LTAC
Project Group Under Formation:
Dynamic Instructional Content Exchange (DICE)
The purpose of the Learning Technology Advisory
Council (LTAC)
Dynamic
Instructional Content Exchange (DICE) project
will be to develop use cases and end-user requirements for a dynamic,
born-digital substitute for the traditional student textbook. This
effort will
require defining current models for digital content distribution across
the
higher education environment to ensure the resultant DICE specification
has the
broadest application for higher education, digital content providers
and
students.
The
DICE environment,
leveraging the IMS
Common Cartridge technical specification, will provide the
development and
distribution framework for the born-digital substitute for current
textbooks
and “etextbooks” and enable enhanced student learning, increased access
to
learning resources, and cost reductions to students and content
providers – as
provided by the base functionality benefits of the IMS Common Cartridge
specification. From
the use cases, the
DICE participants will oversee the development of prototypes and pilots
applying the existing IMS Common Cartridge specification to create the
DICE end
product.
Participants
IMS DICE Call
for Participation
The
Current Challenge
The
DICE
initiative is especially timely, given the broad discontent textbooks
and their
pricing have generated. For the vast majority of courses in higher
education,
textbooks and their supplementary materials constitute the primary
content for
teaching and learning and their costs have risen at a rate of 6% per
year over
the past two decades, constituting a financial burden for most
students. Used books appear to offer
discounts, but to
compensate for this revenue shortfall, publishers must raise the price
of new
editions because 70% of revenue generated over the life of a text will
be based
on the first year’s sales. Meanwhile,
textbooks are monolithic, designed to appeal to a broad range of
subject matter
interests, but faculty typically assign less than 80% of a textbook’s
content,
and students resent paying for material they don’t use. Supplementary
materials can
increase student
learning, but they pose similar financial problems, and because they
reside on
publishers’ Web sites or on CDs supplied with the textbooks, the
difference in
format and means of access can constitute a barrier to student use. Can
digital textbooks
contribute to a
solution to this multi-faceted problem?
Digitized
versions of textbooks are now widely available from publishers, but
these
e-textbooks are not widely promoted by faculty or widely adopted by
students
despite the reduced initial cost. Part
of the reason for slow adoption may be that a digitized textbook
consisting
merely of page images has more perceived disadvantages than advantages.
The next generation of
“e-textbooks,”
judiciously designed, may promote more interactivity than the printed
page as
well as provide integration with learning tools for simulation,
collaboration
and assessment – thus enhancing the learning experience while
potentially
reducing student costs for learning materials.
The
Proposed Solution
A
DICE
environment will increase access to resources for teaching and
learning,
including the ability to better segment resources with a sharper focus
on
specific pedagogical needs. Designing
the DICE environment within the Common Cartridge specification will
provide a
single, open-standards target for integrating available and future
products,
thereby reducing the costs and duplication resulting from content
reformatting
for a variety of proprietary formats – benefiting students, commercial
and open
content providers, online course developers and faculty, as well as
institutional library and information services.
The
DICE
initiative will also explore new approaches to content transactions,
distribution, and aggregation that empower existing and new channels
for
providing content for teaching and learning. The content under
consideration
includes not only digital textbooks and
supplementary material, but also e-reserve readings, resources from an
institutional repository, learning objects, and tools for collaboration
and
analysis. A
wide
range of stakeholders will benefit from the creation of a DICE
environment,
especially when it is created in a Common Cartridge-compliant framework.
Current
Activities
The
DICE PUFSIG is currently developing a formal
project charter to define the specific deliverables (use cases, end
user
requirements) and timeframe in which it plans to conduct its work. The
project charter will
then be submitted to
the IMS
Technical
Advisory Board (TAB) for approval. It is anticipated that the
project
charter will be completed and
approved by March/April 2008. Subsequently, the DICE project
activities will begin.
Related
Information
For related
information, please visit:
Further
Information
For
information on the DICE project group under formation, please
contact:
John Falchi
Chief Program Strategist
IMS Global Learning Consortium
email: jfalchi@imsglobal.org
office: 919.656.0343
For information on IMS GLC and the
benefits of being a Contributing
Member, please
contact:
Rob Abel
Chief Executive Officer
IMS Global Learning Consortium
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