By Jerry Goguen and Subu Kota

The development of e-learning standards is becoming increasingly important as the popularity of e-learning continues to grow among government agencies, corporations and educational institutions in the United States and across the world.

The U.S. market for e-learning products is expected to reach $11 billion by 2003 and the worldwide market for e-learning products is expected to reach $27 billion, according to IDC.

The number of vendors trying to take a bite out of the e-learning market continues to increase. As a result, it has become more confusing to make purchasing decisions.

E-learning buyers are looking for ways to distinguish product quality; they want to be sure the products they purchase will be dependable for many years. They need to know their products will meet the most current e-learning standards.

One of the best ways for e-learning vendors and developers to meet these demands is to find out which organizations are involved in developing e-learning standards and take an active role in helping to set these standards.

E-learning standards need to exist on a global scale because online learning products and programs are used all over the world and need to be compatible. Several organizations have drafted specifications for e-learning standards, but none of them have been officially accredited by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) or by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The IEEE is working on e-learning standards through its Learning Technology Standards Committee (http://grouper.ieee.org./ltsc) and has a reputation as an accrediting body for technology standards.

The LTSC is involved in developing standards, and recommending practices and guidelines for computer implementation of education and training components and systems.

The ISO, best known for its ISO 9000 quality standards program, is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from more than 140 countries.

The Aviation Industry Computer-based Training Committee (www.aicc.org) is an international association of technology-based training professionals that develop guidelines for the aviation industry in the development, delivery, and evaluation of computer-based and related training technologies. It is the first organization to develop e-learning guidelines. The AICC came out of the Air Force’s need for a consistent method to deliver, track and measure computer-based courses. It develops technical guidelines known as AICC Guidelines and Recommendations (AGRs), which make technical recommendations in a specific area.

Buyers looking for e-learning products that meet all nine AGRs should look for products that are “AICC certified.” Some e-learning vendors use the term “AICC-compliant” if their product follows one or more of the nine AGRs.

AICC discourages the use of this term because it implies that the AICC has in some way endorsed or verified compliance. Vendors should use the term “designed to AICC guidelines” if the product was self-tested and meets all of the nine AGRs, and they should use the term “AICC certified” if the product was certified by an AICC-authorized independent test lab.

The IMS Global Learning Consortium (www.imsproject.org) is another organization working to develop e-learning standards. IMS develops and promotes open specifications for facilitating online distributed learning activities, such as locating and using educational content, tracking learner progress, reporting learner performance and exchanging student records between administrative systems. It is made up of vendors, implementers and end users such as government agencies, university systems and training professionals.

IMS released its Content Packaging 1.1 specification to the public on May 3 which provides the basis for interoperability of learning content across learning management systems and platforms. It enables content from multiple publishers to run on multiple management systems, assuring that content developers will no longer need to create separate application systems for various management systems for their content to work consistently across different platforms. This, in turn, lowers the development costs for developers and publishers of content products.

The IMS and AICC efforts have been taken one step further by the Department of Defense’s Advanced Distributed Learning (www.adlnet.org) initiative. The ADL works closely with IMS and AICC, and is developing common guidelines and specifications for the development, delivery and management of learning on a global scale.

For instance, the ADL Technical Team has tested and made use of the IMS Content Packaging Specification 1.1 in its own project known as Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM).

Version 1.1 of SCORM is a spec for an entire learning system; it’s a reference model that addresses the problem of how to implement a complete learning system that includes a learning management system and many other components. SCORM takes a combination of specifications into a test-bed environment and determines if they function properly and if they have the intended effect.

The IMS, AICC and ADL standard specifications are being successfully tested and are moving toward becoming accredited.

The next step will be to develop rules for compliance. Vendors of e-learning software will need to know what steps they need to take to become IMS, AICC and SCORM certified. The standards will finally provide buyers with a way to determine e-learning product quality.

Standardization will help vendors produce high-quality products and make e-learning products more accessible and affordable by driving down market prices. The result will be more people who are able to use e-learning to educate themselves and empower themselves.

Jerry Goguen is the chief executive and Subu Kota is a member of the board of IntraLearn, a provider of e-learning platforms (www.intralearn.com). Kota is actively involved with organizations that are developing global e-learning standards.