, the index.htm file located in the root of the content package as indicated here, is the launch file for the SCO that is titled "Hello World Lesson" as listed in the organizations node and referenced using the "sco_hello_ref" identifier. The result of all of this is that when an LMS imports a content package containing our sample manifest it will, at a minimum, create a new lesson, title it "Hello World Lesson" and upon launch execute the file "index.htm" that is located in the root of the content package. Optionally, the LMS may also create a new course, title it "Hello World Course" and include our "Hello World Lesson" in it. In either case, our LMS has successfully imported our SCO and has the capability to launch it.
For a complete explanation of the structure and elements included in the manifest, refer to Section 3 of the SCORM 2004 (1.3) Conformance Requirements (CR).
A Communications Channel - The API Once it's been launched, a SCO and the LMS need a communication channel through which to pass data. This is done through an object known as an API (Application Programming Interface) that is the conduit for all of the SCO to LMS and LMS to SCO communication.
The technology that the LMS vendor chooses to implement the API is completely up to them - no recommendations are made within the SCORM specification as long as the API is exposed to the SCO correctly and implements the methods and data structure required. We have seen APIs developed using Java applets, ActiveX controls and even pure JavaScript.
The SCO will be opened by the LMS in either a new browser window or framed within a page in the LMS browser window. Before communication can occur, the SCO must find the API and make contact.
In most cases, the API is visible in the HTML code of the LMS window as an object, embed or applet tag.
The SCORM specification indicates locations where the SCO should look for the API, requires that the LMS expose the API in one of those locations and that it be a Document Object Model (DOM) object named "API_1484_11" or "API" depending on the SCORM version you are following. Since the SCO is launched in either a new browser window or a frame within the LMS window, it will use a very simple process such as: look in my parent window (if framed) or in the window that opened me (if a new window) and see if there is an object named "API_1484_11" (or "API"). If the API is not found, the SCO can expand its search by looking in the parent of the window that opened it, the parent of its parent, and so on according to the spec.
Section 3.2.1 of the SCORM 2004 (1.3) Run Time Environment (RTE) outlines the locations and process that the SCO should use to find the API.
Once the SCO finds the API, it can invoke methods of the API to send data to and receive data from the LMS. If the API is not found, the SCO should alert the user that the connection to the LMS failed and no communication will occur. The ADL has made an "API wrapper" publicly available for use when developing SCOs. This wrapper is a file that you can include with your SCO that contains pre-written javascript functions for finding and accessing the API as well as for sending and receiving data. The wrapper is available on the ADL's website at http://www.adlnet.org.
Data Transfer Once the SCO has found the API, they must both speak the same language if any communication is to occur. The SCORM specification has defined a small set of methods that must exist in the API and be available for the SCO to use. The methods are accessed by the SCO via JavaScript code with the syntax of objectname.methodname(argument(s)) where objectname references the API itself, methodname is the method being used (the API methods are explained below) and argument(s) are the data passed to the method. In all cases, the SCO initiates interactions and data transfer by invoking these methods.
SCORM 2004 (1.3) API Methods: Initialize - Initializes communication with the LMS. No other API methods should be called by the SCO until Initialize has been successfully called.
returnValue = API_1484_11.Initialize("");
When completed, the resulting returnValue will contain "true" if the method was successful, "false" if it was not.
Terminate - Terminates communication with the LMS. No other API methods should be called by the SCO after Terminate has been successfully called.
returnValue = API_1484_11.Terminate("");
When completed, the resulting returnValue will contain "true" if the method was successful, "false" if it was not.
Commit - Saves the data that has been sent to the LMS via SetValue calls. If a SCO exits without invoking Commit, none of the learner's data is saved to the LMS. Commit is implicitly invoked by the API when Terminate is called.
returnValue = API_1484_11.Commit("");
When completed, the resulting returnValue will contain "true" if the method was successful, "false" if it was not. GetValue - Retrieves data from the LMS for use in the SCO. The SCO must pass the data element that it is requesting as an argument.
When completed, the resulting returnValue will contain the score that is retrieved from the LMS. SetValue - Passes data from the SCO to the LMS. The data is retained and may be retrieved during the user session, but is not saved to the LMS until Commit is invoked. The SCO must indicate the data element and its value that is to be saved as arguments.
