http://www.cen-ltso.net/Learning Technology Standards Observatory http://www.cen-ltso.net/Users/imagenes/cen_bottom2.gifhttp://www.cenorm.be/ http://www.cen-ltso.net/Users/main.aspx?noti=475&Lang=engIMS GLC is currently reviewing the IMS Learner Information Package Accessibility for LIP Specification v1.0 and IMS AccessForAll Meta-data Specification v1.0 in preparation for launching a specification update process aimed at improving the specifications and incorporating international feedback obtained in the process of working with ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC36 on creating a standard based on Access For All. Changes currently under consideration are available for review on the IMS website. You will need to sign up for a free IMS GLC Community account. Visit: http://www.imsglobal.org/problemtracking/ If you have identified any bugs or extensions or require new functionality related to the use of learner information about accessibility requirements and meta-data about accessibility in learning systems, please send this information to Colin Smythe as soon as possible. Alternatively, the requests can be recorded on the IMS public website using the form on the page listed above. This information should be received by the 11 May 2007 so that it can be included in the definition of the new work program. The specification work will begin in May 2007 with revised Access For All specifications available for public adoption in early 2009. Submission Information --------------------------------- Please submit all information to: csmythe@imsglobal.org. Please submit the information on or before the 11 May, 2007.2007-05-02 http://www.cen-ltso.net/Users/main.aspx?noti=474&Lang=engThe DCMI Abstract Model, which attained the status of DCMI Recommendation in March 2005, has been revised in light of discussion and feedback from the DCMI Architecture Working Group, the DCMI Usage Board, and the broader community. This revised version of the Abstract Model has been posted for a four-week public comment period. A revised DCMI Namespace Policy proposing a new DCMI namespace for Abstract Model entities has been posted for comment at the same time. For more information please consult a longer announcement on the DC-ARCHITECTURE mailing list. Interested members of the public are invited to post comments on these Proposed Recommendations to the DC-ARCHITECTURE mailing list, including "[DCAM Public Comment]" in the subject line. Public Comment will be open from 5 February through 5 March 2007. In connection with the revision of the DCMI Abstract Model, Andy Powell has developed a proposal for a vocabulary of classes and their use as the domains and ranges of metadata elements maintained by DCMI. Domains and ranges specify -- in a form usable for inferencing -- what kind of described resources and value resources are associated with a given property. The assignment of formal domains and ranges makes the meanings implicit in natural-language definitions available for machine processing. So as not to affect the conformance of legacy implementations of Simple Dublin Core in RDF (see notes on this issue), DCMI proposes to replicate the fifteen elements of the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set — currently identified using the namespace http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/ — in the namespace http://purl.org/dc/terms/. Terms in the former namespace are to remain unspecified as to domain and range; terms in the latter are to be assigned domains and ranges as outlined in the proposal. "Domains and Ranges for DCMI Properties" has been posted for Public Comment from 5 February through 5 March 2007. Interested members of the public are invited to post comments to the DC-ARCHITECTURE mailing list, including "[Domains and Ranges Public Comment]" in the subject line. After Public Comment, the proposal will be submitted to the DCMI Usage Board for a further review and decision.2007-02-12AccesibilityArchitectures & InterfacesAssessmentCollaborationCompetencyContent AggregationDigital RepositoriesEducational Modelling LanguagesGlossaryIntellectual PropertyInternationalisationLocalisationMedia FormatsMetadataRuntimeSecurityStudent AssessmentStudent ManagementUser InterfacesVocabularies http://www.cen-ltso.net/Users/main.aspx?noti=473&Lang=engThe IMS Global Learning Consortium today released the latest version of its Learning Technology Satisfaction and Trends Report for February 2007. Based on responses from about 200 qualified leaders of Internet-supported learning initiatives in the North American Higher Education segment over the last 12 months, the report details satisfaction and trends with a wide range of technologies used to support education. The product and service categories covered in the report include course management, content management, assessment, search, content authoring, web authoring, mobile devices, classroom capture, screen capture, services, live presentation, plagiarism, portals, and student information systems. The major findings of the report included the following: - Certain product categories ancillary to course management systems (CMS), such as assessment, authoring, and digital content, scored higher in satisfaction than the course management systems category itself, signaling the importance being placed on easy ways to include interactive and rich media content in learning experiences. - Among the course management systems, eCollege, ANGEL, and Moodle scored highest in satisfaction. All three rated higher than Blackboard or WebCT, the market share leaders. 