Standards for interoperability are increasingly important asplatforms, applications, systems, and technologies for learning and educationproliferate. Many readers of this magazine are already familiar with SCORM and theExperience API (xAPI), learning management systems (LMSs), and Learning RecordStores (LRSs) because of the attention that government and corporateorganizations have given them.
But what about the education field? The challenges forcommunicating information and for application compatibility become even greaterthere as educators strive to comply with national and state initiatives, suchas (in the United States) Race to the Top and Common Core.
The IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS GLC) is an international organization that develops openstandards to meet these challenges. In this article, I offer a high-leveloverview of the group: a brief history and statement of its mission, its majorstandards, and a glimpse of where it is headed. The intent is to follow up inlater articles with more in-depth looks at the major initiatives of IMS GLC.
History and mission
The IMS GLC began in 1995 as an EDUCAUSE project, part ofthe National Learning Infrastructure Initiative. In 1997, it became theInstructional Management Systems project, with a focus on higher education.Over time, the scope of IMS has grown to address the interoperability needs ofK-12 education and corporate and government training.
According to its formal profile statement, “The IMSGlobal Learning Consortium (IMS GLC) is a global, nonprofit, memberorganization that strives to enable the growth and impact of learningtechnology in the education and corporate sectors worldwide.” Membership in IMSGLC is growing and currently includes over 190 organizations, includinglearning technology product suppliers and publishers, institutions of trainingand learning, and government and professional consortia. Nearly half (47percent) of the member organizations have headquarters outside the UnitedStates.
Standards and certification
IMS GLC at this time has developed and supports 50standards, covering issues that include meta-data, contentpackaging, enterprise services, competencies, access for all, ePortfolio,learner information, resource list, sharable state-persistence, vocabularydefinition, and learning design. Each standard or protocol is public andavailable to any organization or institution wishing to adopt it orincorporate it into products.
As of October 2013, over 200 products in the marketplacehave IMS conformance certification. Conformance certification is not arequirement for any product, however, IMS encourages its members to obtain andmaintain IMS certification for their products, from learning management systemsto clicker tools. There are actually more products available that haveincorporated various IMS standards but have not been through certification.
Five of the 50 standards are widely adopted. Here is asummary of these five:
The Learning Tools Interoperability Standard (LTI) is the most widely adopted and used. LTIcovers the integration of digital applications, content, tools, and educationalapps into learning management systems. This addresses exchange and easytransfer of grades and information between the LMS and the educationalapplication, and the content used for teaching and learning. LTI is the mostwidely adopted standard in higher education, and is becoming more widely adoptedin K-12 education.
Common Cartridge isall about the exchange of digital content. Many organizations and institutionsmay be using multiple learning management systems, learning platforms, andtools. If an organization writes content in a particular application and thecontent conforms to the Common Cartridge standard, the organization can easilyexchange or move that data between systems, platforms, and tools. It’s almostlike “write once, publish multiple places.”
The Learning Information Services (LIS) provides integration between the back-officestudent information system (ERP) and the LMS. This covers passing of grades, andinformation about the student between the LMS and the ERP system or studentinformation system. Suppliers that are adopting the LIS standard are primarilythose in higher education. IMS GLC is just starting to see K-12 LMSs beginningto show interest in adopting the LIS standard for applications. In addition,the big players in higher education, such as Oracle, Ellucian, and Jenzabar arethe primary companies that are adopting and developing it.
The last two of the five widely adopted standards are theones with the most active involvement of the K-12 school districts: the Question and Test Interoperability(QTI) and the Accessible Portable Item Protocol (APIP). Those two standards focus on assessment. K-12 educationhas driven the development of those two specifications in an effort to movefrom paper assessment to digital assessment, as required for the Race to the Top initiative and the Common Core initiative at the state level.
As a result of Race to the Top and Common Core, evolvingpersonalized learning for K-12 students has become a concern of a very largecontingent within IMS membership: state education systems, school districts, andassessment providers. However, more higher-education institutions are beginningto have an interest in the QTI and APIP standards, where in the past they’vebeen more focused on LIS, LTI, and Common Cartridge. Interest in QTI and APIPstandards in higher education is the result of the need for access to learneranalytics around digital content: what content is a student reading, accessing,and utilizing. This will support educators knowing what is working and whatsupport to provide that will help students succeed, and will personalizelearning for students in higher education.
Other IMS GLC initiatives
There are several IMS GLC initiatives that will be ofinterest to educators and trainers across organizations in all segments,including government, corporate, and non-profit. These may be the subject ofmore in-depth articles in Learning Solutions Magazine in 2014, but for now,here are some links to overviews and videos about them on the IMS Global website.
The IMS Open Innovation Revolution
The Open Innovation Revolution is an effort by IMS GLC to develop and bring to market a set of open standards that will make educational applications,content, and data “plug and play.” This will resolve many of the issuesinvolved in adopting new technology, and make it possible for teachers to focuson teaching. The Open Revolution is intended to make for greater efficiency,effectiveness, and innovation across all levels of education, from kindergartento post-graduate.
The I3LC K-12 initiative
The I3LC K-12initiative aims to support “continuous instructional improvement, innovation,and personalized education.” This initiative is intended to provide four mainbenefits:
- Standards and competency focused curriculum
- Actionable data across tools from multiple suppliers
- Easily utilized remediation resources
- Personalized learning
Connected Learning Innovation Challenge
This challenge may bethe most intriguing of all. The purpose is to foster a “connected-learningmindset” that establishes connected IT architectures and policies andencourages connected-learning applications, platforms, and development tools.Think IT integration of applications in a day, “one-click” combination of toolsinto a course, and unrestricted flow of analytics data between learningresources and apps.
Summary
Highereducation leads research and development in learning and learning technologies,but support is growing in K-12 education. Corporate and government training organizationsare also continually engaged in the creation of new approaches to learning andperformance support. The IMS GLC board of directors states that it is committedto supporting lifelong learning across all segments.
The work that IMS GLCand its members are doing is critically important because it breaks down siloswithin education and between educators and learning technology productsuppliers and publishers. By defining standards for interoperability, IMS GLCis also making it possible for educators to innovate solutions that supportlearning. This in turn provides examples and applications that are usable inmany learning contexts.