When completed, the resulting returnValue will contain "true" if the method was successful, "false" if it was not. GetLastError - Retrieves the last numeric error code that occurred in the API as a result of invoking these methods.
returnValue = API_1484_11.GetLastError();
When completed, the resulting returnValue will contain the code corresponding to the last error that occurred. GetErrorString - Retrieves the text description corresponding to the error code priveded.
When completed in either case, the resulting returnValue will contain a text description of the error corresponding to the errorCode that was provided.
GetDiagnostic - Exists for LMS specific use. Returns a diagnostic text description based on the parameter that is passed as an argument.returnValue = API.GetDiagnostic("diagnostic text");
When completed, the resulting returnValue will contain the text of the diagnostic information.
A SCORM-compliant SCO is only required to call the Initialize and Terminate methods - all other method calls are optional. This will not result in any status or scores being passed, but will notify the LMS that the SCO was successfully launched and exited.
Using the GetValue and SetValue methods, the SCO is able to send and retrieve all the necessary data for effective tracking to and from the LMS. Some commonly used data elements include learner_id, learner_name, score, completion_status and suspend data. The example that follows will demonstrate proper usage of a few of these elements.
A complete listing of the data model elements and their descriptions can be found in Section 4.2 of the SCORM Run-Time Environment (RTE).
An Example So what you will find when looking at the code of a SCO is some process that is executed at launch, usually found in the onLoad event of the body tag, that finds and initializes the API. In some cases the SCO will then request and load basic information using GetValue, such as the learner's name and id. Additionally, the SCO may attempt to load previous session data such as score, progress status or learner responses that may be necessary to continue the learner's interaction with the SCO. From that point, SCO interactivity and functionality such as navigation and quizzing will likely operate independently of any SCORM-related functions. At certain points though, result data is passed to the LMS (using SetValue and possibly Commit) and upon completion of the SCO, perhaps within the functionality of an Exit button, the Terminate method is called.
Let's take a look at the following HTML and Javascript code as an example. Note that the getAPI function used in the doLMSInitialize function would be included in the apiwrapper.js script file that is referenced by the script tag in the header. This function would follow the process discussed earlier to search for and return the API from the opener window or parent frames. While this process is too detailed to completely explain here, the api wrapper that is available from the ADL contains this functionality so it is not necessary to develop your own from scratch.
SCO Example
Let's briefly step through this code to see what is actually happening. On page load, the doLMSInitialize function is called which uses the getAPI function to search for and return the API. The API is initialized, the learner's name is retrieved and a welcome message is displayed in the div element whose id is "welcome."
function doLMSInitialize(){ //find and returns the API starting with this window API = getAPI();
Finally, the learner clicks the Exit button which invokes the API's Terminate method.
What this example should illustrate for you is that a SCO is coded very much like any other interactive lesson with the occasional addition of method calls to the API when data is required or ready to be posted.
You can download this SCO and content package including the example manifest file at http://www.icslearninggroup.com/resources/helloworld.zip. This package is a functional SCORM 1.3 (2004) package that can be imported into a SCORM compliant learning management system.
Conclusion So we've examined the SCO and its general operation, the API and how it provides the communications portal between the LMS and the SCO and the manifest file and how it facilitates the importation of the SCO into the LMS. In other words, we've only scratched the surface. To fully understand SCORM and its functionality, you should download the full specification from the ADL's website and get familiar with it. Begin working with our sample content package and study as many other SCORM compliant SCOs as you can. The code is all client-side, so you will be able to open it with a basic text editor such as Notepad.
For more information on SCORM, learning management systems, SCORM compliant authoring tools, or to sign up for a free trial of Inquisiq EX Learning Management System where you can upload and test your SCORM compliant SCOs, visit us on the web at http://www.icslearninggroup.com.
Many organizations considering the purchase of e-learning courseware today have deployed, or are planning to deploy, a learning management system (LMS). The recent popularity of LMSs has been driven in no small part by the AICC and SCORM standards. Any LMS that adheres to the standards can launch and track any courseware that adheres to the standards, regardless of which vendors have supplied the LMS and courseware.
