An objective view of learning objects - E-Learning

T+D, May, 2002 by Kevin Oakes

There is a middle ground: When learning objects created by the same author or vendor are used to assemble a course, the likelihood is that the learning experience will be consistent. That approach enables organizations to take advantage of the power of reusable learning objects, without compromising the quality of the learning experience.

Another way to leverage learning objects from disparate sources is to use them as independent activities inside a curriculum, instead of using them as modules in a single course. Learners expect uniformity and consistency within a single course, but when signing up for a curriculum, their expectation is that it will contain a diverse set of activities. It's acceptable to learners that two learning objects in a curriculum offer different learning experiences.

The impact of standards

Another potential alleviation to the issue of reusability is through the work of the committees that are currently defining industry standards.

The Learning Technology Standards Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has a working group for Learning Object Metadata. The LOM working group has been defining how learning objects should be modeled, represented, and packaged. The concepts defined by the LOM working group have influenced how a sharable content object is defined within SCORM, a leading industry standard (addressed in last month's column).

The current version of SCORM defines how sharable content objects can be represented in a package and how a learning management system, for example, can launch and track SCOs. The future versions of SCORM are headed in the direction of defining how SCOs in a SCORM package can be sequenced at delivery time to offer a truly adaptive course.

Though such standardizations would enable widespread use of learning objects in the e-learning industry, standards don't necessarily offer an effective solution to all of the issues of uniformity and consistency of learning objects across courses.

How to shop

Almost every technology supplier in the e-learning industry claims to have technology support for learning objects. Similarly, nearly every content vendor claims to offer content in the form of learning objects.

Here are a few useful questions to consider when shopping for technology or content that supports learning objects:

* Does the technology support standards-based learning objects and enable their easy creation?

* Does the technology let you aggregate learning objects easily to create courses or curriculums?

* Does the solution come with a central content repository where the learning objects can be stored, located, and managed?

* Will you be able to deliver, track, and report on learning objects?

* Will you be able to create and use learning objects that originate from existing content, such as PowerPoint files?

* If an update to a learning object is made, will it automatically update all of the courses that contain that particular learning object?

Learning objects have made it possible to move content across learning systems in bite-size chunks as opposed to in entire courses. Learning objects have also made it possible to reuse and share information across courses, and ease the maintenance of courseware. The influence of standards on learning objects has even helped promote interoperability between suppliers.