Impact of
e-learning grows worldwide
Vancouver meeting highlights adoption
of IMS specifications
Burlington, Mass. -
February 28, 2003 - IMS meetings last week demonstrated advances in the use and
adoption of interoperability specifications for online learning.
Nearly 200
participants from Australia, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Taiwan, the UK, the U.S.
and throughout Canada attended the meetings. Attendees represented major
research universities, hardware and software companies, content providers,
learning technology suppliers, government agencies, K-12 schools and corporate
trainers. Three days of working meetings, a daylong Open Technical Forum, and a
series of special briefings by participants highlighted the adoption of online
learning projects from around the world.
UK and Canada online learning
initiatives
"In the UK two primary governmental agencies are taking
a strategic lead on the embedding of e-learning standardization - the Department
for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Office of the e-Envoy (OeE). April 2003
will see many of the IMS specifications included in the latest version of the
e-Government Interoperability Framework," said Dr. Brian Sutton, Director of
Information, Communications, and Technology for Ufi - developer of
learndirect, the major network of online learning and
information services in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. "The growing UK
community of vendors and developers has responded actively and is fully engaged
in making the vision on standards a reality, with both a growing number of
smaller providers keen to respond positively and larger providers working to
adapt existing portfolios of material to conform," he said.
In Canada, projects such as "CanCore" and Industry Canada's "EduSpecs"
and "EduSource" show a growing and robust set of tools developers can use to
create interoperable online learning - learning that is available to anyone,
anywhere and anytime. "Canada has been active in the global development of
e-learning technology, first through the SCORM and more recently, through IMS
work groups developing specifications for Accessibility and Mobile Learning,
Learning Design, Digital Repositories, Metadata and International Conformance,"
said Captain Peter Hope, Operations Manager of the DLN Test Lab of the Canadian
Department of National Defence. "Now our collective focus is shifting from
developing the technologies to fostering learner-to-content interaction and
developing learning communities," he said. "Key to this new phase will be the
ability to verify conformance to internationally accepted specifications and
standards," he added.
Pilot certification regimes are currently being launched in the U.S.
(e.g. ADL and SIF), Canada and Japan. An International Conformance Program that
includes participants from Canada, Japan, Taiwan, the UK and the U.S. is being
developed by IMS to provide a platform for achieving consistent testing. This
program applies the expertise of the entire IMS membership to testing
implementations of the specifications. Specification developers
look to the futurePresenters from industry, government, and
education described their vision for the next generation of interoperable
e-learning content and environments, referred to as "Active Content and Active
Learning Environments." Future capabilities include enhanced access
to the types of information needed to customize the learning experience,
improved communications between content and third-party information services,
support for simulation, and improved ability to combine content and maintain
visual consistency. Members support IMS Quarterly
MeetingsIMS Contributing Members WebCT, IBM, Microsoft, and
Industry Canada were primary supporters of the Vancouver meetings, which were
held at facilities provided by the University of British Columbia. IMS
member Giunti Interactive Laboratories will host the next Quarterly Meeting in
Genoa, Italy May 12-16, 2003 in tandem with an international summit meeting
titled "eLearning Results 2003." About
IMSThe IMS Global Learning Consortium develops open technical
specifications to support distributed learning. All specifications developed by
IMS are made available to the public without charge through the IMS web site.
IMS is a non-profit organization supported by members of a worldwide consortium
that includes 50 Contributing members and 60 Developers Network subscribers. The
IMS in Europe foundation supports activities among European members. Information
about IMS specifications, on-going activities, and membership applications is
available at the IMS website http://www.imsglobal.org.
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