So it's no surprise that, as a courseware developer, Midi receives many inquiries about whether our web-based training is "AICC/SCORM-compliant." In some cases, the people who are inquiring have been prompted to do so by someone else, and may not know exactly what they're asking. In this month's issue of Interactive Insights, we'll make it clear that AICC and SCORM are two distinct, although related, sets of standards, and explore some of the important differences between them.
AICC
Technically, AICC is not a standard; it's a standards body, the Aviation Industry CBT Committee. The committee has developed numerous standards over the years, some of which have only a tangential relationship to e-learning. The AICC standard that bears most directly on the ability of an LMS to launch and track web-based courseware is titled "AICC/CMI Guidelines for Interoperability" (document #CM1001).
The initial release of this document in 1993 predated the mass adoption of the World Wide Web and dealt with computer-based training, primarily delivered on CDROM. When the document was revised in 1998, web-based training was addressed for the first time by adding Appendix A to the document. Appendix A defines the "HTTP-based AICC/CMI Protocol" (HACP), a set of rules that govern communication between an LMS and web-based courseware.
In 1999, Appendix B was added, introducing a JavaScript application programming interface as an alternative means of communication between an LMS and courseware on the web. The JavaScript interface made it possible for developers to create AICC-compliant courseware using familiar HTML and JavaScript, without resorting to more complicated -- and often proprietary -- programming languages.
SCORM
Another standards body, Advanced Distributed Learning or ADL, created the SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model). In ADL's words, the SCORM is "a collection of specifications adapted from multiple sources to provide a comprehensive suite of e-learning capabilities..." One of the specifications included in the SCORM is precisely the JavaScript interface from Appendix B of the AICC standard. That is, among other requirements, SCORM-compliant courseware must use the AICC JavaScript interface to communicate with the LMS.
Given the way these standards have evolved, when LMS and courseware vendors say "AICC," they tend to mean the HTTP protocol and when they say "SCORM," they tend to mean the JavaScript interface. In particular, many AICC-compliant products do support the HTTP protocol, but don?t support the JavaScript interface.
Differences Between the HTTP Protocol and the Javascript Interface
We now know enough to understand that -- from the perspective of launching and tracking web-based courseware -- when comparing AICC vs. SCORM, we are really comparing the HTTP protocol and the JavaScript interface.
The JavaScript interface has some strong advantages. Courseware developers familiar with HTML and JavaScript do not need to learn other programming languages to implement communication with an LMS. More important, since web browsers don't provide direct access to HTTP commands, it is impossible (in most cases) to implement the HTTP protocol without server-side programming. Server-side programming, using technologies such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Java servlets or Perl, is specific to the type of server the courseware will be deployed on. This can be a big obstacle when courseware is to be installed on a customer's server. The developer must work with the customer's IT staff to determine server capabilities and address security concerns, and must then develop custom code to run on that server. This process is time-consuming and costly compared to using the JavaScript interface.
Given these advantages, why doesn't everyone abandon the HTTP protocol and use the JavaScript interface? There are two reasons. First, some LMSs and courseware do not yet support the JavaScript interface, which, although well established, is newer than the HTTP protocol. Second, the JavaScript interface suffers from a limitation that prevents its use in certain cases: it cannot operate across different network domains. For example, if the LMS is installed on a customer's server at http://corporate_u.bigcompany.com and the courseware is installed on a vendor's server at http://www.course_developer.com, the courseware and LMS will be unable to communicate. This is because, for security reasons, modern web browsers prevent so-called "cross-domain scripting." That is, they prevent JavaScript on one network domain from exchanging information with servers on another network domain.
Conclusion
If you're thinking of purchasing courseware, your LMS vendor can tell you whether your LMS supports AICC (that is, the HTTP protocol), SCORM (that is, the JavaScript interface) or both. You can then ask courseware vendors more specific questions than "Is it AICC/SCORM-compliant?"
There can be legitimate reasons for choosing the HTTP protocol over the JavaScript interface, but when you do so -- especially in the case where courseware will be hosted on your own servers rather than the courseware vendor's -- be prepared for some added time and expense.
