Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs) and Personalized Learning: Implications for Design and Development

摘要

Around the world, organizations having an education or training mission are being challenged to make better use of the Internet to achieve their organizational goals and objectives. The drive to create new content, repurpose existing content, aggregate content resources from a wide variety of content holders such as publishers, universities and subject matter experts, and to make content available in a variety of reusable, digital forms has completely altered the range of expectations held for activities associated with lifelong learning and professional development. The following examples give a glimpse at the degree of change that the Internet has initiated. James Ledbetter1 recently described two major studies that attempted to quantify the impact of the Internet industry on business developments in the United States. One study published by the University of Texas with funding from Cisco Systems described it as an industry that generated $300 billion annually, while a follow-up study from the same investigators described a 68% annual growth rate, claiming that the U.S. Internet economy now employs more than 2.3 million people. A second report published by the U.S. Department of Commerce domestic product found that the Internet economy accounted for approximately 8% of the U.S. gross. Clearly, given this kind of impact, education and training entities are learning that they must adapt to these trends to avoid being perceived as irrelevant or out-of-date.