"These standards are like railway gauge sizes. If each state and territory uses different sized gauges, it makes it extremely difficult to travel around Australia on the one train.

"The same is true with e-learning resource standards. If we have different development standards around Australia we limit our chances of having an integrated e-learning infrastructure."

Spark said a national training system will allow a teacher or trainer in the state of Tasmania to recommend a fantastic e-learning resource which suits the needs of their students and be confident they will be able to access and use it despite the fact it is developed in Western Australia.

"We expect teachers to be able to search from their desktop for resources from across Australia and avoid the duplication of effort which results if resources have to be developed from scratch to fit local platforms," he said.

The standards will allow e-learning resources to work across multiple electronic platforms as well as meet international standards.