Scorm 2.01 experiment on oer  (Page 2/3)

This paper proposes the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) as the standard for adoption into SCORM 2.0 because of its ability to provide solutions for the scopingissues (a), (b), (c), (e) and (f) together with its potential to provide partial or substantial assistance for issues (d), (g) and (h) (see the above table).

While DITA was first developed and introduced into IBM in March 2001 within IBM DeveloperWorks, the History of DITA traces the roots of the thinking behind DITA back to earlier than 1960. The evolution in thinking is of interest, however, it is the expression ofthat thinking in DITA as it was developed by IBM and then released to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards ( OASIS ) that is more germane to this paper.

There are two issues worth noting about DITA from the outset. First, that it is conceptually similar (though not identical) to SCORM in that it focuses on thedevelopment of granular content items (topics) that are aggregated for processing and delivery to a consuming application. The aggregation model in DITA is richer than thatof the current SCORM. Second, that while DITA was originally developed to satisfy technical writing requirements for technology products, it was always intended thatspecializations would evolve from the DITA core and that this would provide for industry or discipline specific variations. Provided the specializations are developed in aconformant manner, they will remain compatible with the core of DITA and will be processed successfully. The base structure of DITA provides a sort of safety net.Suffice to say that there are constraints concerning the processing of specializations but for the most part the system design performs very well. Currently, there arespecializations completed or under development for the semi-conductor industry, machine industry, help documentation, enterprise business documents, translation and learning.(See DITA Subcommittees for up-to-date details.)

In response to the issues outlined in the scoping section, DITA responds as follows:

• a) True Interoperability

  DITA’s structured content model allows for true interoperability to be achieved. This is partly due to the validation of thecontent structure and partly through the ability to transform content of known structure and is reliant upon conformance.

• b) Reusability in an organization-wide context

  DITA’s approach to specialization provides the ability to reuse content across organizationaldepartments and functions. As with many standards, the implementation choices and content strategy have the potential to impact the realization of thisobjective.

• c) The need for a structured content model

  DITA is a standard for structured content.

• e) Granularity, aggregation, independence and rendering

  DITA is an XML application that enables content independence and dynamic rendering for singlesource publishing requirements. The approach to granularity and aggregation is very flexible and the separation of authoring and assembly from processing anddelivery is also supportive of this objective.

• f) Smooth transition between current and future SCORM

  The development of the DITA Learning Specialization has a specific objective to provide processing support for SCORM 2004. This enables organizations to provide a softtransition from SCORM as it exists currently while providing the capability of moving to more advanced content development and single sourcing approaches. Thiswill also ensure that content developers can shift to new and more desirable processes while vendors adjust to the new requirements of SCORM2.0.