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Simply put, repositories are storage devices for digital information. Repositories
commonly have a search function that enables users to find the stored data, and
often contain metadata, or extra data that describes stored data, to enhance the
search process. When a repository contains only metadata, it is called a registry.
Content proponents declare the existence of the data chunks in a registry so that
they can be discovered by others and obtained via a point-of-contact or some retrieval
mechanism.
Currently, there is no
SCORM specification for repositories, and no notion of an "ADL
Repository." Repositories can not be "SCORM-conformant," nor can they be
ADL Certified. ADL is, however, defining a reference model that
can be used to build federations of repositories. This initiative is called Content
Object Repository Discovery and Registration Architecture (CORDRA), and is focused in the near-term on building a Department
of Defense (DoD)-wide registry for learning
content called the ADL Registry.
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Realizing their importance to distributed learning, the ADL Initiative has sponsored
a number of efforts to better understanding repositories and repository systems.
The Academic ADL Co-Lab has an active research and development initiative focused
on understanding and influencing repository systems and products for academic purposes.
The Joint ADL Co-Lab hosted the DoD Repositories Working Group focused on defining
requirements for repositories and systems. The Group developed a set of learning
repositories use cases, or user scenarios, documented in
DoD Learning Repositories Use Cases
. From the DoD Repositories Working Group, the Joint ADL Co-Laboratory was able
to derive some key requirements for DoD learning repositories and repository systems.
Finally, the future seems to be trending towards learning content repository systems
integrating more with repositories from other user communities to effectively support
functions related to learning. One strong candidate for integration is the technical
data community which also has specifications that provide functionality analogous
to that of SCORM, and also employ repositories to manage content.
Additional Resources:
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