These objects are stored in a database and briefly described using MetaData. MetaData is information about the learning object. MetaData can be the name of the author, the instructional approach used, or the learning objective it works to fulfill. RLO's allow designers to create content once, store the content in a database using MetaData and deliver the content in many different structures. RLO's can provide the underlying structure for Adaptive Learning Systems.
Designers can create and store content in a database and deliver it in many different ways.
An important element of RLO's is that they separate content from structure. XML is a technology that allows the separation of content from structure. XML allows developers to create their own tags using a preset number of characters. SGML has no predefined set of characters, this makes it very complex and difficult to use. For every technology that the content will be delivered through, an XSS is created.