This Week's
Hot Topic

Reusable Learning Objects (RLO) and Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)

Well, we are getting really HOT now.  This topic is so hot that at the conferences I am attending this year, almost any session related to this topic will be standing room only.  This topic is somewhat new so there is not a whole lot of really good layman type of things out there for you to read.  But there are a few good resources I will point you to that will help you get a grasp on this fire drill.  This topic has come to the forefront in the last few years, through a few publications that have made it easier for those in our field to see its application. 

Also, the Department of Defense's (DoD) interest and support for this concept has boosted it the top of many corporations "to do" list.  As you can imagine, the military invests billions of dollars each year to design and develop training for their soldiers and civilians. The concept of RLO and SCORM provides hope for streamlining design and development and making the training that is developed shareable across all branches of the military.  And, the idea that a corporation could implement the DoD standards and specifications would mean BIG money for them.  So, everyone is jumping on this bandwagon and making all kinds of promises. 

It remains to be seen how things will come out at the end of this great rush.  I don't want to go in to too much here because most of you are not clued in yet in relation to this topic.  So, I won't say more until you start reading some of the links I have for you in your first drill.

RLO/SCORM

I am not sure whether you will want to read some of the links first or read what I have to say about the topic first.  It is your choice.  You may want to read the links first to help you understand some of my take on this topic. 

Here are the links:

• The Instructional Use of Learning Objects (the online version of the seminal work on this topic for instructional technologists and designers).  Each chapter is a downloadable pdf file for easy printing and reading.  My suggestion is to read the first chapter which provides an overview of the whole idea. David Wiley is one of the main authors in this field and gives lots of presentations at the conference I attend.

• Learning Objects Site from University of Wisconsin - an academic institution that has partnered with DoD and ADL CoLabs

• A Field Guide to Learning Objects (484 KB PDF file)

• Advanced Distributed Learning Network - this is the DoD site that outlines SCORM

Here is my brief summary to add to the above:

My view is that the whole idea of reusable learning objects (RLO) is more a instructional design and development issue than an implementation issue.  However, most discussions relate to the implementation of RLO within different learning management systems and how the final product will look and work.  While the final product is an important thing to keep in mind - you can talk about it all you want - but if there are not well-designed and developed learning objects to reuse then the whole idea is useless.  The main idea is that instructional designers and trainers everywhere are developing instruction for the same topic and we could better utilize our time and resources if instead of reinventing the wheel every time some new instruction was built that we could search and find instruction already built on that topic and reuse it for our own purposes.

In the K-12 environment everyone goes through the curriculum selection process.  there are multiple series that all teach the same thing - math, history, reading, etc.  When you review all of these there are many similarities but also many difference.  Usually, you like parts of one curriculum and parts of another curriculum and wish that you could use both because of the different things they offer. However, that is impossible because they are in print and no company is about to share their content with another to make the best product.  Another scenario many of you experienced teachers can relate to is the idea that one curriculum may be very good for some of your slower learners while another curriculum might be best for your more average or advanced learners.  Or, one may appeal more to boys or girls.  Whatever the case, it is unlikely that you will be able to use both curricula, the school board will only buy one. 

Now, let's say that all of the different units and activities within these curricula were organized in a HUGE electronic database - and that database was organized in such a way that you could search it based on the goal or objective you had for that day or that week.  When you searched, it would pull up all the different curricula that were designed for that goal or objective and you could pick and choose which ones you could use.  You could print different ones out for different learners.  If in multimedia format, you could simply have the students pull up the lesson format that appeals to them most and work through the unit on the computer until their objectives were met and assessed.  This is the idea of shareable and reusable learning objects. These objects are designed and developed with goals and objectives in mind and then made accessible to all who may need to use them in multiple media formats if possible.  You could search on a topic such as "frog dissection" and get back learning objects that are teacher led lectures with powerpoint slides, multimedia simulations, online tutorials, and other formats.  Teachers or student could choose the format that best suits them and learn.  Another teacher across the country may be utilizing the exact same topic at the exact same time.

The K-12 arena is nowhere close to reaching this scenario as far as I can tell but this is the best way I could explain the concept to those of you within that environment.  The reason this is so far away is mostly economics - what publishing houses are going to agree to share all of their stuff with everyone else and make it accessible on the fly?  Also, the system to manage this search engine is monstrous to build.

When you think within the context of the military it may be easier to see the importance of this.  The military spends billions of dollars on hiring contractors to design and develop instruction for their soldiers.  however, each branch, unit, etc. is doing their own thing and spending their own money - sometimes to hire 2 or 3 different people to build the same piece of instruction.  I am oversimplifying this for this example, but let's say an Army training post hires Company X to develop training for loading and shooting an M16.  This same weapon is used in other military posts but these other posts go and hire their own company (companies Y and Z) to develop their own training - what a colossal waste of money!  What if, instead, Company X was hired to build the instruction and make it usable within the different learning environments of all the different military installations that need it.  Then when any training officer at any post gets to that part of the training for the soldiers he can simply search for it, pull it up and use it.

