About the Centre
Vision
The Macquarie E-learning Centre Of Excellence aims to become an international leader in research, development and implementation of e-learning architectures and infrastructure using open standards.
Our mission is to foster projects which develop multi-party open standards-based e-learning environments and to support research into the architectures and infrastructure necessary to support e-learning systems integration, and to contribute these research outcomes to global standards development efforts.
Goals
The Centre will seek to develop a range of research and development agendas aimed at facilitating next generation e-learning across education and training sectors.
The principal goals will be:
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To develop testbeds and prototypes which demonstrate the use of open standards and specifications for e-learning systems integration.
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To contribute to international e-learning standards development based on the outcomes of testbeds and prototypes.
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To work across all education sectors (universities, schools, vocational education and corporate training) in e-learning infrastructure development, both nationally and internationally.
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To provide internationally recognised research leadership in the development of e-learning architectures and infrastructure models.
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To disseminate information about best practice in the development and implementation of e-learning infrastructure and standards.
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To collaborate with education, government and corporate partners to solve complex e-learning problems.
Guidelines and Objectives
In pursuing these goals, the Centre will work towards:
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Ensuring cross-fertilisation between the COLIS/IMS e-learning functional and technical architectures and other e-learning reference architectures.
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Providing a testbed for industry partners seeking to integrate products and services into the e-learning and information services market.
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Engaging in research relating to the distributed service management of learning objects.
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Investigating the role of digital rights management infrastructure within the education sector.
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Developing directory services to support the matching of learners, resources and services in a distributed online environment.
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Collaborating with the Macquarie ICT Innovation Centre to support K-12 online learning requirements.
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Investigating the feasibility a "stacked" approach to the deployment of IT systems and services across education sectors and across institutions within defined geographical areas.
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Collaborating with national and international learning content providers to facilitate seamless discovery and delivery of content to learner communities.
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Fostering a program of joint research with the CSIRO-Macquarie University Internet Innovation Centre.
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Developing a leading-edge seminar program in next generation e-learning standards and infrastructure.
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Publishing joint papers in areas of key interest to collaborating partners.
It is accepted that these goals and objectives will evolve over time as the strengths of the collaborative partnership are more readily identified and as opportunities emerge for working with other partners.
Some of the key objectives of the Centre include:
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Become a focal point in Australia for the online learning and information technical interoperability agenda.
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Seek Government funding to develop a series of research projects aimed at extending the boundaries of e-learning applications.
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Demonstrate and illustrate technologies in multiple e-learning environments.
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Facilitate and develop the concept of an e-learning and information precinct across education and training sectors in the Macquarie geographic area.
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Seek industry partners wishing to contribute to the next generation of e-learning systems and standards development.
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Nurture international alliances, particularly in the Asia-Pacific area.
Research input
The E-Learning Centre Of Excellence draws on an extensive network of research expertise, based on researchers within the Centre itself, those linked to the COLIS project, and research expertise within the Macquarie University community.
A wide range of research expertise is available across the Academic Divisions of the University and this expertise is available to support particular projects as appropriate.
International research collaboration will be carried out through a network of partnerships formed around our involvement in the IMS Global Learning Consortium and related e-learning standards/specification development efforts.
Research into the pedagogical implications of the standards and infrastructure developed by the Centre will be conducted in close collaboration with partners such as the Maquarie ICT Innovation Centre.
Projects
Please see the MELCOE Projects page