From eLearning to mLearning: An Honorable Reception

The Mobile Learning Team recently concluded their research on the effectiveness of mobile course delivery. As a result of this research, ADL published a research paper and was asked to present their findings at the 2011 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in December. The title of the paper and presentation is "From eLearning to mLearning: The Effectiveness of Mobile Course Delivery." The paper was awarded Honorable Mention for Best Paper at the conference.

• Download the presentation.(PDF, 5.6MB)
• Download the research paper.(PDF, .8MB)

• Eighty-five percent of the participants/respondents said they would complete their annual mandatory training on mobile devices if this alternative option were provided. This response indicates there is definitely a high degree of effectiveness with mobile platforms. This positive response should also begin to help Military education and training stakeholders formulate plans for future research in using mobile devices for delivering courses or other types of learning activities.
• Seventy percent of the participants who had previously completed the eLearning course actually preferred the mobile version. Why? Their answers to this question and more can be discovered by reading the complete research paper!

Updated SCORM Users Guides Available

In 2010-2011, ADL led the task of updating its previous SCORM Best Practices Guidelines documents. During the initial review of the existing guidelines, the team determined that two guides should be produced: one targeted specifically at Instructional Systems Designers (ISDs) and one that addressed the additional needs of Programmers and Developers. While these documents were produced to address the needs of those unfamiliar with SCORM, they also go into some depth regarding the applications of SCORM. In the future, ADL may also produce supplementary guidelines that delve into more complex applications of SCORM. Both Guides are available for download from ADLnet.gov SCORM Users Guide for Instructional Designers (PDF, 1.77 MB) SCORM Users Guide for Programmers (PDF, 2.71 MB) The update effort was funded by the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO) Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) (2010-2011). Intelligent Automation Inc (IAI) was contracted to complete the guides, with input and advice from TSWG and ADL personnel.

ADL Releases the Unity-SCORM Integration Toolkit Version 1.0 Beta

ADL is pleased to announce the release of the Unity-SCORM Integration Toolkit. The toolkit is the result of an ADL Technical Team research and development project that focused on using games and simulations as part of an e-learning curriculum. After an assessment of the most common questions submitted to the ADL Help Desk and after gathering additional requirements from 3rd party outreach efforts, we began a project to make creating SCORM-Conformant games and simulations efficient and cost effective. Unity was selected as the game development tool for our prototype due to its ability to create web-based content. The Unity-SCORM Integration Toolkit allows Unity developers to use simple methods, provided by a “ScormManager” object, to set the SCORM Run-Time Data Model elements without having prior experience with SCORM. For example, developers are able to make simple calls like ScormManager.GetLearnerName() to get the user’s name from the LMS. In addition, the ScormManager can be used to set values including scores, objectives and interactions. For advanced users, the entire SCORM data model is available for use. The Unity-SCORM Integration Toolkit also contains a packaging tool that can be used to create a simple SCORM Content Aggregation Package. The ScormManager and packaging tool support both SCORM Version 1.2 and SCORM 2004 4th Edition. With minor tweaks to the resulting package, SCORM 2004 2nd and 3rd Editions can also be supported. The Unity-SCORM Integration Toolkit is a demonstration of how content developers can use a game engine to create SCORM-Conformant content. The source code is provided with the download and can be used by a 3rd party in their content and systems. In the future, ADL may release a version for open source development if a community need is identified. For more information on the Unity-SCORM Integration Toolkit, see The Unity-SCORM Integration Toolkit Version 1.0 Beta.