Learning Technology Implementation Guide: econtent Development and Integration April 6, 2006
Introduction Corporations seeking to extract greater productivity and innovation from their employees are investing a larger percentage of resources into learning technology. Learning technology initiatives have expanded beyond the simple automation of administrative tasks and computer based training. Mature platforms now offer complex repositories of online learning that can be finely tuned to individual roles, automatically delivered based on business rules and constantly updated. This increased complexity requires that the program leadership allocate equal attention to the learning content strategy as well as the learning administration strategy. The following summary sections outline key considerations for a successful learning content management process. The steps include: Determine scope of supported learning content and standards Select / develop supported authoring tools Select third party learning content collections Establish an efficient process for content integration Design and Deploy a scalable content management architecture Learning technology initiatives face the risk of difficult technical and administrative process challenges even when these steps are addressed. The risk that originates in the interdependence between learning content and business rules is amplified by immature content delivery technology. As a result, an iterative approach to content management is highly recommended. All iterations should deliver tightly defined successes while acting as building blocks for expanded functionality. This approach will allow the content initiatives to adapt as supporting technologies, standards and processes mature. Constrain the Scope of Supported Learning Content and Standards The maxim content is king applies to learning content as well; the guidance maintains a proper focus on business requirements and relegates technology considerations to a supporting role. Learning content management capability can be tailored from a simple collection of static documents to a highly evolved collection of automated, dynamic objects. The key to successful implementation is a comprehensive analysis of content requirements and the resulting segmentation of content management capability. This analysis should address the following questions: Is self-service authoring capability desired or will subject matter experts be required to obtain content development support from a centralized resource? Are there pre-packaged collections of third party content that match your learning needs? Will the content primarily be used as static collateral or is automated interaction required for delivery to students? Will curricula require that content be repeatedly customized for unique audiences? Can any of the content be reused for multiple courses? Is rich media (audio, video, animation) functionality required? 2006 The Educe Group Page 2 of 6
The answers to these questions will help clarify the level of functionality required to meet business needs. The program team can then identify approaches to deliver functionality in controlled iterations. Content Authoring Tools and Standards If self-service authoring capability is desired the program team should consider a template driven authoring toolset that automatically generates learning content in one of the widely adopted standard formats [AICC, SCORM]. These offer the advantages of pre-configured technology that simplifies implementation and a design interface that hides configuration complexity from the novice author. The toolset allows a broad range of content owners to take advantage of automated learning content delivery and can generate substantial cost avoidance savings. Selfservice authoring toolsets are usually limited in the levels of functionality available for the content design. Complex learning paths, response-based branching, and advanced rich media functionality are either not included or are difficult for novice users to fully utilize. If a selfservice toolset is selected, the program team should develop sufficient guidance and training for authors to ensure sufficient instructional quality of their content. Content employing complex functionality will require open ended authoring toolsets for development. These toolsets are best employed by dedicated teams of content developers. Their flexibility and design capability require a significant investment in training and hands-on experience to use effectively. These toolsets are available from the majority of LMS vendors as well as from third party application developers. As with self-service tools, the program team should verify that the tool generates content compliant with selected learning content standards. The selection of an outsourced content development service should be based on the same due diligence. Program leadership should consider requiring demonstrated interoperability of externally developed content in their infrastructure as a pre-condition for final acceptance. This approach will maintain the focus of the outsourced development service on supporting the unique characteristics of the technology in place. Vendor Content Selection Pre-packaged content from a third party vendor is a good starting point for quickly delivering high quality instruction to students. It offers several advantages in new implementations; the program team can focus on solving interoperability issues with the support of the vendor and without the additional complexity of authoring content. Make sure the selected vendor has certified that their content interoperates with your installed Learning Management System. This will minimize the amount of expensive content validation testing required and assure that the collection of content is coded to consistent standards. Special consideration should be given to the process for managing updates to third party content collections. Will the content be hosted internally? If so, what is the frequency of updates? Larger collections can quickly overwhelm a support team if the maintenance requirements are not fully understood before implementation. The program team will need to plan for metadata 2006 The Educe Group Page 3 of 6
