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Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative

# Resources

Below are additional TLA-related resources.

# Acronym Library

  • ADL: Advanced Distributed Learning
  • API: Application Programming Interface
  • ARM: Activity and Resource Management
  • ASN: Achievement Standards Network
  • AWS: Amazon Web Services
  • CAC: Common Access Card
  • CASE: Competency and Academic Standards Exchange
  • CaSS: Competency and Skills System
  • CEDS: Council for Educational Data Standards
  • CMM: Capability Maturity Model
  • CMS: Competency Management System
  • CORS: Cross Origin Resource Sharing
  • CRUD: Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete
  • DAVE: Data Analytics and Visualization Environment
  • DNS: Domain Name Service
  • DoD: Department of Defense
  • DoDAF: Department of Defense Architectural Framework
  • ECC: Enterprise Course Catalog
  • ELRR: Enterprise Learner Record Repository
  • FICAM: Federal Identity, Credentialing, and Access Management
  • HR: Human Resources
  • ICAM: Identity, Credentialing, and Access Management
  • IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
  • JITC: Joint Interoperability Test Command
  • JSON: JavaScript Object Notation
  • KSAO: Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other behaviors
  • LMS: Learning Management System
  • LEM: Learning Event Management
  • LOM: Learning Object Metadata
  • LRC: Learner Record Consumer
  • LRMI: Learning Resource Metadata Initiative
  • LRP: Learner Record Provider
  • LRS: Learner Record Store
  • LTSC: Learning Technology Standards Committee
  • LXP: Learning Experience Provider
  • MOM: Master Object Model
  • NILE: Navigator for Integrated Learning Experiences
  • NIST: National Insitute of Standards & Technology
  • OIDC: Open ID Connect
  • O*Net: The O*NET program is the nation's primary source of occupational information
  • PALMs: Perceptual and Adaptive LEarning Modules
  • PeBL: Personalized eBook for Learning
  • PESC: Postsecondary Educational Standards Council
  • PERLS: Pervasive Learning System
  • PII: Personally Identifiable Information
  • RCD: Reusable Competency Definition
  • REST: Representational state transfer
  • SCO: Sharable Content Object
  • SCORM: Sharable Content Object Reference Model
  • SSD: Solid State Drive
  • SSL: Secure Socket Layer
  • SSO: Single Sign On
  • TLA: Total Learning Architecture
  • TRADOC: U.S. Army Training & Doctrine Command
  • USAF: U.S. Air Force
  • VPC: Virtual Privae Cloud
  • xAPI: Experience API
  • XI: Experience Index
  • ZTA: Zero Trust Architecture

# TLA Standards

  • cmi5: The cmi5 Specification (opens new window) is an e-learning specification intended to take advantage of xAPI as a communications protocol and data model while providing definition for necessary components for system interoperability such as packaging, launch, credential handshake, and consistent information model. Any activity providers that intend to affect the TLA Reference Implementation should send cmi5 compliant xAPI statements to the Transactional LRS. To learn more about cmi5, please read the specification on GitHub.

  • IEEE P2997 Standard for Enterprise Learner Records: The purpose of the IEEE P2997 Standard for Enterprise Learner Records (opens new window) is to define a data model and API for communicating learner data between connected systems and across organizational boundaries in the enterprise. Using this standard, organizations will be able to aggregate and manage learner data generated from connected systems available within an organization so that it can be shared with other systems or organizations that require it. The data model defines a ledger of learner records generated by a variety of different systems used across the enterprise. It provides linkages to learner performance data (i.e., evidence of learner performance), descriptions of learning activities that generate this evidence, and the definition of competencies or credentials that each learning experience is aligned to. The ELR standard also defines how this data is shared with other systems required throughout the human capital supply chain.

