IMS Global Learning Consortium
Current Activities
There are many activities currently underway in IMS GLC. These include Project Groups, Meetings, as well as Affiliate and Alliance activities. For more information on how to get involved see http://www.imsglobal.org/joinims.html Contact IMS to get involved in one of these Projects.
Interoperability Standards Project Groups – Active specification development groups chartered to define standards for learning technology interoperability.
AccessForAll, Content Packaging, Question & Test, Common Cartridge, K12/Schools Enhancements to Common Cartridge, Learning Tools Interoperability, Learning Information Services, Learning Object Discovery and Exchange, ePortfolio, Service Oriented Architecture
| AccessForAll (AFA): |
| Brief description |
Standards for accessibility, inclusive design, and personalization of online learning resources to meet the needs of all users/learners |
| Applicable to | All systems that access or supply digital content and learner information - such as learning platforms (LMS, CMS, VLE, IMS), digital content, content management/repository systems, student systems , mobile technology, authoring tools, assessment systems. |
| Workgroup link (Member Access) | http://members.imsglobal.org/forum/ims/dispatch.cgi/w.accessibili/ |
| Public link | http://www.imsglobal.org/accessibility.html |
| Important things to know about AccessForAll |
- Embedding accessibility into interoperability specifications enriches the user experience by optimizing the interaction style and display characteristics for all learners and improves learning technology by providing equal access to all users.
- IMS GLC accessibility specifications enable developers to support their customers who must comply with legal obligations such as US Section 508 and 504, UK SENDA/DDA, and others around the globe. However, the approach also enables personalization of content to a wide range of user preferences and devices.
- The current workgroup is developing the Accessibility v2.0 specifications to take advantage of the IMS web services approach and to take into account requests for improvements based on community feedback, including development of an “AccessForAll Lite” application profile.
- The IMS Access For All workgroup maintains active liaisons with ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 and the W3C Ubiquitous Web activities. AccessForAll v1.0 contributed substantially to ISO/IEC 24751: “Individualized Adaptability and Accessibility in e‐Learning, Education and Training,” under an agreement between IMS GLC and ISO/IEC.
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| Content Packaging (CP): |
| Brief description |
Standards for distribution of distributed digital learning content and resources |
| Applicable to |
All systems that access or supply digital content - such as learning platforms (LMS, CMS, VLE, IMS), digital content, content management/repository systems, mobile technology, authoring tools. |
| Workgroup link (Member Access) | http://members.imsglobal.org/forum/ims/dispatch.cgi/w.packaging |
| Public link | http://www.imsglobal.org/contentpackaging.html |
| Alliance | http://www.imsglobal.org/cc/alliance.html |
| Important things to know about Content Packaging |
- Content Packaging is used to define the data format for the exchange of learning resources (or learning objects) from one learning system to another, facilitating easier delivery, reuse and sharing of materials.
- IMS Content Packages enable you to export content from one Learning Content Management System or digital repository, and import it into another while retaining information describing the media in the IMS Package, and how it is structured, such as a table of contents or which web page to show first.
- The IMS Content Packaging specification focuses on the packaging and transport of resources, but doesn't determine the nature of those resources. This is because the specification allows adopters to gather, structure and aggregate content in an unlimited variety of formats.
- The latest v1.2 adds important new features for linking to content that may be distributed via the Internet – “virtual content”.
- IMS Content Packaging is the most widely used learning technology standard in the world. It is the basis for SCORM and is also used standalone as a simpler way to achieve interoperability.
- IMS Content Packaging is currently being considered as a new work item for standardization in ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36.