updates to the learning catalog, version management, and content archives for the collection. Externally hosted content can reduce the required infrastructure and maintenance burden but introduces additional challenges with interoperability. The team should allocate adequate technical expertise and testing resources to verify interoperability of externally hosted content with an internally hosted LMS. Similar due diligence should be conducted on understanding maintenance for content metadata stored within the LMS catalog if the content will be separately hosted by the vendor. Efficient Content Integration Process Program leadership must determine if requirements dictate the additional complexity of an object based learning content management system and then assure that the Return On Investment will be adequate to justify the effort. The maturing learning organization can choose to employ content management strategies at several levels. The distinct approaches support different ranges of expertise and business needs. The program team must ensure that appropriate levels of control and selection criteria are in place to smoothly guide content owners from migrating from one level of functionality to the next. The following diagram outlines a typical progression through three levels of content management functionality: Segmentation of econtent Approaches High Technical Complexity Standards based Open Ended Toolset [with LMS] Template based Self-service authoring tools [stand alone] Object Based Content Repository [LMS with LCMS] Vendor Provided Content Collection [stand alone or with LMS] Low Low Functionality High 2006 The Educe Group 2006 The Educe Group Page 4 of 6
The highest level of functionality requires the implementation of a full Learning Content Management System in concert with the Learning Management System. This adjunct application provides administrative tools for managing learning content as objects complete with their own metadata and business rules. The added flexibility of granular content management requires a commensurate level of planning and process management to deliver optimal results. An investment in a LMS / LCMS development infrastructure parallel to the production environment allows the program team to adequately test and configure new content capability before it is released to employees. Standard operating procedures should include a full validation of content on the development environment and accompanying approval from the business owner before it is migrated to production. This level of control will minimize disruptions to existing content and reduce the risk of unfavorable online learning experiences by students. Scalable Architecture: Performance and Management Expanded learning content functionality increases the demands on the corporation s network infrastructure as well as the hardware supporting the Learning Management System. Required bandwidth increases in proportion to the volume of content offered in the catalog multiplied by the number of students. The rich media capabilities of advanced content amplify this demand; this relationship can be summarized by the equation: Bandwidth demand = (online courses) x (students) x (average object size) This multiplicative effect can quickly overwhelm the existing infrastructure of a corporation without proper coordination. Third party content collections are especially susceptible; the wide appeal of their content, rich media functionality and large volume of offerings in the catalog can increase demand by several orders of magnitude once released. Program teams can effectively manage the impact on bandwidth by allocating new content and tuning the LMS business rules to restrict the number of targeted students. Additional planning is required when online learning content is contemplated for compliance related or fixed timeline learning initiatives. The program team should assure that the company s learning technology and network infrastructure can handle transactional spikes generated when a large population is required to complete a task before a mandated deadline. The increase in content granularity afforded by a LCMS allows for smoother network loads; however, this benefit is tempered by an increased sensitivity to network latency. Corporations seeking to deploy online content to widely dispersed locations, extremely large employee populations, or to the public via the internet should consider optimizing performance through mirrored content servers (parallel processing), memory optimization (caching), and geographical content server replication ( edge storage networks). Online learning content also presents challenges for the desktop deployed in the corporation. Browser based functionality has reduced the desktop implementation and maintenance overhead previously required by client-server software; however, configuration overhead still exists. Online content employing rich media requires appropriate plug-ins for browsers to enable full functionality. These plug-ins as well as additional browser configuration settings must be 2006 The Educe Group Page 5 of 6
properly installed and should conform to corporate network and security standards. These requirements should be reviewed in advance of any purchase of a third party content collection to avoid conflicts with internal standards. Likewise, advanced network security practices create potential barriers to interoperability. Corporations must carefully coordinate the introduction of new content services with the existing firewalls and gateways protecting the network. Corporations with complex networks may encounter the challenge of separately solving interoperability issues for multiple network segments. Program teams should engage network administrators and architects at project inception to properly analyze and plan for the network demands created by the new content. Conclusion Learning Technology implementations can generate adequate savings and cost avoidance through the automation of administrative processes and improved compliance. An investment in online content delivery capability creates opportunities to dramatically change learning processes in the corporation; these changes can deliver substantially higher returns. Attention to all aspects of the online content lifecycle and associated management overhead is critical. The program team must understand how different segments of the corporation will utilize the capability and anticipate the impact on the corporate infrastructure. Careful planning, project execution and comprehensive operational procedures will minimize the risk of unplanned costs and capture a higher percentage of the potential returns. Copyright Notice This Educe Group guidance document was published as part of custom research and program management consulting assisting corporations with the implementation of learning technology. If you have questions regarding these services please forward inquiries to info@educegroup.com for additional information. Copyright 2006 The Educe Group. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The Educe Group disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. 2006 The Educe Group Page 6 of 6