  • IEEE P2881 Standard for Learning Metadata: The IEEE P2881 Learning Activity Metadata (opens new window) standard is being developed through an active IEEE study group. Descriptions of learning resources (e.g., learning activities, events, instructional content) are stored in the TLA’s Experience Index (XI). While not currently part of the IEEE standard, the Experience Index is intended to be the server-side implementation of P2881. This draft standard builds upon the IEEE 1484.12.1 Learning Object Metadata (LOM) to increase the granularity of how learning resources are defined. The standard includes a P2881 Core that is required for every learning resource and P2881 Profiles that are created for specific types of learning resources (e.g., course, eBook, webinar). The P2881 standard leverages other educational data standards such as the Department of Education's Common Education Data Standards (CEDS), the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC), the Credential Engine Learning Opportunity Type, the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI), and Schema.org. This draft standard also includes numerous data types and properties that were derived from MILHDBK 29612, TRADOC FM 350-70, and the USAF 36-2235 Instructional Systems Design guidebook.

  • IEEE 1484.20.3 Standard for Sharable Competency Definitions: The IEEE 1484.20.3 Sharable Competency Definition standard (opens new window) enables a common approach for describing competencies, aligning competencies together in the context of a competency framework, and defining the assessment and evaluation criteria for the evidence a learner must demonstrate to help measure proficiency. This standard is being designed to facilitate a common language for describing the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other behaviors (KSAOs) required for performing different jobs, duties, and tasks associated with an occupational specialty. The SCD standard follows best practices by defining a core set of metadata for each competency definition with the ability to create different profiles for the different types of competencies used within an organization (e.g., institutional competencies, occupational competencies, process competencies, skill definitions). SCD's provide a common approach for aligning education and training activities to the desired operational performance expected from learners to perform with proficiency. Additional information about SCDs can be found in the Competency Data Standards Work Group.

  • IEEE P9274.1 Experience API: The Experience API standard (opens new window) is an interoperability specification for learning technologies that describes communication about learner performance. Learner performance tracking within different learning activities use the Experience API (xAPI) to capture learning activity streams. This standard defines how learner performance is captured, communicated, and shared via a Learner Record Store (LRS), the server-side implementation of xAPI. The xAPI standard also includes xAPI Profiles such as cmi5 and the TLA’s Master Object Model. The IEEE xAPI Profile Working Group is working to standardize the current specification.

# Enterprise Digital Learning Modernization (EDLM)

EDLM includes two major lines of effort:

1. Learning Technology Acquisition: Improve the practical efficiency of DoD's training and education system via policies, processes, and shared services that simplify acquisition, reduce duplication, and ensure consistency with DoD policies for learning modernization.

2. Modernization: Design, develop, and deploy the data management infrastructure required to collect, share, and interpret learner data from DoD's diverse learning technologies (e.g., e-learning, microlearning, virtual reality, electronic gradebooks, registrar systems, simulations) to deliver a career-long learning continuum that functions at scale.

The ADL Initiative, in collaboration with DoD stakeholders, is establishing a DoD Learning Enclave (DLE) as part of the EDLM effort. The DLE is the cloud-based hub that provides the shared software services required to implement a given instantiation of the Total Learning Architecture (TLA), a framework that define a uniform approach for integrating current and emerging learning technologies into a learning services ecosystem. The DLE includes the data management infrastructure and microservices to share and interpret learner data that are collected from connected systems. In other words, the DLE hosts the centralized software services that make an enterprise-level TLA-based learning ecosystem function in practice.

DoD Learning Enclave

Figure 10 - The figure above shows a high-level architecture for the DoD Learning Enclave IOC.

EDLM's data management infrastructure, shown in blue in the above diagram, is comprised of six applications.

  1. EDLM Portal: The EDLM portal provides a common access point for all EDLM systems. This centralized login connects users to the Enterprise Course Catalog (ECC), the Enterprise Learner Record Repository, the Enterprise Competency and Credential Registry, the Linked Data and Schema Server, and the Learning Technology Warehouse (LTW).

