IMS Global: What
feedback has been received from teachers?
ST: TLF has received
overwhelming positive feedback from teachers and students. Teachers
have reported that the digital content increases student engagement.
TLF has commissioned independent research to establish whether the TLF
content impacts on students' learning. This research is ongoing but the
preliminary results are that it does have a positive impact on a
student's learning.
IMS Global: Will you
be adding more emphasis on assessment going forward? Will this be
formative or summative in nature and who will use the results?
ST: One of the
priorities for Phase 3 is to draw on data obtained from national
testing and develop content that will assist students who are
underachieving in national benchmarks for literacy and numeracy. As
part of this strategy TLF is developing assessment objects along
similar principles and style as the learning objects; that is, highly
interactive with feedback for both the teacher and student. This will
enable teachers to plan individual student programs based on the data
they receive form the assessment objects. This project is a pilot. TLF
is investigating the use of the IMS QTI standard for assessment, and we
are currently modifying our existing Flash authored learning objects.
IMS Global: One of
your objectives is to create content for sharing with other
jurisdictions and other countries. To what degree is your organization
sharing content and best practices with other nations? To what degree
do you believe your program will be an international participant five
years from now and how is this likely to be manifested?
ST: Currently we
have shared content with the LearnAlberta project from Canada
and supported open source software initiatives such as Global Education
& Learning Community (http://ww.curriki.org).
TLF has shared its experiences with other like programs such as The
Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) in the USA, BECTA
and Futurelab
in the UK, Korean Education and Research Information Service (KERIS),
and has worked with the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science
and Technology (IPST) in Thailand to
assist them to develop their own learning objects based on TLF
methodology. TLF developed an open source learning content management
systems (BELTS) that was released on SourceForge.net.
All
specifications and processes that have been agreed and evolved are
available through the TLF website and other forums.
IMS Global: Has the
initiative succeeded in growing the industry of learning technology
product and service providers? What lessons learned have there been in
this regard?
ST: In its review of
Phase 2 AESOC commissioned a report on the success of
TLF and its engagement with the developer market. This report
highlighted:
- TLF
assisted in making local content developers more competitive in
overseas markets
- Broadening
the potential sources of content available to schools through
establishing procurement models with cultural institutions
Curriculum
Corporation's experience with the multimedia industry is that while the
industry was an enthusiastic partner there were skills gaps in
instructional design, project management, and documentation. The
multimedia industry was inexperienced in developing to standards. TLF
insisted that learning objects were to be subjected to a rigorous
quality assurance process for technical, learning design, and editorial
integrity. These requirements meant that developers had to undertake
documentation and put in QA processes that they were not used to. One
consequence was that TLF established a preferred pool of suppliers that
had developed the required skill set. TLF has witnessed improved
project management, documentation, and a greater capacity for
developers to support instructional design that reflected a schools
rather than corporate market.
Curriculum
Corporation has maintained an ongoing relationship with eLearning
industry associations to ensure that the schools sector is represented
in training and development activities.
Flavel,
Greg (Convergent Consulting, Sydney):
Review of The Le@rning
Federation Market Linkages Phase Two
