1. Are Education Technology Interoperability Standards Creating the Future? Rob Abel, Ed.D. IMS Global Learning Consortium http://www.imsglobal.org/ rabel@imsglobal.org Twitter: #LearningImpact

2. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 2 Latest IMS Initiative: Open Educational Resources in the Cloud via Wave OER-Cloud-Wave also known as:

3. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 3 News Alert: 2006!

4. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 4 Standards consortia like IMS with a membership model are a thing of the past!

5. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 5 If it wasnt for SCORM, there would be no need for IMS!

6. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 6 Well, whatever you do you better call it SCORM if you want people to like it!

7. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 7 Yeah, Ive been involved in IMS and helped develop specification xxx, that stuff will never work!

8. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 8 You will never be able to get dominant suppliers to implement open standards!

9. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 9 Ed Walker is the same age as you Rob, all that grey hair is just a result of all the stress of IMS!

10. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 10 1995-6 1999-2000 2005-7 The Hype Cycle for Learning Tech Standards? ?

11. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 11

12. Page 12 Are Education Technology Interoperability Standards Creating the Future?

13. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 13 Agenda Is IMS work innovative? The challenge of interoperability standards adoption in the education segments What we think we might have learned in the last 6 years Where do we go from here?

14. Page 14 Definition of Innovation

15. Page 15

16. Page 16

17. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 17 IMS Mission Statement The mission of the IMS Global Learning Consortium is to advance technology that can affordably scale and improve educational participation and attainment

18. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 18 IMS GLC Mirrors The Market Ecosystem Education Institutions, Districts, Systems Suppliers Government Organizations Set standards to ensure progress Create and/or adhere to standards to enable market efficiency and opportunity Acquire products adhering to standards to achieve strategic goals R&D Education Institutions Research & development on standards & interoperability Collaboration Across Stakeholders

19. Page 19 Are Education Technology Interoperability Standards Creating the Future?

20. Page 20 Are Education Technology Interoperability Standards Enabling Innovation and Being Widely Adopted?

21. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 21 Innovation Scale? A.Widely accepted, substantial improvement B.Widely accepted, minor improvement C.Somewhat accepted, substantial improvement D.Somewhat accepted, minor improvement E.Not yet accepted, substantial improvement F.Not yet accepted, minor improvement

22. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 22 Examples QTI LTI Content Packaging Learning Design

23. 3 roads 15 years

25. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 25 Agenda Is IMS work innovative? The challenge of interoperability standards adoption in the education segments What we think we might have learned in the last 6 years Where do we go from here?

26. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 26 Interoperability Standards are Widely Adopted When: Supplier Motivation is High, or Buyers Care and Their Bargaining Power is High, or Both Are True

27. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 27 Bringing the Horses to Water in Emerging Markets Realization of Market Opportunity or Cost Savings Opportunity $$$

28. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 28 There Are Many Challenges Market opportunity: Generally more prudent to invest in products than standards Cost savings opportunity: You need to invest first before realizing savings Entrenched interests in proprietary approaches

29. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 29 Attractive Industry-driven Alternatives Google Apple Adobe Microsoft Amazon Other large suppliers

30. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 30

31. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 31 Consortium-Driven Standards are Successful When Suppliers Believe the Market Opportunity is Greater for Them by Cooperating with Others, or Buyer Bargaining Power is High and Well- Coordinated, or Ideally, Both

32. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 32 Buyer Bargaining Power is High When Dispersion is Reduced vs.

33. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 33 This....

34. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 34 Checkmarks Are Not Enough Vendors know the difference between clients asking for standards compatibility in order to check off a box on an RFP... that is why we must include true, tested, guaranteed interoperability as a priority in our purchasing decisions, and why we must pressure our current support vendors to provide it as a condition of their continuing good business relations with us. -- Charles F. Leonhardt, Principal Technologist, Georgetown University

35. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 35 Net-Net Buyer awareness & support Enabling standard that delivers Perceived market opportunity Community commitment Viable Consortial Standard

36. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 36 Agenda Is IMS work innovative? The challenge of interoperability standards adoption in the education segments What we think we might have learned in the last 6 years Where do we go from here?

37. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 37 Learnings #1 Standards need to be shaped/adjusted continuously by the practical and entrepreneurial needs of the market Prime example: QTI v1.2 QTI v2 APIP Future the inevitability of e-Assessment;

38. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 38 Learnings #2 Suppliers must have a motivation to adopt; the motivation is always economic; voluntary adoption is the best test Prime example: LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) becoming the best way to integrate

39. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 39 Learnings #3 Mainstream end-users have the most to say about what is innovative in the end, but they are difficult to engage in the beginning; ease of use is most important factor Prime example: Common Cartridge national standards, OER, e-textbook

40. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 40 Learnings #4 Education segment standards consortia can succeed but they must be able to gather the resources to catalyze all of the above and most importantly deliver on interoperability

41. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 41 Net-Net Buyer awareness & support Enabling standard that delivers Perceived market opportunity Community commitment Viable Consortial Standard

42. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. How Do We Do It? Ed Tech Interoperability Standards Large-Scale Adoption Projects Annual Learning Impact Conference & LIA Awards Purposeful Technology Innovation Applied to Improve Education Technical Foundation for Distributed Innovation Adoption of Innovation at Scale Toward Strategic Goals Recognizing Impact on Access, Affordability, Quality of Education Page 42

43. Page 43

44. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 44 Learnings Standards need to be shaped continuously by the practical and entrepreneurial needs of the market Suppliers must have a motivation to adopt; the motivation is always economic; voluntary adoption is the best test Mainstream end-users have the most to say about what is innovative in the end, but they are difficult to engage in the beginning; ease of use is most important factor Education segment standards consortia can succeed but they must be able to gather the resources to catalyze all of the above and most importantly deliver on interoperability

45. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 45 Agenda Is IMS work innovative? The challenge of interoperability standards adoption in the education segments What we think we might have learned in the last 6 years Where do we go from here?

46. The Challenge & Opportunity: Instructional Improvement needs to be implemented This across all of this While Doing More with Less...

47. The Sea Change: Interoperability at the Core of the Academic Enterprise to Enable Efficiency, Flexibility, Innovation, a Better User Experience and Actionable Data

48. From Many, One

49. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 49 Summary While there is still quite a lot of work to do... Education technology standards seem to have a role in creating the future... But to have a higher impact on innovation going forward we will need (1) standards at the core and (2) continued/more activism in various communities around the world...

51. © Copyright 2012 IMS Global Learning Consortium All Rights Reserved. Page 51 Thank You! rabel@imsglobal.org http://www.imsglobal.org/ @LearningImpact #imsglobal http://www.imsglobal.org/