Reuse through Rapid Development

The general issue of reuse of digital resources, called Learning Objects (LOs), in education is discussed here. Ideas are drawn from software engineering which has long grappled with the reuse problem. Arguments are presented for rapid development methodologies and a corresponding method for generation of online mathematics question banks is described. INTRODUCTION Oscail, National Distance Education Centre in Dublin City University provides a BSc in Information Technology by distance. Increasing use is made of Internet technologies in the delivery of this programme. Here we will focus on the use of digital resources known as Learning Objects (LOs), using online assessment questions as an example. The potential reusability of LOs is examined, as a concept that appears in the research fields of both software engineering and educational technology. Finally the method of generation of online question banks is posited as a factor of reusability. THE PROMISE OF REUSE The IEEE defines a Learning Object (LO) as “any entity, digital or non-digital, that may be used for learning, education or training”. The ‘Object’ of the term LO has its etymology in computer science, where it means something precise with well defined properties. To generalise however we can say that one of the engineering cornerstones of object technology is the concept of reusability [1]. The business case for objects is that reusing components alleviates costly development. The idea of reusability is very apparent in LO research where the terms Reusable Learning Object (RLO) and Shareable Content Object (SCO) are widely used [2][3]. THE PROBLEM OF REUSE Reuse is difficult to achieve in practice. Education researchers claim that “use” can be more accurately described as “contextualization” which refers to the process of designer (or automated system) placing an LO into an instructional context [4]. Obviously a small, self-contained LO is at home in more contexts than a large complex one. By this reasoning an LO’s granularity is proportional to its reusability. However, though a small granular LO may itself fit into many contexts, there arises the effort of selecting and combining many small LOs in a meaningful way. Standards such as the Sharable Content Objects Reference Model (SCORM) attempt to address reuse in a systematic way by providing standards to enable plug-and-play LOs [5]. LOs in SCORM are pieces of digital content which are served from a webbased learning system. LOs (in SCORM parlance SCOs) communicate with the