E-learning is the new technologically controlled learning solution, which is also an integral part of ISD or Instructional systems design. One will wonder how the concept of e-learning really came into existence. E-learning’s existence is a result of a cause and effect situation. There was a time when the corporate world realized that training can be a costly and time-consuming affair, especially in industries where employees are required to be knowledgeable so as to perform in the field quickly and efficiently.
E-learning is the new technologically controlled learning solution, which is also an integral part of ISD or Instructional systems design. One will wonder how the concept of e-learning really came into existence. E-learning’s existence is a result of a cause and effect situation. There was a time when the corporate world realized that training can be a costly and time-consuming affair, especially in industries where employees are required to be knowledgeable so as to perform in the field quickly and efficiently. This was the cause and the effect was that companies started turning towards e-learning to provide an educational or instructional environment in such a way that they are able to manage costs, shorten training duration and also provide a tool, which the employees can access anytime, and from anywhere through the Internet.
The question that arises is why so many e-learning solutions fail to perform? Why are there mistakes in developing an effective e-learning solution? What is the core of the problem? Mistakes and problematic situation arises when people fail to identify the possible bottlenecks or when the chosen vendor is not able to deliver an end to end e-learning solution that takes care of the organizational or individual objectives. So how can one avoid these mistakes while developing an effective e-learning solution? One needs to understand that these mistakes can be taken care of through carefully crafted e-learning solution, which can ensure that every employee participating in the training is well trained and receives an influx of knowledge delivered where they need it, when they need it, in a manner that is best suited to their individual learning styles and needs. Another way to avoid mistakes would be to choose a vendor, who can provide a solution that needs to understand the requirement, the objectives and then deliver upon those guidelines. As a thumb rule for success of any e-learning program, companies or organizations should start with finding out an e-learning vendor who has a proven track record, knowledge and expertise in instructional design, broad content offerings, and leading-edge technologies. The vendor should be able to effectively deliver instruction and should have the capability to provide a complete range of support services to manage training from the conception stage to final delivery. There are certain guidelines to selecting the right vendor. Here’s how one can go about it.
The first thing to look for is a vendor with the capability to design custom programs to train your employees on proprietary software or systems.
They should be able to provide e-learning solutions with multiple modalities that deliver content to employees with different learning styles and for employees who need varied levels of knowledge based on their job responsibilities. The vendors’ existing e-learning solutions must be engaging and interactive.
Look for self-paced content that employs rich-media distance learning, remote labs and simulations to create opportunities for experiential learning.
The vendor should have collaboration tools that will allow learners to work together while learning new skills and would be able to interact with skilled instructors in real time.
The vendor capability should include live events through which instructors can interact with the employees or students via classroom-style teaching but remotely from anywhere across the globe.
The vendor should possess skilled instructional design capabilities to ensure content and modalities are developed effectively and are based on sound learning principles.
Another mistake or problem which comes to the forefront more often, deals with e-learning RFP’s or request for proposal. Based on market research, it has been seen that a lot of vendors face the issue of e-learning RFPs being poorly written, unorganized, and contain a conglomeration of disjointed ideas. It is quite tough for vendors to offer an intelligent, thoughtful e-learning solution if the RFP is unclear and unorganized. The fact of the matter is that most RFP’s suffer from one of more of the following ailments.
Poorly Written
Illogical
Providing minimal Detail
Not imaginative or creative
Poorly Scoped
Not Addressing a Business Need
Let’s take a look at some of the points in detail. Talking about poorly written RFP’s, it is important to first understand that an RFP is a representation of your organization. You have to take time to conduct proper research into what the organizational requirement is and then proofread the final RFP before sending it to e-learning vendors. It has been seen that most often, the RFP team is under a time constraint and not entirely focused on the writing process. The result is a poor RFP. To salt to the loss, a poorly written RFP with illogical statements and assumptions make the interpretation of the RFP extremely difficult. If you haven't gone through a Readiness Assessment and if the internal needs of the organization is not clear, then you will end up with illogical statements in the RFP. The result is that the vendor will not be able to understand the RFP and will not be able to customize the e-learning solution according to the organization objectives.
