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Strategies and Techniques for Designers, Developers, and Managers of eLearning

A publication of

THIS WEEK — DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

2003

New technologies arecontinually coming to the fore, and manyof them have applica-tions to e-Learning.Weblogs and RSS (an XML standard for distribution of information) are making substantialprogress in 2003. This overview will give you a taste ofwhat is being donewith these by earlyadopters. You may find some ideas thatwill meet your needsto do things more simply and morecheaply.

Using RSS and Weblogs for e-Learning: An OverviewBY BILL BRANDON

Simpler is better. There are a lot of “needs” in e-Learning,

and there’s often a limit to the time, talent, and money

that can be thrown at them individually. For example,

take facilitating communication across project teams during

design and development, or between instructors and learners

when they are separated by time and space, or between learn-

ers while building a community. What if there was a way to use

“public” infrastructure for this, reducing the cost of infrastruc-

ture and software? Or what if there was a low-cost way to pub-

lish learning objects for use by other developers, or to acquire

learning resources for use in your own projects, or to make

them available for direct use by learners?These challenges have at least two relat-

ed potential solutions that have been mak-ing rapid strides in the first half of 2003:weblogs (or “blogs”) and RSS (an abbrevia-tion with more than one meaning, as youwill soon see). These may be familiar toyou if you are working in higher education,especially in Canada or the UnitedKingdom, or if you are already an activemember of the weblog community. In anycase, this article will introduce you to these

two developments, and to some of themore appropriate ways they are beingapplied to e-Learning.

A fast overviewWeblogs, in their most fundamental

form, are web sites that feature commen-tary posted as “items” in reverse chrono-logical order. It would be a mistake to dis-miss all weblogs as commentary by the

Continued on next page

W W W. E L E A R N I N G G U I L D . C O M

self-absorbed, or as manifestos written bypeople with an axe to grind, although thatmay be the first impression. The purposeof weblog technology is to make publishing— of anything — universally available.While not all content posted to weblogs isof critical value, the number of professionaland informative weblogs has exploded inthe past few months.

In particular, the number of weblogsaddressing education and the applicationof technology to teaching and learningseems to have doubled since February ofthis year. Many of these efforts are con-cerned with reporting advances in learningobject applications, pedagogical modelsmatched to the e-Learning environment,and collaborative learning. Others are sim-ply the product of teachers who want toshare ideas that have worked for them. For examples, see the list maintained byGeorge Siemens at http://www.elearn-space.org/cgi-bin/elearnspaceblog/archives/000920.html#000920. Apartfrom the fact that the technology is cheap(or even free) and the tools are getting bet-ter, there are two basic reasons for thisupsurge in interest.

First, it is easy to set up and use aweblog in order to share information andpoints of view. Little or no technical know-how is required. A weblog can literally beup and running in less than fifteen min-utes. Content can include text, images,and streaming media (both audio andvideo).

But in the long run, a more significantaspect is that the technology behind someweblogs makes XML and self-describingdata accessible and useful to busy peoplewho are not (and who do not wish tobecome) preoccupied with information technology. This technology is called RSS,which stands either for RDF Site Summary(RSS 1.0, with RDF being an acronym forResource Description Framework) or forReally Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0),depending on the tools you use.

RSS is important to e-Learning develop-ers because with this technology, it is pos-sible to create and use repositories oflearning objects on the public Internet oron a private intranet. Granted, this is not asolution of choice for every situation, but itis being done and the number of applica-tions is growing. The distribution of learn-ing objects through RSS may be one of thenext major applications to develop fromweblog-related technology.

