How to Deliver High Quality Educational Content to Low Resource Settings
C. Kiyan, M. Zolfo, I. de Waard, V. Renggli, L. Lynen Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium ckiyan@itg.be One of the bottle necks to deliver educational content to low resource settings is the internet speed connection needed to download high quality content, in most of the cases heavy media files. Producing educational material sometimes requires a double effort adapting it to different kinds of internet audiences: low resource settings, having low speed connection, and industrialized countries. This difference in internet speed also affects the tutor’s capacity to track students’ progress within online courses. At the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp (ITM) we wanted to provide high quality interactive educational materials for low resource settings using developments already made for the industrialized countries. We looked at two key questions: Can we produce high quality educational material that is accessible for all internet audience settings with minor or no adjustments to the delivered material? Is there a way to track the students’ progress having a low speed internet connection? SCORM offline players are a possible answer. We compared 4 SCORM offline players. We interviewed several companies through demo copy and videoconference: Meridian, Scormuntethered, Harbinger, and Xyleme. A check list has been used to enquire about the following topics: Possible integration of the offline player to any LMS available on the market. Execute file generation that includes the content in the offline player and all the configuration settings for the deliver on a CD Rom or USB. Compatibility with 2004 and 1.2 SCORM compliance. Certification of the product 2004 and 1.2 by ADL labs, and if not yet available existing plan to obtain it. Technical support plan for costumers and response timeframe. Unit price up to 1000 perpetual licenses. Type of files synchronized between the offline player and the LMS. At ITM we came to the conclusion that SCORM offline players are an option that allows delivery of high quality educational content for both developed countries and low resource settings. They allow tracking the students’ progress through the integration of the tool within the LMS. They reduce the cost of the chain production of educational material, adapting the product to any educational environment. We would recommend companies that develop SCORM offline players to make an effort in developing offline players compatible with Linux and/or Mac OS X. Keywords: distance learning, offline players, low resource settings