The vision of the AADLC is to advance sustainable, immersive, distributed learning technology to enable global access to high-quality educational opportunities.

The Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab (AADLC) is located in Madison, WI. Founded in 2000 as an independent node in the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADLI), the AADLC is a nexus of learning technology research and development between academia, government, and industry. We have extensive partnerships with academic researchers and accredited institutions involved in learning technology research and development.

Our mission is to provide expertise, facilities, and administrative services to enable the research and development activities of our academic, K-12, government, and industry partners and to disseminate and provide services based on the knowledge gained through those activities.

These activities include:

• Testing, evaluating, and demonstrating use of ADL-compliant tools (e.g. SCORM)
• Development of interactive and immersive learning environments (i.e. courseware, games, and simulations)
• Building next generation learning delivery architecture (e.g. content repositories, game/simulation engines)
• Advocating the use of learning technology through teaching (e.g. conferences and online courses)

Administration: We provide financial administration, facilities, and project management for grant-funded and partner-funded research and development projects

Research and Development: We incubate learning technology research with AADLC staff and associated faculty from University of Wisconsin and other partner institutions

Development: We provide proof-of-concept development for faculty research projects and external partners in the area of learning content, games, standards (i.e. SCORM), and systems architecture (i.e. LMS/LCMS, repositories, registries)

Outreach and Services: We share our R&D activities through events, courses, and conferences and provide services, such as SCORM Certification, through the independent Wisconsin Testing Organization

In November, 1999, an initial team of representatives from Wisconsin Technical Community College system and the University of Wisconsin initially met with Paul Jesukiewicz and Dr. Tom Goodden from the Department of Defense ADL Co-Lab initiative. The AADLC was commissioned as an independent entity in 2000 under the strong leadership of Judy Brown. During the first years of its existence, the AADLC focused on both its technical mission to create high-quality distributed learning content and developing a robust network of academic institutions and organizations.

The AADLC has since expanded its network to more than 80 academic institutions and research organizations and completed more than 100 collaborative R&D projects. The focus of the AADLC remains sustainable learning technology development and a key partnership in 2004 with the Games, Learning, and Society (GLS) research group has expanded this mission to include development of highly immersive learning games and courseware.