The One Percent Solution: January 16th, 2004
By Paul Stacey
Vancouver
was sopping with e-learning activity over the past week. Monday and Tuesday were
the CANARIE
E-Learning Workshops showcasing and demonstrating projects funded through
CANARIE's $29 million e-learning program. Wednesday was Industry Canada's E-Learning
in the E-economy, a research workshop focusing on development of a Canadian
e-learning research agenda within a framework of the digital economy.
The
CANARIE workshop explored educational, pedagogical, and organizational issues of
interest to educators, developers, and strategic planners at all levels of
education (K-12, post-secondary, and workplace training).
Monday's
big opening session focused on the eduSource
Learning Object Repository project highlighting recent development work as they
wind down during their final three months of work. The eduSource project is all
about creating a set of tools and infrastructure to support Learning Object
Repositories.
The
eduSource Software Architecture is based on 5 actors or users - manager,
builder, infoseeker, designer, publisher. Manager registers a repository on the
network. Builder indexes or references Learning Objects (LO's) with meta data.
Infoseeker is the person who triggers the search. Designer aggregates, designs,
and builds content objects. Publisher integrates new objects and protects
intellectual property through digital rights management.
By
the end of March 2004 eduSource will deliver a "Repository in a Box" -
a set of components and services to be downloaded on a server creating a
learning object web portal. The repository in a box provides a means to access
learning objects through an integrated set of tools for searching, tagging,
design packaging and digital rights.
Doug
Macleod, Director of the eduSource project asserts the most innovative aspect of
the project is the eduSource Education Communication Layer (ECL) providing an
interface and communication kernel for connecting with other repositories. The
ECL uses a set of specifications and standards including metadata formats,
metadata protocols, and web services. ECL connectors provide a way to link to
outside repositories like EdNA
in Australia and SMETE
(Science, Math, Engineering and Technology) in the US.
The
eduSource Common Search Component (CSC) provides federator, peer to peer, and
harvester search methods integrated through common search component. Federated
search looks at multiple repositories. Harvested search collects meta data and
searches against that. Peer-to-peer searching is like Napster. The eduSource
Registry of Services groups and makes each repository known to others.
The
eLearning Research and
Assessment Network (eLera), as part of eduSource, has provided a Learning
Object Review Instrument (LORI) to evaluate the quality of learning objects
against a set of rubrics and rating scales
eduSource
has adopted an Open Source business model. With the CANARIE Learning Program's
future up in the air as it nears the end of a funding cycle, and Canada's
national government transitioning to a new leader, eduSource hopes to become
sustainable by providing open access to the source code thereby reducing
barriers to adoption.
A
good presentation
providing context and more information is available at the eduSource web site http://www.edusource.ca.
Look for repository in a box to be available from the eduSource site around the
end of March 2004.
Jutta
Treviranus and Anastasia Cheetham provided a refreshing alternative perspective
to this emphasis on learning objects by pointing out that learning is a process
and experience not a piece of content. Their initiative The
Inclusive Learning Exchange (TILE) provides a set of tools and services for
customization of learning objects and learning activities based on a set of
personal preferences. Taking a learner centric position, the Inclusive Learning
Exchange focuses on personalization of learning including support for those with
disabilities.
I
was intrigued by The
Reusable-Learning-Object-Driven Case Study Generator (LOGIC), a new
authoring tool that uses learning objects to generate simulations and case
studies. The Case Study Generator enables instructors to build and reuse case
studies for instruction and evaluation by allowing them to assemble the case
study from a variety of case elements stored as Learning Objects.
This
tool is targeted not so much at authoring explicit content (policies, rules,
procedures, etc.), or tacit content (collaboration, discussion, debate, etc.)
but applied content (practicum's, case studies, labs, simulations). LOGIC has
been designed to be used by content experts and instructional designers without
additional support from technologists.
The
LOGIC content authoring tool will be available via licensing agreement with a
beta release of the tool targeted for release May 2004.
I
was particularly moved with the demonstration Advanced
Broadband in Enabled Learning (ABEL) did linking music students in one part
of Canada with professional musicians in another. It was wonderful to listen to
the resulting music and see the dynamic interplay between aspiring and
accomplished musicians around correct physical positioning and score
interpretation.
Time
and space prevent me from overviewing every session at the workshop. Suffice it
to say, two days of workshops will convince you e-learning is happening and that
it is here to stay
Andrew
Bjerring, President and CEO of CANARIE provided a summary of e-learning's status
with the following points:
-
standards and technologies are reaching maturity
-
need strategic approach to e-learning diffusion
-
Learning Object Repositories are a key part of the architecture but only a part
-
Canada faces challenges around cross organizational and cross jurisdictional
issues in terms of generating a strategy
One
of the big topics of discussion at the CANARIE E-Learning Workshops was around
development of a national pan-Canadian e-learning strategy. With education a
jealously guarded provincial mandate, having a national Pan-Canadian strategy is
challenging. The CANARIE workshops presented a few examples including:
Council
of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC)
initiative to create a Pan-Canadian Online Learning Portal intended to enhance
lifelong learning through the use of online technologies. http://www.schoolnet.ca
Facultydevelopment.ca
is a broadband-intensive learning resource designed to enable new and existing
faculty in Canadian universities to enhance their teaching and learning. This
project draws on a unique partnership amongst Canadian higher education
organizations including 3M
Teaching Fellows, the Society
for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), instructional
development offices from across Canada and a leading publisher - McGraw-Hill
Ryerson.
While
these initiatives are great its clear that Canada is in a major transition stage
with regard to online learning. Early leadership through the Telelearning NCE
and CANARIE's Learning Program have provided the funding and impetus to launch
and establish e-learning practice in Canada . With Telelearning NCE shut down a
couple of years ago and the current wind down of CANARIE's Learning Program we
now find ourselves at a critical national juncture.
The
fact of the matter is that Canada spends a pitiful amount of money on research
in education, a fact that was underscored by Charles Ungerleider in his opening
remarks at the Industry Canada E-Learning
in the E-economy workshop on Wednesday.
Current
transition to new federal leadership creates a certain inertia in Ottawa as new
policy directions are defined and Paul Martin formulates a position with regard
to e-learning. Bigger challenges now exist around sustainability of early
initiatives and ongoing leadership position.
To
help focus policy and suggest an action plan Industry Canada workshop
participants spent a day formulating a strategy for e-learning in the e-economy
around three themes - Enterprise E-Learning Technologies, Learning and Services,
and the Business of E-learning.
After
hearing three key speakers and presentations on each of these areas in the
morning, breakout groups spent the entire afternoon working toward action
agendas in each of these three key areas. The compiled results will flow into
the National
Conference on the E-Economy in June 2004.
Much
was accomplished and I look forward to the full report but for me one of the
biggest takeaways was the call for a one percent solution. One percent of all
Canadian expenditures on education should be put toward learning research. You
simply can't have e-economy without e-learning and the sooner we act in a
Pan-Canadian fashion with a long term (at least 10 years) strategy backed by
significant dollars the better.
Paul
Stacey, is Director of Development for BCcampus, a collaboration of
post-secondary institutions in British Columbia providing a central portal for
online access to post-secondary online learning courses, programs and resources.
Paul also helps host & produce LearningTimes
an online community for education professionals. Contact: Paul
Stacey
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E-Learning: An
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