BSI and IMS will collaborate to deliver online learning standard
London, UK and BURLINGTON, Mass. - 06 October 2003 - The British Standards Institution (BSI) and IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS) have agreed to collaborate in the development of "UKLeaP", the British Standard BS8788 UK Lifelong Learning Profile. UKLeaP will be an application profile of the IMS Learner Information Package specification developed by IMS member organizations from across North America, Europe and Asia. Substantial contributions from the JISC sponsored CETIS activity and from members of the BSI technical community are incorporated in LIP.
What UKLeaP will do
"BSI is developing standards for the interchange of Learner Records to support the UK Government's National Record of Achievement initiative," said David Keech, BSI Programme Manager. "This agreement between BSI and IMS establishes a working relationship between IMS, the originator of the underlying standard, and the panel of the BSI IST/43 Technical Committee on "Information technology for Learning, Education and Training" that is developing UKLeaP. The relationship is essential for meeting the expected publication date for BS 8788 of the last quarter of 2004."
What the LIP specification does
"LIP specifies a generic skeleton for information about learners' experience, capabilities, credentials, and preferences. The UKLeaP profile will flesh out this general specification to provide a standard way of recording and exchanging UK specific information across the life long learning domain in the UK," said Ed Walker, CEO of IMS. "This agreement with BSI completes the delivery of the LIP specification to real world use. The LIP specification and UKLeaP together are a complete solution for this vital component of elearning environments. We are especially grateful that the BSI and the IST/43 committee have put in place a relationship with IMS that includes the pragmatic mechanism necessary for effective liaison".
About BSI IST/43
IST/43 is the BSI technical committee responsible for information and communication technology for learning, education and training. Its members come from small and large UK companies, UK Government departments and educational organizations and academia. The committee is chaired by Mike Collett. IST/43 is also responsible for UK participation in ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC36.
About IMS
IMS Global Learning Consortium is an international non-profit organization that includes more than 57 Contributing Members and Affiliates. Members come from every consumer and vendor sector of the global e-learning community. The Consortium develops and promotes the adoption of open technical specifications for interoperable learning technology. Several IMS specifications are de facto standards for delivering learning products and services worldwide. All IMS specifications and related publications are made available to the public at no charge from www.imsglobal.org.
About BSI
Founded in 1901 the BSI Group has over 5,000 employees in 110 countries. In 2002 the Group's turnover was £232.8 million ($386.9 million). We are an international provider of services to businesses and other organizations with all our business units working to the same vision of supporting business improvement and trade world-wide. Through provision of standards, technical information, systems assessment, product testing and commodity inspection services, BSI supplies vital third-party services that enable its customers to trade effectively and to improve their operations and products.
For further information see: http://www.bsi-global.com/
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For more information contact
David Keech
British Standards Institution
+44 20 8996 7442
David.Keech@bsi-global.com
http://www.bsi-global.com/
Edward Walker
IMS Global Learning Consortium
+1 978.312.1082 voice
ewalker@imsglobal.org
http://www.imsglobal.org
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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