Washington, DC, August 7, 2008 - The SIF Association and the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) officially launched the pilot utilizing SIF and SCORM. This work commences after the announcement of an official partnership focusing on the development and implementation of SCORM into school software applications by enabling its use with the successful SIF Implementation Specifications.The SIF Association-ADL partnership will leverage the work that the SIF Association and ADL have done, gather additional requirements unique for schools and further enable interoperability for schools, stated Robert Wisher, Director of ADL.
The goals of the pilot include:
- Passing digital content from a publisher to a learning platform,
- Passing shareable content object (SCO) data, regardless the state, from one application to another in real-time, and:
- Providing a more comprehensive approach for interoperability within the schools environment by leveraging and utilizing SIF and SCORM data objects together.
Utilizing SIF and SCORM will allow this to happen in a more comprehensive manner. Interoperability in the K12 education channel is becoming an increasingly critical issue for schools, publishers, and other educational service providers, says Liz Prigge Wilkes, Manager, Editorial Media, Academic & Professional Group at Cengage Learning. "We are committed to providing solutions that allow the seamless transfer of educational content and student information between myriad school systems and the SIF/SCORM Specifications gives us a wide range of options we haven’t had before."
Greg Black, CEO of Education.au, describes, An international, collaborative team leverages not only the existing specifications, but global expertise. This approach allows for thoughtful, visionary work to be conducted. Organizations participating in the pilot include the ADL (USA), CDSM (UK), Cengage Learning (USA), Education.au (Australia), Edustructures (USA), Integrity Technology Solutions (USA),MathResources (Canada), New Century Education (USA), PLATO Learning (USA) and the SIF Association (International, based in USA). Ron Fitzgerald, President of Math Resources, adds, "An international approach to the SIF and SCORM pilot ensures that the work can be implemented globally. As companies more frequently cross the globe with services, this focus becomes a necessity so services do not have to be re-engineered in different countries."
This pilot is the next step in the partnership between ADL and the SIF Association. Dr. Larry Fruth,Executive Director of the SIF Association added, Globally the holy grail for education is to enable the right learning resources to be linked to the right learner for instructor or self-lead learning. Ideally, the SIF and SCORM pilot activities will better enable this linkage to take place leading to more powerful learning opportunities. The SIF Association and ADL communities have been developing interoperable solutions for the marketplace for over ten years and this ‘next step’ in linking student-specific information to adaptable learning resources will move the educational marketplace ahead in a fast and positive manner.
Data objects from the SIF Implementation Specification will be used in SCORM and data identified in SCORM will be used in SIF. As a part of the SIF Implementation Specification, the infrastructure and architecture for passing this information is defined. To leverage lessons learned and implementation completed, documentation and supporting information will be provided. The pilot will be completed in Spring 2009. If you would like additional information or become involved in the pilot, please contact Jill Abbott,jabbott@sifinfo.org.
The Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense(OSD), is a collaborative effort between government, industry and academia to establish a new learning distribution environment that permits the interoperability of the learning tools and course content on a global scale. ADL promotes collaboration in the development and adoption of tools, specifications,guidelines, policies and prototypes that make distributed learning accessible, adaptable, affordable,durable, interoperable, and reusable. For further information, visit http://www.adlnet.gov.
The SIF Association is a unique, non-profit collaboration composed of over 1,900 schools, districts, states, US Department and International Ministries of Education, software vendors and consultants who collectively define the rules and regulations for educational software data interoperability. The SIF Implementation Specification enables diverse applications to interact and share data efficiently, reliably, and securely regardless of the platform hosting those applications. The SIF Association has united these education technology end users and providers in an unprecedented effort to give teachers more time to do what they do best: teach. For additional information about the SIF Association, please visit http://www.sifinfo.org.
CDSM Interactive Solutions is a UK provider of online teaching and learning software for Learning Platforms. Our software applications are used from school to Higher Education and commercial organizations across the UK. Please visit http://www.cdsm.co.uk for additional information.
Cengage Learning delivers highly customized learning solutions for colleges, universities, professors, students, libraries, government agencies, corporations and professionals around the world. These solutions are delivered through specialized content, applications and services that foster academic excellence, professional development, and measurable learning outcomes. Additional information can be found at http://www.cengage.com.
Education.au is Australia's leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) agency for educators and delivers a range of web services to clients in the higher education, schools education and vocational education and training sectors. Established in 1996, education.au is a not-for-profit ministerially owned company, governed through a Board by nominees from the Australian Government, higher education, school education, and vocational education and training sectors. Additional information about Education.au can be found at http://www.educationau.edu.au.
Edustructures, a Pearson company (NYSE: PSO), is the recognized leader in SIF integration solutions for the education market, providing secure interoperability between disparate software applications for improved educational business processes, data accuracy and reliability, staff efficiency and cost reduction. Through its SIFWorks® integration platform, comprehensive professional services, and business relationships with technology providers and educators, Edustructures connects the systems that power education. For more information about Edustructures, please visit www.edustructures.com.
Integrity Technology Solutions provides custom Application Development and Integration for schools and has extensive experience in providing SIF-based implementation and ongoing support services. Integrity Technology Solutions is also a nationally recognized provider of integration services for K-12 districts and developer of SIF agents on behalf of K-12 software vendors. For more information, please visit http://www.integrityts.com.
Math Resources develops educational math software for K-12 and college markets. Constantly striving to find simple, elegant and practical ways to use the power of technology to make math come to life for students on desktops, laptops and handheld computers, they are highly regarded by leading educators. Additional information can be found at http://www.mathresources.com.
New Century Education offers educators a complete program solution including software installation, technical support, training and staff development. Headquartered in Piscataway, New Jersey, the company has a national network of support personnel dedicated to on-site service delivery. Http://www.ncecorp.com has additional information.
PLATO Learning is a leading provider of computer-based and e-learning instruction for kindergarten through adult learners, offering curricula in reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and life and job skills. The Company also offers innovative online assessment and accountability solutions and standards based professional development services. With over 6,000 hours of objective-based, problem-solving courseware, plus assessment, alignment and curriculum management tools, we create standards-based curricula that facilitate learning and school improvement. For more information, please go to http://www.plato.com.