E-learning Standards

Standards on e-Learning
Several groups are attempting to establish working industry standards to permit interoperability and free exchange of content developed in various software packages. As open standards tend to guide technology development in other areas, it would be prudent to carefully consider the value of a standards-based software suite when making long term investments.
 
IEEE Standard :- IEEE Standard for Computer-Based Learning - IEEE is one of the world's largest Standards Development Organizations (SDO) and is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
 
 
Instructional Management System (IMS) Global Learning Consortium - originally an Educause design initiative, this group of academicians, vendors and a sprinkling of corporate/government types is hashing out the written specifications of on-line learning tools, including locating and using educational content, tracking learner progress, reporting learner performance, and exchanging student records between administrative systems. Originally, this group also attempted to sponsor a prototype product meeting that design plan (from which the Blackboard product line originated), but this deliverable seems to have fallen by the wayside with the advent of ADL.
 
Advanced Distributed Learning Network (ADL) - Essentially, Practical testbed for selected deliverablesof the IMS initiative. In November 1997, the Department of Defense (DoD) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) launched the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative. ADL did not compete with other standards efforts already underway by the AICC, IMS, and IEEE. ADL sought to provide a functional testbed for those efforts under one umbrella, and in January 2000 it released the first version of an encyclopedic document called the Sharable Course Object Reference Model (SCORM).
 
All about Learning Technology Standards, based on an article by Wayne Hodgins with Marcia Conner published first in LiNE Zine’s Fall 2000 issue.
 
Reusable Learning Objects" by Peder Jacobsen provides a quick short course in history, tactics and the future of Reusable Learning Objects "RLOs".
 
The Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards (CETIS) maintains a web site with news about IMS, ADL, EML, AICC, IEEE, and ISO from a UK higher education perspective. CETIS is a non-profit academic organization within the University of Wales, Bangor UK. The CETIS Web site provides links to news items related to learning objects and metadata standards as well as articles intended to provide the necessary background for people who may be new in the field.
 
Aviation Industry CBT (Computer-Based Training) Committee (AICC) - Beginning in the late 1980's, the airline industry, long a user of distributed information systems for training, developed a set of standards, including AICC Guidelines & Recommendations (AGR's) for on-line course software courseware delivery standards. Officially, the AICC develops guidelines for aviation computer-based training (CBT) - though not necessarily WEB based training in the airline industry.