Weblogs in detailWeblogs are “websites organized by

time” (to quote one vendor of webloggingsoftware). Because of this temporal orien-tation and their ease of use, weblogs arebecoming more common as a tool for e-Learning developers and project man-agers, as a communication medium forinstructors, and as support for learners.(See Figure 1 below.) In e-Learning, mostrelationships (instructor to student, studentto student, project team member to project

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DEVELOPMENT / s t r a t e g i e s

The eLearning Developers’ Journal™ is design-ed to serve the industry as a catalyst for inno-vation and as a vehicle for the dissemination ofnew and practical strategies and techniques fore-Learning designers, developers and man-agers. The Journal is not intended to be thedefinitive authority. Rather, it is intended to be a medium through which e-Learning practi-tioners can share their knowledge, expertiseand experience with others for the general betterment of the industry.

As in any profession, there are many differ-ent perspectives about the best strategies,techniques and tools one can employ to accom-plish a specific objective. This Journal will sharethese different perspectives and does not posi-tion any one as “the right way,” but rather weposition each article as “one of the right ways”for accomplishing a goal. We assume thatreaders will evaluate the merits of each articleand use the ideas they contain in a mannerappropriate for their specific situation. Weencourage discussion and debate about articlesand provide an Online Discussion board foreach article.

The articles contained in the Journal are allwritten by people who are actively engaged inthis profession at one level or another — not by paid journalists or writers. Submissions arealways welcome at any time, as are sugges-tions for articles and future topics. To learnmore about how to submit articles and/orideas, please refer to the directions in the side-bar on page 7 or visit www.eLearningGuild.com.

Publisher David Holcombe

Editorial Director Heidi FiskEditor Bill Brandon

Copy Editor Charles Holcombe

Design Director Nancy Marland

The eLearning Guild™ Advisory BoardRuth Clark, Conrad Gottfredson, John Hartnett,

Bill Horton, Kevin Moore, Eric Parks, Brenda PfausMarc Rosenberg, Allison Rossett

Copyright 2003. The eLearning Developers’ Journal™.Compilation copyright by The eLearning Guild 2003. Allrights reserved. Please contact The eLearning Guild forreprint permission.

The eLearning Developers’ Journal is published weeklyby The eLearning Guild, 525 College Avenue, Suite215, Santa Rosa, CA 95404. Phone: 707.566.8990.The eLearning Guild is an operating unit of FocuszoneMedia, Inc., 1030 Beatrice Street, Eagan, MN 55121.

The Journal is included as part of Guild membership.To join the Guild go to www.eLearningGuild.com.

FIGURE 1 Weblogs are finding more uses in e-Learning.

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DEVELOPMENT / s t r a t e g i e s

team member) are temporary, existing onlyfor a set period of time, so weblogs are agood match.

Examples of weblog use in e-Learning

These are well-documented on the Web,but here is a summary of the commonapplications.

Communication between educators

This was probably the first use ofweblogs in support of teaching and learn-ing, the exchange of information and ideasthat work. In some cases, organizationsare actively using weblogs internally as aknowledge management tool across projectteams. Between organizations, weblogssupport information-sharing on a globalbasis. By now, many e-Learning profession-als have used the weblog named elearning-post to keep up to date on developmentsin technology, pedagogy, and design ofonline distance learning. Other similarweblogs include OLDaily, elearnspace, andSerious Instructional Technology. (TheURLs for these are listed in Sidebar 1below, and all links have been added tothe Resource Directory.) Such weblogsform the core of a serious and growingmovement on the Web. Many educatorsand trainers use the RSS feeds (defined onpage 4) from other weblogs to set up theirown “news ticker” to bring them the latestdevelopments in their fields of interest, ona regular (even hourly) basis.

Communication between educators andlearners

Another important use of weblogs ineducation is as a means of teaching writ-ing. The idea is that people learn to writebetter, in part, by writing more often.Weblogs make this very easy, withoutrequiring the learner to master penman-ship, word processing, HTML, or any othercomplex skill. In corporate training, theapplications are usually not so elementary,but the idea is still useful. For example,case study analyses can easily be writtenup as weblog entries or as attachments toentries. Instructors or teachers can postassignments, instructions, and links toenrichment material related to the day’sdiscussions on their weblogs. For theirpart, learners can complete the writtenparts of some assignments as weblogentries and receive the instructor’s com-ments in the same medium. Lately, instruc-

tors have found that it is also possible touse weblog technology to place live newsfeeds inside a WebCT course, and possiblyinside other synchronous courses.

