IMS Specification Adoption in Canada

Participation in Specification/Standardization Activities EduSpecs: Provide an opportunity for Canada to influence the creation of common specifications and standards, and thereby enable sales of Canadian online learning materials around the world. Standards Council of Canada

Participation in Specification/Standardization Activities Participating membership in: –IMS: Accessibility, Learning Design, etc. –ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36: Information Technology for Learning Education and Training Sponsored membership in: –IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee

Featured Implementers Learn Alberta.ca eduSource CanCore A sample of the community in Canada using IMS specifications

LearnAlberta.ca portal "allow efficient repurposing of learning objects to support curriculum development and management.“ -Alberta Learning

LearnAlberta.ca portal/repository audience-specific: students, teachers, parents, administrators, content providers, curriculum developers and other education stakeholders The learning objects will support Alberta Programs of Study, i.e. curriculum outcomes. Designed to support lifelong learning in Alberta

Content Packaging "defines a standardized set of structures that can be used to exchange content" Proof of concept implementation Makes use of the "organizations" section of the manifest: "describing zero, one, or multiple organizations of the content within a manifest"

Content Packaging

Done in conjunction with license agreement with National Geographic Soc. Currently under development; available Fall 2003

Done in conjunction with license agreement with National Geographic Society

careo.org Magee & Norman, Dublin Core 2002, "Building Digital Books…"

CA*Net 4 Connected Primary Partners NewMIC SFU Surrey Netera Athabasca Univ. Univ. of Waterloo Technologies Cogigraph Téléuniversité du Québec Tele Education NB

Goals: Create a testbed of linked and interoperable learning object repositories across Canada Provide a forum for the ongoing development of the associated tools, systems, protocols and practices that will support such an infrastructure

Goals: Develop and promote national and international standards Be fully bilingual Develop a community of practice Be accessible to all Canadians

Work Package Teams Repository Content Development - Package Managers: NBDEN and NewMIC Foundation - Key Participating Partners: University of Waterloo; Cogigraph (Tele- universite) Digital Rights Management - Package Managers: NBDEN with NRC Testing and Evaluation - Package Managers: Netera and Cogigraph (Tele- universite) Metadata Development - Package Managers: Athabasca University and NBDEN - Key Participating Partners: Cogigraph (Tele-universite)

Work Package Teams Software Development - Package Manager: Cogigraph (Tele-universite ) Key Participating Partners: Athabasca University; NBDEN; NewMIC Foundation; Learning Commons, University of Calgary (in association with Netera) Hardware Integration - Package Managers: Netera and NewMIC Foundation Business and Management Models - Package Manager: Netera Key Participating Partners: NBDEN; Cogigraph (Tele-universite; University of Waterloo Community Building - Package Manager: University of Waterloo Key Participating Partner: Netera Project Management, Co-ordination and Communications Package Manager: Netera

Specifications: Digital Repositories Interoperability: –OAI Metadata harvesting (Athabasca University as lead) – Gateways to other recommended protocols, including Z39.50 Learning Design for resource description and structure Content packaging

design by Gilbert Paquette, Technologies Cogigraph (Tele-universite)

ECL: eduSource Communication Protocol "a meta-protocol to prevent code duplication for protocol access and to simplify maintenance when protocols evolve" "built inside a SOAP XML envelop on top of HTTP to provide communication between protocols such as OAI and Z39.50"

Goals: eduSource Communication Protocol design by Mike Mattson, Learning Commons, University of Calgary

Gateway Architecture JXTA P2P OAI Harvesting Univ. of IMS DRI SOAP & XQUERY Z39.50 ECL

CanCore Learning Object Metadata Application Profile Norm Friesen

CanCore Application profile: "customization of a standard to meet the needs particular communities of implementers with common applications requirements." Subset of LOM elements: 77 down to 56; 39 are active: ALL COVERED Guidelines document: best practice recommendations, 175 pp.

CanCore E-learning specifications & standards communities are largely concerned with syntax and technical interoperation Effective metadata requires semantic specification and consensus Incorporate best practice from library and heritage communities Incorporate common practice from implemenations No other body is doing this across e-learning projects

CanCore LOM Information Model: appx. 80 elements, little interpre- tation Complexity decreases Specificity and Interoperability increases Implementation CanCore

CanCore: what LOM metadata is NOT Is not information to be directly exposed to end-users Is not for version or rights management Is not a content model

Clarification CanCore Guidelines

Clarification Best Practice Recommendations CanCore Guidelines

Clarification Best Practice Recommendations CanCore Guidelines Survey of use

Vocabulary Definitions Best Practice Recommendations CanCore Guidelines Survey of use Clarification

Vocabulary Definitions Best Practice Recommendations CanCore Guidelines Survey of use Technical Implementation Notes Clarification

Guidelines revisions EduSource: primary partners –AU, Netera Alliance, Téléuniversité du Québec, University of Waterloo, New Media Innovation Centre, TeleEducation New Brunswick. Alberta Learning Centre recherche LICEF Larger repository community: –Eisenhower National Clearinghouse –CETIS; SESDL –ARIADNE –National Library Your input is welcome !

Element Subsets Different elements are important in different contexts Need to see what consensus arises around element implementation Many element values set through system development or system customization

Patterns of use in application profiles Adapted from CETIS Some consistency, some divergence Legend Required/Recommended Optional/Conditional Excluded/Not Supported

Sponsors CANARIE Industry Canada Netera Alberta Learning