|
|
Environmental
Scan of Pricing Models for Online Content
Report II
Business Models for Object Repositories
Prepared by Albert W. Darimont
http://www.darimont.ca
OnDisC Project
April 2002© OnDisC 2002
0. Executive
Summary
1. Background
2. Learning
Object Repositories
3.
Business Models - Value chain
4. Funding
Models
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions
7. Bibliography
8. Web
Site References (Webliography)
2
Learning Object Repositories
2.1
Learning Objects-Definition & Background
This report looks at the Learning Object (LO) class
of digital content. It is seen as one a content
aggregator such as OnDisC may have a natural relationship
with, either as a provider of learning objects,
or as a supplier of fine-grained material to other
organizations that will create the Learning Objects.
A Learning Object, sometimes called a Reusable Learning
Object (RLO) is based on the Reusable Information
Object (RIO). An RIO is a granular reusable chunk
of information that is media independent, can either
stand alone, or be combined with other RIOs to form
an RLO. An example of an RIO is a list of key points,
a diagram, or a short animation clip. An RLO is
designed to fulfill a single learning objective
and can be fashioned to reflect pedagogical standards.
Other terms for RLOs and LOs include Educational
Objects (EO), Content Objects (CO), Training Components
(TC), or Knowledge Objects (KO).
The goal for developing Learning Objects is to increase
the value of content thereby maximizing the return
on investment whether the developer is a corporation,
academic institution, or governmental body. Learning
Objects increase the value of content by making
the information more accessible, interoperable,
reusable, and durable.
The advantage of using an object-based approach
to creating content is seen in the example of Fidelity
Investments, a financial services company in the
US. Fidelity applied Object Oriented Publishing
to the task of publishing mutual fund prospectuses
for its 10 million customers. The Fidelity legal
department created a "standard language library"
for prospectus "chunks" which could be
easily and quickly assembled into a myriad of different
styles and types of prospectus documents reflecting
their varied products and customers. The results
were impressive: quality and consistency was improved,
legal manager productivity was increased by 40%,
and process time was reduced from about three weeks
to two hours.
Similar kinds of improvements are foreseen in the
creation of learning material in the corporate,
government and academic fields. The following subsections
will briefly examine some of the activity that has
been done in advancing the use of Learning Objects.
2.2
Learning
Resource Gateways
Learning Resource Gateways (LRG)
are similar to Subject Based Gateways (SBG) that
were discussed in the Phase I report.
The difference is that LRGs are focused on providing
access to material that has a teaching or pedagogical
value, whereas the SBGs do not make that distinction
and instead focus on solely on providing information
relevant to a chosen subject area. The distinction
is a subtle one for many materials found through
an SBG can be used for teaching purposes and content
found on an LRG can be used for informational purposes
apart from its value as teaching or educational
material.
SchoolNet - is a Canadian Gateway service
pointing to educational resources on the web as
well as to resources provided by GrassRoots, a related
initiative in which educational resources were developed
by Canadian school themselves. The resources and
pointers are heavily described with metadata. Currently
there are about 5,000 evaluated resources available.
A survey in 2000 revealed that the GrassRoots material
was used and useful to schools, while the other
resources were not as well used. An interesting
spin-off from the SchoolNet project is that the
lessons learned in its development are being used
by the Office of International Partnerships in consulting
contracts with other countries and was projected
to bring in about CAN $35 M from 1995-2001.
Copernicus Education Gateway - an extensive
site catering to educators, students, and parents.
It features free web content, selected and annotated
for its suitability for education. The site features
banner advertising from organizations such as The
History Channel. This site is more an SBG focusing
on education rather than an LO gateway.
Gateway to Educational Material (GEM) - Governed
by the US Department of Education and a consortium
of over 300 organizations and individuals. As of
March 20, 2002, it has 24,480 education resources
including lesson plans, activities, and projects
for all levels of education. Content is quality
controlled, but the resources are uncatalogued.
GEM is free, but it includes pointers to material
that are free, partially free and fee-based.
SMETE - Science Mathematics Engineering Technology
Education, associated with the National Science
Digital Library (NDSL) is a very large repository
of educational resources, aimed at post secondary
undergraduates and instructors but open to anyone.
It is funded by the National Science Foundation
but is also supported by a number of other government
and academic organizations. In addition to providing
a gateway to educational resources, SMETE/NDSL is
an online meeting place to foster collaboration
among educators.
2.3
Co-operative
Learning Object Repositories
Educational Object Economy - EOE started as
a National Science Foundation-funded project, hosted
by Apple Computer, and included industry, university,
and government collaborators. The EOE became the
focal point for research and development initiatives
covering a number of aspects concerning web-based
education including: metadata for educational resources,
component-software approaches in education, open
source communities, intellectual capital appreciation
licenses, new economic models, and internet cooperatives.
This work led to the creation of the Generic Object
Economy (GEO) a web-community template formed around
an online database. GEO is free, and has been used
by other Learning Object Repositories, including
MERLOT and Jcampus. There are currently 2600 Java
applet educational objects at EOE.
