Automating the creation of Learning Object

Automating the creation of Learning Object

by olivier oliv' -
Number of replies: 7

Hello all,

I am currently starting a thesis in Computer Science and I thought about an application that automates the creation of Learning Object in order to stimulate the sharing of resources (quizzes, audio clip, video, games, ...) since I havn't seen so much LO posted on this site.

I am currently defining my proposal and I would like to have some feedback about what is missing for example in Moodle in order to encourage the use of this LMS.

I saw that moodle is working on the exchange section. Does anybody knows when the new features will be released?

Thank you very much.

I hope to hear from the community soon!

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In reply to olivier oliv'

Re: Automating the creation of Learning Object

by Richard Treves -

Hi Olivier,

Sounds an interesting project, there are a number of projects you could do to help make content shareable.  Have you got any specific ideas? 

I hate to not be encouraging but IMHO the lack of sharing of LOs is not so much a technical problem but a human one, I have seen lots of projects set up to share content and I haven't heard of any that have been a roaring sucess - in my area of University education there is a general feeling that LOs are 'property', i.e. if someone reuses them they should be paying for them.

If you would like to help us to share content the best project (again IMHO) would be to produce a program that converts content from a format that tutors find easy to write in to one that is web friendly.  E.g. a lot of tutors use powerpoint, commercial programs exisit that convert the large .ppt file to a smaller, streaming .swf file while keeping the rich trainsistions.  If you could produce a program that out performs open office (free software) in this area you will probably find people using your software and swopping files in the ppt format. 

Hope this of help, happy to discuss further if you want

Richard

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In reply to Richard Treves

Re: Automating the creation of Learning Object

by olivier oliv' -

Hello Richard,

Thank you for the reply. Actually, I wouldn't be able to produce such a software because my project has also to meet the needs of my supervisor who wants pretty soon a tool to exchange Digital resources.

What I thought about looks like this:

Ø    A first deliverable shall handle the creation of LOs and their delivery while ensuring their interoperability and integration within LMS that conform to SCORM* specifications.

Ø    The second deliverable shall enable the re-purpose the LO found in the database that will contain the LOs.

Ø    A third deliverable shall enable the storage and the search of Learning Objects

This is just an idea. I started my research 2 weeks ago, I am quite new in the area of e-learning and I guess this might have been done already...sad

I really appreciate your feedback, thanks a lot!

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In reply to olivier oliv'

Re: Automating the creation of Learning Object

by Anne Nicolson -

Are you looking for ideas for possible learning objects? I have plenty of creative energy and ideas for things that would be useful to secondary teachers. Automation -  I love the concept. The teachers I work with have no time for fancy programing. Drag and drop and here is a brillant resource.

My understanding of moodle exchange is that it is really for moodle courses rather than individual learning objects. However I'll post a couple of my own efforts and perhaps you can refine them. One is a automatic matching quiz. The second is an alternative presentation of  voltage and current.

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In reply to Anne Nicolson

Re: Automating the creation of Learning Object

by olivier oliv' -

Hello Anne,

Thank you for the reply. I am quite new in the area of elearning so what I am writing might just reveal my ignorance of the subject...

I am thinking of an application that creates LOs, deliver them, integrate them into LMS that conforms to SCORM specification, search, repurpose, store, ... For example a professor uploads a resource in the system and enters some metadata and the application stores and returns the LO that conforms the interoperability standards currently existing, so later on anyone who is using an LMS that conforms to SCORM can reuse, repurpose it even if it is a different LMS ....

Maybe what I am writing is nonse sense because my knowledge are quite limited or maybe it is has been done already ...

I really appreciated your feedback, thanks a lot!

Olivier

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In reply to olivier oliv'

Re: Automating the creation of Learning Object

by Anne Nicolson -

This sound sensible to me - you want to take existing resources and automatically make them scorm compliant??

It think a lot of people would love you if you could do that.

This is not my area of expertise but I can see standards and conventions metatags are going to be increasingly important. Why don't you start a conversation in the scorm forum?

I just posted a couple of resources in the resource exchange. You could start by making them scorm compliantwink

http://moodle.org/mod/glossary/view.php?id=2757&mode=entry&hook=4191

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In reply to olivier oliv'

Re: Automating the creation of Learning Object -

by Richard Treves -

Hi Olivier,

You might like to look at the reload project - I have just created some web pages using dreamweaver and by entering them in reload I can upload the pages to any IMS compliant VLE with some nice navigation in as well.  It looks really good and is open source, it also handles IMS metadata so the course can be put in a repository and searched.  You can also create multiple versions of a course using the same content and export them to whatever VLE is needed.

It looks to me that they have got a long way down the path that you are thinking of?  If so you might like to think of building something onto what they have done already - my request ( smile ) would be for something that converts word documents directly into clean html in reload.

hope that helps

Richard

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In reply to Richard Treves

Re: Automating the creation of Learning Object -

by olivier oliv' -

Hello Richard,

Sorry for this late answer. I really appreciate your comments and I found the Reload project very interesting and yes, this what I was thinking of. I may build something on the top of it but this need to be decided by my advisor ...

Again, thank you for your precious help! smile

Sincerely,

Olivier

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