Standards for e-Learning Modules

The Australian Government has issued "VET specifications for packaging and sharing content and courses".  The report looks at standards for allowing e-learning content to be easily installed in Lean ring Management Systems.Standards considered include:

1. IMS Common Cartridge (IMS CC)
2. Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM 2004)
3. Experience/Tin Can API (Tin Can)
4. IMS Content Packaging (IMS CP)
5. IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (IMS LTI)

One limitation I have found with the implementation of such package formats is the assumption that the central LMS will always be accessible to the student. Many people in the world have only intermittent Internet access and so are excluded from on-line education. This includes some people in developing nations, military personnel on deployment and even some in rural and remote Australia.

The packages are relatively compact zipped files of web based documents.  But to be used, the package is imported into a LMS and unzipped, where it becomes much larger and can only be used by the student while they are connected to the LMS via the Internet. Even though the student may be doing synchronous e-learning, they are forced to use a synchronous connection to do it.

It should be possible to use the same packaged formats off-line. That is, the student would bicycle to their local cyber-cafe, connect to the LMS, choose the package they wanted and then download it, still in its compact zipped format. They would then disconnect from the LMS, cycle home, and install the package on their, PC, laptop, tablet or smart phone. They could then interact with the package off-line. Occasionally they would need to connect to the Internet to upload a progress report, but that would only need a slow, brief connection, perhaps via a smart phone (or SMS).


ps: I will be speaking on "MOOCs with Books" in the CSIRO Seminar Room at ANU, 4pm, 8 July 2013.

E-learning course packaging survey

A survey of the way e-learning content is provided and backed up is being conducted for vocational education in Australia. This is by the federal/state backed "National VET E-learning Strategy". This is a good short survey.

The issue of packaging came up this week, with one of my colleagues struggling with a course implementation which spanned four different delivery systems: Wordpress, bespoke web pages, Moodle and Google Docs. It occurred to me if they just put the course content in one package in one place they would have a lot fewer problems.

The question about backup is also an interesting one. I accept the assurance of the central IT people that the courses are backed up. But does anyone ever check this is actually happening?

Accessible Ebooks for Education

At the web accessibility for education workshop at Canberra Institute of Technology yesterday, the topic of making ebooks accessible for those with a disability came up. As I briefly explained, many of the ebook and e-learning module formats used for education are based on the HTML format as used for web pages. Most of the ebook formats are essentially  of web pages zipped into a file for offline use (you can unzip many ebooks with a standard archive tool and examine their source code). As a result the same web accessibility techniques can be applied to ebooks as to web pages.

However, ebook readers have limited hardware (most kindles cannot display colour for example) and the versions of HTML used are limited compared to those on a desktop computer or even a tablet computer. This has its good points and bad points. On the one had some accessibility techniques cannot be used with ebooks and other hand some are not applicable and so need not be worried about.

The approach I suggest, if you are producing basic text based notes, perhaps with some illustrations, is to create  your content using the minimum of standard formatting. The document can be created in a word processor or a HTML editor. Use the standard headings, fonts, lists and the like. The content should then easily convert to most ebook formats. Depending on the ebook format used, you will be able to add colours and styles to make the content look prettier, but at least it will be readable on most devices. As an example see my "Demonstration of Using Moodle for Postgraduate Professional Education with eBooks and Smart phones".

If you have audio or video content I suggest not packaging it in the ebook, unless you are sure the student has broadband and a device which can view the video. Adding video can make the ebook file ten times larger (video can instead be supplied separately). As an example, Box Hill Institute of TAFE's excellent ebook for "Hand make timber joints" is 284 Mbytes. If the video is deleted from the ebook, the file reduces to 16 Mbytes, less than one tenth the size.

Ebook formats

1. Moodle Book Module: Moodle has its own simple ebook format called "Moodle Book Module". This uses the Moodle WYSIWYG HTML editor to create web p[ages which are book chapters. Moodle will convert the content to IMS Content Packages and also allow the student to export the content chaper or whole book as a web page. If you are creating content for Moodle this is a simple choice.
2. IMS Content Package and SCORM: The, IMS Content Packages and the closely related SCORM packages consist of a zipped file containing HTML, CSS and other web format documents. SCORM is popular for vocational education.
3. EPUB: Apple iPads have popularised the EPUB eBook format. If you are producing an ebook for a wide readership, this is the format you are likely to use.
4. Tagged PDF:  The version of  "Tagged PDF" provides some accessibility features, implemented using XML. It might be useful for those committed to PDF, but for others, one of the HTML based ebook formats would be better.
5. Kindle Format: Amazon Kindle ebooks use HTML  (newer files use HTML5). This is the format you would use for publishing via Amazon.com. But t\note that Kindle devices can read PDF files as well and ordinary web pages (but not EPUB).