Teachers and trainers from across Australia will soon be able to
use and access e-learning resources which meet a national
standard.
The National Senior Officials Committee, which comprises the
heads of vocational and technical education in Australia, has
endorsed the adoption of standards which set a benchmark for the
technical design of electronic learning resources.
The standards were put forward by the Flexible Learning Advisory
Group, which oversees the national training system's e-learning
strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. The standards
have been researched and compiled through the Framework's
E-standards for Training Project.
Updates to the standards are reviewed and ratified by the
E-standards Expert Group, a group of technical managers supporting
e-learning, from each state and territory, and relevant national
initiatives across Australia.
E-standards Expert Group chairman Rodney Spark said the
agreement allows for the development of standardized e-learning
resources which are compatible with the various learning and
resource management systems used by states and territories around
Australia.
"E-learning now plays an integral part in the delivery of
vocational and technical education and these standards are part of
developing Australia's knowledge infrastructure for the 21st
century," Spark said.
"These standards are like railway gauge sizes. If each state and
territory uses different sized gauges, it makes it extremely
difficult to travel around Australia on the one train.
"The same is true with e-learning resource standards. If we have
different development standards around Australia we limit our
chances of having an integrated e-learning infrastructure."
Spark said a national training system will allow a teacher or
trainer in the state of Tasmania to recommend a fantastic
e-learning resource which suits the needs of their students and be
confident they will be able to access and use it despite the fact
it is developed in Western Australia.
"We expect teachers to be able to search from their desktop for
resources from across Australia and avoid the duplication of effort
which results if resources have to be developed from scratch to fit
local platforms," he said.
The standards will allow e-learning resources to work across
multiple electronic platforms as well as meet international
standards.
The standards focus on eight areas including content formats,
content packaging, metadata and vocabularies, digital repository
interoperability, intellectual property web services, accessibility
and client platforms.
Spark said developing Australian e-learning resources to
internationally recognized standards not only improves the quality
of vocational and technical education delivered in Australia it
also increases the export potential of Australia's e-learning
programs and resources.
For more information on the E-standards for Training Project,
and the full list of endorsed standards visit http://e-standards.flexiblelearning.net.au/
icon.
