Developing Training Materials for the U.S. Army Using Sharable Content Objects

• In Event: Improving Materials Development With Shareable Instructional Objects: Demonstration and Discussion

Abstract

This talk will describe the process of developing sharable content objects (SCOs) containing small segments of instructional material for the military, and illustrate several of them. The illustrations will show how instructional development resources can be reduced by producing such smaller SCOs. Also illustrated will be how to recover a very large array of freely available, previously developed SCOs, using the standards developed in the Shareable Content Object Resource Model (SCORM), a collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning used in the Advanced Learning initiative. SCORM provides a schema for discovery of all chunks of content, including the smaller ones contained within a course. It should be noted that over 6,000,000 million SCOs have been developed and are freely available on the Internet. The vast majority of these SCOs are equally applicable to civilian and military training, and to instructional situations in educational contexts. The process of retrieving SCOs will also be illustrated in the talk.

The vision of U.S. Army Training and Education expressed in the Army Learning Concept 2015 is to develop content in the smallest intelligible chunks useful for instruction (e.g., task-based learning objects, education topics- such as The Skeletal System, Creating an Outline, etc) and then linking and sequencing these smaller chunks into anew learning structure (e.g., a lesson, a module, a course). A major advantage of smaller chunks is that they can be easily shared and used again and again in a variety of courses and structures. Obviously, such a strategy has major advantages in reducing the resources needed to create course content.

The Army Distributed Learning Program has been producing courseware for a number of years but, unfortunately, has failed to define a design strategy for producing chunked content to provide for its reuse. Therefore, some Army training SCOs have continued producing large courses with no way to identify their reusable pieces. That practice has also led to issues with managing and delivery of large content files on a learning management system. Chunking content into smaller more manageable chunks offers promise for the more effective development of instructional material. In addition to providing a practical solution to problems in the management and delivery of content, this talk will cite empirical evidence for resources saved by developing SCOs containing small chunks of instructional material.

Author

• Peggy Kenyon, Courseware Standards and Certification Division