Member Resources | Public Documents | Background |
Digital assessment is made easier if there’s a standard format for the exchange of test questions and structures, scoring information, the ability to analyze results, and ways to accommodate learners’ personal needs and preferences. IMS Global's assessment work has enabled the move to digital assessment as a more responsive and reliable alternative to paper-based testing. This is especially important at a time when most institutions are looking to eliminate or greatly reduce the use of paper in classrooms within the next few years.
Question & Test Interoperability® (QTI®)—the de-facto standard for e-assessment interoperability—identifies and defines the formats, protocols, and points of interoperability that save users and suppliers time and money in the development, delivery, and outcomes of assessments. In addition, IMS e-assessment initiatives include open interoperability solutions for accessibility requirements, integration of computer adaptive testing platforms for advanced, personalized testing, and online proctoring for remote, secure assessments.
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AccessibilitySupports compliance with federal requirements to meet the needs of all students as stated in section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the 2017 update of Section 508 that requires WCAG 2.0 AA compliance. More recent versions of QTI also support accommodations commonly used in K–12 assessments. |
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Content OwnershipInstitutions can own and maintain their assessment content using item banks in the open, interoperable QTI format that supports content portability as needs change. |
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Flexibility: Online and PaperInstitutions can move to 100% digital assessments or maintain paper exams as necessary with QTI. |
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Item InnovationPortable Custom Interactions (PCI): updates to the specification, which provides a standard way of authoring and delivering interactive or technology-enhanced question items. |
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Learning Platform IntegrationComputer Adaptive Testing specification, a new standard for establishing interoperability between adaptive testing engines and assessment delivery platforms to adapt a test to students' understanding of the subject matter. Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI®) complements QTI by providing a way to integrate testing or an externally hosted assessment system with a student portal or learning platform, like an LMS, and then returning results or scores upon completion. LTI can also provide integration points for other parts of an assessment system such as item authoring, item previewing, test taker reviewing for scoring, etc. Proctoring Services: establishes a standard way of proctoring exams by integrating test platforms with proctoring services/systems, taking advantage of the rich LTI model in wide use across learning management systems and external tools. |
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Results Data and AnalyticsImportant but perhaps underappreciated part of QTI is the ability to capture and exchange assessment results data called QTI Results Reporting—conformance certification testing is coming soon. The Caliper Analytics® standard provides a basic profile for capturing event data related to assessments (and other learning data) and is currently working to expand its capabilities by defining a richer QTI Caliper profile. (coming soon) |
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Savings: Time and MoneyLower cost of ownership for institutions and assessment programs from high stakes to formative assessments. |
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Volume and ScaleTens of millions of tests and their associated items have been created, transferred, delivered to students and scored using QTI across the world. |
Are Your Products IMS Global Certified?Ensuring that your educational technology tools are IMS Global certified is the best way to establish a plug-and-play ecosystem, allowing your systems and content to work together seamlessly, giving you more choice, and reducing your total cost of ownership. |
Question & Test Interoperability (QTI)
- QTI v2.2 State/Core Profile
- QTI v3.0 State/Core Profile
What’s New in QTI v3
- Improved presentation interoperability
- Web-friendly markup allows implementations to use standard web components in QTI structures
- Accessibility better supported by integrating APIP back into the base QTI specification and incorporating the relevant W3C specifications and accessibility best practices
Public Documents
Member Resources (login required)
IMS conformance certification for Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) is available for IMS Contributing, Affiliate, and eAssessment Alliance members. Learn more to begin taking advantage of the benefits of certification.
The following are the active project group/task force forums where discussions, documents, and agendas/minutes are posted:
- QTI forum
- Computer Adaptive Testing forum
- Proctoring forum
- Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium forum
Student Learning Data Model
- The IMS Student Learning Data Model visualizes a digital ecosystem interconnected with real-time data. Log in with your IMS member credentials to access specification-level Mapping and Discovery in the tool.
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