Learner to learner communication

This is potentially the most powerfulapplication, especially where collaborationis a significant objective of an online learn-ing application. This can be important inthose areas of instruction where learnersmust construct their own knowledge in

order to meet objectives. Finally, learnerswho would otherwise be isolated from theircolleagues by time or distance can useweblogs as a platform for group projectsand for information exchange.

Types of weblog softwareIt is possible to create and post weblog

entries with a text editor, if you are adeptwith HTML and know how to use FTP (FileTransfer Protocol). Most people prefer touse a dedicated tool, like Blogger or Radio,

FIGURE 2 This is part of the RSS feed for the weblog in Figure 1.

SIDEBAR 1 Resources

Articles on the WebUnderstanding Weblogs, Wei-Meng Lee. Dec. 30, 2002,

http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/3074 An Introduction to RSS for Educational Designers, Stephen Downes. November 2,

2002, http://www.downes.ca/files/RSS_Educ.htmExplanation of RSS, How You Can Use It, and Finding RSS Feeds, Fagan Finder. Found

on the Internet April 15, 2003, at http://www.faganfinder.com/search/rss.shtml

BooksContent Syndication with RSS, Ben Hammersley. O’Reilly, 2003. ISBN 0-596-00383-8Learning XML, Erik T. Ray. O’Reilly, 2001. ISBN 0-596-00046-4

Weblogs on e-Learningelearningpost (http://www.elearningpost.com) elearnspace (http://www.elearnspace.org/cgi-bin/elearnspaceblog)Serious Instructional Technology

(http://www.cognitivearchitects.com/SeriousInstructionalTechnology)OLDaily (http://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.htm)

both of which will be introduced later inthis article.

With a dedicated weblogging tool, creat-ing and publishing content is a two-stepprocess, all of it taking place in the familiarweb browser. Create the content by typingor linking. Click on a button marked “Post.”The content immediately appears online inyour weblog. By itself, this is “nice,” buthardly compelling. The strength of weblog-ging tools is in the additional features theyoffer.

Most weblog software allows you toarchive the posts (items). This means thatyou, and anyone else, can refer to them atany time in later posts by way of links toeach individual item. At the owner’s discre-tion, most weblogs also allow readers toleave comments on each item and thussupport dialog between readers.

Many weblogs create what is known asan RSS “feed.” Literally, a feed is an XMLdocument that contains all of the items inthe weblog, together with metadata relating

to the weblog. Figure 2 on page 3 showsthe RSS feed for the weblog in Figure 1.

Other people can subscribe to this RSSfeed. That is, they can set up their ownweblogs (or special software called a“reader”) to go out at regular intervals andaggregate the newly-published contents ofthe weblogs to which they have subscribed.In this way, rather than having to “visit”each weblog in which they have an inter-est, they simply open their own weblog tosee all the new items.

There are two different types of softwarethat can be used when applying webloggingin e-Learning. The first type is used to cre-ate weblogs and weblog entries. In additionto the benefits cited above, this type ofsoftware provides standardization (impor-tant if many people will be collaborating viaweblog), additional communication fea-tures, ease of use, and practically no barri-er to starting (the user does not have toknow any HTML or XML at all). The secondtype of software (the “readers” mentionedearlier) simply gathers up and displaysentries and news items from feeds createdby weblogs and by other services.

Weblogging software

The first type of software mentioned isusually referred to as “weblogging soft-ware” or “blogging tools.” Most of theseoffer archiving and the ability to createRSS feeds, send new entries to the weblogvia email, and to customize the appear-ance of the weblog interface. Some ofthese tools are free (but with plenty of adsto support the service) and some involvethe payment of a subscription fee. In somecases, organizations or educational institu-tions have written their own blogging tools,in order to avoid subscription fees andadvertising as much as to meet particularneeds.

Within this category, there are two kindsof weblogging software — client side,which lives on the user’s desktop, andserver side, which lives on a web server.From the user’s point of view, these arenot too different, but in some situationsone may have an advantage over the other.

Client side: Radio Userland. There areseveral client side weblogging tools, offer-ing fairly standard features. The bestknown tool in this category is probablyRadio Userland (referred to here as Radio).Users can download Radio from Userland’ssite at http://www.userland.com. It runsunder Macintosh OS X, Macintosh Classic,

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FIGURE 3 The Radio Userland interface for entering weblog content is very simple.

FIGURE 4 The Blogger interface has fewer inputs to handle than Radio

and on Windows XP, 2000, NT and 98. Thecompany offers a 30-day trial, after whichthe $39.95 license fee must be paid tocontinue use. Radio can support weblogson an intranet or on the internet. Radio cansend weblog entries to any host which sup-ports FTP, or the user can have Userlandhost the weblog (the license fee includes ayear of hosting and 40 megabytes of diskspace on Userland’s server).

Radio provides its own web server onthe user’s PC. This allows the user tomake and maintain weblog entries on ahome page on the desktop, while offline.However, this also means that Radio isdesigned to be used only from one comput-er, not two (i.e., not from the desktopmachine AND from a laptop). Setting upand running Radio is not complicated andmost users are able to do this on theirown, and to post their first weblog entry, inabout fifteen minutes. Figure 3 on page 4shows the user interface for Radio.Inevitably, of course, some users will needassistance and so an organization thatchooses to use Radio will need to plan forthis. Radio has built-in help, but it is notespecially easy to use.

Radio offers several features to help inWeb publishing, such as:

• A built in outliner (this article startedon one)

• Categories (create multiple web sites

with a single weblogging tool — I use cate-gories in order to “sort” content acrossseveral weblogs)

• Stories (a story is an article that thewriter judges is too long for a post)

• Ability to upload and use pictures inposts

• Ability to upload and display outlinesand to use these outlines as the webloginterface

Server side: Blogger. Blogger is extreme-ly popular, with 1.1 million registered usersat last count. This means a lot of peoplehave heard of it, especially with the atten-tion that followed Google’s purchase ofPyra Labs, the software company that cre-ated Blogger. Blogger users cover a widerange of demographics. There are more“casual” or “personal journal” weblogswritten by Blogger users than, for example,by Radio users, but there are also plenty ofeducators who use Blogger because of theconvenience (no software to be paid for orinstalled on institution equipment, no secu-rity policies to contend with, usable fromany computer with internet access), andbecause it is free.

Blogger lives on a “server in the sky.”That is, it is a hosted application. As aresult, Blogger can be used from any com-puter, anywhere. As a practical matter, itworks exactly like Radio. A user types con-tent into a text box on a form, enters links

as desired, and posts the entry. See Figure4 on page 4 for an example of the Bloggerinterface. Entries may be posted to anassigned page within Blogger’s domain, orthey may be posted to the user’s personalweb page.

Users register with Blogger to set uptheir accounts, and within a single accounta user is permitted to set up multipleweblogs (universally referred to as “blogs”by Blogger users). There is a “team blog-ging” feature that allows more than oneperson to use a weblog. Although the basicBlogger service and hosting are free, usersare required to provide a link back toBlogger.com from their blog pages. Thefree service also means that banner adver-tising appears on the weblogs. Bloggerdoes offer a Pro service, and a variety ofhosting plan upgrades are available if thebasic Blogger account is unsuitable and ifthe user does not have another web site towhich entries may be posted. Fees forBlogger Pro and for the fee-based hostingservices can easily equal or exceed theannual Radio subscription price, especiallyfor users who post many articles daily.Details of fees and services can beobtained at http://www.blogger.com.