Another mistake, which is often overlooked, is not providing the important or necessary details in an RFP. It will not be possible for the vendors to help you solve your e-learning problem if they don’t have the correct data or if they know nothing about your organization, about your technological infrastructure and the proposed budget. Hence the only way to avoid committing this mistake is by providing relevant and detailed information. The vendor needs to know if your PCs have audio capabilities, what type of browser you are running, if your IT department allows plug-ins etc. You need to provide enough information for the vendors to make an intelligent and informed recommendation. Imaginative and being creative is also a requirement of a sound RFP. You need to push the vendors a little bit by adding some creativity and some "fun" to your request. You can incorporate the idea of gaming and other similar activities into the request. This will help in the long run by keeping the student or employee attention high and focused.
On the other hand a poorly scoped RFP is one in which your needs are bigger or smaller than what is quoted in the RFP. You need to make an effort to request a project and a budget, which is reasonable and appropriately scoped. It’s important to remember that you can't have an elaborate, extensive e-learning management system complete with 100 courses designed, developed and delivered within a month. The crux of the matter is that you need to quantify your needs and keep the budget, timeline, and required tasks aligned in a realistic manner. Last but not the least is addressing a business need. This is the most crucial of them all and probably the most critical. It is necessary to tie your e-learning to a business need. If you don’t have a clear business need driving the project, then the chances of the entire project being in peril is much higher. This will finally lead to discontinued funding, reallocated resources, and a total failure of the e-learning project. So the first thing is to identify the business need and translate it through the RFP to the vendor to derive an effective e-learning solution.
Avoiding such common e-learning RFP mistakes will provide you with a solid foundation on which you can build your e-learning solution. If you have an effective and sound RFP, then it will be easier for vendors to understand and customize according to your need. A robust e-learning solution has the potential to change the face of workplace performance improvement. This will also lead to cost savings and create opportunities to make training more accessible and useful to learners. The bottom line is avoid unnecessary mistakes and bottlenecks and gear up to a fundamentally strong and effective e-learning solution that will strengthen your organizational objectives and add to the existing skill sets.
The mobile revolution is finally here in the form of m-learning, which is a natural extension of e-learning. In a span of five years, Mobile learning or m-learning has made an exponential leap from theory explored by academicians to a real contribution to learning. Globally speaking, the kind of penetration that mobile phones have reached is astounding and no other device can come any closer, not even computers. No demography is immune from the mobile phone and it has slowly become associated with the youth in a bigger way.
The mobile revolution is finally here in the form of m-learning, which is a natural extension of e-learning. In a span of five years, Mobile learning or m-learning has made an exponential leap from theory explored by academicians to a real contribution to learning. Globally speaking, the kind of penetration that mobile phones have reached is astounding and no other device can come any closer, not even computers. No demography is immune from the mobile phone and it has slowly become associated with the youth in a bigger way. This kind of digital communication was unthinkable almost a decade back. M-learning has the potential of taking learning and knowledge across geographical boundaries and generations due to the fact that it can be accessed with ease. This brings us to the question what is m-learning and how effective it really is. In the basic sense of the term, it means learning through the use of mobile devices and is targeted at people who are always on the move. This kind of training can be given through mobile phones, PDA’s and digital audio players and even digital cameras.
Now let’s take a step back into the past and ponder over its origin. M-learning actually took roots during a Pan-European research and development program aimed at a target audience of 16-24 age groups. This was the group that was at a risk of social exclusion in Europe. There are five basic parameters for production and development of m-learning and they are:
Portable: If you are using a mobile phone or a PDA, then it’s easier to carry it along with you everywhere including the restroom. This makes information access through this platform easy and fast.
Social Interaction: This kind of data can be sent to your friends, colleagues and others via short messages. You can exchange data with other people and gain considerable knowledge.
Sensitive to the Context: This has a capability of gathering data unique to the current location, environment, and time. This includes both types of data - real and simulated.
Connectivity: Connectivity plays an extremely important role and is the backbone of the m-learning project. With the help of a strong connectivity network, one can connect to data collection devices, other mobile phones, and to a common network.
Customized: The most unique capability is to be able to offer customized learning information.
These were the advantages to start with and the first m-learning project was started amidst much apprehension and anticipation in October 2001. The m-learning project used subjects of interest for this particular target audience or age group and ranged from football to driving lessons. This project was estimated at a staggering €4.5m and was supported by the European Commission's Information Society Technologies (IST) program within the 5th framework. It was well coordinated and orchestrated program by The Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) and participating organizations included universities and corporate from the three EU countries - Britain, Italy and Sweden. This was the first giant step towards that made m-learning possible.
