This document is released for public adoption and implementation of the CASE Service 1.1 specification. Public contributions, feedback on adoption of the specification, comments and questions can be emailed to: support@1edtech.org

If you have questions or need help with implementing CASE or achieving conformance certification, here are some available resources:

• CASE Support: email support@1edtech.org - for all parties interested in CASE
• CASE Project Group Forum - for 1EdTech Contributing Members
• CASE Support: email support@1edtech.org - for CASE Alliance, Affiliate, and Contributing Members
• CASE Developer Webpage - information and resources on the 1EdTech CASE webpage, such as specifications and other technical documents
• 1EdTech Contributing Members have access to private GitHub repositories and a Slack channel for CASE discussions and collaborations.
• Contact a 1EdTech staff member to gain access or email: support@1edtech.org

1EdTech offers a process for testing the conformance of products using the 1EdTech certification test suite. Certification designates passing a set of tests that verify the standard has been implemented correctly and guarantees a product’s interoperability across hundreds of other certified products. The CASE 1.1 Conformance Certification Guide CASE-1.1 provides details about the testing process, requirements, and how to get started.

Conformance certification is much better than claims of “compliance," since the only way 1EdTech can guarantee interoperability is by obtaining certification for the latest version of the standard. Only products listed in the official 1EdTech TrustEd Apps Directory can claim conformance certification. 1EdTech certification provides the assurance that a solution will integrate securely and seamlessly into an institution's digital learning ecosystem.

In order to become certified, a paid 1EdTech membership is necessary. Here's why: while conformance certification provides a "seal" for passing prescribed tests it is much more than that. It is a commitment by a supplier to the 1EdTech community for continuous support for achieving "plug and play" integration. Certification implies ongoing community commitment to resolve problems, revise implementations and retest as need. For that reason, only 1EdTech Contributing Members, Affiliate Members, and CASE Alliance members are eligible to apply for conformance certification. Details and benefits of membership are listed at https://www.imsglobal.org/imsmembership.html.

As well as sections marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines, diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative.

The key words MAY, MUST, MUST NOT, OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, and SHOULD NOT in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC2119.

An implementation of this specification that fails to implement a MUST/REQUIRED/SHALL requirement or fails to abide by a MUST NOT/SHALL NOT prohibition is considered nonconformant. SHOULD/SHOULD NOT/RECOMMENDED statements constitute a best practice. Ignoring a best practice does not violate conformance but a decision to disregard such guidance should be carefully considered. MAY/OPTIONAL statements indicate that implementers are entirely free to choose whether or not to implement the option.

The 1EdTech TrustEd Apps Directory is the official listing of products that have passed 1EdTech's conformance certification testing. Products that are listed in this directory are guaranteed to meet the 1EdTech standards for which they have passed testing. If you experience an integration issue with a product listed here, 1EdTech will work with the supplier to resolve the problem. If a product is NOT listed here it has either not passed 1EdTech testing or its certification has expired.

The Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) 1.1 Standard documentation is a service. This service is accomplished via a data model as represented in JSON, and exchanged via a REST API. For these REST implementations, there is an information model document and a REST binding document. The information model documents describe the data dictionary and logical data model for the service. The REST binding documents describe the serialization and endpoint definitions for the service.

This document is the Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) Service 1.1 Specification document and is used to define how a product can be certified as 1EdTech CASE 1.1 Service Provider or Consumer. The formal definition of the CASE Service 1.1 is supplied in the following documents:

• 1EdTech Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) Service 1.1 [CASE-SM-11] - the description of the Information Model for the service;
• 1EdTech Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) Service REST/JSON Binding v1.1 [CASE-BD-11] - the description of the REST/- CASE 1.1 JSON binding, including the OpenAPI description, realization of the Information Model.
• CASE 1.1 OpenAPI (JSON/YAML) v2.0/v3.0
• CASE 1.1 JSON Schema files

• Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange Best Practice and Implementation Guide v1.1
• Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) Service v.1.1: Conformance and Certification

Like all 1EdTech specifications, the CASE specification describes data in motion, i.e. the exchange of information achieved using agreed interoperability. In CASE 1.1, the information that is being exchanged is contained in these groups:

• Academic Standards - the academic learning standards published by the CASE Provider, for the CASE Issuer, or the official entity;
• Competencies - the competencies published by the CASE Provider, for the CASE Issuer, or the official entity;
• Skills- the set of resources that are required for a class and/or a course, published by the CASE Provider, for the CASE Issuer, or the official entity

CASE 1.1 serves as a minor upgrade to CASE 1.0. CASE 1.1 still consists of two distinct services that were available in previous version, which are: CASE Provider and CASE Consumer. The list new features supported in CASE 1.1 include:

CASE defines two roles, a Provider and a Consumer. Technical administrators or other users will export from the Provider system such as a student information system and import to a consumer system, such as an LMS or a digital text via REST API-based products but users are not handling files directly since the exchange is system-to-system. Users can also download CSV or JSON files from a CASE Provider's application, if agreed upon.

When selecting products, it is very important to understand what CASE product type you are considering purchasing. Will the product be a CASE 1.1 Provider or a CASE 1.1 Consumer? Or is the product performing an Aggregator service, which is a Consumer of data from one system and Provider of that data to another system, or a Contractor who will build your CASE implementation? An Aggregator service or Contractor usually performs additional value-added services to help make the creation and exchange of academic standards, competencies, or skills in multiple platforms easier and more efficient, in some cases. Because of their intermediary role, to be compliant, Aggregator product types and Contractors who build CASE frameworks must be certified as either/or both CASE 1.1 Consumers and CASE 1.1 Providers.

This section is non-normative.