[ Reprinted with permission, Electronic Publishing Services Ltd ] EPS Update Note: 16 November 2001 DOI: GETTING THE STANDARDS IN LINE FOR E-LEARNING On the web at http://www.epsltd.com/UpdateNotes/Today.htm * The International DOI Foundation's agreement with Learning Objects Network last month was testament to publishers' determination not to be blocked out of e-learning metadata development. ************************************ Learning Objects Network is one of the key infrastructure players in the management of learning objects business. As such, it is hard at work on one sector of the huge project for Advanced Distributed Learning, inspired and led by the US Department of Defense. It is this project which has spawned SCORM (the Shareable Content Object Reference Model) and which is engaged with the IMS Global Learning Consortium club of content providers to drive standards in searchability for digital distance learning. Though there are many publishers involved in the IMS process - Pearson, Thomson and McGraw-Hill, for example - there is an increasing danger that metadata standards will emerge in vertical sectors without integration or cross-searchability, even where there is common participation. For the publishing community this would be a disaster, since it depends more than anyone else upon the interoperability of metadata standards to give users seamless access to their content, regardless of their chosen route into it or their governing interface. The DOI Foundation's expedient way of collaborating with the e-learning community is to make Learning Objects Network (LON) a DOI Registration Agency. In this way, LON will be able to register Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for use in the management of learning objects. It will also be able to provide a bridgework between SCORM and the increasingly prevalent - and thus valuable - publishing standard created by the Online Information Exchange (ONIX). Working with Sun Microsystems and the content management house Artesia (formerly the Thomson TEAMS business unit), LON is now building out its own network of distributed learning object repositories for the Department of Defense. The fact that these will now be DOI and ONIX-enabled should be very satisfying for publishers. If this means a deal at just about the right time, it certainly does not mean that the pressure is off DOI and its publisher backers. Indeed, the latter probably need to increase their efforts - and DOI funding - if the risk of Open Archival Information System (OAIS) becoming the archival standard for academic research article retrieval is to be contained. Going widely into related metadata standards is surely a good strategy in these circumstances, but publishers must be aware of the fact that they are not setting the pace or controlling events in setting the parameters which will decide how visible and usable their content will be in a networked society. by David Worlock (drw@epsltd.com) RELATED LINKS DOI: http://www.doi.org Learning Objects Network: http://www.learningobjectsnetwork.com Advanced Distributed Learning: http://www.adlnet.org US Department of Defense: http://www.defenselink.mil SCORM: http://www.adlnet.org/scorm/scorm.cfm IMS Global Learning Consortium: http://www.imsproject.org Pearson: http://www.pearson.com Thomson: http://www.thomson.com McGraw-Hill: http://www.mcgraw-hill.com Online Information Exchange: http://www.editeur.org/onix.html Sun Microsystems: http://www.sun.com Artesia: http://www.artesiatech.com FROM THE EPS ARCHIVE Learnframe: learning solutions reach beyond a Pinnacle - EPS Update Note 8 November 2001 http://www.epsltd.com/database/updates/nov01/nov06.asp DOI-EB: Metadata is the critical bridge - EPS Update Note 20 March 2001 http://www.epsltd.com/database/updates/mar01/mar14.asp Identification and e-books: can the DOI solve the conundrum? - imi March 2001 http://www.epsltd.com/database/imi/mar01/doi.asp ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ALPSP SEMINAR: THE ARTICLE ECONOMY Wednesday, 21 November, City Conference Centre, 80 Coleman Street, London EC2R 5BJ Chair: Keith Silver, Academic Press The journal article is the unit of scientific communication - and electronic delivery whether by intermediaries or publishers makes it easy for readers to identify and acquire individual articles. Publishers have been understandably nervous about the possible effect on subscriptions, although recent studies seem to indicate these fears to be unfounded. This full day seminar will examine the effect of this profound change in patterns of information acquisition. Speakers include: David Brown; Petra Lebriga, Fred Friend, Kathryn Toledano and Fytton Rowland. Further information at www.alpsp.org/s211101.htm +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Electronic Publishing Services Ltd 26 Rosebery Avenue London EC1R 4SX, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7837 3345 Fax: +44 (0)20 7837 8901 Web: www.epsltd.com e-mail: epsinfo@epsltd.com