Acronym Alert! There will be many referred to in this post.
See glossary below for easy reference.
Two years ago we answered a BAA from ADL to conduct research for updating the DoDI 1322.26- “Development, Management, and Delivery of Distributed Learning.”
Spoiler Alert– ADL accepted our proposal and we were awarded a contract to dig further into what an updated Instruction might look like and how it might be implemented.
Double Spoiler Alert– The updated Instruction, DoDI 1322.26- DISTRIBUTED LEARNING (DL) just received final approval from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
A little more context
Given that the original Instruction was 10 years old and the world of DL had changed dramatically in that time, ADL recognized the need to both modernize the DoDI and understand the impact an updated DoDI would have across both the DoD and the eLearning industry as a whole. The objective of this project was to provide recommendations and edits to the draft, assess implications of the new Instruction and advise on implementation guidelines to help support the roll out of the new Instruction.
Rustici Software came into this from the unique perspective of understanding how our various government and military customers utilize SCORM today and the considerations and impact that adding xAPI to the Instruction would have to these organizations going forward.
We spent a good portion of 2016 working through the updated Instruction, interviewing key stakeholders within the DADLAC, considering policy implications with PIPS and providing guidance on how to manage xAPI conformance testing. The end result was an updated draft of the new DoDI 1322.26 which allows for procurement of various tools and technologies, including xAPI and provides for additional framework around the xAPI specification to ensure conformance and consistency across implementations of the spec.
TL;DR
The old DoDI was specific in directing entities to procure SCORM based eLearning solutions.
The updated DoDI continues to allow for SCORM and encourages “the (implementation of) the Experience Application Programming Interface (xAPI) and associated Learning Record Store capabilities, as practical, to enhance learning data security and interoperability.”
The wrap up
Many folks at Rustici across multiple teams were involved in this BAA- from our lead developers and SCORM technical experts to project managers and account managers.
So, when we heard the great news that the new Instruction had received final approval, we were thrilled. It means a lot to us that the work we did with ADL, PIPS, the DADLAC and others within the community has come to fruition. Even more exciting is that this new Instruction empowers those within the DoD to source the eLearning technologies that meet their needs.
Glossary
ADL: Advanced Distributed Learning
BAA: Broad Agency Announcement
DADLAC: Defense Advanced Distributed Learning Advisory Committee
DL: Distributed Learning
DoD: Department of Defense
DoDI: Department of Defense Instruction
PIPS: Potomac Institute for Policy Studies
SCORM: Sharable Content Object Reference Model
TL;DR: Too long; Didn’t read
xAPI: Experience application programming interface
