Minutes: DITA Learning Content SC - 10 August 2006

[john_hunt@us.ibm.com]

DITA Learning Content SC Meeting Minutes: 
10 August 2006 

Recorded by John Hunt 


The DITA Learning Content SC had its first meeting on Thursday, August
10, 2006 
for 60 minutes. 

1. Roll call 

Present: 
JoAnn Hackos 
Jennifer Linton 
Scott Hudson 
Bruce Esrig 
Amber Swope 
Robert Bernard 
John Hunt, Chair 

Absent: 
Chris Kravogel 
Stanley Doherty 

2. Welcome and introductory remarks from John Hunt, followed by introductions
from members present. 

3. Review and discussion of proposed subcommittee Charter, goals, and deliverables.
- General agreement in discussion about the charter and goals, including
targeting SCORM standard. 
- Concern expressed about need to get to technical implementation and level
of support available. 
- Issue raised about status of any specializations developed by this sub-committee.
Agreed to discuss further and bring to TC as needed to clarify. 

MOTION: To recommend to the TC that the SC approves the following Charter,
Goals, and Deliverables. Motion seconded. Vote to approve the motion passed
without any dissent. 

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The subcommittee has the following statement of initial goals: 

1. Develop a general top-level design for structured, intent-based authoring
of learning content with good learning architecture, following DITA principles
and best practices. Such a design would build on past work on topic-based
content, reusable learning objects, and the learning content types needed
to support them. Some specifics of a DITA design for learning content include:

1. learning types, including assessments and exercises 
2. a map domain for structuring and managing the learning types as reusable
learning objects 
3. linking, relationships, and simple sequencing 
4. interactions 
5. style policies for learning content 
6. dynamic sequencing. 

2. Establish guidelines that promote best practices for applying standard
DITA approaches to learning content, which include: 

1. separation of presentation and content (as much as possible) 
2. separation of content and context 
3. single sourcing, repurposing, and reuse. 

3. Develop support for processing DITA for general delivery as learning
and training, including print and presentation delivery to support instructor-led
training (ILT), web delivery for distance learning, and computer-based
training delivery in general. 

4. Develop targeted support for processing DITA learning content for delivery
with standards-based learning, specifically targeting SCORM and QTI. Specifically,
extend DITA processing to support basic SCORM sequencing, interactions,
and required SCORM LMS runtime behaviors. Leverage QTI behaviors to drive
the interactions. Address the issue of "levels" from a simple
implementation to full SCORM and beyond. 

5. Build on existing DITA infrastructure (editors, CMS, transforms) as
much as possible so learning content developers do not have to start from
scratch. 

Deliverables 

Proposed initial work products for the subcommittee include the following:

Task 1: 1 month on review of structured designs for learning and how to
apply DITA principles and best practices. 

Task 2: 1 month on developing a top-level plan for map a DITA specialization
for learning content, including identifying the learning types, map domains,
content domains, and processing support needed to support the design. 

Task 3: X months on developing DITA schemas and processing, and piloting
and validating the top-level designs against sample content. 

Task 4: 1 month on reviewing the pilot, writing and reviewing a progress
report. Close this phase of the activity with a progress report to the
TC, with recommended next steps. 
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4. Discussion about recruiting new members. 
J. Hackos to contact people involved with Cisco learning objects designs
about possible participation in this SC. 
J. Hunt to follow up on contacts. 

5. Planning next meetings 
We agreed on weekly Thursday, 11-12 ET as regular meeting time, with next
meeting scheduled for August 31. 

-- Meeting adjourned at 12:00 noon ET --