Flexible Learning Objects
By Clark Quinn

While much attention has been paid to delivering learning objects through existing systems, and similarly to the use of mobile devices in learning, connecting the two has taken a back seat. There is, however, considerable potential in supporting learning "on the go" through small and system-supported content. As we recognize the transition from formal courses to informal learning, from learning Just In Case to Just In Time, we are similarly recognizing the potential to move to granular learning experiences?a blend between e-Learning, knowledge management, and performance support.

There are several levels at which this can be developed:

1. At a base level is a library of material that learners can choose from.
2. At a more advanced level is demographic and behavioral data to categorize courses and optimize the offerings.
3. Ultimately, individual users and base decisions are tracked upon a precise picture of their experience, knowledge, individual differences, and, consequently, needs.

Here we outline the context in which this vision is evolving, identify interim constraints, and develop an architecture that can deliver this vision.

Rise of the Informal

The traditional model of formal courses is under challenge. Formal courses account for less than 25 percent of workplace learning, according to current estimates. We're on the wrong side of the 80/20 split, putting 80 percent of our effort into meeting 20 percent of our needs. The need to address this gap is spawning a search for alternatives. There are approaches that reside within the traditions of workplace learning, and those that start crossing boundaries into related fields.

Within workplace learning, there are a variety of efforts to generate useful outcomes. An initial move was digitizing the learning, providing CBT, and then WBT, as alternatives that moved learners away from the inconvenience and expense of classrooms. The resounding dearth of excitement demanded a finer-grained investigation into how to distribute learning across new and traditional media, or so-called "blended learning." Another trend is the movement towards learning objects and associated standards. This approach develops content in smaller chunks that can be used as required, addressing immediate knowledge needs (both through self-choice as well as pre-assessments), and attempting to provide the desired just-in-time learning. Finally, canned content is being supplemented with discussion boards to provide collaborative learning possibilities. While these moves are providing more flexibility, they are not addressing the full suite of possibilities.

A second direction has come from the fields of knowledge management and performance support. Knowledge management has recognized the obvious: The knowledge that the organization needs is in the heads of the employees. Efforts to make that tacit knowledge explicit suggest codification in a more flexible format than traditional formal content. To this end, much attention is paid to the creation of "stories" that capture the tacit knowledge in context-based and meaningful ways. In performance support, it has been recognized that much less can be used to support performance than is mandated by traditional instructional design. Consequently, aids for performance can be designed as the minimal information needed to accomplish a task (and detail can be layered behind).

The take-home message from these areas is that content cannot be monolithic, conceptual presentations with detailed practice, but that smaller and more flexible content is needed.

On the Go

Another factor is the technology switch to smaller, lighter, and yet powerful computational environments, with increasing connection possibilities. The options are vast, with screen sizes ranging from laptop to palmtop, with input options ranging from styli to full keyboard, with memory and power ranging from limited operating system to full desktop, and connectivity ranging from occasional synching to always-on. The communication options also vary, including voice, HTML, and Short Messaging Service (SMS).

The range of devices is inspiring and dynamic. From mobile phones with minimal screens and SMS, synched Personal Digital Assistants, and laptops, we've moved to wireless PDAs, phones enabled with Web browsers, and PDA/phone combinations. Coming soon are tablet PCs, and who knows what other combinations. These devices may have built in cameras, and even Global Positioning Systems (GPS).

We now have the possibility of augmenting text with voice, video, animation, and interaction. Even with limited connectivity we can determine a learning path, have onboard the requisite new knowledge, and can provide a systematic learning experience. With connectivity on demand or always on, we can have a fine-grained and rich learning environment when and where it's convenient.

This situation suggests that the design of learning needs to consider two new dimensions: flexible content display, and the possibilities of delivering learning in random contexts, but also potentially right at the exact context.

A Mobile Learning Object Framework

To execute this vision, we start with a content model that provides system-comprehensible representations and user-navigable access. The content needs to be developed in a delivery-independent way, using representations that separate content from format for flexible delivery independent of device.

At the next level, we need to add to that content model an architecture that provides knowledge of the user and their context, as well as knowledge of the content available, to provide the right match. This requires a user categorization scheme, and a mapping process to create an intelligent delivery environment.

