the advanced distributed learning (adl) initiative is a us government program that conducts research and development on distributed learning and coordinates related efforts broadly across public and private organizations. adl reports to the deputy assistant secretary of defense for force education and training in the us department of defense (dod). although it is a dod program, adl serves the entire us federal government, operates a global partnership network including international defense ministries and us-based academic partners, and collaborates closely with industry and academia. adl advises the dod and us government on emerging learning technologies, best practices for improving learning effectiveness and efficiency, and methods for enhancing interoperability. notable adl contributions to distributed learning include the sharable content object reference model (scorm), experience api (xapi), and the dod instruction 1322.26.