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Reducing the Development Costs for Active and Interactive Learning Objects through Web-based Collaborative Authoring Abstract

The development of active Learning Objects with interactive capability, has demonstrated to be extremely costly for a single individual, or even a single organization. This paper presents an approach to reducing the costs and facilitating the development of learning objects, and what is being done in terms of developing tools towards this goal. Our project is developing open- sourced web-based tools for the collaborative authoring of learning objects. We believe that collaboration will help spread the development costs among several interested parties, thus making possible efforts which otherwise would not be cost-effective for a single individual or organization. Collaboration essentially makes “scalable” the authoring process by involving several distributed parties, empowering them with web-based collaboration and authoring tools, and tying them together under a common set of goals and a shared ontological concept space for what is being developed. This common ontology for the course concepts is mapped into learning experiences through active and interactive learning objects.

The learning objects created through the web-based tools being developed, meet interfacing standards proposed by Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), Instructional Management Systems, IEEE-Learning Technologies Standards Committee, and World Wide Web Consortium-Scalable Vector Graphics, among others. These which we like to call “Open Learning Objects” are considered “open” because they provide explicit XML metadata for the learning objects internals. This metadata defines a five (5) layer model which captures different aspects of the learning object, such as: 1) conceptual content, 2) visual representation, 3) learner interaction, 4) internal sequencing, and 5) integration. Our approach facilitates the creation and capturing of multiple versions for a learning object such as for different learning styles, different skill levels, or different cultural and language aspects, by providing this explicit XML vocabulary for tagging the internals of the learning object.

Our web-based tools facilitate the organizing of a team of remote collaborators under a course coordinator and provide for breaking-up of a course in terms of groups of learning objects. These tools allow for the collaborative creation of each learning object, define inter-learning object navigation using the SCORM Sequencing and Navigation Specs, and package these resources using the IMS Packaging Specs. We provide a set of web editors for authoring each layer and their integration into a layered open learning object.

Finally, we provide some modest facilities for introspection of the authoring and learning processes. This is done for authoring, by capturing metrics about the learning object development process, thus helping the identification of best practices. For learners, the Learning objects are instrumented to capture information about the interaction with the learner, facilitating both the learner modeling and the improvement of the learning objects. The presentation will demonstrate prototypes for most of these tools, provide details on project progress, and will identify additional useful tools which we plan to build on top of the current system.

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Diaz, E., & Pacheco, C., & Rosaly, C., & Figueroa, M., & Batista, E., & Rodriguez-Jimenez, O. (2006, June), Reducing The Development Costs For Active And Interactive Learning Objects Through Web Based Collaborative Authoring Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--866