AICC News Blog

The AICC survey on Authorware End-of-Development Impact and Issues is now available online. This survey is a direct follow-up to information gathering at meetings and from online discussions in the AICC Forums for Authorware End-of-Development. The survey consolidates feedback from the Forum's topic on Impacts and Issues Survey into the 23 question survey. The initial expectation is to keep the survey open for 10-14 days for data collection, but the AICC reserves the right to shorten or extend that period.

The survey URL is indicated below. Be aware that it may take a moment or two to re-direct to the actual survey form URL.

http://www.questionmark.com/go/aiccsurvey

If you are interested in the issues surrounding Authorware End-of-Development and its impact on training, please be considerate and make every effort to answer completely, accurately and honestly for the sake of the community.

Regards,

Tom King
AICC Communications Subcommittee Chairman

Labels: AICC Forum, Authorware, cbt, Survey

The CSA (Content Services Architecture) initiative is a new AICC work group that is developing a set of specifications to drive adoption of interoperable web services to support learning and training. Participation in the CSA work group is open to any organization wishing to join. Note that membership is by company/organization and not by individual.

CSA will specify web services that facilitate integration of hosted content, data and content catalog synchronization between publisher (Content Management) and content consumer systems such as a LMS (learning management system). CSA web services will also support a variety of access control and commerce models to integrate content-as-a-service and LMS-as-a-service capabilities. With CSA specifications, content on different internet domains can work seamlessly with a Learning Management System (LMS) in a different internet domain through web services.

The success of this forward-looking initiative depends on strong participation from the elearning community and the AICC greatly needs your help. If you are a LMS (Learning Management System) vendor, CMS (Content Management System) vendor, content creation tool vendor, or an organization that is a content consumer you are encouraged to get involved. Much preliminary work has been done and preliminary input is already being gathered for initial draft documents. The AICC also hosts a CSA Discussion Forum online as a point for collaboration.

Please contact the AICC at CSA@aicc.org if your organization is interested in joining our team.

Thank you.

Labels: AICC Forum, specification

The ADL initiative and the AICC announced their plans to collaborate on several near-term and longer term projects. This collaboration was launched at a joint meeting during the Boeing-hosted AICC conference the week of September 24th 2007. A press release with complete details is now available from the AICC at http://www.aicc.org/pages/press-release-42.htm and the ADL at http://www.adlnet.gov/News/articles/index.aspx?ID=450.

The purpose of the collaboration is to assist the aerospace and defense learning community by providing guidelines which promote the economic and effective implementation of technology-supported learning, education, and training. Benefits for the learning community will be achieved by promoting interoperability standards that software vendors can use across multiple industries (not limited to aerospace & defense).

Both organizations have committed to collaborating with other organizations involved with various learning communities. The collaborative activities will be coordinated with LETSI – an international federation promoting Learning Education and Training Systems Interoperability.

Labels: ADL, LETSI

We are greatly saddened to hear of the passing of Philip Dodds, one of our most significant contributors to the world of learning technology. Trying to sum up Phillip's contributions seems almost trite. It is enough to say that he truly touched every aspect of the learning technology world and had an impact on every member of the community. His vision and leadership can not be forgotten and his legacy will live on, reflected and shining each time a learner logs on.

For those of us carrying forward, we hope only that we can do justice to Philip's legacy. Our thoughts and prayers are with Philip's family and friends and we join together to say God's speed.

- Neil Cramer
   Chair, AICC

[Please feel free to read or add to the comments already posted here.]

Labels: notices

Artist, inventor, innovator, collaborator and colleague Philip V.W. Dodds passed away on Saturday morning. Please help me recognize and celebrate his accomplishments and the lives he continues to touch.

I tried to write this yesterday and just couldn't. I truly believe the elearning community would not have SCORM as it is today without Philip's contributions as a visionary thinker, organizer, architect and evangelist. He was a man of art and a man of science. He loved technology, yet took great pride and active participation in true and faithful restorations to his historic home. He was drawing electronic circuits on blackboards at an early age, did R&D at ARP Instruments and Kurzweil Music, and led the charge to make CD-ROMs and sound cards a standard part of personal computers through his efforts with IMA and the MPC "Multimedia PC" standards efforts in the late 80's and early 90's.

I'd encourage you to learn more about him real soon now, courtesy of a page available through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Meantime, here is what Elliott Masie had to share about Philip in a message to the Learning Consortium:

"What are we saying to each other?"

That was a single line, spoken by the sound engineer at the end of Close Encounters of a Third Kind, as he played chords and a friendly alien spaceship played music back.

The role was played by a young sound engineer who was spotted by Steven Spielberg and given the on-screen role to be the interface between these two worlds. That man, Philip Dodds, was still young and inventing, as he passed this Saturday morning.

Philip Dodds was the Chief Architect of SCORM and the force behind sharable and reusable content. He was deeply involved in the evolution of interactive multimedia and expanding the possibilities for learning via technology.

If you use a Learning Management System, author an interactive learning module or talk about the future of Web 2.0, take a moment to thank a man who you probably never met. Philip's work was KEY and CRITICAL to the exciting world of learning, knowledge management and collaboration that we take for granted.

Philip's dreams were to create a global set of standards and specifications that would allow content to be searchable, reusable and expandable.

Philip, we thank you for all that you have done and we'll keep asking that question: "What are we saying to each other?"

With respect and sadness,

Elliott Masie

P.S. wikipedia reference at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Dodds

Labels: notices

The AICC will select final questions for the Authorware impact survey on Tuesday October 9, 2007. Please visit the AICC Forum on Authorware End-of-Development to review the material and provide your input to help the community. Feedback can also be submitted by sending email to Authorware@aicc.org. Additional feedback must be received by close-of-business on Tuesday, October 9, 2007.

An online survey form will be posted 5-10 days after the final questions are selected. The survey location will be posted here on the AICC News Blog and on the AICC Forum. If there are additional locations where this information should be posted, please notify Authorware@aicc.org.

Labels: Authorware, cbt, Survey

The meeting minutes and presentations from the AICC meeting Sept 24-27, 2007 in St. Louis, Missouri USA are now available online. The Meeting Information page has also been updated with confirmed dates for the January 28-31, 2008 meetings hosted by Adobe Systems in San Jose, California USA. Dates have also been confirmed for the June 9-13, 2008 meetings hosted by Airbus in Hamburg, Germany.

Labels: meeting information, meeting minutes