What to Expect When You're Showing (or not showing)
11.09.2007 - Mike Rustici
Having a three month old at home, I fully expect everybody else out there to get this title's play on the classic pregnancy book "What to Expect When You're Expecting" (that has made every expectant mother in the last twenty years worried sick). But, I'm sure few of you did, and even fewer of you laughed...hey, give me a break, it's Friday morning and I'm sleep deprived.
This morning we're talking about SCORM 2004 3rd Edition GUI Disablement Order of Precedence (sure to jolt everybody awake with excitement, right?).
SCORM 2004 3rd Edition defines specific user interface behaviors that the LMS should exhibit when certain sequencing conditions are met. For example:
When a sequencing rule results in an activity being disabled, the LMS is to show the activity in the table of contents but not allow the user to click on it.
When a sequencing rule results in an activity being hidden from choice, the LMS should completely remove that activity from the table of contents.
When the learner is in an activity that has control choice exit = false, all activities outside of the current activity (with choice exit = false) should be removed from the table of contents (hidden).
Unfortunately, SCORM does not define an order of precedence for these user interface behaviors. For instance, if there are two sequencing rules that both apply to an activity, one which states that it should be hidden from choice and the other which states it should be disabled, it is up to the LMS to interpret whether to remove that activity from the table of contents or to show it in a disabled state. Uh oh, trouble ahead.
You guessed it, every LMS is likely to implement this choice in a slightly different manner. LMS's could currently choose from the following algorithms:
Define a priority between hidden and disabled.
Define a priority amongst mechanisms for hiding/disabled. Sequencing pre condition rules, post condition rules, the isVisible item attribute and choice controls all provide mechanisms for hiding and disabling activities.
Pre-evaluate the sequencing pseudo code until it is known that the activity will not be selectable, then apply the appropriate UI behavior. (The SCORM Engine and SCORM Test Track use this algorithm.)
The downside of the algorithm the SCORM Engine uses is that disabled takes priority over hidden from choice. Thus it can happen that when you intend to hide an element that is also disabled, it still shows up in the table of contents.
The ADL SCORM Technical Working Group is currently tackling this issue and it should be clarified in the next revision of SCORM.
8:23 AM
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DevLearn2007::Paul Saffo
11.07.2007 - Tim Martin Paul Saffo has some interesting things to say, but nothing that jumped out at me until he started talking about Facebook. According to his Standford students, "Facebook is so over. It's 30 year olds."
Has sentiment on Facebook turned?
__________________________
Next great thought from Paul...
We are each creating for Google when we pass them a search string. That search string leads to the ads they are able to display. Great way to think of it... We create something that they can sell.
11:40 AM
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DevLearn2007::What the heck is Facebook?
11.06.2007 - Tim Martin
Everybody is talking about Facebook... I mean, the blogosphere is just obsessed with it... Me? I'm not totally sold on Facebook as the killer app, but I am fascinated with how cultural/internet phenomena intersect with SCORM and eLearning.
Shon Bayer from Enspire Learning in Austin led a session this afternoon on Facebook. It was really interesting to watch a diverse group of learning professionals ponder its impact. Truthfully, more of the people were grasping Facebook's impact on their life than were pondering their learners' lives, but it was still interesting.
10:35 PM
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DevLearn2007::Session 110
I spent part of the morning with a topic near to my professional heart... Session 110 was titled "A Web Service Architecture for Integrating SCORM and Experiential Learning". Yes, it's a mouthful.
More or less, Ginny Travers was presenting BBN's solution from an ADL prototype that extended ADL's Sample Runtime to allow for non-JS based interaction with the API. See more information on it here.
I won't bore you with the details of it here. There were aspects of the solution that bothered me. Proposing a non standards based solution to a standards problem seems counterproductive in a sense. The majority of people in the session seemed to believe this was a present, available solution... It is not that...
I agree, however, that a web services layer of SCORM is needed. We most often see this manifest itself in a desire for a teacher to grade a student's essay. SCORM simply doesn't allow for any communication outside of the browser session. If this additional pipe were opened, it would greatly open the functionality that could be implemented. The student could submit the essay, the teacher could grade it later, and the score/information could be submitted to the LMS without the learner reopening the session.
One last thought... LETSI needs to do some marketing. From our association with the group, we know well that its intentions are spot on. But messages are getting around that SCORM will be stripped back (removing sequencing and navigation) and that the concept of "CORE SCORM" will result in a moving target for the standard. LETSI will certainly consider these issues carefully, and change will come. It is unfathomable to me, though, that so many earnest standards contributors would allow it to drift from a path that they have pursued for years. Interoperability and access will continue to drive the people of LETSI, and the result will be an improved standard.
4:24 PM
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DevLearn2007::Sir Ken Robinson
I'm often impressed by the visionary keynote speakers at these conferences. The themes are relatively similar, but they often express them in insightful ways. Sir Ken Robinson spoke today on the importance of creativity among other things. First, I'll share a couple of pearls he offered...
Our imagination is our defining difference from other creatures... our ability to consider things that are beyond our senses.
Divergent thinking is suffering in our education system. This one reaches me personally, as I consider my oldest daughter's (a first grader) path through the school system. Robinson quoted a study on Divergent Thinking where a group of kids were tested at three different times as to their ability to achieve at a genius level in divergent thinking.
At age 3-5, some 98% qualified as geniuses in this regard.
At age 8-10 (same group), that number had fallen to 32%.
By age 13-15 (same group), that number had fallen to 10%.
And a similar group of people over the age of 25 measured a mere 2%.
Conformity is a huge concern for me with school. I absolutely feel like my daughter's ability to think creatively has been crushed by school. To a shocking degree, first grade has been all about how to conform. Robinson echoes this... obviously this elimination of diverse thinking is not the intent of the school system, but it is a substantial effect.
So, what then? Well, the big thought is, "What's the responsibility of the organization?" Robinson points to an analogy. The company should be like a farmer. Farmers don't make plants grow, they simply provide an environment in which the plant can flourish. His challenge to us is to make our organizations and teams conducive to growth of creativity. This leads me to my thought...
How does this apply to products? How does it apply to SCORM? Well, it's a bit of a stretch, but I'd like to find products and evolutions of our products that allow our customers to be creative in our context. Our work is about removing the painful roadblocks in creating useful online learning. It's a good challenge for us as we define our product roadmap and as we help guide the evolution of the standards.
3:20 PM
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DevLearn2007::Underway
Another week, another conference. This time I'm in San Jose, CA at DevLearn2007. My expressed purpose in being here is simply this: I want to understand the innovative technologies available in eLearning. What better place than a conference in Silicon Valley, right? So, three days from now, I hope to have shared some interesting new approaches with you.
1:29 PM
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Remediation is hard part 2 - If ____ the skip
11.01.2007 - Mike Rustici Problem When remediating after a retry sequencing request, you often want to skip sections that were previously satisfied or perhaps attempted. A common case might be a pretest that can only be attempted once or a SCO that doesn't have to be retaken if previously mastered. Easy, right, just add a precondition rule that says "if satisfied then skip". Not so fast. The retry rule will reset the attempt data.
Solution Set "Use Current Attempt Progress / Objective Info" to false. That enables the data from the previous attempt to be used in the sequencing rule should no data exist yet for the current attempt.
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