Learning Technology Standards

1. 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

2. 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”

3. IEEE IMS 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.

4. 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?

5. 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

6. IEEE IMS SCORM Tracking Interchange Other Course Structure AICC has a set of text files (pre-XML) that describe courses and their files.

7. IEEE IMS AICC IMS SCORM Oracle RCO Assignable Unit (AU) Resource Sharable Courseware Object (SCO) Topic SCORM Block Organization Aggregation Topic Group Tracking Interchange Other Course Structure The two-type content model underlying this has been adopted by all other standards:

8. IEEE IMS SCORM Tracking Interchange Other File Course Structure HACP JS CMI 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

9. 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

10. IEEE IMS SCORM Tracking Interchange Other File Course Structure HACP JS CMI Metadata CMI IEEE has adopted the AICC CMI tracking data and supports both a JavaScript and HTTP binding. IEEE has created a learning object metadata standard (LOM) that specifies what the data elements are to describe a course.

11. IEEE IMS SCORM Tracking Interchange Other File Course Structure HACP JS CMI Metadata CMI QTI = Question & Test Interoperability QTI Metadata withdrawn Packaging Enterprise 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.

12. IEEE IMS SCORM Tracking Interchange Other File Course Structure HACP JS CMI Metadata CMI QTI Metadata withdrawn Packaging Enterprise 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.

13. IEEE IMS SCORM Tracking Interchange Other File Course Structure HACP Note: SCORM 1.1 had its own packaging. SCORM 1.2 uses IMS packaging. JS CMI Metadata CMI QTI Metadata withdrawn Packaging Enterprise Metadata JS CMI Packaging Metadata and packaging from IMS JavaScript CMI adopted from AICC

14. IMS SCORM Standards in Oracle iLearning Oracle iLearning implements SCORM and IMS standards, including: JavaScript CMI API, SCORM & IMS metadata and packaging, and the IMS Enterprise and QTI specifications. Tracking Interchange Other QTI Metadata Packaging Enterprise Metadata JS CMI Packaging QTI Metadata JS CMI Enterprise Packaging

15. A Caution about Versions • These standards-based specifications have gone through multiple versions • Versions are often notcompatible, 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

16. IEEE IMS SCORM For more info on standards: www.aicc.org ltsc.ieee.org www.imsproject.org www.adlnet.org ilearnweb.us.oracle.com