originally: http://www.oclc.org/research/events/elearning/members/meachen.htm
I have served as CIO for the University of Wisconsin System since June 1997. My responsibilities include System-wide library automation, eLearning systems, administrative systems, wide area networking, and system-wide technology planning. Before joining UW System Administration I served as CIO for UW-Parkside. I came to Parkside as the library director. I served as president of the Illinois Library Computer System Organization for three years. I have a library degree from the University of Chicago and a PhD in history and literature from Emory University.
More to the point for this taskforce, I have chair of the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab initiative, a partnership between Department of Defense, Department of Labor and the University of Wisconsin to develop a reference model for the numerous standards being produced in the distributed learning marketplace. The Academic ADL Co-Lab is involved in partnering with over 40 universities and community colleges to examine the application of standards to distributed learning. The Academic ADL Co-Lab is also doing SCORM compliance testing for LMS, CMS and other learning platforms. We are currently building modules that will provide practical tests for Sharable Content Object use in course management system and in learning repositories. We have received a three year FIPSE grant, for which I am the PI, and a one year pilot grant with NSF for this purpose.
The University of Wisconsin System is a partner with Merlot, with OKI, and is experimenting with the DSpace project at MIT. We have signed a license agreement with Desire2Learn for a learning platform which will be used by all institutions in the UW System. D2L will include a content repository product, and implementation will include library automation managers.