Distributed Learning and New Learning Communities ARL Conference, Eugene 1998

Educom's National Learning Infrastructure Initiative and the IMS project Mark Resmer, ARL Conference, May

 An EDUCOM initiative  Founded in 1994  National = systemic  Learning = student- centered environments  Infrastructure = Internet + new applications What is the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative?

Basic premise of the NLII  Improve quality  Increase access  Contain costs How do we balance/reconcile these issues? How can technology help to accomplish this? QualityAccess Cost

Collaborative efforts:  Creating the climate – Institutional leaders – Public policy makers  Creating the framework – IMS project  Creating the products – Publishers – Technology companies – Universities The NLII partnership strategy

Education members CSU, Collegis Research Institute, UNC, Michigan, Miami Dade, CIC (“Big Ten”), Buena Vista University, George Mason University, JISC, UC Commercial/government members Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Sun, International Thomson Publishing, Collegis, Farance Inc., KPMG, NIST, Department of Defense, Unisys, Oracle, ETS, Simon and Schuster, AT&T, Asymetrix IMS: the primary NLII partnership Parts of the prototype are being developed by Blackboard LLC

Project creates open specifications and prototype Members create products Instructional Management Systems project overview  Goal: develop an open architecture for on-line learning  Deliverables: create freely distributable specifications and software that enables the development, use, and management of Internet- based learning environments  Model: HTTP + Mosaic de facto standard, led to explosion of content, new markets

Lessons from the IMS - successful partnership characteristics  Identify mutual goals - not handouts  Be inclusive - not exclusive (add competitors)  Create common value space, not products  Start small and grow - not grandiose and fail  Run like a business - not like a consortium  Hire professionals - don’t rely on volunteerism  Make all partners invest - no free rides

IMS organizational models Learning/ Teaching Coordinating/ Providing Advising Assessing Accessing Browsing Developing Interacting Distributing Transacting Packaging Administering Operating Enrolling Certifying Indexing LT CD

IMS interchanges L P T C Peer-to-Peer Interchange

Off Campus Student CD On campus Student Teacher IMS Mgmt System The IMS environment Back office Collaboration Tools Authoring Tools Learning Resources Libraries

IMS technical overview  Scope of Specification – Meta-data – Profiles – Content – Management (Content, Course, Collaboration) – External Services » Financial » Commerce » Student records » Library

IMS meta-data specification  Built on top of XML/RDF  Incorporates Dublin Core  Initial basic set of fields/values  Tiered repository – Allows for dynamic management

Basic IMS meta-data fields

IMS meta-data extensibility IMS CORE METADATA Title: Author: Learning Level: Keywords: and more…. AVIATION EXTENSIONS Airframe type: …. MATH EXTENSIONS Theorem: ….

IMS profile specification  Educational records “Wallet”  Mobile  Contains – Personal information – Performance information – Portfolio – Preferences

Commerce and library interfaces  Commerce interface: provides vehicles for innovative tracking of IP and access info – Superdistribution model - Brad Cox – Enables potential new models for fair use, sampling etc. – Role based access control  Library interface: Bridges between learning services and information access services  Library interface still needs to be defined – Possible CNI project? – ARL interest?

Convergence  Aviation Industry CBT Consortium (AICC)  Dublin Core  LOMG  ADL  IEEE  ARIADNE  GEM

Specs, Code, and Market Development IMS Members, Testbed, Developers Network, Public IMS work process IMS Staff (14 FTE) IMS Members Funding and requirements Permanent Stds. body Specs

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