learning technology standards a layperson's guide to who s who and what s what updated november...
TRANSCRIPT
Learning Technology Standards
A Layperson's Guide to
Who’s Who and What’s What
Updated November 25, 2002
by Jonathan Dean
Oracle iLearning Product Management
The Standards Conundrum
There are many competing learning technology standards groups!
– Fortunately, all these groups talk to one another and are in cooperation more than competition
– This presentation will briefly cover “who’s who”
There are many standards-based specifications (with too many acronyms)!
– Fortunately, these can be broken in to a few broad categories: tracking, course interchange, and “other”
– Often, what may appear as different standards are, in fact, the same standard in disguise
– This presentation will briefly cover “what’s what”
IMS
IEEE
SCORM
Who’s Who
The Aviation Industry CBT Committee has been around since 1988 and has a set of specifications adopted well beyond the aviation industry.
The IEEE is the only organization that can publish eLearning-related standards.
IMS is a global consortium supported by members’ fees. (Oracle is a “Contributing Member” with voting rights.)
ADL is sponsored by the Dept. of Defense. Since government contracts will be required to conform, they carry a lot of weight with vendors.
What’s What – The Categories
Tracking– How can learner performance data be passed between
learning content and a Learning Management System? Course Interchange
– How can catalog information about a course and its internal structure be specified? (Metadata)
– How can the files that make up a course be sent from system to system? (Packaging)
Other– How can tests and questions be passed from system to
system?– How can user and organizational data move between an
HRMS and an LMS?
What’s What – The Specifications
Next we will: Walk through the standards-based specifications
published by each group in each category– Just the highlights, many details will be glossed over
See several cases where one group has adopted another group’s specifications as its own
Find out which standards-based specifications Oracle iLearning has implemented
– At a high level, not concerned w/ specific versions
Interchange Other
Course Structure
IMS
IEEE
SCORM
Tracking
AICC has a set of text files (pre-XML) that describe courses and their files.
Interchange Other
Course Structure
IMS
IEEE
SCORM
Tracking
The two-type content model underlying this has been adopted by all other standards:
Organization
Resource
IMS
Topic Group
Topic
Oracle RCO
AggregationBlock
Sharable Courseware Object (SCO)
Assignable Unit (AU)
SCORMAICC
Interchange Other
Course Structure
IMS
IEEE
SCORM
File
HACP
JS CMI
Tracking
AICC CMI offers 3 different ways for content to communicate with an LMS:
Files – for legacy LAN-based systems
HACP – uses HTTP over the web
JavaScript API – easy for HTML-based content to implement
An Aside for Acronym Geeks
H = HTTP Based = Hypertext Transfer Protocol Based
A = AICC = Aviation Industry CBT Committee = Aviation Industry Computer Based Training Committee
C = CMI = Computer Managed Instruction
P = Protocol
All together now: Hypertext Transfer Protocol Based Aviation Industry Computer Based Training Committee Computer Managed Instruction Protocol
Interchange Other
Course Structure
IMS
IEEE
SCORM
Metadata
File
HACP
JS CMI
Tracking
IEEE has created a learning object metadata standard (LOM) that specifies what the data elements are to describe a course.
CMI
IEEE has adopted the AICC CMI tracking data and supports both a JavaScript and HTTP binding.
Interchange Other
QTIMetadata
Packaging
QTI = Question & Test Interoperability
Enterprisewithdrawn
Course Structure
IMS
IEEE
SCORM
Metadata
File
HACP
JS CMI
Tracking
The IMS proposal for tracking drew criticism from vendors for being too hard to implement.
IMS has adopted the metadata standard from IEEE and added a packaging spec for how files get transferred.
The Enterprise spec deals with import and export of user data.
CMI
Interchange Other
QTIMetadata
Packaging Enterprisewithdrawn
Course Structure
IMS
IEEE
SCORM
Metadata
File
HACP
JS CMI
Tracking
ADL primarily chooses which of the existing specifications are combined to created the
Sharable Content Object Reference Model. This model is to be followed for all government contracts.
CMI
Interchange Other
QTIMetadata
Packaging Enterprisewithdrawn
Course Structure
IMS
IEEE
SCORM
Metadata
File
HACP
JS CMI
JS CMIMetadata
Packaging
Tracking
CMI
JavaScript CMI adopted from AICC
Metadata and packaging from IMS
Note: SCORM 1.1 had its own packaging. SCORM 1.2 uses IMS packaging.
Interchange Other
QTIMetadata
Packaging Enterprise
IMS
SCORMJS CMI
MetadataPackaging
Tracking
JS CMIMetadata
Packaging
QTI
Enterprise
Standards in Oracle iLearningOracle iLearning implements SCORM and IMS standards, including: JavaScript CMI API, SCORM & IMS metadata and packaging, and the IMS Enterprise and QTI specifications.
A Caution about Versions
These standards-based specifications have gone through multiple versions
Versions are often not compatible, either forward or backward
This presentation provides no information about which versions are and are not implemented by Oracle iLearning
When responding to an RFP or talking to customers or partners do not assume that iLearning implements a particular version of a particular specification.
Check which versions are implemented by iLearning before answering any questions about this
For more info on standards:
IMS
IEEE
SCORM
www.aicc.org
ltsc.ieee.org
www.imsproject.org
www.adlnet.org
ilearnweb.us.oracle.com