- Conformance and development of accredited profiles of IMS Content Packaging, including the profile used in SCORM is offered solely under the auspices of the Common Cartridge Alliance: http://www.imsglobal.org/cc/alliance.html
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Question and Test Interoperability (QTI):
| | Brief description |
Standards for constructing, processing, and exchanging online assessment information, test items, tests, and the reporting of test results. |
| Applicable to | All systems that access or supply digital test items or tests - such as learning platforms (LMS, CMS, VLE, IMS), digital content, content management/repository systems, test item banking systems, mobile technology, authoring tools, assessment systems, data analytics systems. |
| Workgroup link (Member Access) | http://members.imsglobal.org/forum/ims/dispatch.cgi/w.assessment |
| Public link | http://www.imsglobal.org/QTI.html |
| Alliance | http://www.imsglobal.org/cc/alliance.html |
| Public forum |
http://www.imsglobal.org/community/forum/index.cfm?forumid=6 |
| Important things to know about Question and Test Interoperability |
- Question and Test Interoperability provides formats for constructing, processing, and exchanging assessment information and addresses the aggregation of items into tests and the reporting of test results.
- QTI is the leading open standard for defining test assessment questions, test, and results.
- QTI provides “tracking” of test results without requiring complex APIs or runtimes as the question and test information can be natively understood by the host learning system.
- The latest v2.1 specification provides numerous enhancements to support interaction with dynamic/adaptive content, sophisticated control of feedback, cloning using item templates, distribution using IMS content packaging, and collection of item statistics.
- V2.1 also describes a method for using QTI with Learning Design, Simple Sequencing, and the CMI data model.
- Conformance and development of accredited profiles of IMS Question and Test Interoperability, is offered solely under the auspices of the Common Cartridge Alliance: http://www.imsglobal.org/cc/alliance.html
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Common Cartridge (CC):
| | Brief description |
Standards for organization, publishing, distribution, delivery, search and authorization of a wide variety of collections of digital learning content, applications, and associated online discussion forums used as the basis for or in support of online learning of any type. |
| Applicable to | All systems that access or supply digital content for learning - such as learning platforms (LMS, CMS, VLE, IMS), digital content, web-served content, content management/repository systems, mobile technology, authoring tools, learning portals. |
| Workgroup link (Member Access) | http://members.imsglobal.org/forum/ims/dispatch.cgi/CommonCartridge |
| Public link | http://www.imsglobal.org/commoncartridge.html |
| Alliance | http://www.imsglobal.org/cc/alliance.html |
| Digital Learning Connection |
http://www.imsglobal.org/dlc.html |
| Frequently Asked Questions | http://www.imsglobal.org/cc/ccfaqs.html |
| Digital Learning Services |
http://www.imsglobal.org/digitallearningservices.html |
| Specification |
http://www.imsglobal.org/cc/index.html |
| Important things to know about Common Cartridge |
- IMS Common Cartridge enables learning content and web application interoperability for rich, interactive digital content, including assessments, collaboration, confederations of learning applications, with web-based authorization to all included resources.
- Common Cartridge includes application profiles of some of the most widely used IMS standards, including Content Packaging, Question and Test Interoperability, and Learning Tools Interoperability.
- Common Cartridge enables collections of learning resources of various types and sources.
- Common Cartridge establishes course cartridge native formats endorsed by educational publishers, and supports a wide variety of established content formats, eliminating platform lock-in.
- Common Cartridge explicitly supports the most widely used standards for exchanging and tracking assessment items (IMS QTI) providing a standard scoring and tracking alternative that does not require the complexity or overhead of a CBT-like runtime interaction.
- Common Cartridge fits within the educational context of enabling instructors to assemble lesson plans of various resources and publish those as reusable and changeable packages that are easy to create, share, and improve.
- Common Cartridge is based on an application profile of IMS Content Packaging v1.2, Common Cartridge manifests support "virtual content" organizations through URL references, thus reducing the size of cartridges while increasing flexibility.
- Common Cartridge Includes an exchange standard for online discussion forums.
- Common Cartridge has been designed to allow future incorporation of IMS Learning Tools Interoperability to enable web service launch and data exchange of distributing learning applications and systems from within Common Cartridges.
- Cartridges or portions of cartridges can be protected through a standard open authorization protocol.
- Common Cartridge allows straightforward migration from SCORM 2004: Common Cartridge and SCORM 2004 are both based on IMS Content Packaging allowing use of tools to convert from SCORM to the advantages of Common Cartridge.
