Note regarding all projects

Audience

These papers were primarily written for myself as research into areas of professional and personal interest. They were later presented to colleagues and leadership who needed to be briefed on the issues and provided the basis for valuable discussion on the topics.

Impact of SCORM on Distributed Course Developers

Rationale

Developing standard conformant content is an issue that any instructional developer working with many governmental agencies faces. This paper addresses background on the Sharable Content Object Resource Model (SCORM) and the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, what the SCORM is made of, and how it affects instructional developers. Sources researched include the SCORM documentation itself and works from early adopters of the SCORM. The research has led to a conclusion that the method most beneficial for instructional developers to produce conformant content is to review best practices and use available tools that early adopters and vendors have produced.

Visual-Spatial Gender Differences

Rationale

The research conduced for this paper showed that there are differences in research on the existence of, nature of, and age that visual-spatial gender differences occur. The importance of visual-spatial abilities is most commonly found in mathematics and science. The root cause of gender differences in this area are variously attributed to biological, sociological, environmental, or psychological reasons. Most researchers agree that visual-spatial skills can be improved with training.

Our group works with many math and science courses, often with fully web-based and/or asynchronous formats. Any differences that existed would need to be addressed during our development efforts. 

Web Mapping Technologies

Rationale

The research conduced for this paper showed that definition of "Web Mapping" differs based upon what sources are researched. I found three somewhat interrelated main concepts that use the term web mapping. Concept maps, Geographic Information Maps, and Abstract Information Maps are all referred to as "web maps" and all have similar characteristics. These include high levels of interactivity, ability for a user to quickly gain a high level view of a topic, and the involvement of large amounts of data. Between the three different types, the technology and cost vary dramatically as well as the direct involvement with the average educator. However, it is my opinion that all serve as powerful resources for educators and learners alike.