Transcript Document 7598711

The IMS Project
Technology for supporting learning
Sandy Britain, UK IMS Centre
Outline
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Part 1: Background and Rationale
Part 2: Description
The IMS Project
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Created to address challenges in on-line
learning
Partnership of universities and companies
(e.g. California State University, UNC, U.
Michigan, Miami-Dade, Microsoft, Sun, IBM,
Apple, KPMG, International Thomson
Publishing, NIST, DOD)
Goal of IMS
“Building the Internet Architecture for Learning”
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freely available technical specifications
freely available prototypes and migration tools
IMS Standards
Object
LM Server
Permissions
Profile
Data
Exchange
Object
Commerce
Back-end Systems
LM Server
IMS Environment
Teacher
CD
Off
Campus
Student
On
campus
Student
Authoring
Tools
Learning
Resources
IMS Mgmt
System &
Content
Collaboration
Tools
Back office
What open technical
standards can do
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Jumpstart “content” and educational
environments for the Internet (and
Intranet)
Make it easier for developers to create
and distribute content
 don’t
have to support proprietary servers
 people can find it easily
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Enable “any time, any where” learning
Project Outputs
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Specifications for:
 Metadata:
U. North Carolina
 Content interoperability: IBM
 Profiles: Farance Inc.
 Learning Management: Blackboard Inc.
 Back Office: PeopleSoft Inc.
 Ecommerce: George Mason U.
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Examples & prototypes
Scope of the IMS
Specification
Interfaces to
External
Services
Meta-data
Student
Profiles
Management
Content
IMS Meta-data
Specification
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IMS Metadata Search/Query
Demonstration
 http://metadata.imsproject.org/mdtool/
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IMS/NIST Metadata Repository
 dictionary
of terms for describing content
 supports group specialization
 can be queried/browsed with modified
authoring tools
IMS Content
Specification
Supports technical interoperability of:
 assessment
 sequencing
 reporting data
 bookmarking
 notification
 meta-data
Management
Specification
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Manages
 Content
 Courses
 Collaboration
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Interfaces
 Database,
Security, Access control,
HTTP/CGI, tracking, session management,
DCOM/Corba message bridging ….
IMS Profile Specification
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Educational records “Wallet”
Mobile
Contains
 Personal
information
 Performance information
 Portfolio
 Preferences
External Services
Specification
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Specifies technical interface to campus IT
infrastructure
 student
records
 billing/commerce
 library
What kind of a project is
IMS?
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Not your usual standards committee
 action
oriented, creating prototypes, putting
them into real situations
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Not selling anything but working very hard to
give it away
 goal
is widespread adoption of the technical
specification
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Looking to transform the learning technology
marketplace
 specifications
designed for evolution and
Timings
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Release 1.0 at Easter
Main aspects of
 Metadata
 Content
 Profiles
 Back
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Office
Subsequent 6 monthly releases
UK IMS Centre
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Bangor and OU
Funded by JTAP
2 year project
Represent UK View
Disseminate results
Current Actions
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University User Groups
 Face
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to face and online discussions
Identify UK requirements
Advisory board meetings
Technical board meetings
Maintain information flow
 Website,
events
Contact information
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www.imsproject.org.uk
Paul Lefrere (OU)
Oleg Liber (Bangor)
Bill Olivier (Bangor)
Lisa Rowlands (Bangor