Different Flavors of Content Reuse and Reusability

Not all content that is intended for reuse is created equal.  Before deciding upon the destiny of your content, it makes good sense to understand and plan how it will be used (and reused).  To this end, I was recently contacted by RAND Corporation to participate in a study entitled:  “Reusable Digital Training Content:  Obstacles and Enablers.”   In order to prep their respondents, RAND Corp. provided a list of questions to help us solidify our thoughts about the topic at hand.  They insightfully acknowledge that reusable content falls into the following different camps: 

• Redeployed content: Reusing content “as is,” but in different contexts or for different groups (e.g., making a course available to a wider group, or use content not only for training, but for an on-line “help” system”).
• Rearranged content: Reordering learning objects to form a new module (e.g., In a refresher course, moving much of initial course to a backup section).
• Repurposed content: Updating an existing module, or producing different “versions” of a learning module for different audiences.
• Rewrite: Borrow assets from different learning objects to create new learning objects for a substantially new module or course.

If you are evaluating a new LCMS (Learning Content Management System), or re-evaluating your existing system, it is vital that you understand these four channels of content reuse listed above.  Further, it is critical to understand how your organization creates content, and how it would prefer to distribute that content so that you can clearly evaluate which learning object model and platform best suits your organization’s needs.