  2. Enterprise Course Catalog (opens new window): The ADL Initiative is building an ECC to enable a defense-wide inventory of all DoD training and education resources. The ECC is not simply another course catalog. Instead, it enables a global search capability that identifies information from decentralized local catalogs across the DoD and aggregates the content into a single, defense-wide portal.

  3. Enterprise Learning Record Repository (opens new window): A federated ELRR provides the ability to look across many distributed learner records as if they were from a single source and enables the sharing of local and global learner data across the DoD.

  4. Enterprise Competency Registry: The open source Competency and Skills System (CaSS) (opens new window) is being deployed as a competency management resource for the DoD. It enables the design, development, and linkages between sharable competency definitions, frameworks, and credentials.

  5. Enterprise Linked Data & Schema Server: A defense-wide capability to generate linked data vocabularies with unique identifiers and schema mapping services to provide immutable Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs) for each term and schema that all DoD technologies can reference.

  6. Learning Technology Warehouse (opens new window): A clearinghouse of tools, technologies, and applications that enable the future DoD Learning Ecosystem. The LTW product catalog is comprised of software-centric tools and technologies that are hardened and approved for use inside the DLE.

The orange-toned boxes at the bottom of the figure represent self-contained instances ("tenancies") of different learning technology configurations that are end-user facing. Each orange box represents ownership by a different organization, and each organization can have different software configurations so long as they are created from the conformant components that are approved and available from the LTW.

  1. TLA Core Services: The TLA Core Services container includes a centralized data management capability that collects, processes, and stores learner data from connected, TLA-conformant systems. Automated microservices send data to and from connected systems (e.g., Moodle, PERvasive Learning Systems, Personal eBook for Learning).

  2. Moodle 4.0 (opens new window): Moodle is an open-source, online learning management system that enables DoD organizations to create, deliver, and manage courses that support a variety of training and education organizations within the DoD. The Big Blue Button virtual classroom is integrated into Moodle to allow virtual, instructor led training in an xAPI-enabled environment.

  3. Cmi5 Player (opens new window): The cmi5 Player is a web service application that provides functionality for importing cmi5 (opens new window) course packages, launching assignable units (AU), and proxying xAPI requests to an external learner record store (LRS). The cmi5 Player will be deployed as a plugin to Moodle.

  4. PERLS 3.0 (opens new window): PERvasive Learning Systems is an open-source platform designed to support self-regulation and microlearning (e.g., quizzes, flashcards, etc.). The platform supports skills-based learning, taking advantage of unplanned time during a learner's daily schedule to enhance and reinforce learning.

  5. Learner Record Store: The LRS is responsible for receiving, storing, and providing access to learner records. A noisy LRS collects raw learner records from a connected activity. The transactional LRS collects a rollup of learner performance using the TLA Master Object model. The authoritative LRS stores validated competency assertions that support credentialing.

  6. PeBL (opens new window): Personal eBook for Learning is an open-source eBook platform that combines mobile device technologies, social learning, and eBooks to present interactive instructional content to each learner on their phone or tablet.

  7. TLA Core Services Portal: provides the front end to TLA / EDLM Data Services such as a local course catalog, local competency registry, and local learner profiles.

  8. KAFKA (opens new window): Apache Kafka is the gateway to the TLA's core systems. Kafka is an open-source streaming service that forwards different TLA data topics into their respective databases. TLA components use microservices to subscribe to different data topics or to publish their results. For example, all TLA MOM statements are forwarded to different data streams (i.e., learner-data, resolved, or authority).

# Contact Us

For more information on the TLA project, visit the ADL Initiative website at https://adlnet.gov/ (opens new window). Messages or queries can also be sent to the ADL Initiative technical support team at mailto:TLATechSupport@adlnet.gov or by visiting our Contact Us page at https://adlnet.gov/contact/ (opens new window), or by reaching out to the ADL Initiative location:

ADL Initiative Orlando
13501 Ingenuity Drive, Suite 248
Orlando, FL 32826

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