Intelligent Object Delivery

As a general approach, we can use logic to drive the selection of content. To the extent we know the user, context, device, and need, we can deliver:
* the right information
* to the right person
* on the right device
* in the right way
* at the right time
* in the right context

The learning object standards, exemplified by the government's Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), combined with Web standards for flexible content, such as eXtensible Markup Language(XML), provide the basis for developing content that is independent of display mechanism, and allows rules for matching content to display. Extensions to such standards, such as Education Modeling Language, allow specification of appropriate pedagogies. We can also move to careful control of vocabularies, using tools like Ontology Web Language, and then aligning learning to specific knowledge of the problem.

When there is the opportunity, further capabilities are possible. Increasingly, we are seeing lightweight yet powerful interaction technologies for video, animation, audio, and, importantly, interaction. These developments only augment the potential possible through technology-mediated learning. The inclusion of GPS, coupled with location information such as WorldBoard, will allow more contextualization of information.

What are the ways in which we might use this capability? When we survey across devices such as Web-enabled phones, tablets, etc., we can start developing interesting conceptions of ways to use information in ways that deliver new value.

Traditional Learning

One of the obvious ideas is to deliver traditional learning through these devices. We can channel instructionally designed materials through any combination, with text, graphics, audio, and potentially even video. This allows mobile workers to access learning as they need it. For instance, a sales person might be taking a course on the latest product line while riding in a taxi to a client meeting.

An extension to this is to develop and deliver tools that are used as part of the task being learned, and making these tools available both to the user and intended stakeholders-for example, providing both an auditing tool and instruction on its use when an accountant is on site, allowing the accountant to work through the data with the client.

Online performance support

A mobile device could be used to support working through a task, whether localized or in motion. For instance, mobile devices are already being used to support maintenance and trouble-shooting inside armored vehicles. The support, however, could move from just task support to provide task-based learning as well. A repairman might bring a PDA inside the access panel in a complex device and get training on the alignment procedure on this revision of the assembly.

Augmenting classroom instruction

Another way to use the device is as an augment to traditional learning. A portable device can be used to gather short responses to queries in class, or to guide an activity, such as mobile inspection. For instance, a tablet could be used to guide inspection of a ship or plane, or to ask specific questions based at a location such as a control panel inside a nuclear power plant. Or, learners can be polled about their understanding and the instructor might alter the presentation based upon those results.

Device instruction

Another opportunity is to provide training about the device, on the device. So, for instance, a PDA/phone/camera combination might provide a new user with training about some of the features such as instant messaging. That information could be pushed to the user if a particular feature wasn't being used.

Making it Happen

Successful execution of this vision requires development in a new way. The current constraints of small memory and screen size, slow processors, and limited bandwidth suggest that development for these environments should proceed with care. The requirements of independent learning objects also lead to constraints on design.

The physical constraints of size and bandwidth, etc., suggest using small and lean representations. Text remains a powerful medium for communication, though it tends to be overused, and overwritten. Graphics in the form of diagrams and cartoons have proven to be small and highly communicative as well. Graphic slide shows with audio narration can also provide useful communication while requiring relatively low bandwidth. The barriers are visual dynamic media, animation, and video. Increasingly, however, we find that we can minimize the necessity for these through careful design.

Interaction, too, is important but may be limited by the nature of the handheld device. Dragging and dropping may not be immediately possible, but clicking alone, when properly designed, can communicate the same underlying message. And increasingly, technological improvements are providing small-footprint interactive technologies that reside on the client.

The second point is that reusable learning objects tend to stretch the design process typically used for learning materials. Learning materials are typically designed without regard for many of the constraints that apply to content that must be reused. For example, materials are designed with fluid boundaries and forward or backward references. Flexible objects instead require more strict learning component boundaries, and also must be produced to stand alone without any expectation that another object has necessarily been seen.

The resulting requirements are to emphasize standards-based design, lean content, clever use of media to communicate, carefully constrained writing, and focused use of interactives to achieve important learning outcomes. The way forward is known, but requires precise execution.

Moving On

New device capabilities drive new opportunities. We need to move beyond traditional content creation and learning management to think of standards-based development, intelligent system support, and creative applications. The additional elements needed are creative vision that moves us beyond the traditional ways we use technology. The capability is here, the possibilities are endless, our only boundary is imagination.

Clark N. Quinn is Director of User Experience at Knowledge Anywhere

Reprinted from Training Magazine