Interoperability Standards Across Education Sectors: Opportunities for Collaboration

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Interoperability StandardsAcross Education
SectorsOpportunities for Collaboration

• Presentation for IDEA
• Technology in Education
• Open Forum
• Peter Croger
• Croger Associates Pty Ltd

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Project Background

• AICTEC - Australian ICT in Education Committee
• AICTEC is a cross-sectoral, national committee
  responsible for providing advice to all
  Australian Ministers of Education and Training on
  the economic and effective utilisation of online
  technologies in Australian education and
  training.
• AICTEC seeks to promote cross sectoral
  collaboration on ICT standards in education to
  support interoperability.
• AICTEC commissioned me to research, consult and
  prepare a paper identifying opportunities to do
  this better.

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Australias Education Sectors

• 3 Sectors
• School
• VET
• Higher Education
• Many common challenges
• But differences
• Sizes of institutions
• Mixes of public / private delivery
• Dynamics of co-operation competition
• Systemic grouping of institutions (eg school
  systems)
• National arrangements for collaboration on ICT
• Extent of collaboration on ICT standards

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Interoperability

• Ability to operate together
• People
• Organisations
• Technology based systems

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Interoperability requires Compatibility
ORGANISATION B
ORGANISATION A
Collaboration
Organisational Policies
Organisational Policies
Compatibility
Business Processes
Business Processes
Compatibility
Information Resources
Information Resources
Compatibility
Application Systems
Application Systems
Compatibility
Technical Infrastructure
Technical Infrastructure
Compatibility
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Drivers for Collaboration

• Globalisation of education training
• Student mobility
• New modes of teaching learning
• Trend to off-campus delivery
• Efficiency requirements
• Blurring of sectoral boundaries
• Sharing of education resources
• Sharing of research infrastructure
• Global technology trends
• etc

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Addressing Interoperability

• Collaboration drivers are strengthening
• Interoperability requirements are growing
• Choice
• Not, whether to address interoperability
• Rather, how to address interoperability

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Good Management of Interoperability

• Greater benefits achieved, and sooner
• Lower costs
• Greater flexibility for future requirements
• Improved reliability
• Enhanced security safety
• and other benefits...

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Standards

• Specifications of compatibility
• Documented published
• Achieved agreement or endorsement
• Broad definition, include
• Architectural approaches for ICT
• Detailed requirements for technical components
• Data schema
• Information taxonomies

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Standards Development Lifecycle
Organisations Plan Develop Infrastructure
Common Needs Arise
Potential Solutions Developed
Adoption By Organisations
Endorsement Achieved
Potential Solutions Documented
Consultations Undertaken
Broad Acceptance Gained
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Multiple Interlocking Cycles
eg, Aust Industry Classifications
eg, VETADATA - VET metadata
Local
eg, Basic Internet Standards
eg SCORM for learning objects
Global
Generic
Sectoral (Education)
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Barriers to Adoption of Standards

• Relevant standards not yet developed
• Prolonged decision making processes
• Decision makers not aware of relevant standards
• Organisations lack internal management processes
• Low commitment by senior decision makers
• Urgent requirements lead to short term solutions
• Implementation costs appear too high
• Funding is not available
• Lack of skills
• Lack of tools
• Guidelines are too theoretical

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Infrastructure

• Shared arrangements/assets supporting
  collaboration
• National examples
• AARNet AEDN telecommunications
• AAF identity management
• LORN, ARROW, others distributed content
  repositories
• Collaborative research infrastructure - various
• Requires interoperability at different layers
• Common policies
• Shared and compatible processes
• Information data resources that can be
  exchanged
• Systems that communicate which each other
• Technology components that can be connected

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Growing Work on Interoperability

• Exploration of better collaboration
• Research development initiatives
• Creation of infrastructures
• Development of guidelines
• Expert teams
• Participation in international initiatives

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Organisational Context

• Education training encompasses
• Teaching learning
• Research
• Administration
• Thousands of organisations
• Diverse accountability arrangements
• Decentralised decision making
• Require enablers not edicts

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Key Enablers

• Engagement in global standards development
• Development of Australian solutions guidelines
• Promotion of commitment by organisations
• Development of organisational capabilities
• Establishment of shared infrastructure
• National co-ordination support

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1. Global Standards Development

• Important
• Target initiatives of highest value
• Engagement by ICT firms

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2. Australian Solutions Guidelines

• Addressed in diverse ways
• Better approach to guidelines
• Document valuable knowledge
• Address practical problems contexts
• Leverage off sectoral work
• Disseminate more widely
• Review and update regularly
• Processes for identifying gap areas
• Industry awareness

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3. Commitment by Organisations

• Understanding and preparedness of senior decision
  makers
• Need for incentives

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4. Organisational Capabilities

• Effective ICT management processes
• Understanding of guidelines
• Skills

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5. Shared Infrastructure

• Strong research development phases
• Need for project management governance in
  latter phases
• Roles of existing corporations

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6. National Co-ordination

• Small, highly valued teams
• Strategic picture of issues
• Prioritisation of problems
• Co-ordination of international engagement
• Addressing gap areas
• Linking of related work
• Leverage existing work
• Critical mass of experts
• Pro-active capability

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Proposed Collaboration Principles

• Collaboration for national local objectives
• Federated decision making processes
• Organisations choose to opt in
• Benefits are recognised
• Interoperability addressed at layers
• Shared body of knowledge
• International standards for a local context
• Organisations make explicit, well informed
  decisions
• Sound governance arrangements
• Manage collaboration at most appropriate level
• Areas where cross-sectoral collaboration is
  valuable

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Proposed Collaboration Framework

• Collaboration principles
• Endorsed strategic agenda
• Commissioning leveraging initiatives
• Interoperability guidelines
• Managing shared infrastructure
• Promotion advocacy
• Developing capabilities
• Leadership, co-ordination support
• Governance
• Clear resourcing arrangements

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Interoperability StandardsAcross Education
SectorsOpportunities for Collaboration

• Questions ?