Raymond Yee, IST–Interactive University
There has been much recent activity on campus surrounding course management systems, also known as learning management systems (LMS). Purchased solutions, such as Blackboard and WebCT, have been in use for several years. A third system, CourseWeb, is currently being developed by the campus. ETS (Educational Technology Services) and IST are planning the future of learning management systems on campus. Any "new product will be a confluence of existing University systems, best practices at Berkeley, and developments from other universities and commercial courseware companies" [13].
In many discussions surrounding LMS, the issue of educational technology interoperability standards (hereafter referred to as interoperability standards) arises. One encounters phrases such as "conforms to all relevant IMS standards" [1] and "led the pack with first AICC certified product in the authoring tool category and continue to be a frontrunner in SCORM compliance as well as other learning standards" [9]. Interoperability standards are generally portrayed as being beneficial and desirable. But what exactly are these standards about?
To help readers unravel the mysteries of interoperability standards, I present the following list of articles, websites, and resources that I have found particularly helpful in this regard.
CETIS. The single most helpful website for learning about the depth and breadth of interoperability standards is that of CETIS (the Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards, http://www.cetis.ac.uk/), which "represents UK Higher and Further Education on international educational standards initiatives". The CETIS site offers news about the latest happenings in the field (there's actually a surprising amount of activity), feature articles, and a collection of pieces about the different standards. There are also introductory essays; if you are new to interoperability standards, I recommend starting with "Learning Technology Standards: An Overview" [3], and "Who's involved in standards?" [5]. Consult the CETIS directory of products [4] to keep track of practical implementations of these standards. (One learns from CETIS that we are a long way from having many practical tools that actually work and interoperate well [22].) When I hit one of the many acronyms or jargon terms of the field, I turn to the CETIS encyclopedia [2].
Self-contained articles. For self-contained reports on interoperability standards, I recommend two short review articles by Nishikant Sonwalker in Syllabus Magazine [16, 17]. For a more detailed and comprehensive report, I recommend skimming through the 40 pages of "Making Sense of Learning Specifications & Standards: A Decision Maker's Guide to their Adoption" [18].
Learning about learning management systems. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published an article on the latest developments in learning management systems relevant to higher education [14]. On the Berkeley campus, Educational Technology Services (ETS) is charged with helping faculty set up and manage course websites [7].
Making sense of learning objects. A great vision driving the development of interoperability standards is that of creating "learning objects", packages of learning materials that can be easily reused and placed in varying contexts. There also happens to be considerable debate around the nature of such entities. If you are interested in this debate (which touches upon both pedagogical and technical issues), take a look at the sources of the following definitions of a learning object:
For a series of in-depth explorations of various aspects of learning objects, take a look at David Wiley's book (which is available in its entirety on the Web) [20] and Stephen Downes' "Learning Objects" [12].
Weblogs and other daily news sources. I have found that reading weblogs [10] is a timely way to keep up with all the developments in the educational technology standards world. Scott Wilson of CETIS points to a number of weblogs that focus on educational technology standards, including my own [21]. One of my favorites is one I read daily: David Carter-Tod's "Serious Instructional Technology" [11], which has been favorably profiled in The Chronicle of Higher Education [23].
Berkeley Educational Technology Standards SIG. A campus special interest group around the topic of educational technology standards has recently formed. Fred Beshears, the convener of the group, served as the UC System's representative to the IMS technical board for two years starting in 1998, and he has been UC Berkeley's representative to IMS since the end of 1999. Please contact Fred Beshears, fmb@socrates.berkeley.edu, or visit the website for the SIG if you are interested in participating [6].
[1] Blackboard 5 Data Integration, 2002 (http://company.blackboard.com/docs/cp/orientation/dataintegration.pdf).
[2] CETIS—CETIS Reference, CETIS, 2002 (http://www.cetis.ac.uk/encyclopedia).
[3] CETIS—Learning Technology Standards: An Overview, CETIS, 2002 (http://www.cetis.ac.uk/static/standards.html).
[4] CETIS—Standards-compliant products directory, CETIS, 2002 (http://www.cetis.ac.uk/directory).
[5] CETIS—Who's involved in standards?, CETIS, 2002 (http://www.cetis.ac.uk/static/whos-involved.html).
[6] UC Berkeley Educational Technology Standards SIG information page (http://elearning.berkeley.edu:7000/public/etstandards/).
[7] ETS | Course Web Site Development (http://media.berkeley.edu/webdev/lms/).
[8] IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC). IEEE P1484.12 Learning Object Metadata Working Group (http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/s_p.html).
[9] Standards [Lectora], 2002 (http://www.lectora.com/product_info_standards.html).
[10] Ashley, C. Weblogging: Another kind of website. Berkeley Computing & Communications, 11 (4). 20-21 (/bcc/Fall2001/feat.weblogging.html).
[11] Carter-Tod, D. Serious Instructional Technology (SiT): A Daily Log of Instructional Technology News and Ideas (http://instructionaltechnology.editthispage.com/).
[12] Downes, S. Learning Objects (http://www.atl.ualberta.ca/downes/naweb/Learning_Objects.htm).
[13] Edelstein, W. Learning management systems at UC Berkeley: The present and the future. Berkeley Computing & Communications, 11 (5). 18 (/bcc/Nov_Dec2001/feat.lms.html).
[14] Olsen, F. Getting Ready for a New Generation of Course-Management Systems. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 48 (17) (http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i17/17a02501.htm).
[15] Shepherd, C. Objects of interest, 2000 (http://www.fastrak-consulting.co.uk/tactix/features/objects/objects.htm).
[16] Sonwalkar, N. Demystifying Learning Technology Standards Part I: Development and Evolution. Syllabus, March 2002 (http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6134).
[17] Sonwalkar, N. Demystifying Learning Technology Standards, Part II: Acceptance and Implementation. Syllabus, April 2002 (http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6240).
[18] The MASIE Center. Making Sense of Learning Specifications & Standards: A Decision Maker's Guide to their Adoption, The MASIE Center, 2002 (http://www.masie.com/standards/S3_Guide.pdf).
[19] Wiley, D.A. Connecting learning objects to instructional design theory: A definition, a metaphor, and a taxonomy. in Wiley, D.A. ed. Instructional Use of Learning Objects: Online Version, 2000 (http://reusability.org/read/chapters/wiley.doc).
[20] Wiley, D.A. (ed.), The Instructional Use of Learning Objects — Online Version, 2002 (http://reusability.org/read/).
[21] Wilson, S. CETIS—Best of the blogs. CETIS, 2002 (http://www.cetis.ac.uk/content/20020307133658).
[22] Wilson, S. CETIS—Content Packaging interoperability tests reveal room for improvement. CETIS, 2002 (http://www.cetis.ac.uk/content/20020307103412).
[23] Young, J.R. Community-College Official Collects News of Instructional Technology. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 47 (32). A51 (http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i32/32a05102.htm).
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Berkeley Computing & Communications,
Volume 12, Number 3 (Summer 2002)
Copyright 2002, The Regents of the University of California