A learning object has been defined as the following:

• "Any entity, digital or non-digital, that may be used for learning, education or training" ^[1]
• "Any digital resource that can be reused to support learning" ^[2]
• "Web-based interactive chunks of e-learning designed to explain a stand-alone learning objective" ^[3]

Learning object portability

Before any institution invests a great deal of time and energy into building high-quality learning content (which can cost over $10,000 per classroom hour) ^{[citation needed]}, it needs to consider how this content can be easily loaded into a Learning Management System. If all of the properties of a course can be precisely defined in a common format, the content can be serialized into a standard format such as XML and loaded into a new system. When you consider that some classes need to include video, mathematical equations using MathML, chemistry equations using CML and other complex structures the issues become very complex, especially if the importing system needs to understand and validate each structure and then place it into the correct places in the database. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Virtual learning environment. ... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language for creating special-purpose markup languages, capable of describing many different kinds of data. ... Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) is an application of XML for representing mathematical symbols and formulae, aimed at integrating them into World Wide Web documents. ... CML (Chemical Markup Language) is a new approach to manage molecular information using tools such as XML and Java. ...

Typical components of a learning object

The following is a list of some of the types of information that may be included in a learning object:

• General Course Descriptive Data
  • Course identifiers
  • Language of content (English, Spanish)
  • Subject area (Maths, Reading, etc.)
  • Descriptive text
  • Descriptive keywords
• Life Cycle
  • Version
  • Status
• Instructional Content
  • Text
  • HTML web pages
  • Images
  • Sound
  • Video
• Glossary of Terms
  • Terms
  • Definition
  • Acronyms
• Quizzes and Assessments
  • Questions
  • Answers
• Rights
  • Cost
  • Copyrights
  • Restrictions on Use
• Relationships to Other Courses
  • Prerequsite courses
• Educational Level
  • Grade Level
  • Age Range
  • Typical Learning Time
  • Difficulty

Learning object projects

GEODE

[1] GEODE or "Global Education Online Depository and Exchange," is a repository of Global Studies learning objects maintained by the Institute of World Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The edited collection may be searched by country, region, file format, language, or keyword. The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee is a public university located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. ...

MERLOT

[2] MERLOT , short for the "Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching," is a free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education. The Merlot online community includes links to online learning materials along with annotations such as peer reviews and assignments. The Merlot online community is an online education technology project sponsored by the California State University System. ...

To learn more about the MERLOT project, visit http://taste.merlot.org/. For the latest news from MERLOT, visit http://taste.merlot.org/grapevine.html. Finally, to browse the subsets of the whole MERLOT collection that are focused on specific disciplines, visit http://www.merlot.org/merlot/communities.htm

Canada Learning Object Project eduSource

[3] eduSource is a Canada-wide project to create the infrastructure for a network of interoperable learning object repositories. A repository differs from standard web materials by providing teachers, students and parents with information that is structured and organized to facilitate the finding and use of learning materials regardless of their source location. The eduSource project is based on national and international standards; it is bilingual (French/English) and it is accessible to all Canadians and internationally, including those with disabilities.

The eduSource suite of tools is available on the LICEF website at UQAM [4]. The Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) is one of four universities in Montreal, Quebec. ...

CLOE

[5] "The Co-operative Learning Object Exchange (CLOE) is a collaborative project of eight Ontario universities to develop an innovative infrastructure for joint development of multimedia-rich learning resources." Source - CLOE Stories

PAUX

[6] Individualized publication of dynamic content, which constists of reusable semantic content objects. They are able to represent knowledge in its full complexity, and they make knowledge available as filterable content for Websites, semantic Wiki, detailed-evaluated eLearning and individualized print media. The word dynamics can refer to: a branch of mechanics; see dynamics (mechanics) the volume of music; see dynamics (music) When used referring to mechanics, it is referring to the study of the motion of both rigid bodies and particles. ... Content can mean Comfort and a feeling of satisfaction Creations, as in open content or free content. ... In computer science and software engineering, reusability is the likelihood a segment of structured code can be used again to add new functionalities with slight or no modification. ... In general, semantics (from the Greek semantikos, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ... Content can mean Comfort and a feeling of satisfaction Creations, as in open content or free content. ... In an object oriented database, information is represented in the form of objects like in object oriented programming. ... Knowledge representation is a research and application domain in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, as well as in the knowledge management & knowledge engineering. ... Knowledge is information of which a person, organization or other entity is aware. ... The term filter may refer to: A device to separate mixtures. ... A website, Web site or WWW site (often shortened to just site) is a collection of webpages, that is, HTML/XHTML documents accessible via HTTP on the Internet; all publicly accessible websites in existence comprise the World Wide Web. ... A wiki (IPA: <WICK-ee> or <WEE-kee>[1]) is a type of website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove and otherwise edit and change some available content, sometimes without the need for registration. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Print media includes newspapers, magazines, and the like. ...

Burrokeet

[7] Burrokeet is an Open Source Software tool that assists in the creation of Learning Objects from existing content. It is able to take, as input, a wide range of document formats and export them as consistently styled content within Learning Objects. This frees the content developer to focus on the quality of their content without having to overly concern themselves with presentation. Similarly editors of Learning Objects need not concern themselves with ensuring authors use the same development tool, they are free to use whatever tool they are most familiar with. As a result Burrokeet enhances the reusability of content within Learning Objects. The Burrokeet is a character of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. ... The Burrokeet is a character of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. ...

VLORN

[8] The VET Learning Object Repository Network (VLORN) is a network of organisations in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) that contribute via agreed standards to enable the discovery and use of learning objects. VLORN was established in 2004 through Australian Flexible Learning Framework funding. See http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/ for more information on the Framework.

LON-CAPA

LON-CAPA is a distributed network with participants from currently over 40 colleges and universities, as well as 40 K-12 schools (mostly in the US), who share a common pool of approximately 250,000 reusable learning objects. [9] [10] LON-CAPA is an open source online educational course management system (CMS) originally developed at Michigan State University in the late 1990s, and currently developed by the LON-CAPA Academic Consortium, headed by Michigan State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. ...

tele-TASK

[11] The Tele-Teaching Anywhere Solution Kit archive(tele-TASK) is a free online archive that contains hundreds of multimedia recorded university lectures, presentations and conferences on different computer-science topics. The tele-TASK archive is maintained by the Hasso-Plattner-Institute (HPI) at the university of Potsdam, Germany.

Learning object metadata and searching

One of the key issues in using learning objects is their identification by search engines. This is usually facilitated by assigning descriptive metadata to the learning object. Just as a book in a library has a record in the card catalog and is described by metadata that complies with a standard such as MARC, Dublin Core or the IEEE's Learning Object Metadata Standard (IEEE LOM), learning objects must also be tagged with metadata. Learning Object Metadata is a data model, usually encoded in XML, used to describe a learning object and similar digital resources used to support learning. ... There are various forms of catalog or catalogue, each organized registers of some set of objects. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

References

2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 187 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 187 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 187 days remaining. ...

See also

• Learning object metadata

Learning Object Metadata is a data model, usually encoded in XML, used to describe a learning object and similar digital resources used to support learning. ...

External links

• Learning Objects
• Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects