Learning Technology Standards A Layperson's Guide to Who s Who and What s What Updated November 25, 2002 by Jonathan Dean Oracle iLearning Product Management

The Standards Conundrum There are many competing learning technology standards groups! – Fortunately, all these groups talk to one another and are in cooperation more than competition – This presentation will briefly cover who s who There are many standards-based specifications (with too many acronyms)! – Fortunately, these can be broken in to a few broad categories: tracking, course interchange, and other – Often, what may appear as different standards are, in fact, the same standard in disguise – This presentation will briefly cover what s what

IMS IEEE SCORM Who s Who The Aviation Industry CBT Committee has been around since 1988 and has a set of specifications adopted well beyond the aviation industry. The IEEE is the only organization that can publish eLearning-related standards. IMS is a global consortium supported by members fees. (Oracle is a Contributing Member with voting rights.) ADL is sponsored by the Dept. of Defense. Since government contracts will be required to conform, they carry a lot of weight with vendors.

What s What – The Categories Tracking – How can learner performance data be passed between learning content and a Learning Management System? Course Interchange – How can catalog information about a course and its internal structure be specified? (Metadata) – How can the files that make up a course be sent from system to system? (Packaging) Other – How can tests and questions be passed from system to system? – How can user and organizational data move between an HRMS and an LMS?

What s What – The Specifications Next we will: Walk through the standards-based specifications published by each group in each category – Just the highlights, many details will be glossed over See several cases where one group has adopted another group s specifications as its own Find out which standards-based specifications Oracle iLearning has implemented – At a high level, not concerned w/ specific versions

Interchange Other Course Structure IMS IEEE SCORM Tracking AICC has a set of text files (pre-XML) that describe courses and their files.

Interchange Other Course Structure IMS IEEE SCORM Tracking The two-type content model underlying this has been adopted by all other standards: Organization Resource IMS Topic Group Topic Oracle RCO AggregationBlock Sharable Courseware Object (SCO) Assignable Unit (AU) SCORMAICC

Interchange Other Course Structure IMS IEEE SCORM File HACP JS CMI Tracking AICC CMI offers 3 different ways for content to communicate with an LMS: Files – for legacy LAN-based systems HACP – uses HTTP over the web JavaScript API – easy for HTML-based content to implement

An Aside for Acronym Geeks H = HTTP Based = Hypertext Transfer Protocol Based A = AICC = Aviation Industry CBT Committee = Aviation Industry Computer Based Training Committee C = CMI = Computer Managed Instruction P = Protocol All together now: Hypertext Transfer Protocol Based Aviation Industry Computer Based Training Committee Computer Managed Instruction Protocol

Interchange Other Course Structure IMS IEEE SCORM Metadata File HACP JS CMI Tracking IEEE has created a learning object metadata standard (LOM) that specifies what the data elements are to describe a course. CMI IEEE has adopted the AICC CMI tracking data and supports both a JavaScript and HTTP binding.

Interchange Other QTI Metadata Packaging QTI = Question & Test Interoperability Enterprise withdrawn Course Structure IMS IEEE SCORM Metadata File HACP JS CMI Tracking The IMS proposal for tracking drew criticism from vendors for being too hard to implement. IMS has adopted the metadata standard from IEEE and added a packaging spec for how files get transferred. The Enterprise spec deals with import and export of user data. CMI

Interchange Other QTI Metadata Packaging Enterprise withdrawn Course Structure IMS IEEE SCORM Metadata File HACP JS CMI Tracking ADL primarily chooses which of the existing specifications are combined to created the S harable C ontent O bject R eference M odel. This model is to be followed for all government contracts. CMI

Interchange Other QTI Metadata Packaging Enterprise withdrawn Course Structure IMS IEEE SCORM Metadata File HACP JS CMI Metadata Packaging Tracking CMI JavaScript CMI adopted from AICC Metadata and packaging from IMS Note: SCORM 1.1 had its own packaging. SCORM 1.2 uses IMS packaging.

Interchange Other QTI Metadata Packaging Enterprise IMS SCORM JS CMI Metadata Packaging Tracking JS CMI Metadata Packaging QTI Enterprise Standards in Oracle iLearning Oracle iLearning implements SCORM and IMS standards, including: JavaScript CMI API, SCORM & IMS metadata and packaging, and the IMS Enterprise and QTI specifications.

A Caution about Versions These standards-based specifications have gone through multiple versions Versions are often not compatible, either forward or backward This presentation provides no information about which versions are and are not implemented by Oracle iLearning When responding to an RFP or talking to customers or partners do not assume that iLearning implements a particular version of a particular specification. Check which versions are implemented by iLearning before answering any questions about this

For more info on standards: IMS IEEE SCORM ltsc.ieee.org ilearnweb.us.oracle.com