Throughout the consultation documents and strategy proposals, there is much emphasis on standards - again, drawing on the many lessons from their experience to date. They consider that 'teachers' experience of e-learning hype and unfulfilled expectations is often as a direct result of lack of quality and interoperability standards. We also believe there is a need for quality content to be accredited or approved as fit for purpose. This could be achieved through a combination of awarding bodies, Centres of Excellence and independent peer-reviewed assessment.'16
More immediately, at college level, plans include developing 'a standard to assure the pedagogic quality of e-learning provision, and mechanisms for monitoring and updating the standard in the light of changing technologies and access requirements.'17
As described in their history, issues relating to technical standards and interoperability have arisen on several occasions. Their current view is that 'we would place strong emphasis on intelligent search engines and associated learning objects metadata tags. They have a key role to play in the use and uptake of resources, as does the students ability to use bibliographic databases. We believe cross institution coordination of existing expertise and integration with media/library facilities is vital. As a consequence Learning and Resource Management Systems particularly MLEs will be crucial within and between institutions.'18 However, they do not indicate what implications this has for their existing systems. In the longer term, they plan to 'establish and maintain complete, coherent, non-proprietary and expandable long-term networked-based managed learning systems, linking Management Information Systems to the Virtual Learning Environment to track and support learners, to assist teachers in guiding their students, and to reduce teachers' time and bureaucracy.'19..continue to conclusions
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