Volume 9, Number 9: Summer 2003
by Tammy
Kempfert,
TTT Editor
Anyone who feels stymied by technical acronyms like SCORM, addled by ADL and API, and exasperated by XML Binding may find help online in the SCOurse project. Comprised of a collection of shareable content objects or SCOs, the SCOurse teaches about the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative and SCORM. SCOs (also known to TTT readers as learning objects) are bits of educational content that might include web pages, simulations, online quizzes, or anything that appears on a computer screen for instructional purposes. Project designer and lead developer Doug Hamilton invented the name SCOurse, by combining the terms SCORM and course. "But it's not just a course on SCORM," he says. "What we've created is a set of modules that can be used separately or together to meet the differing needs of instructors, developers, and decision makers." Each module explains a different aspect of the ADL Initiative--such as its vision, history, goals, and undertakings--and of the Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). Launched in 1997 by the U.S. Department of Defense, the ADL Initiative links government, education, and industry with the goal of accelerating the progress of learning technologies. One of its primary endeavors is supporting the development and implementation of the SCORM. The SCORM are a set of guidelines developed by the ADL consortia for companies that sell software and platforms for online courses. The SCORM vision allows for any learning management system to interact with any SCO; it would also make it possible for SCOs to communicate details about a user's progress back to a learning management system. The SCOurse itself serves as a model for the SCORM concept. While recently demonstrating how the SCOurse works, Hamilton occasionally stopped to thumb through his desk copy of the SCORM, a daunting document laden with the technolanguage commonly used by those who authored it. By contrast, the SCOurse is an abridged, beginner's version, aimed--according to the project summary--"at technologically literate learners who need to understand the SCORM but who do not necessarily need to put it into practice in development projects." Each SCOurse module begins with a simple description of its content, followed by a clearly-explained ADL or SCORM concept. Hamilton frequently uses metaphor, enhanced by images and simple animations, to introduce an idea. For example, one section employs images of unlabeled cans to explain the term meta-data. "A label on a can," the SCO reads,"is meta-data giving a range of information about what is inside." Hamilton believes that creating SCOs will pose new challenges for faculty and developers like himself, not only in terms of the technology, but also in terms of instructional design. For example, if he had designed each module as part of a cohesive, interdependent unit, the modules might not make sense if used on their own. Similarly, because he realized that users would possess a variety of learning goals, he opted to incorporate a general "Check for Understanding" over more specific assessment features. He says that, early in the process, he realized, "I wasn't entirely in control, that I was giving the control to the learner." Learners can view as much or as little of the SCOurse as suits their purposes, in any order they consider appropriate. According to Judy Brown, Director of the Academic ADL Co-Lab in Madison which hosts the project, the SCOurse exemplifies "the transforming of e-Learning to me-Learning." To view the SCOurse, visit http://www.academiccolab.org/learn/ for details. The SCOurse is currently delivered via Granada Learning's Learnwise platform, and it costs nothing to register. |