The Advance Distibuted Learning Program

Here are a number of links to elements within the ADL program of the U.S. Department of Defense, brought to my attention by my friend and colleague Patrice Lyons.

Advanced Distributed Learning

The Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative was formed as a developer and implementer of learning technologies across the U.S. Department of Defense. ADL employs a structured, adaptive, collaborative effort between the public and private sectors to develop the standards, tools and learning content for to improve the military learning envirnments. The vision of the ADL Initiative is to provide access to the highest-quality learning and performance aiding that can be tailored to individual needs and delivered cost-effectively, anytime and anywhere. The ADL website provides information on a number of the tools developed under the initiatives as well as links to the Co-Lab Network formed in support of the Initiative. Among the several technologies the ADL Initiative is currently pursuing are gaming, simulations and intelligent tutoring.

The Academic Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Co-Lab

The Academic Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Co-Lab serves as the focal point for academia in promoting high quality, reusable content for distributed learning. It is part of the Co-Lab Network created under the U.S. Department of Defense its ADL Initiative. This Co-Lab is the ADL academic link to test, evaluate and demonstrate ADL-compliant tools and technologies to enhance teaching and learning. It also serves as an academic demonstration site for ADL tools and content, including those developed by the federal government, academia, and industry.

CORDRA

CORDRA (Content Object Repository Discovery and Registration/Resolution Architecture): An open, standards-based model for how to design and implement software systems for the purposes of discovery, sharing and reuse of learning content through the establishment of interoperable federations of learning content repositories. CORDRA is designed to be an enabling model to bridge the worlds of learning content management and delivery, and content repositories and digital libraries. CORDRA aims to identify and specify (not develop) appropriate technologies and existing interoperability standards that can be combined into a reference model used to enable a learning content infrastructure.

SCORM

SCORM, the Sharable Content Object Reference Model, or SCORM, as its name indicates, aims to provide the specifications necessary to enable content developers with the ability to produce content that is sharable, reuseable, and most importantly interoperable. SCORM is a key focal point of the Academic ADL Co-Lab (AADLC) created under the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative. As the SCORM evolves, the AADLC evaluates the requirements and changes for the purpose of serving as a resource to the wider academic community, and helps to clarify key issues.