Reader software

Reader software simply collects the newposts and other items from the RSS feeds

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Symposium

TheeLearningInstructional

DesignBoston, MA

June 24 - 26, 2003Pre-symposium June 23, 2003

A Summer Intensive for Designers,Developers, and Managers of eLearning

This symposium is designed to provide every participant with

a set of solutions to the most common e-Learning instructional

design challenges. You will learn strategies that you can use to

benchmark your current practices, integrate into your existing

practices, modify and adapt to your existing practices, or that

you can adopt and employ in their entirety. Regardless of how

you actually use these strategies, we are certain that you WILL

use them!

This is going to be an intense learning experience!

Hurry! Enrollment is limited to 100 participants.

Topics we'll be focused on at this symposium...- The latest e-Learning research - Evaluating the effectiveness and quality of e-Learning - Designing e-Learning with limited resources- Levels of e-Learning interactivity - Blended learning - Motivating the e-Learner- Rapid prototyping - Creating simulations- Targeting learner needs - Designing for the virtual classroom- Building truly re-usable learning objects - m-Learning vs. e-Learning- e-Learning project management

For more information and to register, visit www.eLearningGuild.com

DEVELOPMENT / s t r a t e g i e s

to which the user subscribes, and presentsthese to the reader. This is somewhat anal-ogous to a newspaper or newsletter sub-scription, but one in which the items comefrom many different sources. Reader soft-ware does not make it possible to postnew items, only to view what others haveposted. As a result, reader technology ismainly useful to e-Learning in situationswhere this one-way flow is appropriate —presenting the latest news, for example.Some popular readers are listed in Sidebar2 below.

RSS feeds and syndicationRSS is an XML-based format. With RSS,

a web developer can describe and syndi-cate the content of a web site. The RSSdescription of the site is contained in asimple text file, usually with a file exten-sion such as .xml, .rss, or .rdf. Such a textfile is often referred to as a “feed.” Whena website has an RSS feed, it is “syndi-cated.”

“Content syndication” means makingpart or all of the content of a weblog, web-site, or object repository available for use

by other applications through a feed. Thissyndicated content can be accessed onmany different devices, including wirelessones. Users can also receive instant orperiodic notification of updates to syndicat-ed content. The RSS standard handles anydata type, from text documents to videostreams and real-world events.

An RSS feed basically contains a list ofitem descriptions. These item descriptionsmay represent individual entries in a weblog, or they may be other kinds of objectsor events. Each item’s descriptive informa-tion may include such obvious things as atitle, a summary, and a link to the actualURL of the item. In some cases, thedescription may include all of a news arti-cle, weblog post, or other content, or itmay only contain a summary. In any case,the URL will point to the actual completecontent.

As mentioned earlier, there are two RSSstandards, which can be confusing.Without going into the details too deeply, itis important to understand that RSS 1.0and RSS 2.0 are not evolutionary steps indevelopment of one single standard, but a

“fork in the road,” with each standard hav-ing different optimum applications. At thispoint, RSS 1.0 is a more robust (read“complex”) and general tool for publishingmany kinds of documents and resourcesacross networks. RSS 2.0 provides a sim-ple syndication method (as implied by thename) and exists primarily to serve theneeds of individuals who want to createand share news items, comments, andannouncements via weblog.

Both forms of RSS are XML content-syn-dication standards. Both forms of RSS canand surely will be extended, but there is noreason to wait to use the technology inorder to take advantage of the potential itoffers for content syndication.

Actual uses of RSS in e-LearningIn an article in June, I intend to explain

how to create RSS feeds and to do somespecific work with them, such as syndicat-ing learning objects. This is a completearticle in and of itself. However, I want togive you some specific examples now ofreal-world e-Learning projects that use RSStechnology.