- The Common Cartridge Alliance provides open source and community source tools for automated conformance testing of cartridges, testing of learning platforms, a reference implementation of the authorization service, future incorporation of LTI, and much more. http://www.imsglobal.org/cc/alliance.html
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| K12/Schools Enhancements to Common Cartridge (K12 CC) |
| Brief description |
Enhancements to IMS Common Cartridge v1 to address several specific issues including incorporation of new release of IMS Question and Test Interoperability (QTI), alignment of content and assessments to curriculum standards and learning objectives, and lesson planning. |
| Applicable to | All systems that access or supply digital content for learning - such as learning platforms (LMS, CMS, VLE, IMS), digital content, web-served content, content management/repository systems, mobile technology, authoring tools, learning portals. |
| Workgroup link (Member Access) | http://members.imsglobal.org/forum/ims/dispatch.cgi/CCK12 |
| Public link | http://www.imsglobal.org/cck12.html |
| Important things to know about K12/Schools Enhancements to Common Cartridge |
- Common Cartridge K12 will support new application profiles of QTI v2.1 capable of supporting a wide variety of item types, including dynamic/adaptive content and formative and summative assessment. This includes high stakes assessment.
- Common Cartridge K12 will support specific application profiles for lesson plans that allow modular deconstruction of content for searching, previewing, and retrieval.
- Common Cartridge K12 will support vendor-neutral tagging of learning objects according to curriculum standards and learning objectives.
- Common Cartridge K12 will make use of IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) to support application-to-application interoperability among learning systems both within the enterprise and on the Internet, enabling software as a service scenarios.
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| Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) |
| Brief description | Standards to support interactions, namely launching and data exchange, between learning systems or related applications, either in the enterprise or web-based, enabling incorporation of learning tools, applications, mash-ups, and software as a service within the context of a learning portal or other learning environment. |
| Applicable to | All learning applications or systems that may need to be launched from or exchange data with user portals or systems acting as a portal - such as learning platforms (LMS, CMS, VLE, IMS), web-served content, assessment systems, authoring tools, learning portals, group collaboration systems, adaptive tutors, simulations, gaming systems, social networking systems, virtual tutoring systems, plagiarism systems, search systems, ePortfolio systems, classroom capture and management systems, and a variety of ancillary tools (grade books, calendars, etc). |
| Workgroup link (Member Access) | http://members.imsglobal.org/forum/ims/dispatch.cgi/Media |
| Public link | http://www.imsglobal.org/toolsinteroperability2.cfm |
| Digital Learning Services |
http://www.imsglobal.org/digitallearningservices.html |
| Important things to know about Learning Tools Interoperability |
- Learning Tools Interoperability aims to improve interaction between external tools/applications/systems, whether enterprise or web-based, and learning/course management systems.
- Learning Tools Interoperability extends the Tools Interoperability v1.0 Guidelines to address tool configuration, presentation, accessibility, and access to LMS data such as calendar, grade book, and content.
- Learning Tools Interoperability enables software as a service (SaaS), which are becoming more prevalent in all segments of the market.
- Learning Tools Interoperability enables mash-ups of applications within the learning system or portal.
- Learning Tools Interoperability enables configuration of tools, applications, and systems into the single sign-on environment of choice.
- Learning Tools Interoperability enables one learning platform to be launched from and contained within another learning platform. This enables enterprise to utilize a number of learning platforms.
- Learning Tools Interoperability enables “content-less tracking” because one system can launch another that runs content of arbitrary complexity. The launched system returns results to the launching system. This eliminates the need to port content to a standard format, such as SCORM, which often results in a dumbing down of the original system features and a significantly reduced learning experience.
- Learning Tools Interoperability enables definition and registration of outcome/results schemas that are application dependent.
- An LTI Alliance user community will be launched after there are additional prototypes and pilots, providing conformance profiles and open source/community tools. There is a Simple LTI subset that is currently undergoing significant piloting and prototyping.
- LTI is an important component of the IMS Common Cartridge.
