The New Wave of Training Technology Standards
(Room S320A)
28 Nov 18
9:00 AM
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9:30 AM
Technical standards often shape the economics of how new technologies are disseminated and applied. After Web based instruction and computer-based simulation emerged in the late 1990’s, a wave of new standards that included the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) and High-Level Architecture (HLA) defined product categories and allowed the possibility of multi-vendor training solutions.
Without these first-generation learning technology standards, the costs and risks associated with acquiring and maintaining large-scale training systems might have dramatically slowed the technology’s adoption.
These standards still heavily influence how training technologies are developed and deployed today, but we are in the midst of a new era characterized by ubiquitous computing and a wave of new learning technologies. From Amazon’s Alexa to Kahn Academy to augmented reality, the way people learn is fundamentally changing. The old standards are no longer adequate, and a new set of standards is emerging – the last year alone saw the initiation of standards activities related to competencies and credentials; adaptive instructional systems; student data privacy and security; the Experience API (xAPI); and eBooks as platforms for learning. Standards efforts addressing human performance metrics and augmented reality are already in full swing, and others that will define how virtual reality, cloud computing, AI, big data, blockchains, 5G, and other technologies affect training are on the horizon.
This paper provides practical insights into the new wave of standards and its implications for instructional designers, product developers, trainers, and acquisition commands. It explains what the standards are, what problems they solve, and how they fit together. Implications for training organizations, product developers, systems integrators, and acquisitions commands are outlined.