1. Distributed Learning and New Learning Communities ARL Conference, Eugene 1998

2. Educom's National Learning Infrastructure Initiative and the IMS project Mark Resmer, ARL Conference, May 14 1998

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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, Empower, @Learning, Unisys, Oracle, ETS, Simon and Schuster, AT&T, Asymetrix IMS: the primary NLII partnership Parts of the prototype are being developed by Blackboard LLC

7. 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

8. 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

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

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

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

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

13. 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

14. Basic IMS meta-data fields

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

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

17. 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?

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

19. 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

20. Educom's National Learning Infrastructure Initiative and IMS Project http://www.educom.edu/program/nlii/.index.html http://www.imsproject.org More information: