Discusses reusable digital learning resources or objects in distance education and training. Focuses on the pivotal role of metadata and issues relating to classification, description, and meaning, specifically issues of semantics; and describes the CanCore Learning Object Metadata Application Profile. (Author/LRW)

Discusses learning objects that encompass a learning activity so they are more than just a digital resource. Reports on a feasibility study for metadata to record process-oriented information about instructional approaches for learning objects, through a set of Educational Rationale tags which would allow authors to describe their design intent.…

Discusses the properties that distinguish learning object from other forms of educational software, including global accessibility, metadata standards, finer granularity and reusability, and their implications for evaluation. Proposes a convergent participation model for learning object evaluation and reviews other evaluation models that have been…

Useful lifetime of educational materials should be defined by their continuing ability to help meet defined learning objectives. More often lifetime is compromised by changes in the educational environment that do not specifically relate to the capacity of the material to assist learning. Approaches for integration of materials into the learning…

The development of a large body of e-­learning specifications, such as IMS and SCORM, has led to the proposal for a new way to facilitate content workflow. This involves the movement of educational digital content and the knowledge of pedagogical communities into an online space. Several projects have looked at the theoretical structure of these…

This paper provides a comprehensive set of guidelines for building an online course based on the e-learning standards. It discusses the steps that should be followed to build a digital repository that facilitates the storage, retrieval, and reuse of the learning resources that comprise an online course in a standard way. The paper also examines…

A brief review shows several suggested ways in which cultural historical activity theory has proved valuable to technology supported learning environments. Three of our own design cases are then described (evaluating a peer to peer interface for learning objects, designing an on-line school, and rethinking a public science centre). These are…