What are the proper mechanisms for disseminating content ?
Several types of architecture exist for exchanging learning objects from data repositories such as MERLOT, POOL, SPLASH and CAREO. Very few standards exist however. Here are a few examples of possible mechanisms : The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) is a protocol for facilitating access to digital documents. It deals with the collection and presentation of metadata. An organization that wishes to exchange data using this protocol must first create OAI-compliant learning repositories. Peer-to-peer exchanges where each computer stores resources and makes them available to other computers. This architecture is often used on the Web. Napster and Kazaa, used for downloading music, are examples of such an architecture. A learning object can be downloaded locally and then shared between users. Distributed resource warehouses are made up of a server containing metadata and teaching and learning resources. Each server is searched sequentially until the information is found or all of the servers
