From: Fred Beshears (fmb@socrates.berkeley.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 25 2002 - 09:09:42 PST
Greetings,
Some of you have responded to the Blackboard demo announcement with follow
up questions on the Instructional Management Systems project
(http://imsproject.org/).
Also, if you serve on one of the campus software architecture committees,
you may want to become familiar with the software standards that pertain to
higher education.
So, to answer those who have sent in questions here are five FAQ regarding
the IMS project:
1. What is the business case for IMS specifications
2. How do the different IMS specifications relate to
one another and what is their relationship with other
standards for educational technology
3. Can I see an overview of the different IMS working groups
4. Can I see an overview of other educational technology standards groups
5. What tools are based on IMS standards
I've appended responses below.
Fred Beshears
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1. Business Case for IMS
3. Overview of IMS Specifications
IMS: "On Course in a Stormy Sea"
http://imsproject.org/insideims/news-pv10.html
Recent overview paper on IMS given at Educause. It reviews the business
case for having IMS standards.
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1. Business Case for IMS
2. IMS Specifications and their relationship with other
standards for educational technology
4. Overview of Educational Technology Standards Groups
Q&A With Ed Walker
http://www.learningcircuits.org/nov2000/walker_index.html
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1. Business Case for IMS
Accessibility Issues for ELearning
http://imsproject.org/pressrelease/ims-ncamexcerpt.pdf
Another aspect of the business case for developing standards for learning
tools and online content.
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5. Tools based on IMS standards
Example of IMS tools:
Check out the member exchanges:
http://imsproject.org/adoption.html
In particular, you might be interested in:
WebCT's IMS Content Migration Tool
http://www.webct.com/service/ViewContent?contentID=4638848
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3. Overview of IMS Specifications
IMS Background
In 1997, IMS came into existence as a project within the National Learning
Infrastructure Initiative of EDUCAUSE. One of the founding members, Dr.
William (Bill) Graves, has written an article summarizing the motivations
driving the core group of individuals who, along with Dr. Graves, first
proposed and launched the project. While IMS got its start with a focus on
higher education, the specifications published to date as well as ongoing
projects address requirements in a wide range of learning contexts,
including of course K-12 schools and corporate and government training.
The scope for IMS specifications, broadly defined as "distributed
learning," includes both online and off-line settings, taking place
synchronously (real-time) or asynchronously. This means that the learning
contexts benefiting from IMS specifications include Internet-specific
environments (such as web-based course management systems) as well as
learning situations that involve off-line electronic resources (such as a
learner accessing learning resources on a CD-ROM). The learners may be in a
traditional educational environment (school classroom, university), in a
corporate or government training setting, or at home. For example, the IMS
Learning Resources Meta-data Specification (www.imsglobal.org/metadata),
benefits the learner looking for information with a meta-data aware search
tool both when the search is of web-based resources and when she or he is
searching through a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM encyclopedia in their computer at
home. Content developers who have implemented the IMS Learning Resources
Meta-data Specification will have made it much easier for the people doing
the search to find the resources they want in a much more efficient way,
since meta-data allows users to be much more specific in the search terms
they can specify.
The IMS Specification Development Process IMS has undertaken a broad scope
of work. We gather requirements through meetings, focus groups, and other
sources around the globe to establish the critical aspects of
interoperability in the learning markets. Based on these requirements, we
develop draft specifications outlining the way software must be built in
order to meet the requirements. In all cases, the specifications are being
developed to support international needs. Once the specifications are
finalized internally and have been proven tested through interoperability
trials that usually involve both Contributing Members and Developers
Network participants, the draft specification is formally approved by the
IMS Technical Board and then released to the public. IMS specifications are
made available free of charge to the general public, regardless of whether
or not they are members of IMS, once the technical board approves their
release. We also submit to standards accrediting groups in order to
contribute to the recognition and adoption of a world-wide base of
technical standards for distributed learning.
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4. Overview of Educational Technology Standards Groups
Educational Technology Standards Groups
Instructional Managment Systems Project
http://imsproject.org
An international group of software vendors, publishers, and university
groups working to build specifications for e-learning systems. The IMS
started as an EDUCAUSE initiative, but has now become a separate non-profit
organization. The focus here is to develop a set of XML tags that can be
used to define the interfaces between major components of an e-learning
environment, including learning profiles.
