Contemporary Sharing
Though most educational institutions offer only complete courses online, many other agencies have started offering smaller, more portable learning materials. These materials fall short of what we will later define as ‘learning objects´, but they offer some insight as to the direction and potential of online resources.
Immediately we see a division of the territory into, first, the learning resources themselves, and second, lists (or portals) of learning resources. In some few cases (usually where the institution has a wealth of content) the services are combined.
In Canada, the leading learning resources portal is probably Canada´s SchoolNet.[11] Follow the link from the home page into “Learning Resources” and select a topic area. A list of resources is displayed, each with a short description and a link to an external website. SchoolNet also provides metadata information for each site and provides an “advanced search” using metadata.[12] Each resource in the “curriculum” area is approved by a professional “pagemaster”.[13]
For the most part, however, SchoolNet lists and links to institutional home pages, and not to learning resources per se. Teachers using the SchoolNet service must still search through these sites in order to locate suitable materials.
Linking directly to learning resources themselves is a site based in the United States and maintained by the Educational Object Economy Foundation.[14] Merlot[15] currently lists more than 2,000 learning applications that can be accessed via the world wide web. These applications are specific materials on specific topics; for example, Merlot lists such items as “Chaucer”,[16] “The Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire”[17] and RSPT Expansion (Perturbation Theory).[18] Materials are sorted into category and subcategory and have been contributed by educators from around the world.
Educators attempting to use Merlot´s resources, though, will still experience frustration. Although the topic hierarchy is more detailed than SchoolNet´s and although much more focused resources are listed, educators would still have to spend quite a bit of time browsing for materials. Moreover, there appears to be no resource metadata and the search mechanism provided on the Merlot site is no better than standard web search engines.
As we can see from the discussion of articulation, above, what is needed is a mechanism for connecting online learning resources with detailed course objectives. This much more advanced form of resource listing forms the basis for the selection and categorization of resources in MCI WorldCom´s MarcoPolo project.[19]
MarcoPolo is a compilation of teaching resources from six educational institutions which provide free internet content for K-12 education. What the six partners have in common, and what makes this an important and interesting development in online learning, is an adherence to national curriculum and evaluation standards in the subject areas. Material is categorized by grade level and individual items are matched to individual learning topics.
Despite its strengths, however, MarcoPolo is a closed project; only the six member institutions contribute content. There is no centralized search facility and no metadata listings for the resources. The only curricula supported are United States school curricula, so the resource is not useful in a global marketplace.
Other resources are available, but these three sites typify the contemporary art of shared learning resources. Much must be done to make these resources widely useful. They need much better systems of categorization and searching. They need more robust mechanisms for updating and submissions. They need to be tied more closely to learning objectives, but in such a way as not to be tied to a specific curriculum.
An even greater weakness appears when we look at the collective set of learning resources (or applications, as Merlot calls them) offered by the three sites. It is almost not possible to identify consistency in format, scope, methodology, educational level or presentations. Some resources include lesson plans, but many others do not. Some are authored in Java, others in HTML, and others in a hybrid mixture known only to the author. Some involve ten minutes of student time, others would occupy an entire day. And there is no structured means for an instructor to know which is which.
Creating Content and The Cost of Online Learning
It may be objected that university courses are fundamentally different from K-12 courses. While there is a great deal in common between Grade 1 English from school to school, university courses are individual entities in their own right. Each time a course is offered by a university professor, it is created anew, adding a new interpretation or a new reading of familiar material.
True enough, but against that model we must look at the cost of creating courses, and especially online courses, in this manner. Creating an online course from scratch is a long, labour intensive process. Costs can vary from $4000 (all figures in Canadian dollars) to $100,000.
To cite a typical example, in Managing Technological Change, for example, Tony Bates estimates that a course consumes 30 days of a subject expert´s time, plus an additional seven days for an internet specialist, plus additional expenses for copyright review, academic approval, and administration.[20]
A budget for course development, adapted from Bates, looks like this: