eLearning: Strategy, Development and Standards

With interest and investment in large scale e-learning and knowledge management escalating around the world, this is an opportunity for an audience in the UK to hear about the Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI http://web.mit.edu/oki ). OKI is a collaboration by a group of leading universities, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and other organisations, to support innovative learning technology in higher education. In particular, the aim of OKI is to address the
interoperability of e-learning systems allowing educational content and resources to be carried and shared across systems and institutions.

OKI has developed an open and extensive architecture that specifies how the components of an educational software environment communicate with each other and with other enterprise systems. OKI provides a modular development platform for building both traditional and new applications, while leveraging existing and future infrastructure technologies. It is already being used by educational projects at MIT, the University of Michigan, and Stanford University amongst others. Now that OKIs developer community is beginning to grow internationally, the Cambridge-MIT Institute is offering this workshop so that educational institutions and e-learning initiatives in the UK can find out more.

The workshop will offer two strands. One, aimed at software developers and other information technologists, will be practical overview of OKI architectures and products, and its implications for developing educational applications.

The second strand is aimed at educational and industry leaders and decision-makers, and will address the overall educational standards and specifications landscape, and how this is influencing and supporting e-learning infrastructure activities in the UK. Members of the IMS Global Learning Consortium, and representatives from CETIS (the Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards), in the UK will be helping lead and facilitate this strand of the workshop.

If you would like to participate, or require further information, please contact our colleague Clare Dennis at 01223 765891 or email her at c.dennis@cmi.cam.ac.uk.