MERLOT- (Multimedia Education Resource for
Learning and Online Teaching) – is a cooperative
educational object repository that currently has
more than 2,000 modules from many institutions.
In addition to functioning as a repository, MERLOT
features ratings, peer-reviews, and discipline communities.
Learning materials can be used as components of
a course, but are not complete courses. Learning
materials found through MERLOT include high quality
simulations, animations, tutorials, exercises, and
other organized learning material. MERLOT receives
funding from government grants, partner fees ($25,000
per partner) and in-kind revenues from the California
State University and partner members. There are
currently 23 members.
BELLE- Broadband Enabled Lifelong Learning
Environment is led by Netera Alliance, a leader
in the design and management of advanced infrastructure.
The BELLE project is further assisted by key researchers
in online learning and evaluation from a number
of Canadian universities. BELLE will offer a searchable
database of multimedia content suitable for adult
and higher education institutions that is interoperable
among participating institutions and is peer-reviewed.
POOL-Portal for Online Objects in Learning
is led by the TeleLearning Network Inc. of British
Columbia and is funded by CANARIE and other partners
in the eLearning industry. POOL is a prototype repository
to promote the sharing and re-use of learning content.
2.4
Commercial Learning Object
Organizations
There are numerous companies active in providing
e-learning solutions for business, government, and
academia. Some, such as NETg, SmartForce and LeadingWay
feature Learning Objects as a core strategy in developing
flexible, re-usable content.
NETg-is a leading global provider of learning
solutions. Their educational material is based on
a Learning Object architecture developed in the
early 1990s. The company has over 75,000 learning
objects that can be aggregated in a multitude of
combinations. Their customers include Daimler-Chrysler,
Honeywell, Proctor & Gamble, and Dow Chemical.
SmartForce-is the largest e-learning company
in the world, and offers a wide range of off-the-shelf
and custom content. Their flagship product is My
SmartForce, an Internet based system that uses a
Learning Management System (LMS) to organize and
present chunks of content – learning objects.
Clients include Dell, Computer Sciences Corporation
and Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
LeadingWay-established in 1991, this company
has a strong reputation for technological leadership.
Their product, KnowledgeOne includes content authoring
software for building reusable knowledge objects
that can be added to a custom, in-house knowledge
repository.
Cisco Systems - has a well-developed in house
training system that uses a Reusable Learning Object
(RLO) strategy based on work by Dr. Ruth Clark and
Dr. Merrill, leaders in the field of education and
learning research.
Fathom - is an online gateway to the
electronic courses authored by its member institutions.
Their offerings include Knowledge Trails, software
that provides a visual way of organizing and navigating
knowledge, online forums, and courses that cost
in the neighbourhood of US $400-500. The members
include: Iowa State University, Michigan State University,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,
University of Washington, University of California
Extension Online, Purdue University, and Columbia
Interactive Arts and Sciences. Fathom also has an
international presence including members such as
the British Museum and the London School of Economics,
whose offerings include a five hour multimedia history
of the east end of London for ₤31
2.5 Online Brokers for
Education Material
Research has revealed several organizations specializing
in providing brokerage and rights management services
for educational institutions and content providers.
Three are briefly discussed below.
UNIVERSAL - A European project to develop an
online service linking suppliers and users of educational
material in a business to business oriented brokerage
platform designed to support offers, enquires, bookings
and deliveries of the educational material. The
educational content is based on the IEEE Learning
Objects Metadata standard and features four levels
of learning objects – course, unit, lesson, and
fragment. UNIVERSAL acknowledges many possible business
models but have not yet made a decision about one
for their circumstances.
HERON - Higher Education Resources
ON-demand provides a unique copyright clearance
and digitization service for UK Higher Education
Institutions. It started as a project funded by
UK’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
and by Blackwell Retail Ltd., a commercial academic
bookseller. HERON has recently announced that it
is being taken over by Ingenta, a leading online
provider of published scientific, professional,
and academic research.
AEShareNet - is a non-profit company established
by the Australian Ministers of Education and Training
to streamline the licensing of intellectual property
for use in the VET (Vocational Education and Training)
environment. AEShareNet includes descriptions of
material available for licensing as well as standard
licensing agreements that vendors and buyers agree
to use upon becoming members of the network. AEShareNet’s
operating revenues come from fees it charges its
members including an application fee, annual subscription
fee, transaction fees, and a percentage of fees
collected for licenses and royalties.
Lydia - Lydia is a privately held company founded
in 2000 by Thomas Probert, PhD after seven years
of R & D funded by US federal initiatives.
Lydia is planning to be a global object repository/marketplace
for the development and exchange of Learning Objects.
A significant indicator of Lydia’s progress
is the fact that they have filed for patent applications,
both in the US and internationally to cover their
“method” for maintaining a registry for identifying
and managing intellectual property rights, properties
and constraints associated with creative works. World Patent application no. WO0219214, assigned to Probert
was published March 7, 2002. |
|