If you are wondering what kind of an infrastructure does m-learning involve, then it’s not totally cost driven. A basic M-learning infrastructure includes a Learning Management System, which when put together with a micro-portal interface layer will facilitate access to m-learning services through a variety of mobile devices and also enhance it’s reach through web and TV access. Also in case of interfacing with devices having minimum multimedia functionalities, and for the benefit of learners facing sensory difficulties, m-learning has developed speech-to –text and vice-versa and SMS facilities. In its more advanced phase, m-learning development includes support for collaborative learning and peer-to-peer interaction.
Let’s look at why anyone should gear up for m-learning or why m-learning? First thing first, most mobile devices have been proven useful in education by being a facilitator of administration, and teaching aids for practitioners, and also for being able to utilize it as a learning support tool for learners. Let us take walk through some of the benefits offered by m-learning.
Its offers and interactive learning experience where learners can interact with each other.
It's easier to accommodate several mobile devices in a classroom than several desktop computers.
It is not always easy to work on a computer sitting in a far off village or town in wilderness, but mobile can be accessed anywhere.
Mobile phones, PDAs or tablets holding notes and e-books are lighter and can facilitate the entire m-learning process with ease unlike bags full of files, paper and textbooks, or even laptops.
Writing with the stylus pen is more effective than using keyboard and mouse.
A range of possibilities arise out of this like sharing assignments and working as a group; learners and practitioners can e-mail, copy and paste text, or even `beam´ the work to each other using the infrared function of a PDA or a wireless network such as Bluetooth.
Mobile devices can be used anywhere, and anytime, including at offices, home, or when in transit.
These devices engage learners - through mobile phones, gadgets and games devices such as GameBoys. This makes the device invaluable.
This technology may contribute to combating the digital divide, as mobile devices are generally cheaper than desktop computers.
The size, shape, weight and portability of mobile devices have made them extremely effective for users with permanent or temporary disabilities.
On the flip side of it, every technology has its curse or disadvantages and m-learning through mobile devices is no different. Some of the disadvantages of m-learning through mobile devices are:
The small screens of a mobile or PDA limits the amount and type of information that can be displayed at a given time.
The memory or the storage capacity is limited vis-Ã -vis a computer or laptop.
It is important to have fully functional devices and batteries have to be charged regularly. At times, a discharged battery can result in loss of important data.
It's difficult to work on moving graphics, especially on mobile phones, although 3G and 4G will eventually facilitate this.
Bandwidth may degrade with increasing users when using wireless networks.
But then every new technology or technology driven platform or development will find obstacles on the way. Mobile learning is currently the most useful as a supplement to ICT, online learning and other traditional learning methods, and is playing a central role in enriching the learning experience. It is now widely believed and has been proven in various countries that mobile learning could and has been a huge factor in getting disaffected young adults to engage in learning, where traditional methods have failed. This is the new world and everything is changing – the market, the need, the people. M-learning is the future.
NEST - is it just a shelter for Crows, Sparrows or Cuckoos which is built on? Is it Strong enough? Here, below you will find the answers for all this, and more... YES, NEST is the answer to many problems that face destitute and the unfortunates all over this country.
Live and Let Live with Equality of rights - NEST believes in these policies and has struggled in this mission from the year 2000- the millennium year.
Formerly known as AGRUTHI, this voluntary organization was the vision of few people, whose main aim was to support the Hapless. Activities involved visits to orphanages, donating books and clothes to the needy children.
It was the dream of few young minds who wants to sprout new seedlings of faith and hope for the hapless souls in their motherland and enjoys the happiness as that of the first rain of monsoon, first rays of sunshine in the morning, first ride in a new car, etc. But did we stop to think about the millions, who have not felt shoes on their feet, who have no friends to heed to them, who have no job to feed them. Their daily struggle never gives them the time or the mood to enjoy the small and beautiful things in life. Those thoughts led to the formation of NEST – with voluntaries of helping motive.
NEST was registered as a NGO and voluntary organization on 29-APR-2004. Today NEST is the fastest growing Voluntary & Social Organization in India.
“NESTjobs” – the small step towards achieving the giant goals of NEST (Education for all and Social upliftment of the downtrodden). With more than 35,000 members, within a short tenure, NESTjobs has grown into an imperative hub for freshers. NESTjobs has assisted many job hunters to realize their dream of getting into a good job – truly we have brought smiles on many faces.
We would be thankful for your generous contributions like financial, physical, emotional and intellectual support for this organization that believes in harnessing the enthusiasm and commitment of young blood to soar forward in its genuine and noble cause.
By donating to NEST you're helping Indian people who lost hopes and hapless. Your support to NEST means that you are reaching hearts of million hapless people in India!
Please help us make this commitment. 100% of the donations would go towards assisting eligible and needy persons, especially to boost up literacy, so that they can lead a decent life on their own.
Moodle is an open sourcee-learning platform (also known as a Course Management System (CMS) or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)). It has a very large user base with 13,909 registered sites in 158 countries with 4,972,676 users in 455,685 courses (as of August 2, 2006).
Moodle is designed to help educators create online courses with opportunities for rich interaction. Its open source license and modular design means that many people can develop additional functionality, and development is undertaken by a globally diffuse network of commercial and non-commercial users, spearheaded by the Moodle company based in Perth, Western Australia.
Moodle features
Moodle has many features expected from an e-learning platform including:
Forums
Content managing (resources)
Quizzes with different kinds of questions
Blogs
Wikis
Database activities
Surveys
Chat
Glossaries
Peer assessment
Multi-language support (over 60 languages are supported for the interface)
Moodle is modular in construction and can readily be extended by creating plugins for specific new functionality. Moodle's infrastructure supports many types of plugin:
Activities
Resource types
Question types
Data field types (for the database activity)
Graphical themes
Authentication methods
Enrolment methods
Many third-party Moodle plugins are freely available making use of this infrastructure.
PHP, an easy script language to learn, can be used to author and contribute new modules. Moodle's development has been assisted by the work by open source programmers. This has contributed towards its rapid development and rapid bug fixes.
Data is stored in a single database: MySQL and PostgreSQL are currently the only feasible options, but work is currently underway to make full use of database abstraction so that other databases can be used just as easily (Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server are two specific target DBMSes). This change will be in Moodle 1.7 which is the next major release, planned to be released before the end of 2006.
Origins
Moodle was the creation of Martin Dougiamas, a former WebCT administrator at Curtin University, with postgraduate degrees in Computer Science and Education. Martin's later Ph.D.pedagogical studies examined "The use of Open Source software to support a social constructionist epistemology of teaching and learning within Internet-based communities of reflective inquiry" and this research has strongly influenced some of the design of Moodle, providing aspects missing from many other e-learning platforms.
Origin of the name
The word Moodle is actually an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, although originally the M stood for "Martin", named after Martin Dougiamas, the original develper.
To moodle is also a verb of unknown origin and infrequent use that describes the process of lazily meandering through something, doing things as it occurs to you to do them, an enjoyable tinkering that often leads to insight and creativity. As such it applies both to the way Moodle was developed, and to the way a student or teacher might approach studying or teaching an online course.
Child Sponsorship Child Sponsorship is a unique relationship between you and your sponsored child. When you become a World Vision Child Sponsor, you will help a child break free from the clutches of poverty and gift the child a future full of hope. It is also a relationship that extends to the child's family and the community.
When You Sponsor...
Your sponsorship will provide a needy child, life's essentials like education, safe drinking water, basic healthcare, food and immunization against killer diseases.
It's costs Rs.600/- per month for a bud to blossom into fullness of life.
Join me in saving a child's life today!!!
I've joined the Connect Your World campaign! I want to help children around the world survive and break free from poverty and I need your help!
I'm inviting you and other compassionate friends to connect with one special child who's suffering in poverty by sponsoring them. Your monthly sponsorship gifts can be life-saving, because you'll be giving them access to basics that most of us take for granted. Things like clean water, nutritious food, health care, and education to build a future.
I love sponsoring my child. I know I'm helping to change their life forever. And that's why I'm inviting you to join me!