MLX: Maricopa Learning Exchange

This is a project of the Maricopa Centerfor Learning and Instruction, at MaricopaCommunity Colleges. Maricopa is wellknown for its innovative uses of technologyto support teaching, learning and evaluation.

The MLX is a virtual “warehouse oflearning” containing about 500 “packages”that can be located through an online inter-face and downloaded for use by faculty,learners, or for any other educational use,with the stipulation that credit be given tothe package owner. These packages fromMaricopa may consist of anything createdfor or applied to student learning, andreuse is governed by the CreativeCommons license. New packages areadded frequently.

The “entry point” to the MLX is athttp://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mlx/about.php. On this home page, MLX “self-syndicates” by inserting the three mostrecent items in the MLX. If you have theability to receive RSS feeds (through aweblog, a reader, or through some server-side scripting), you can receive an hourlyupdate that shows you the 10 most recentMLX items in all Maricopa colleges, fivefiles (either the newest or a random selec-tion) from the college of your choice, or thefive newest files in a selected discipline.

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SIDEBAR 2 RSS Readers

A complete list, including software still in alpha or beta versions, is maintained onlineat http://blogspace.com/rss/readers. Readers listed here are stable versions.

Note: While only RSS versions 1.0 and 2.0 are referenced in this article, some appli-cations and some RSS feeds continue to use the predecessor RSS versions 0.9, 0.91,and 0.92. This is a confusing situation that will probably persist throughout the rest of2003 and possibly into 2004.

Desktop ReadersAmphetaDesk (free: Mac/Windows/Linux; works with feeds conforming to RSS 0.9,

0.91, 1.0)HotSheet (free: Mac/Windows/Linux; works with feeds conforming to RSS 0.9, 0.91,

1.0)Novobot ($39.95 for Individual license, $149.95 for corporate: Windows only; works

with feeds conforming to all versions of RSS)Peerkat (free, must have Python programming language installed: Mac/Windows/Linux;

works with feeds conforming to RSS 0.9, 0.91, 1.0)Radio Userland ($39.95/year: Mac/Windows; works with feeds conforming to RSS 0.9,

0.91, 0.92, 1.0)

Online (Web) ReadersFigby (works with feeds conforming to RSS 0.9, 0.91, 1.0)Meerkat (works with feeds conforming to RSS 0.9, 0.91, 1.0)My Userland (works with feeds conforming to RSS 0.9, 0.91)News Is Free (Basic is free, two custom levels keep ads off for a fee: works with feeds

conforming to RSS 0.9, 0.91, 1.0) rss2email (free: sends new items as an email, works with feeds conforming to all ver-

sions of RSS)SOAPClient.com RSS News Reader (works with feeds conforming to RSS 0.91, 0.92, 1.0)

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MLX packages include several types ofcontent, in a variety of file formats. Eachpackage is described by a “packing slip”that provides creator and contact informa-tion, description of contents, links, andmedia attachment information. AnyMaricopa employee can share their pack-ages, and the system provides assistancefor the process of creating, checking andmodifying package descriptions. Packagetypes, as defined by MLX, include:

Teaching strategies: lessons, tech-niques, methods, activities, or assign-ments developed or applied in teaching.Media attachments for these might includeMS Word documents, PDF documents, digi-tal graphics or scanned photographs, andlinks to web sites.

Research and development: descrip-tions of studies and experiments in teach-ing or using technology. Typical attach-ments are MS Word files, MS PowerPointpresentations, and links to web sites.

Learning objects: these include any kindof digital media asset created for or usedin the context of learning, whether re-usable or not. Some of the packagesinclude the predictable Flash! and videofiles, while others incorporate spread-sheets created to support lab activities.Some packages provide Java applets orShockwave for more interactive learningsupport.

Complete online courses: These areoffered even when they are not supportedby an LMS or WebCMS.

Other packages are described as“applied resources,” projects, learning sup-port, and subject references.

The primary syndication method is viaXML (RSS), but the university is experi-menting with syndication by JavaScript. Thelatter is easier for individuals to implementthan XML, and the school provides aCascading Style Sheet (CSS) to make thejob easier. The syndication features areexplained at http://www.mcli.dist.marico-pa.edu/mlx/feed.php.

All MLX items have “TrackBack,” mean-ing that they can be “autodiscovered” byweblogs and other automated systems.This feature also means that all of the MLXitems can track where they have been writ-ten about (e.g., a weblog author downloadsan object and writes a review of it). Later,other prospective users can see the com-ments of those reviewers.

This publication is by the people, for the people.That means it’s written by YOU the readers and members of The eLearning Guild!

We encourage you to submit articles for publication in the Journal.

Even if you have not been published before, we encourage you to submit a query

if you have a great idea, technique, case study or practice to share with your peers

in the e-Learning community. If your topic idea for an article is selected by the edi-

tors, you will be asked to submit a complete article on that topic. Don’t worry if you

have limited experience writing for publication. Our team of editors will work with

you to polish your article and get it ready for publication in the Journal.

By sharing your expertise with the readers of the Journal, you not only add to the

collective knowledge of the e-Learning community, you also gain the recognition of

your peers in the industry and your organization.

How to Submit a Query

If you have an idea for an article, send a plain-text email to our editor,

Bill Brandon, at bill@eLearningGuild.com, with the following information in the body

of the email:

• A draft of the first paragraph, written to grab the reader’s attention and identify

the problem or issue that will be addressed.

• A short outline of your main points addressing the problem or resolving the

issue. This could be another paragraph or it could be a bulleted list.

• One paragraph on your background or current position that makes you the one

to tell this story.

• A working title for the article.

• Your contact information: name, job title, company, phone, email. This informa-

tion is to be for the writer of the article. We are unable to accept queries from

agents, public relations firms, or other third parties.

All of this information should fit on one page. If the topic fits our editorial plan, Bill

will contact you to schedule the manuscript deadline and the

publication date, and to work out any other details.

Refer to www.eLearningGuild.com for more details.

Get It Published in...

Do you have an interesting story to tell?

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EduSource Canada

EduSource Canada is a project with thegoal of creating a Canadian network oflinked and interoperable learning objectrepositories. It appears to be in the first oftwo phases, an inventory of tools, systems,protocols and practices. Once this is com-plete, the project will define the compo-nents of the interoperable framework, theweb services required to connect them,and the protocols needed to access therepository network. This is a public distribu-tion, with a distributed architecture.

Current repositories include CAREO,MERLOT, and Splash. The EduSource sys-tem involves storing the learning objects ondifferent servers in different locations, withall of them labeled using a shared metada-ta scheme. The user is probably neveraware that the object repository is distrib-uted across many servers. The Canadiansystem uses a metadata model referred toas CanCore, a subset of the IEEE LearningObject Metadata (LOM) set.

CAREO (Campus Alberta Repository ofEducational Objects) currently has RSSfeeds for objects on its servers, but theother repositories do not. CAREO has over3500 educational objects available. Toaccess them, you do not need to beCanadian or to be a faculty member. Simplycreate an account, which you may do at nocharge. CAREO provides a user guide fordownload, and this is highly recommended.

Subscriptions in CAREO are done a littledifferently from MLX. Instead of subscribingto a feed for the entire site, you subscribeto the feeds for individual objects. CAREOuses RSS to provide TrackBack capabilityfor the individual objects as well.

An article on CanCore appeared in theCanadian Journal of Learning and Technol-ogy, Fall, 2002 (http://www.cjlt.ca/con-tent/vol28.3/). This article also explainsthe classification and construction of learn-ing object repositories of various types.

To some extent, the EduSource project isaimed at being more of a peer-to-peer sys-tem, reflecting the nature of the Canadianeducation system, politics, and geography.