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Learning Information Services (LIS)
| | Brief description |
Standards to support interactions and data exchange between learning systems and administrative, student, or human resource systems, including exchange of course rosters, learner profiles, competencies/learning objectives and learning outcomes. |
| Applicable to | All learning systems that provide access to online course materials in cooperation with an enterprise administrative system and administrative systems that exchange administrative data and learning outcomes with learning platforms - such as learning platforms (LMS, CMS, VLE, IMS), web-served content, assessment systems, learning portals, group collaboration systems, adaptive tutors, simulations, gaming systems, ePortfolio systems, classroom capture and management systems, student systems, data analytics systems, talent management systems. |
| Workgroup link (Member Access) | http://members.imsglobal.org/forum/ims/dispatch.cgi/w.enterprise |
| Public link | http://www.imsglobal.org/enterprise.cfm |
| Digital Learning Services |
http://www.imsglobal.org/digitallearningservices.html |
| Important things to know about Learning Information Services |
- IMS Learning Information Services (LIS) defines standards for complex hierarchical organizational relationships among courses, sections, groups, roles, and so forth.
- IMS Learning Information Services defines a standard for a course management information model.
- IMS Learning Information Services defines standards for mapping multiple sections to a single course site.
- IMS Learning Information Services defines an expanded person to align with IMS Learner Information Profile (LIP) and includes an LDAP binding.
- IMS Learning Information Services v2.0 revises the Enterprise Services v1.0 specification to extend the set of service behaviors, define new services, fully support the IMS General Web Services v1.0 specification, and enhance the data model, based on over five years of deployment.
- A LIS Alliance user community will be launched after there are additional prototypes and pilots, providing conformance profiles and open source/community tools.
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| Learning Object Discovery and Exchange (LODE) |
| Brief description | Learning Object Discovery & Exchange (LODE) aims to facilitate the discovery and retrieval of learning content stored in repositories, such as Common Cartridges, online library resources, and so forth by leveraging combinations and profiles of existing standards in use. |
| Applicable to | All systems that search, access and supply digital content for learning from repositories or standards-based content management systems - such as learning platforms (LMS, CMS, VLE, IMS), content management/repository/document management systems, mobile technology, authoring tools, learning portals, search systems, assessment systems. |
| Workgroup link (Member Access) | http://members.imsglobal.org/forum/ims/dispatch.cgi/FedArch |
| Public link | http://www.imsglobal.org/lode.html |
| Important things to know about Learning Object Discovery and Exchange |
- Learning Object Discovery & Exchange provides educators will an easier way to discover learning content that addresses the needs of their students, making their jobs easier, and maximizing re-use and minimizing the cost of re-invention of materials.
- Learning Object Discovery & Exchange provides students with access to the highest-quality learning resources available, making a significant impact on the quality of their learning experience and their learning outcomes.
- Learning Object Discovery & Exchange support content providers to be able to advertise their products by making them globally discoverable.
- Learning Object Discovery & Exchange supports system with a limited set of specifications to support to make their systems compliant with major federations of learning resources.
- Learning Object Discovery & Exchange supports federation builders through securing their investment by developing infrastructures based on standard specifications.
- Learning Object Discovery & Exchange will examine, select, and adapt specifications that are being applied to digital libraries, generic repositories, and learning repositories.
- A key objective of Learning Object Discovery & Exchange will be the support of harvesting, search and discovery of Common Cartridges and Learning Tools Interoperability compliant applications.
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| ePortfolio (eP) |
| Brief description |
Standards for exchange of digital information (ePortfolios) that contain evidence of learning, education, training, and life experiences resulting in a more effective matching than traditional resumes of applicants to the offerings of potential employers, admissions offices, and so forth. |
| Applicable to | All systems that desire to store digital portfolios or exchange these portfolios with other systems - such as ePortfolio systems, learning platforms (LMS, CMS, VLE, IMS), learning portals, assessment systems, student systems, talent management systems, data analytics, social web.
| | Workgroup link (Member Access) | http://members.imsglobal.org/forum/ims/dispatch.cgi/eppp |
| Public link | http://www.imsglobal.org/ep.html |
| Important things to know about ePortfolio |
- IMS ePortfolio supports the advancement of lifelong learning important to many government initiatives.