I've chosen to partner with World Vision in this campaign because I trust them. Last year, 87% of their total revenue went to programs benefiting children and families in need. Start by visiting the exciting Web page I've created, at the link below.
After you visit my Connect Your World campaign page, please let me know what you think! Thank you for sharing my heart for the world's children. Together, we can help hundreds of children survive poverty and reach a better future.
How to Sponsor a child!!!
Great to hear from all our community friends. Some of them asked about the process of sponsor a child. Please do the following steps in the worldvisionindia.org website.
Thanks for your interest on sponsoring a child. Please do the following steps.
1. Please go to the site http://www.worldvision.in/child 2. Using the left side of the screen you can choose the child for sponsor. 3. Click the "sponsor Now" button. 4. Now you will get the details of the child. 5. You will get the registration details of the child. 6. You can pay the monthly sponsor amount 600rs by online or by Cheque also u can send. 7. While sending the cheque you send the child code which is there in the registration page with your details.
This steps will change a child life.
Note: Please send message to me if you have any doubts on the steps.
Thanks and Regards, N Jayakumar
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
An Introduction to Rapid eLearning
What is Rapid eLearning?
A new term was derived by the eLearning industry in the year 2004: Rapid eLearning. To make it simple, Rapid eLearning contain 3 unique characteristics: 1) Content authoring should be simple and web based. 2) In order to minimize the time from content authoring to content publishing, the subject matter experts (SME) must take the primary role instead of the instructional designers. 3) Each learning/training organization must have a content sharing platform/database.
Here are some common factors of Rapid eLearning: - Common web authoring software like FrontPage, Dreamweaver, and Flash are not being used. Instead, SME use web based authoring tools/platforms to generate digital contents. These contents will then be delivered to the learners as html, flash and other media formats via the web. - SME needs minimum trainings from using these authoring tools/platforms. - The learning contents are in smaller “chunks” usually, say, less than 30 minutes of studying time for each “chunk”. Then the course creator will “assemble” these “chunks” into a self contained courseware. These chunks can be viewed as learning objects. - The learning materials can be delivered in synchronous, asynchronous and mixed mode learning environments. - The contents must be learner centric instead of the “instructor feeding” style. - Each content module must have a clear theme which allows the module to be presented as a stand alone learning object thus the production time for each of these objects can be “pumped out” on a efficient time basis.
Why Rapid eLearning?
In the new millennium, production cycles in most of the industries are shortened. Enterprise and institutions are constantly facing changes in the surrounding environment such as new product demands (e.g. Oracle acquires PeopleSoft ), new government polices (War against Terror), new market competitions (China joins WTO), new diseases (SARS) new technologies (Blog) etc. The entire chain of learning is reacting to these changes in a faster and faster pace. eLearning in general is playing an more and more important role in our society. In order to deliver the most accurate, the most up-to-date, the most high quality knowledge to the learners, us educators must restructure the traditional ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) model, and come up with a new solution. Thus Rapid eLearning was born. Where do we go from here depends on how our learners respond to the change of the world.
Tiruchirappalli, situated on the banks of the river Cauvery is the fourth largest city in Tamil Nadu, India. It was a citadel of the early Cholas which later fell to the Pallavas. Trichy is a fine blend of tradition and modernity built around the Rock Fort. Apart from the Fort, there are several Churches, Colleges and Missions dating back to the 1760s. The town and its fort, now in Trichy were built by the Nayaks of Madurai. This city has given great Tamil scholars whose contributions to the Tamil literature have been very significant.
The most famous land mark of this bustling town is the RockfortTemple, a spectacular monument perched on a massive rocky out crop which rises abruptly from the plain to tower over the old city. It was one of the main centers around which the wars of the Carnatic were fought in the 18th century during the British-French struggle for supremacy in India. The city is a thriving commercial centre in Tamil Nadu and is famous for artificial diamonds, cigars, handloom cloth, glass bangles and wooden and clay toys.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Hi Friends,
I have taken this photo in ulsoor lake. Please send me the comments.
I am working on eLearning development. I want to get people who are in to this eLearning. I want to discuss about the LMS. Also about SCORM and AICC complaints. Please send information about new eLearning technologies.