Center for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards (CETIS)
http://www.cetis.ac.uk/
IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (IEEE LTSC)
http://ltsc.ieee.org/
This organization will actually accredit the standards for the U.S. that
emerge from the other groups.
Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL)
http://www.adlnet.org/
This is a federal government group that is also working on standards issues
(e.g. for the military). ADL developed the Sharable Courseware Object
Reference Model (SCORM).
Alliance of Remote Instructional Authoring and
Distribution Networks for Europe (ARIADNE).
http://ariadne.unil.ch/
An industry association focusing on European e-learning standards issues.
Airline Industry CBT Committee (AICC)
http://www.aicc.org/
The AICC creates e-learning standards for the airline industry. It's focus
is on standards for online training (e.g. tests, lessons, modules).
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4. Overview of Educational Technology Standards Groups
The IMS Project's Place in the Standards Landscape (1998)
INFORMATION CONTACT:
Denis Newman
Former Director of Market Development
Many people have asked about how IMS relates to all the standards
efforts that seem to have suddenly sprung up around educational
technology. This essay is intended to clarify whats happening and to
show that there is considerable consistency and consensus in the
marketplace.
IMS is developing technical specifications that will turn into
standards. There are two ways for arriving at a standard: "industry" and
"formal". "Industry" or sometimes, "de facto", standards are technical
specifications that are widely used in the industry and are stable
enough that products can be built and conform to them. Often one company
sets the standard and others follow. "Formal", or official, (or
sometimes, "de jure") standards are ones that have been blessed by an
accredited standards body like the International Organization for
Standardization (also known as ISO).
IMS is developing specifications with widespread industry acceptance (an
industry standard), while simultaneously pursuing the official
standardization process (a formal standard). IMS is submitting its
specifications to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
an accredited standards group in the information technology industry.
For any specification (or standard), it is important to know whether
products conform to it. IMS is working with the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (part of the US Department of Commerce) to
create conformance tests based on these specifications. NIST is also
advising IMS on establishing a conformance testing process for
commercial products. As these processes are put into operation, IMS will
offer an "IMS-OK!" logo that conforming products may display. Within the
next 18 months, an organization will be established to oversee the
process of maintaining the IMS specifications and extending them when
necessary as well as certifying conformance testing.
IMS is working formally and informally with many organizations that are
also developing technical specifications and establishing standards. The
following relationships are particularly significant:
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IMS is submitting its
specifications to IEEE as the first step in establishing a certified
international standard. IEEE provides a forum for building consensus and
reconciling or "harmonizing" proposals from different groups working on
the same problem. IEEE also provides a process for interpreting
standards once they are published (a function similar to the court
system). Ultimately, specifications that have been approved by IEEE go
through more rigorous process to become ANSI or ISO standards: building
international consensus and recognition.
Dublin Core. This group has established a widely accepted technical
specification for meta-data. Since their core meta-data elements are
becoming an industry standard, the IMS project has built on top of the
Dublin Core by defining extensions that are appropriate specifically for
educational and training materials.
World Wide Web Consortium. W3C establishes specifications for the web.
It is responsible for specifications such as HTML, XML, and RDF. It is
not accredited but its specifications constitute industry standards. W3C
creates specifications at a lower level than IMS. For example, IMS uses
XML as a language for representing meta-data, profiles and other
structured information.
Aviation Industry CBT Committee. AICC develops technical specifications
for an industry standard within the aviation training community. Like
IMS, the AICC submits its specifications to IEEE. To a large extent,
AICC and IMS are complementary and where they overlap, IMS takes a more
general approach. AICC applies narrowly to training courseware and its
management and defines one of many ways that content can be managed
within an IMS-conforming system. IMS's specification applies as well to
higher education, K-12 learning, performance support, and aspects of
knowledge management. IMS also addresses security and the integration of
instructional management into the enterprise, providing specifications
for the connections to student record systems, student profiles,
electronic commerce and libraries. IMS and AICC are working together
under a memorandum of understanding to assure that their approaches are
consistent. IMS is implementing an adapter that will assure that content
conforming to the AICC specification will operate on a server conforming
to the IMS specification (however, IMS-conforming content will not
necessarily run on an AICC-conforming server).
Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative. ADL is a program of the US
Department of Defense and White House to develop guidelines needed for
large-scale development and implementation of efficient and effective
distributed learning. It is a forum which provides requirements input
into the IMS specification process. ADL uses IMS specifications.
