Design of Sharable Content Objects with Return on Investment

"This project will develop tools to support the design, development, discovery, andcost-effective reuse of learning-object based instructional materials that fully support the goals and guidance provided in the ADL Sharable Content Object Reference Model and are informed by empirically derived principles of sound instruction. A designmethodology will be demonstrated in Phase I of how meta-data tagging can be used to inform the development of learning objects with instructional design logic while also collecting "maintenance" / "configuration management information that will be crucialin providing "discoverability" and in tracking re-use, as needed for developing indices of return on investment. During the transition to Phase II, we will engage partners from the commercial sector to provide real-world "use cases" that will assess theeffectiveness of the design approaches increasing reuse and in improving the quality of instruction. Partners will be selected who either develop different types of instructional product (e.g., training versus education, recreational learning, differenttarget populations) or specify distinct instructional approaches in their corporate strategies, in order to test the designs rigorously. At least one partner will be selected to test the design approach against other applications, such as performancesupport systems, reference guides and / or IETMs. Industry already has reported reuse on a scale as high as