Desigm and Development Considerations of a Learning Object Repository

A learning objects repository (LOR) is a web-based educational portal that houses, displays, and delivers sharable content objects for educational purposes. Design of such a repository encounters a number of considerations that relate the behavior of the information system to the content objects it manages. This paper examines these design issues in light of standards we have utilized. In particular, the instructional design of our learning objects is based on a concept called progressive scaffolding, which refers to the process of providing differing levels of media guidance. A brief description of related research is included. Furthermore, our objects are compliant with the Advanced Distributed Learning’ s Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) to ensure they behave in a uniform and predictable manner. This paper also reviews existing content portals and gives a summary of an evaluation project carried out with a prototype.