ARIADNE. This is a project of the European Union that has developed a
meta-data specification similar to IMS. ARIADNE has also submitted its
specification to IEEE and is working in that forum, as part of a
memorandum of understanding with IMS, to harmonize the two approaches.
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4. Overview of Educational Technology Standards Groups
The Storm about SCORM: What's It All About?
What is the SCORM? Why is it important? Why are commercial educational
platforms starting to release press releases about their compliance to it???
It all started in 1997, when the U.S. Department of Defense and the White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy launched the Advanced
Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative. Supported by collaboration with the
Instructional Management Systems (IMS), the ADL project main objective was
to develop an open architecture for online learning, using current and
emerging technologies. "The purpose of the ADL initiative is to ensure
access to high-quality education and training materials that can be
tailored to individual learner needs and made available whenever and
wherever they are required. This initiative is designed to accelerate
large-scale development of dynamic and cost-effective learning software and
to stimulate an efficient market for these products in order to meet the
education and training needs of the military and the nation's workforce in
the 21st century. It will do this through the development of a common
technical framework for computer and net-based learning that will foster
the creation of reusable learning content as 'instructional objects.'"
(www.adlnet.org)
Fast forward three years. Concurrent with the Interservice/Industry
Training, Simulation and Education Conference in Orlando, Florida, the ADL
held "Plugfest 3" this November 27-30. Like Plugfests 1 and 2 before it,
Plugfest 3 focused on the "evolving functionality and increasing momentum
of the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) set of
specifications." Pursuant to this focus, the ADL sought to "push the
envelope" of the SCORM by encouraging top-notch implementations of learning
content...
So what is the Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model? How does it work?
The ADL describes the SCORM as
- A reference model that defines a Web-based
learning "content model"
- A set of interrelated technical specifications
designed to meet the Department of Defense's
high level "-ilities"
- A process to knit together disparate groups and interests
- A bridge from general emerging technologies to
commercial implementations
- An evolving document to collect all the "bits and pieces"
in one place
In other words, just like Rich Text Format (RTF) was designed as an open
format for interchanging documents across word processing packages (and
even operating systems), the SCORM is an attempt to standardize learning
content so that it is understood across many Web-based learning systems. It
is a standard which defines technical specifications for the creation and
deployment of re-usable learning content. The creation of such a became a
necessity in 1998, when it became apparent that "several organizations were
developing a variety of draft standards, each of which affect different
aspects of Web-based learning systems. These efforts, however, lacked a
common framework. So, ADL developed the SCORM, incorporating many of these
emerging standards into one content model." (www.adlnet.org)
By partnering with the Federal government, private-sector technology
suppliers, and the broader education and training community, the ADL has
been able to formulate these voluntary guidelines designed to meet common
needs. By making learning software accessible, interoperable, durable,
reusable, adaptable and affordable, the ADL initiative will ensure that
academic, business, and government users of learning software gain the best
possible value from the materials they purchase. Accordingly, these users
will be able to find and move entire courses; vendors will get support for
SCORM-compliant commercial off the shelf products; and, adaptive learning
systems will be developed that can assemble content to meet the learner's
needs 'on the fly.'
According to the ADL, "studies have shown that the use of ADL
technology-based instruction reduces cost of instruction by 30—60%; reduces
time of instruction by 20—40%; increases effectiveness of instruction by
30%; increases student knowledge and performance by 10—30%; and improves
organization efficiency and productivity. ADL also improves costs and
efficiencies by distributing instructional components inexpensively to
physically remote locations and simulating expensive devices for both
operator and maintenance training. The success of the initiative will be
measured by the extent to which: (1) consumers are able to purchase
high-quality learning software less expensively than they do today; (2) the
size of the learning software market increases; and (3) producers of
learning software are able to achieve a higher return on their
investments." (www.adlnet.org)
The SCORM currently consists of three main sections:
- an XML-based specification for representing course
structures (so courses can be moved from one server
or learning management system, or LMS, to another)
- a set of specifications relating to the run-time
environment, including an application programming
interface, or API, content-to-LMS data model, and
a content launch specification; and
- a specification for creating meta-data records for
courses, content, and raw media elements.
A sample LMS can be downloaded free of charge and may be used without
restriction. SCORM conformance test software is available online and
includes the ability to test content, LMSs, and more. Any content
developer, program manager, or vendor may use it to self-test their
products and content for SCORM compliance.
For more information about the LMS and SCORM, please refer to the ADL site.
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