Project Objectives

The three overriding aims in the ASPECT Best Practice Network are to:

1. Analyse how a range of standards and specifications compare in terms of how well they apply to a diverse range of learning resources from both commercial and public sector providers (including content generated by teachers).
   
   
2. See how the implementation of standards and specifications will enhance the pan-European interoperability of educational resources and the systems that are used to develop, discover, transfer, and use that content.
   
   
3. Establish best practices for combining existing specifications into complete solutions that address the needs of the school community in Europe in terms of discovery, exchange, and reuse of learning resources.
   
   

Specific objectives of the ASPECT Best Practice Network are then to:

• Leverage existing consensus building and awareness-raising initiatives related to standards for educational content, including those of the main standards’ bodies and the new EdReNe Thematic Network supported by the eContentplus programme;
  
  
• Enhance further an existing Learning Resource Exchange for schools with a critical mass of high quality educational resources that includes user-generated and professionally generated content from both Ministries of Education and private sector developers;
  
  
• Move beyond existing consensus building and awareness raising by focusing on practical implementations of a range of content standards and specifications (including standards and specifications to support the discovery and exchange of this interoperable content) that both Ministries of Education and commercial developers regard as being of strategic importance for the school sector;
  
  
• Analyse how a range of standards and specifications have been combined in order to be applied to ASPECT content and propose a strategy for how these implementation approaches can be taken to scale and adopted by a wider community of stakeholders, including MoEs, regional education authorities, large commercial publishers, SMEs and individual teachers;
  
  
• Implement a dissemination strategy and engage in new forms of targeted and widespread awareness raising and consensus raising actions involving stakeholders in all 27 member states, with the aim of combating a perceived ‘disconnect’ between standards initiatives and end-users;
  
  
• Validate with up to 40 schools in four countries to what extent the implementation of standards/specifications in the project leads to greater usability of ASPECT content and improvements in the ability of these resources to support the learning process in real-life contexts;
  
  
• Evaluate to what extent work in ASPECT has a strategic impact on pre-standardisation activities and the ability of partners to submit and support proposals to European and international standardisation bodies.