Singapore is developing a similar sys-tem, based on SingCORE, another meta-data schema for labeling digital learningresources. SingCORE provides a core of 42 IMS elements for labeling. This is lesscomplex than IMS (80+ elements), andmore complete than Dublin Core (15 ele-ments). SingCORE is driven by the desire tocustomize international specifications tomeet needs in Singapore, including lan-guage requirements and taxonomic paths.This program is described on the Web athttp://www.ecc.org.sg/cocoon/ecc/web-site/singcore-17-jan-03.pdf.

Other RSS feeds from learning objectrepositories

There are over a dozen learning objectrepositories located on the Web at thistime, but only a handful provide RSS feeds.These are listed in Sidebar 3 below. Mostare similar to MLX and to CAREO, but onein the UK, The MedWeb Testbank Search,is set up to generate multiple choice ques-tions on medical subjects. Test items areselected from question banks located inseveral universities. At present this is notmuch more than a demonstration of con-cept, but it points the way to possible

future development of applications for RSSin e-Learning.

What next?Essentially, much of what is being done

today with weblogs and RSS technology ine-Learning seeks to deal with knowledgemanagement and content managementissues. Some of this is driven by dissatis-faction or disillusionment with LMS andLCMS offerings, or by the belief thatSCORM is not a suitable standard for sup-porting collaborative and constructivistapproaches to learning. In some cases, itis driven by the desire to have a national or regional educational resource responsiveto particular political, social, or economicdemands.

So far, it seems to be only universitiesand government-supported entities that aredeveloping publicly-available learning objectrepositories with RSS feeds. There may becorporations or private concerns that areusing RSS internally to distribute learningobjects, but none have made their effortsknown to the world at large, and their RSSfeeds are not publicly available. This couldchange, although it is unclear whether orwhy any corporation would want to make itsintellectual property publicly available. Itwould be technically feasible for e-Learningvendors to use RSS in this way, maintain-ing their learning object repositories insecure, controlled access sites, givenappropriate development of a businessmodel where this made sense. In my opin-ion, it will be higher education, government,and communities of practice (such as TheeLearning Guild and the open source com-munity) that will be the principle providersof public RSS feeds for distribution of learn-ing objects.

In some cases we will find ourselvesasking (if we are not already), “Why re-invent the wheel? Why not use systemsthat already exist? Why run the risk of cre-ating a “kludge” instead of an elegant solu-tion to the staffing and financial problemsencountered in developing e-Learning?”These are fair questions, and worth askingfor each project where weblogs or RSS areconsidered.

These technologies are today where theinternet itself was a decade ago. Weblogsand RSS are being advanced by the earlyadopters, and are just beginning to breakinto the larger awareness. Notwithstanding,there are some clear “winners” in theseapplications. Weblogs can and do help

The purpose of weblog technology is to

make publishing — of

anything — universally

available.

SIDEBAR 3 RSS feeds from Learning Object Repositories

A master list of known RSS feeds from repositories is maintained athttp://www.island.net/~leslies/blog/stories/2003/04/11/rssFeedsFromLearningObjectRepositoriesKnownExamples.html Feeds listed here are current as of the middle of May, 2003.

Campus Alberta Repository of Educational Objects (CAREO, http://www.careo.org/)Maricopa Learning Exchange (http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mlx/index.php)The MedWeb Testbank Search (http://medweb5.bham.ac.uk/databases/interop/mcqs)Humbul Database (http://www.humbul.ac.uk/help/rss.html)UK Centre for Materials Education (http://www.materials.ac.uk/index.asp)

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learners improve their writing skills and their criti-cal thinking, and weblogs are a simple tool forpromoting collaboration. RSS is already facilitatingthe sharing of educational tools between practi-tioners, and should soon support actual deliveryof online instruction, both in synchronous and inasynchronous applications.

AUTHOR CONTACTBill Brandon is the editor

of The eLearning Developers’Journal. He has over thirtyyears’ experience in the design,development and managementof learning and teaching activi-ties, and has been involved in

e-Learning since 1984.

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