The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) Partners With The Academic Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Co-Lab
The ADL Initiative between the federal government, private- sector technology suppliers, and the broader education and training community is a means for formulating voluntary guidelines that will meet common needs. This partnership allows the United States Distance Leaning Association to support the development and implementation of national standards for distributed learning (currently, SCORM 2004), sharing research with other Academic ADL Co- Laboratory partners, participating in advisory meetings and collaborating with the partners on projects that will enhance quality, reduce current costs, and promote the development of interoperable systems for the delivery of distributed learning.
“This new association partnership, said Dr. John G. Flores, USDLA Executive Director, will bring increased and shared opportunities for both the Academic ADL Co-Lab and USDLA to further educate the distance learning community and USDLA membership with new and cutting edge technologies in the blended learning environment, increase participation in the NSU/USDLA Distance Learning Leaders Certificate Program with new sessions on SCORM, as well as provide the Academic ADL Co-Lab community, events locations for special higher education track sessions, conference keynotes, and ADL tutorials in co-operation with USDLA’s official conference provider, VNU’s Training and Online Learning Conferences.”
“I am pleased to welcome the USDLA as a partner with the Academic ADL Co-Lab,” said Dr. Robert A. Wisher, Director, Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative. “We share a common vision of bringing the highest quality training and education to learners, wherever they may be. I look forward to working with USDLA in creating an open, common framework for e-learning content, products, and services. The benefits will be significant”.
Judy Brown, Director of the Academic DL Co-Lab, echos Dr. Wisher’s comments. “We look forward to working with the USDLA in implementation of standards based learning content as well as next generation learning initiatives such as mobile learning, game-based learning and content repositories.”
For more information please contact:
USDLA
John G. Flores, Ph.D.
800.275.5162
info@usdla.org
Academic ADL Co-Laboratory
Judy Brown
608.263.9270
judy@academiccolab.org
About USDLA
The United States Distance Learning Association is a non- profit organization formed in 1987 and is located in Boston, Massachusetts. USDLA promotes the development and application of distance learning for education and training and serves the needs of the distance learning community by providing advocacy, information, networking and opportunity. Distance education and training constituencies served include pre-k-12 education, higher and continuing education, home schooling as well as business, corporate, military, government, and telehealth markets. The USDLA trademarked logo is the recognized worldwide symbol of dedicated professionals committed to the distance learning industry. For more information visit www.usdla.orgwww.usdla.org or call 800.275.5162.
About the Academic ADL Co-Lab
The Academic ADL Co-Lab is a structured collaborative with agreements with educational organizations and consortia representing more than 700 academic institutions, including virtual universities, worldwide. Established in 2000 in Madison through an agreement between the U.S. Department of Defense, the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Technical College System, the Co-Lab specializes in academic projects. It works in partnership with three other ADL Co-Labs, each with a distinct responsibility for military, corporate, or workforce research related to the development, implementation and assessment of ADL technologies and related products.
In addition to standards, the Academic Co-Lab operates a Mobile Learning Technology Center to showcase the latest in mobile learning technology and to test proposed solutions in a controlled environment on a range of vendor platforms, operating systems and peripheral devices as well as a Games and Professional Practive Simulations (GAPPS) Center for research on game-based learning. The Wisconsin Testing Organization, which certifies content and products that meet these standards, is also located at the Academic Co-Lab. For more information visit Read www.academiccolab.org.
About the ADL Initiative
The ADL Initiative is a collaborative effort between government, industry and academia to establish a new distributed learning environment that permits the interoperability of learning tools and course content on a global scale. As a result of a unique partnership between the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Labor, and the National Guard Bureau, the Alexandria ADL Co-Lab has been established to serve as a public and private sector forum for cooperative research, development and assessment of new learning technology prototypes, guidelines and specifications.
