May 10, 2002 Les Smith, SCT Standards in Distance Education S

Overview Learning Mgt. Standards process What are all these acronyms? SIF AICC ADL-SCORM IEEE-LTSC subgroup IMS Enterprise Specification How does SCT use these specifications? Helpful url’s Q & A

Stakeholders in Standards Labs, Test-beds Domain Consortia Standards Bodies Learning Providers Technology Vendors Researchers Content Providers Government Agencies STANDARDS

Standards Evolve Requirements and Technology Test and Use Define Refine Standard Technology

What is SIF? The SIF is not a product, but an industry initiative to develop a technical blueprint for K-12 software that will enable diverse applications to interact and share data

SIF interoperable applications Support real-time and batch data exchange Creates a platform-neutral wire HTTPS default transport protocol XML messages

SIF Working Groups Data Analysis & Reporting Exceptionalities Food Services Grade Book Human Resources & Financial Management Instructional Management Infrastructure Library Automation Student Information Services Transportation and Geographic Information

What is the AICC ? The Aviation Industry CBT (Computer-Based Training) Committee (AICC) is an international association of technology-based training professionals. Objectives: 1. Assist airplane operators in development of guidelines which promote the economic and effective implementation of computer-based training (CBT). 2. Develop guidelines to enable interoperability.

What is ADL? The Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative started by the U.S. Department of Defense and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Its goals are to accelerate standardization within the online-learning industry in order to promote more cost effective training for the government/military and the national work force.

What is SCORM? The Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) defines a Web-based learning "Content Aggregation Model" and "Run-Time Environment" for learning objects. The SCORM is a collection of specifications adapted from multiple sources to provide a comprehensive suite of e-learning capabilities that enable interoperability, accessibility and reuse of Web-based learning content.

IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC) Mission of IEEE/ LTSC Develop technical standards, Recommended Practices, and Guides for software and technologies for computer implementations of education and training components and systems.

Relevant IEEE Standards Information Technology Learning Technology (P1484) Learning Technology Public-Key Cryptography (P1363) Public-Key Cryptography Software Engineering Standards

What is IMS? The IMS (Instructional Management System) project is open consortium of industry and education members who are developing a framework for distributed computer-based learning. The IMS project is in the process of defining standards for learning objects and Instruction Management Systems. These standards include metadata for cataloging and retrieval and an object model for dynamic communication.

IMS Global Learning Consortium The IMS Global Learning Consortium is a specification authoring organization comprised of: Publishers Digital content vendors Government agencies Universities Training organizations and other interested parties. IMS specifications are intended to evolve into globally adopted open standards for software vendors and content authors. All IMS specifications are open and are realized in eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to facilitate unrestricted understanding and adoption.

IMS Specifications The IMS Learning Resources Meta-data Specifications (released August 20, 1999) create a uniform way for describing learning resources so that they can be more easily discovered, using meta-data aware search tools that reflect the unique needs of users in learning situations. The IMS Enterprise Specification (released November 3, 1999) is aimed at administrative applications and services that need to share data about learners, courses, enrollment, and performance across platforms, operating systems, and transport protocols. The IMS Content & Packaging Specification (released May 2000) makes it easier to share reusable content objects in a variety of learning systems.

IMS Specifications The IMS Question & Test Specification (released May 2000) enables the exchange of test, assessment, and results data between learning systems, as well as content authors, content libraries and collections. The IMS Learner Profiles Specification (released March 2001) looks at ways to organize learner information so that learning systems can be more responsive to the specific needs of each user.

IMS Specifications (in progress) The Learning Design group is looking to enable the definition and sharing of learning scenarios and interactions; the Digital Repositories group will facilitate the interoperability across repositories within the e-learning domain and between e-learning and other domains Accessibility group will publish guidelines and adapt specifications for use in supporting disabled and disadvantaged learners.

IMS : World-Wide Participation ADL Co-Lab Apple Artesia Technologies BECTA Blackboard Boeing Campus Pipeline Centra Software CIC Cisco Systems Click 2 Learn Calif. State Universities Cambridge University Can Studios CMU DEST Digital Learning Interactive Digitalthink Oracle OU Netherlands PeopleSoft R5 Vision Saba Software SCT SUFI Sun Texas Instruments THINQ Thomson Learning UFI UC - Berkeley University of Michigan University of Wisconsin US Department of Labor Virginia Tech WebCT Docent Educational Testing Service EDUCAUSE Eduprise Fretwell-Downing Group GIUNTI Interactive Labs IBM Corporation Industry Canada JISC Lrng & Tchng Scotland LON LUVIT Miami-Dade Community College Microsoft MIT Odile Jacob Multimedia 125 Devel. Net members

WebCT LMS 3rd Part Application (Human Resource) SCT Banner SCT Plus Campus Pipeline (CP) Enterprise XML Question Mark-Perception 3rd Party Test & Question Authoring Tool Question & Test XML Content & Management XML Legend IMS Conceptual Overview Content Developers

IMS Enterprise Specification XML Data Exchanged Users Terms Course Sections Student Enrollments Faculty Teaching Assignments Student Grades

SCT Use of IMS Enterprise Spec America’s Learning Exchange SCT produces an XML extract file of Course Catalog data to the U.S. Department of Labor to support the American’s Learning Exchange (ALX project) WebCT Campus Edition SCT produces XML extract files and xml event messages (for real-time transmission) to synchronize data with the WebCT 3.5 Campus Edition. WebCT produces XML event message which are sent to the SCT administrative system to post grades

Helpful url’s Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative - ( Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative IMS Project – IMS Project ( Learning Standards Technology Committee (

Questions? S