The Research Of Constructing Network Resources Based On Learning Objects

With the development of e-Learning, the problems that e-Learning is facing become more and more serious. The main problems are the sharing of network resources and the interoperability of systems. To solve the problems, some business institutions and learned societies of many countries in the world have been taking up with the study and establishment of learning technology standards. By establishing learning technology standards, the whole network uses uniform technical specification and a series of problems such as the sharing of resources and the intercommunication of different platforms are solved. During the establishment of the learning technology standards and under the influence of the object-oriented paradigm of computer science and of some interrelated instructional theories, a new idea of constructing learning resources came into being——learning objects. This is the fundamental idea behind learning objects: instructional designers can build small (relative to the size of an entire course) instructional components that can be reused a number of times in different contexts. Additionally, learning objects are generally understood to be digital entities deliverable over the Internet. Based on the idea of learning objects and under the tech support of XML, referring to international technology standards about learning resources, the paper brings forward a model of constructing network resources. The model provides a referable guidance for the storage, identification, packaging, exchange and foundation of network resources. Moreover, it provides a common method to assemble learning resources to learning objects for a whole learning experience. Firstly, the paper introduces the current situation of the study on learning technology standards. And then, analyses the definition of learning objects, its characteristics, its basic structure and its significance to e-Learning. Secondly, it analyzes instructional design theory related to learning objects, including elaboration theory, component display theory and complex cognitive skill instructional design theory. It also introduces the classification of learning objects. The purpose is to provide design guidance for the scope and sequence of learning objects. We also emphasize on XML as the key tech support for constructing the reusable learning resources. We regard XML as a uniform standard and an effective tool for the description of the metadata and the structure of learning contents. Based on the object-oriented paradigm, the idea of separating learning resources from learning management and the thought of establishing learning objects repository, the paper brings forward the model of constructing network resources. The model includes four parts: content layer model, metadata, content packaging exchange model and sequencing definition model. Content layer model adapts to the hierarchy of the structure of learning resources and classifies network resources to three forms:digital asset, sharable content object and application digital object.Metadata describes varies of attributes of learning resources and emphasizes on the attributes by which we can easily discover and exchange the resources.Content packaging exchange model provides a standardized way to structure and package learning contents involved in a learing activity.It also provides a mechanism how to exchange learning resources between different environments.Sequencing definition model is an information model derived from the IMS Simple Sequencing(SS) Specification. It defines a series of standards and methods to describe the sequences and behaviors of leaning contents. The sequences are defined according to the authoritative learning experience.Any LMS which is up to standards can identify the behaviors and serialize particular behavior in a consistent method. Finally, the paper introduces LCMS to analyze the creation, storage, organization and delivery of reusable content objects. A LCMS is used to create, store, assemble, and deliver personalized e-Learning content in the form of learning objects. Every LCMS has four basic components which are learning object repository, automated authoring application, dynamic delivery interface and administrative application. Learning object repository is the central part. It is constructed based on the model of constructing network resources and the object-oriented database technology. Learning object repository plays a very important role in the running of various links in LCMS. To create content objects in learning object repository, firstly, at the design stage, we decompose learning contents to granular content objects and form the map of hierarchy which reflects the relationship of content objects, so that we can confirm the granularity and sequence of the content objects. And then form the information that describes the content objects. At the development stage, we use ASP.NET as development environment and at the server side we adopt Windows 2000 and IIS platform. We use DOM technology to create the document of imsmanifest.xml and use SQL Server 2000 as database. We...