standards
Neck and neck Two-horse races don’t just happen in sport Fiona Leteney
sporting analogies that I could include here. Boxing: in one corner we have ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning – US Department of Defense) with project TinCan the new-generation SCORM; in the other corner is AICC (Aviation Industry CBT Committee) with CMI-5. They are old sparring partners. It’s like the Oxford-Cambridge boat race: with one edging ahead and then the other. Currently I feel I’m at a tennis match my head turning back and forth. No one will actually admit to this being a race or a competition at the moment; however, it is beginning to feel that way. In the past, generally people have thought SCORM
T
and AICC were different standards but the reality is that ADL adopted the AICC standard for interoperability as part of their SCORM reference model. They were on the same side, in theory.
TinCan or CMI-5? Recently David Wilson, Europe’s learning and talent analyst from E-Learnity, tweeted me a question after a conversation we’d had walking down Ocean Drive in Miami (as you do).We had both been attending the same conference. The tweet just said “…TinCan or CMI-5?….” Good question.
It depends whether the question is which
organisation will publish the first specification, which will be the best technical solution or which will be adopted by the industry.
he current situation over e-learnng standards seems to be like a closely fought sporting contest. There are all sorts of
No one will actually admit to this being a race or a competition at the moment; however, it is beginning to feel that way
The answer to the first question is that they have
now both just published draft specifications. There are some familiar things about the AICC CMI-5 spec but even a non-technical person like me can see sections that will make it possible to track groups/teams rather than just individuals. Also it allows for the tracking of ANY content specified data elements; in other words you can track anything, the only limit is your imagination! I believe the technical stuff will allow for mobile learning too. There is a watermark through every page NOT FOR IMPLEMENTATION – the document is for comment only but is a “working beta copy or final draft”, according to Ed Cohen, chair of the AICC CMI-5 committee. There is a conference in Chicago, 15–16 May 2012 to discuss the new specification and all suppliers of learning management systems, authoring tools and content are invited to join that meeting. It will be accessible virtually too, so register at
www.aicc.org.
This project is being opened up so that anyone can participate free of charge. The idea is to build prototypes using CMI-5 and report back to AICC to ensure it is a workable standard. When I spoke to Ed he stressed that: “Although
AICC sounds like it would be just for the aviation industry, it isn’t; half the working group are dedicated to the rest of the e-learning industry.” He says that this new standard is aimed at the majority of the commercial world that still need the compliance training, like finance, pharmaceutical and aviation.
ADL and TinCan A good sign is that ADL is participating, it is referenced as a contributor in the AICC CMI-5 document and is advertising the Chicago meeting on its home page at
www.adlnet.gov. However, it is also working on its own project TinCan which seems quite a different concept.
Although AICC sounds like it would be just for the aviation industry, it isn’t; half the working group are dedicated to the rest of the e-learning industry
may 2012 e.learning age
I had the privilege this week to eavesdrop (via webinar) on decisions being made in the SCORM camp on its next steps to develop this project. The concept is around recording ‘I did this’ <Actor (learner)><verb><object> in a Learning Record Store (LRS). The webinar discussion revolved around whether to specify every possible verb or just some to start with – eg completed, passed, mentored, blogged, etc. For more information and the draft specification for the TinCan API, follow the links and go to the wiki on the ADL website. So back to David’s question of which will be the best technical solution or the one adopted by the industry. The jury is still out. I urge you all to have your say and get involved; this time round if we don’t get what we want, we have only ourselves to blame.
Fiona Leteney is an e-learning implementation consultant
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