1. RECAL: Architecting Teaching Materials for the Future
David Dewhurst, Rachel Ellaway, Stewart Cromar
Assistant Principal (e-learning & e-health) Director of Learning Technology College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, The University of Edinburgh

2. Problem: technical obsolescence - the CAL graveyard

3. The Problem
Multimedia CAL mainstay of e-learning during 1980s, early 1990s
educational content intrinsically tied to run-time engine – not editable
required continual re-development as operating systems and applications were upgraded
- re-development is costly and time-consuming
Multimedia CAL development

4. The Curse of the Runtime
PEDAGOGY
RESOURCES
SEQUENCING

5. Set your CAL program free!
You lose nothing but your chains …
RUNTIME
PEDAGOGY
RESOURCES
SEQUENCING

6. Content authoring – the future?
SSE -- simple sequencing engine
Existing CALs are disaggregated to release assets
Teacher selects assets from repository
Simple authoring tools used to create new CALs from existing assets

7. RECAL – abstracting the assets
RECAL separates the assets from the runtime.
CAL programs disaggregated to release assets for reuse.

8. RECAL - separating resources from run-time

9. Although the RECAL user experience is identical to the traditional version, it actually is made up of multiple re-usable assets. In this example 1 locked CAL compared to 1 RECAL with at least 6 assets.

10. RECAL – dynamic CAL creation
RECAL player pulls in assets dynamically from repository
Sequencing is determined by XML files

11. RECAL – editing is easy Assets can be changed/revitalised
New assets can be added
Enables easy creation of different language versions
Enables easy updating and local contextualisation

12. RECAL – sequencing the learning
External parameter files (XML) dictate the page sequence and the content delivered to the user.
Different templates can be used to build the assets into each page:
T1 - Title
T2 - Image&Text
T3 - Trace
T4 - MCQ

13. Managing the assets Assets are stored on a server
Each asset has a corresponding entry in a database.
Metadata is attached to assets to allow authors to browse and search.
Assets are available for use in multiple CALs.

14. RECAL – scalability and flexibility
Authors can build learning activities using templates and assets
RECAL player imports the sequence and assets and dynamically creates the resource.
Assets can be easily shared between authors
New resources can be quickly built from existing components.

15. RECAL: Architecting Teaching Materials for the Future
… thank you
David Dewhurst
RECAL