- IMS ePortfolio makes exchanging portfolios from school to work transitions easier.
- IMS ePortfolio allows educators and institutions to better track competencies.
- IMS ePortfolio enhances the learning experience and improves employee development.
- IMS ePortfolio has been profiled for use throughout Dutch education by Kennisnet through the ePortfolio NL project and has been implemented on a number of ePortfolio platforms, such as PebblePad, Sakai/OSP, and Winvision. The experiences of these implementers have pointed to the need for stronger examples of portfolios encoded following the specification, more extensive best practices guidelines, and several minor technical enhancements.
- The next phase of IMS ePortfolio will include a maintenance release that would implement these suggestions, drawing primarily on materials already developed by ePortfolio NL and others.
- There is widespread agreement within the IMS and ePortfolio communities that facilitating the transition between education and the workplace is of utmost importance to the eventual success of ePortfolios in supporting lifelong learning. In the next phase of IMS ePortfolio, IMS is collaborating with HR-XML to create mappings between both the IMS ePortfolio Specification and the several HR-XML specifications that are designed to accommodate similar information to a common semantic representation, using the core components (ISO 15000-5) approach that has proved successful in a range of e-business applications. This will enable easy translation from IMS ePortfolio, which will focus on the needs of education, and HR-XML, which is seeing widespread adoption by business.
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| Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) |
| Brief description |
Best practice recommendations for the adoption of service-oriented architecture in education that addresses business process issues, migration considerations, foundational technology requirements, and necessary service components. |
| Applicable to | Institutions of higher learning, K-12/Schools sector, corporate, and other end-user focused organizations
| | Workgroup link (Member Access) | http://members.imsglobal.org/forum/ims/dispatch.cgi/f.soadiscussi |
| Public link |
http://www.imsglobal.org/soa.cfm |
| Whitepaper |
http://www.imsglobal.org/soa/index.html |
| Forum |
http://www.imsglobal.org/community/forum/index.cfm?forumid=10 |
| Important things to know about SOA |
- IMS SOA will describe adoption practices for education specific standards to be adopted when creating an SOA-based solution.
- SOA will address common service components that can be adopted from other market sectors.
- SOA will include the underlying technology required to implement an SOA-based design.
- SOA will tackle migration issues to be addressed when adopting an SOA-based solution.
- SOA will discuss the business process issues that need to be considered in the context for realization through a set of services.
- SOA will address how institutions determine the return on investment for SOA-based solutions in education.
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Adoption Practice Standards Project Groups - End-user focused activities as prioritized by the IMS GLC Learning Technology Advisory Council (LTAC) are chartered to develop best practices, adoption standards and technical requirements to address key quality education and learning challenges facing higher education, K-12, and corporate sectors. Product and service providers work directly with end-users (CIOs, CLOs, academic/learning technology experts, HR leaders) to address immediate and emerging education challenges through the development and implementation of IMS GLC Adoption Standards:
- Student Induction to eLearning - Focusing on student experience with technology, with emphasis on developing international standards that address the key issues that interfere with postsecondary student learning and persistence.
- Digital Education Content Strategies - Working in parallel with developing IMS digital content technical standards and Adoption Practice workgroups to test, prototype and provide preliminary proof of concept in these areas
- Targeted Retention Systems - Developing use cases and technical interoperability standards for early warning systems to predict student success, attrition, retention and persistence; and, exploring use case and interoperability standards needs for higher education accountability/transparency, including consumer information and student engagement and learning assessment.
- IMS Learning Technology Satisfaction and Trends (Learn SAT) Research and Review - Working group formed to evaluate current IMS GLC Learn SAT research and reporting to provide recommendations on enhancing overall methodology and survey tool to increase response rates and evolve with increasing learning technology products and services.
- Enterprise Learning Systems and Applications Procurement- Aiimed at creating a template for baseline technical functions and features to support K-12 and higher education (HE) Request for Proposal (RFP, Technical Requirements) and procurement processes for learning systems and applications.
Visit the list of upcoming meetings
IMS GLC Community
Affiliates Resources
Common Cartridge Alliance Website
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