Now, of course, Company X, Y, and Z are not too happy about this because now the Department of Defense is only paying one of them to develop the training, but boy is the DoD happy! And, Company X, Y, and Z have to rethink the way they do business.  They have to make sure they can design and develop the most attractive instruction for the M16 so that they will be the ones that get hired.  They also have to be able to guarantee the DoD that what they build will be usable by all other military installations and the learning management systems they use.  But how will they know exactly how to build their instruction so it meets these requirements?  Enter....SCORM...SCORM stands for Shareable Content Object Reference Model.  This is the DoD version of RLO standards within government and military environments.  SCORM provides specifications by which designers and developers must build learning objects so that they are usable by all.

Now, this whole big idea has brought about a lot of issues and discussion on a variety of things.  Some of the major issues include:

• How small or big is a learning object?  Is a learning object a single lesson?  a group of lessons? a unit? a module? a course?

• If we build instruction generic enough to be reused by different groups of learners will the instruction be so generic that it becomes meaningless?

• If you piece together a course or unit using learning objects designed by a variety of different designers, will things run smoothly?  will knowledge and skills build well on one another?

• Will access to all these different learning objects on one topic overwhelm or confuse people?

• Who will hold the copyright to the learning object and how will they get paid every time it is used?

Most of the advantages of RLO and SCORM are financial in that we do not continue to pay for building the same instruction over and over.  They are also advantageous in providing instructors with multiple formats and media from which to choose to deliver instruction.

Drill

Pick and choose from the reading and links above and learn what you can about RLO and SCORM.  Post to the listserv a summary of 3 things you have learned as well as your opinion on the whole idea, where it is going, how useful it may be, etc. Respond to others' opinions via the listserv as they post them.

On the Internet and the WWW there are a variety of different types of sites. Generally, on the WWW, there are two main categories:

• Informational
• Instructional

Informational web sites are just that -- they provide data, facts, opinions, and services to the Internet community.

Instructional web sites have goals that relate to learning. Instructional web sites are purposeful in providing learning opportunities to a group of learners. Such examples of instructional sites include many of the tutorials you have been through during this course.  As you well know some are designed better than others and promote learning in different ways.  For me, a high end instructional web site includes not only instruction for learning but also assessment of student learning. Such assessment can occur in many different formats.

Regardless of whether a site is information or instructional, there are basic design guidelines that should be used if the site is to be user friendly for those who visit the site for information or instruction.  Sometimes, we find a great site that looks very cool and has just the information you think you want but you cannot seem to find your way within its web pages.  Other sites are very organized and usable but do not provide the information or instruction at the appropriate depth or level for you.  As much web surfing as I am sure many of you have done throughout this course as well as on your own I can imagine that you have come across some very well-designed and some very poorly-designed pages.  If you can remember what made a site well-designed for you, the try to replicate it when building your own web site.  If you remember what it was like to navigate a poorly-designed site then be sure to AVOID doing the same things. 

Drill

There are a multitude of web design guidelines available on the web and in book form.  Before you leap into building your web site, surf the web and find different sites that you love and ones you hate.  Note the things you should avoid doing when building your own web site. 

Review the following web sites on web design guidelines and note things that you should be sure to implement or avoid when designing your own web site.

• Web Page Design for Designers
• Web Design Tips
• Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design
• Design Guidelines
• Web Pages that Suck
• Fixing your Web Site
• Design Consideration Sites

You have nothing to turn in for this drill.  The true test of whether you completed this drill is in your final web site design.

Storyboarding Your Web Site

All good web sites begin with a plan.  Sometimes the plan is only in your mind and sometimes it is sketched out on paper. Those that don't start out with a plan usually end up on the "web pages that suck web site".  Almost always your original brainstorm changes as different design and development issues are considered. 

This week I want you to take some time to storyboard (a fancy word for brainstorming and sketching out) your web site.  Formal storyboarding often includes small sketches (electronic or by hand) of each web page and how it will look, where the buttons will go, how users will navigate, what color scheme will be used, where text and graphics will be placed, etc.

My usual method of storyboarding (such as what I used to build this course web site) involved lots of paper and pencil and brainstorming how I wanted the site to look and feel, what types of graphics I would need, what each page would look like, etc.  I usually go in to PowerPoint and print out a bunch of blank slides in the "note pages" format so I have a rectangle I can sketch on as the actual web page and room below to write down notes to myself - such as what colors I will use, where the buttons will be, what graphics I need to find or draw, etc.

Storyboarding is commonly used within web design and development for hire because who wants to build a whole web site and take it to the customer to only find out they hate it. It is essential to outline the concept and ideas out first to communicate to the customer what you think things will look like so they can provide some feedback to you.  Of course, in this firehouse you are designing for yourself so you do not have to worry so much about what others think (except maybe your fire chief :-) However you choose to storyboard is up to you.  Sending hand-drawn sketches would not be the easiest thing for us to do given the nature of this course.  Although I strongly encourage you to do this, there is no way for me to check that you do.  Instead, the minimal I would like for you to do is provide me with an outline of your web site and how it is going to be organized. Before you begin this task, however, I should probably better define exactly what the requirements of the web site project are:

Your web site:

• will be the beginnings of your personal electronic portfolio. Therefore, it will fall under the informational web site category, but will have instructional elements given some of the artifacts/products/sample work you will be sharing (such as your powerpoint) will be of an instructional nature.
• should have at least 3 pages - a home page and 2 subtopic pages - it can have more but start small and see what you can get done over the next 4 weeks
  • The home page should include a brief introduction to the web site and its purpose
  • One subtopic page should be your resume. What format you put your resume in is up to you...pick one and use it. The resume should include a professional goal statement
  • One subtopic page should be your worksample/artifacts. This means you should have a description/annotation and reflection statement about each of the projects you have completed in this course -the powerpoint, the network diagram, and your research table - and then you should link to each of the urls to showcase the project. You already have your URL for your powerpoint and your network diagram. Once you complete your research table you will need to save it as an html page (Word does this with ease) and then FTP it to your server space and use this URL to link to your table.
  • You may choose to add other subtopic pages - examples might include a personal page that tells about yourself, a favorites page where you list favorite web sites, a photo gallery page for photos you would like to share, other pages that might share work from other courses in your program. There are lots of possibilities here but you are not required to add any other ones except the two mentioned above.
• should include consistent navigation buttons for the site on every page that navigate to all other pages
• it should have a consistent color scheme throughout
• it should include graphics as appropriate ( at least one on each page is a must) but graphics should not be the main focus of the site (the information should be the main focus)
• it should include some links to other web sites (not necessarily on every page but as appropriate)
• the home page should contain an email link for those who view your site to be able to email you
• the home page should contain a "last update" date so that viewers know when the page was last updated (this is usually placed at the bottom of the home page)
• if you are brave you can include audio or video but this is NOT a requirement.

If you have questions about any of the requirements of the web site feel free to email me. Also, I am listing here the same web sites I provided last week in the welcome message. If you are having trouble picturing what you are going to do then review these first. Also, if you are wondering what an artifact is or what I mean by annotations/reflections then see the last two links for assistance on that.

Some portfolio websites you might want to view are listed here:

• http://cito.byuh.edu/merrill/index.htm
• http://people.uis.edu/msmit1/hreportfolio/index.htm
• Some interesting guidelines for portfolio development that might be useful. Still others can be found here.

This week I want you to begin thinking about how you are going to design a web site that meets these requirements.  Your final product should be something you can work on for the next 4 weeks. Along with the outline that you provide to me for this drill I hope that you do some sketching to get a good conceptual idea of what you are going to do when you actually start using Netscape Composer.

If you want to get busy and jump into developing your web site then here are some tutorials to get you started.  I have some listed for Netscape Composer and some listed for FrontPage (but please note my previous warning about using Front Page with the student web server). There are bunches of tutorials out there - if you do not like these try your own search.

HTML

• Web Teacher
• HTML Crash Course for Educators
• How Web Pages Work
• HTML Goodies (beginner and advanced stuff)
• HTML: Interactive Tutorial for Beginners
• HTML Tutorials

Netscape Composer

• Web Page Construction Using Composer
• Netscape Composer Resources
• Creating a Web Page with Composer 7.x
• Building Web Pages with Composer 7

FrontPage

• FrontPage in the Classroom
• Front Page 97 Tutorial
• Front Page 98 Tutorials
• Front Page 2000 Tutorial

 Drill

The following is what should be included in your outline.

1. The basic outline (very similar for everyone given the main requirements but add other subtopics here if you plan on doing that)

2. The color scheme that you plan to use for your web site (Example: purple background with black text)

3. The navigation you will use - how will people be able to go from page to page and back gain without getting lost (Example: I am going to make buttons that run along the left side of the page that will go to each of the subtopics - the buttons will have text that describes what they will find on that page)

4. A short summary of each page you will have and how it will be presented
   Example
   Page1: will be the home page and it will simply introduce that this web site is all about me and that viewers should click on the different buttons to find out more
   Page2: Page 2 will be my resume -I will include links to relevant sites such as schools attended, current jobs etc.
   Page3: Page 3 will be my artifacts
   Page4: etc.

You can provide this to me within an email or type it up in Word and send it as an attachment.

• Check the FAQ Page to see if your question has already been answered.
• Email Chief Curda.
• Email EMT Kelly.
• Email the firehouse crew and see if another firefighter knows the answer.

Now let's take a look at the Chief's
Inspection List for this week!