Improving E-Learning At An-Najah University Through the Adoption of SCORM Dr. Raed Alqadi SCORM Workshop-1 Feb 11/2009 Funded by QIF

Outline What is the Project? E-learning Components SCORM Overview Why SCORM? Authoring Tools OCC Development

Project Goals Understand and Adopt SCORM in E-learning at An-Najah University Use Standards “SCORM” in Developing Courses from Now ON. Transform OCC into a SCORM standard LMS Develop pilot SCORM compliant Courses Train a pilot Team and disseminate knowledge to all Instructors .

Project Team Management: Dr. Raed, Dr. Loai and an Administrative Assistant. Local Consultants Research and Analysis SCORM Consultant- Dr. Farouq Mosa Training Consultant- Eng Razi IT Implementation Consultant- Eng Razi IT consultants: Eng. Abdullah Rashed and Eng Imad Natsheh. Instructors Team: Dr. Isam Jerdaneh, Dr. Majdi Dwikat. Dr. Hasan Al-Qadi, and Dr. Ibrahim Abu-Shqair. Support Team : Sameer Allouneh and Haitham Salwaha ( 5th year Computer Engineering Students– Almost Engineers)

E-Learning Main Components Learning Management System (LMS) Course Material=> needs Authoring Tools Instructor/Course Designer Students Interaction between Students and Instructions through the LMS

Learning Management System (LMS) It is a Container for the Courses Provides Interaction with the Students/Instructor In addition to course material it provides Email, messages, notes, appointments Calendar Assignments, quizzes Monitors Student Activities Forums, wikis, blogs

LMS Also called VLE ( Virtual Learning Environment) Commercial LMSs WebCT, Blackboard, and others Cost Lots of Money per year Open Source (Free) MOODLE , SAKAI Needs Customization Home Grown ( In house Developed) OCC ( Online Course Container) OCC is developed by us at An-Najah Integrated with Zajel Available and people have been using it

Course Material How to develop Course material ? Can use ad/hoc techniques HTML ( website pages) PowerPoint slides, pdf …, etc Can use Authoring tools Commercial tools Open Source ( free tools) Tools provided by some LMSs (e.g. MOODLE)

We need Standards Different Authoring Tools, Different LMSs cause problems Change LMS … need to rebuild the material ..not good Need also a standard way for interaction and building the material. Standard : Best Known so far is SCORM SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 MOODLE is only SCORM 1.2

SCORM Sharable content Object Reference Model A collection of specifications adapted from multiple sources by Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) to provide a comprehensive suite of e-learning capabilities that enable accessibility, interoperability, durability, reusability, and cost effectiveness of web based learning content Brings other standards together: AICC, IMS, IEEE, ARIADNE

Why SCORM ? Can share and reuse SCOs Not an easy standard LMSs claim to be SCORM compliant … how true is that? MOODLE can open material developed by SCORM Authoring Tools. MOODLE authoring tool is NOT SCORM SCORM separates Authoring from LMS but keeps interaction.

Why SCORM ? Lets you make small independent learning object called Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) Lets you easily combine and recombine these SCOs in different Aggregations(eg. Courses) for different purposes Lets you create learning content that is independent of any particular Learning Management Systems (LMS) implementation Greater Efficiencies and lower costs Reuse content for faster development Share content between systems Reduce costs of content maintenance Reduce Risk Future –proof courseware investments

Why SCORM? Develop your material based on SCORM It will work on WebCT, MOODLE, new OCC …etc Use SCORM compliant Authoring Tools ( Not MOODLE Tool) OCC is currently being transformed to SCORM

SCORM Compliant Authoring Tools Commercial : many , but cost Money Best Commercial ( according to us ) is Course Genie . It is a plug in for Microsoft Word There is also Trident ( Commercial) .. Open Source (free) We are building our own ..free

Free (Open Source) Authoring Tools eXe, we will adopt this for now   http://eXeLearning.org Reload ( use it with eXe) http://www.reload.ac.uk/editor.html CourseLab     http://www.courselab.com/db/cle/root_id/download/doc.html All are SCORM 1.2

Commercial Tools  Course Genie 2.0 price 200$  : Link: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Other-Office-Tools/Course-Genie.shtml   Trident 2.0:   price 349$  : Link: http://www.scormsoft.com/purchase?trident=true Free download trial for one month

Difference between 1.2 and 2004 SCORM 1.2 : Material, Interaction (exams and others) . No Sequencing and navigation SCORM 2004: latest, all what in 1.2 + Sequencing and Navigation and more Interaction.

What is Needed to transform OCC into SCORM 2004 Compliant LMS Understand the SCORM Standards – Thousands of pages Implement the Run Time Library Implement CAM (Content Aggregation Model) Implement Sequencing and Navigation.

Thank you