Category: Learning Objects

ECL – eduSource Communications Layer connector software

http://www.edusplash.net/technical/ecl/index.html and
http://edusource.licef.teluq.uquebec.ca/ese/en/index.jsp

I’m sure there’s some good reason for working on software for a few years, releasing it into the public domain, and then not telling anyone about it, right? In any case, with amazingly little fanfare the impressive ECL connector software is available for download. Billed as one of the first implementations of the IMS DRI specification, it will allow repositories to share search results, gather records, alter each other to new materials and submit new materials in other repositories. You’ll likely see the ECL show up in some format or another in a number of future initiatives as a way to interconnect repositories and other stores of learning materials, and we hope to have it implemented in the repository we deploy here in B.C. by September. – SWL

The Learning Edge LOR/LCMS Software

http://www.thelearningedge.com.au/

One of the 6 finalists in our evaluation of various learning object repository packages in the BCcampus LOR project I am currently managing, The Learning Edge is from a relatively small company based in Tasmania, Australia. Even though we ended up going with another option, we were really impressed by this software and on the straight-ahead basis of features it actually looked to be the strongest of the lot that we looked at. Boasting a clean interface that was incredible customizable through a set of powerful administrative tools, the software impressed on many fronts; it was one of the few that seemed to be cracking the nut of digital rights management, and had an impressive workflow engine and a Java-based authoring and aggregation tool that was quite powerful. If you are in the market for a learning content management system (which is a closer description than just a ‘learning object repository’ to what this software actually is) and are looking for a commercial product you might do well to include this one on a list of those to examine more closely. – SWL

ALOHA II

http://aloha2.netera.ca/

New site for the release of Aloha II, the reworked metadata editor/content packager from the University of Calgary, which is now based on the RELOAD tool from the U.K. The version available right now is an alpha release – no news on their news page (and no RSS feed!) about when to expect beta or gold releases, but hopefully things are moving along swimmingly. – SWL

LORNET Website

http://www.lornet.org/eng/index.htm

While this project was announced last fall, it seems to be up an running now and has this website. For those who missed the announcement last October, this is the NSERC-funded $7.5 million/5 year project that, as far as I know, represents the largest ongoing learning object repository research initiative in Canada.

The project has 6 themes and stretches across 6 Canadian research Universities. I don’t know if it is fair to call this ‘edusource II’ as the aims of the project seem farther reaching, but it does involve some of the same principals from Canada’s last ‘nation-wide’ learning object repository research project. – SWL

Finding Learning Objects – Walking the Talk

Can our intrepid search find a learning object in time to figure out how to calculate ‘Z-scores’? Tune in and find out!

Today (like many days) I was faced with a task I was not 100% sure how to do. I had a set of ratings for different evaluators, and had been told by someone who knew better than I that I should be trying to calculate their ‘z-scores’ in order to standardize the numbers.

As I was about to enter a handy-dandy Google search, I thought – “no wait! Why don’t you see if there are any ‘learning objects’ out there that could teach you what a Z-score is, and how to calculate it.” So I set out in search of my closest learning object repository to see what I could find.
Continue reading “Finding Learning Objects – Walking the Talk”

Presentations from the Digital Library Forum Spring Forum 2004

http://www.diglib.org/forums/Spring2004/
springforum04abs.htm

Thanks to Dr. Tom Carey for passing on the reference to the presentation archive for the DLF’s 2004 Spring Forum. There’s lots of interest here; in particular, one of the 9.00am-10.30am sessions from April 21, titled “Digital Repository Interoperability with Learning Systems” gives some insight into how the library/archives world is approaching the issue of interoperating with various learning systems, notable not only CMS are mentioned but also weblogs! (Ironically, for all of the focus on metadata, this page itself is unstructured HTML, hence my lack of ability to point you directly to the section containing this presentation’s references). – SWL

FEDORA Wiki – FedoraImplementations

http://www.fedora.info/wiki/bin/
view/Fedora/FedoraImplementations

According to this list on the Fedora Wiki site, last updated October 26, 2003, there were only 2 known FEDORA installations. FEDORA’s own website lists around a dozen ‘registered deployment partners’ which would seem to indicate more actual deployments, but I was hard pressed to find URLs for working ones when going through that list. If anyone knows of a more complete list of working FEDORA implementations I’d be interested to hear about it. – SWL

CMU LSAL Paper on “LO-Tec” Tools (and Toys) for Creating Learning Objects

http://www.lsal.cmu.edu/lsal/expertise/
papers/notes/lotec05052003/lotec05052003.html

This paper, from Dan Rehak and others at the renowned Learning Systems Architecture Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University (which now has a new RSS feed), asks how authors actually create learning objects, and whether the current tools are supporting these actual processes or instead getting in the way. To investigate this they take the sensible step back from the technology and look at a number of low or no tech paper-based techniques for developing learning objects, with the “objective [is] to help create learning, and hide technology and standards” and thus “understand how learning technology standards can be applied in the creation of learning objects and content.”

You can draw your own conclusions – I think the process they outline is a useful one for tool builders to go through if they want to build tools that support the way people actually work. But my cursory reading didn’t reveal any huge lessons learnt from the paper-based modelling and many of the criticisms levelled at the one example tool (ReLoad) they cite could seemingly be levelled at the paper-based model as well (e.g. use of jargon for one). – SWL

More RSS feeds from Repositories

It seems like the idea of using RSS as a means to syndicate new items in learning object repositories is steadily catching on. The page I’ve set up to aggregate a number of these feeds now has three more, two of them thanks to Ian Winship from Northumbria University.

The new feeds are:
– latest additions to the EEVL repository, a UK-based guide to Engineering, Mathematics and Computing
– latest additions to the Learning and Teaching Support Network Centre for Economics’ collection of resources
– a ‘by subject’ feed from Chalkface, a UK-based publisher of K-12 online courses and photocopy-master lesson plans

LionShareWiki

http://lionshare.its.psu.edu//cgi-bin/twiki/view

Announced with no little fanfare at the end of last year, the Lionshare project has since been quietly chugging along. In addition to the above Wiki pages, which give some insight into what they are actually working on, you can follow the project’s latest news through their RSS feed (another one to add to the list of LOR projects with RSS feeds). – SWL