16% of the respondents appeared to be likely to switch course management systems in the coming 12 months. - The significant usage and high ratings of products not necessarily targeted to the educational segment, such as Google, Wikipedia, and iPods, indicates that educators may be incorporating these technologies more rapidly than administrators or IT officials may be aware. "LearnSat" ratings of named products and services are based on satisfaction ratings by survey participants. Ratings logos are issued to the top three, top ten, best in category, and top twentyfive. The top ten rated products in order were ANGEL Content Management, eCollege CMS, ANGEL CMS, Respondus, Google Search, Apple iPod, Flash, Dreamweaver, Wikipedia, and Tegrity. The other products that achieved best in category satisfaction ratings were Camtasia, eCollege Services, Microsoft Powerpoint, Elluminate, Turnitin, uPortal, and Campus Management. The report is issued in several versions of varying detail for the public, respondents, and IMS Global Learning Consortium members and subscribers. The summary rankings, access to the public report, and participation details are available at: http://www.imsglobal.org/ltst/index.cfm2007-02-12AccesibilityArchitectures & InterfacesAssessmentCollaborationCompetencyContent AggregationDigital RepositoriesEducational Modelling LanguagesGlossaryIntellectual PropertyInternationalisationLocalisationMedia FormatsMetadataRuntimeSecurityStudent AssessmentStudent ManagementUser InterfacesVocabularies http://www.cen-ltso.net/Users/main.aspx?noti=472&Lang=engThe CEN/ISSS Workshop Learning Technologies (WS/LT) has produced an on-line Application Profile Registry which provides an overview of existing application profiles. There is also provision within the site for information about ongoing work in the field of application profiles and learning technology standards more generally. The Registry enables the search and discovery of published community application profiles, so that an application profile can be reused by a different community, serve as a base metadata model for further modification or be validated for its conformance with another application profile. Application profiles can be located by their title, description, base specification or standard (e.g. IEEE LOM), or coverage in terms of subject area, geographic coverage or community of interest. The Registry can also be searched and updated using Machine Interfaces (SRU and SRW). As of January 2007, the registry contains details of 20 Application profiles of interest to the eLearning community. Practitioners are encouraged to contribute to the ongoing development of the Registry by registering as users in order to input details of an application profile or by providing other information for inclusion in the site to the site maintenance team at apr@k-int.com. The registry followed the production of the CEN Workshop Agreement “Guidelines and support for building Application Profiles in e-learnin”(CWA 15555). These guidelines on the construction of application profiles aim to support e-learning communities in the process of designing an application profile and to promote the interoperability among application profiles of different communities. The funding to produce the CEN Workshop Agreement and the Registry was provided by the European Commission's DG ENTR, in the context of their support to standardization activities in support of eEurope and i2010, under Grant Agreement BC/CEN/ENTR/000/2004-25.2007-01-30AccesibilityArchitectures & InterfacesAssessmentCollaborationCompetencyContent AggregationDigital RepositoriesEducational Modelling LanguagesGlossaryIntellectual PropertyInternationalisationLocalisationMedia FormatsMetadataRuntimeSecurityStudent AssessmentStudent ManagementUser InterfacesVocabularies http://www.cen-ltso.net/Users/main.aspx?noti=471&Lang=engThe Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Technical Team announces the release of the SCORM 2004 3rd Edition Content Examples. These content examples are illustrations of SCORM 2004 3rd Edition conformant content that demonstrates concepts of SCORM content in the areas of design, development and implementation. The following are the content examples currently available for download: - SCORM 2004 3rd Edition Data Model Content Example (DMCE) Version 1.0 - SCORM 2004 3rd Edition Plug-in Technologies Example (PITE) Version 1.0 - SCORM 2004 3rd Edition Multiple Sequencing with API Content Example (MSCE) Version 1.0 - SCORM 2004 3rd Edition Sequencing Essentials Content Example (SECE) Version 1.0 - SCORM 2004 3rd Edition Bookmarking Example (BKME) Version 1.0 These content examples are SCORM 2004 Conformant Content Aggregation Content Packages that can be imported into any SCORM 2004 3rd Edition conformant learning management system (LMS) and explored. These courses are designed, tested and verified to work within the SCORM 2004 3rd Edition Sample RTE Version 1.0 and may not work on previous versions of the Sample RTE. These courses will not work with a SCORM Version 1.2 conformant LMS.2007-01-15MetadataRuntime http://www.cen-ltso.net/Users/main.aspx?noti=470&Lang=engThe DCMI Usage Board has completed an editorial revision of terms in the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, bringing definitions and usage comments into line with the DCMI Abstract Model. Documentation is available in revised Web pages, RDF schemas, and in a response to comments received during the Public Comment period.2006-12-22MetadataVocabularies http://www.cen-ltso.net/Users/main.aspx?noti=469&Lang=engA number of LTSC members feel that the area of competencies area is now in a state analogous to that of “content” several years ago that led to the initial formation of the LTSC and the successful creation of IEEE standards such as Learning Object Metadata (LOM). With lessons learned from this previous experience this additional focus on the human performance aspects of learning could be the start of a significant new phase of standards development. Like all study group activities of the LTSC, current discussions are focused on the possible need for standards to assist in resolving key challenges in the general area of skills and competency. If such needs are determined and fit within the scope of IEEE 1484, the LTSC may move forward with the development of formal standards in this area. If this is an area that is important and relevant to you, please consider contributing to the Competencies Study Groups (CSG) as your participation is both welcomed and encouraged. To promote the widest possible input and potential for contribution during this study group phase, a Yahoo! Group has been established to collect input. Please visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudyGroup-Competencies Or you can send comments directly via email to: StudyGroup-Competencies-owner@yahoogroups.com All interested parties are asked to sign up to the CSG on Yahoo! Groups so they will get all future notices and can participate in the online discussion. In addition, an overview document, notes from the first conference call (29 Nov. 2006), and files contributed by CSG participants have been posted to the Groups site. Regular teleconferences will be established in early 2007 and continue throughout the study group period.2006-12-18Competency http://www.cen-ltso.net/Users/main.aspx?noti=468&Lang=engAn issue was discovered in the Learning Management System (LMS) Conformance Test portion of the SCORM 2004 3rd Edition Conformance Test Suite Version 1.0 that will affect the ability to achieve successful SCORM Conformance. This situation occurs in a User Interface (UI) interoperability question in LMS Test Content Package CM-07d.2006-11-21Content AggregationRuntime http://www.cen-ltso.net/Users/main.aspx?noti=467&Lang=engCEN/ISSS WS/LT Workshop on Learning Technologies Project Team E-Learning Quality - final draft CWA on 'Good Practice' Comments should go to the WS/LT Secretariat Nikolaus Kovacs of DIN, not later than 10 January 2007.2006-11-16AccesibilityArchitectures & InterfacesAssessmentCollaborationCompetencyContent AggregationDigital RepositoriesEducational Modelling LanguagesGlossaryIntellectual PropertyInternationalisationLocalisationMedia FormatsMetadataRuntimeSecurityStudent AssessmentStudent ManagementUser InterfacesVocabularies http://www.cen-ltso.net/Users/main.aspx?noti=466&Lang=engThe Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, the developer and implementer of learning technologies across the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and the IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS), the leading advocacy group encouraging the growth and impact of learning technology worldwide, announced a strategic partnership for cooperative development. While ADL and IMS have worked together informally in the past, this is the first formal alignment of the development and release processes of the two organizations. Under the terms of the partnership, ADL and IMS will cooperate to establish new workgroups and developer network resources focused on SCORM-related specifications developed under the auspices of IMS. ADL offers participation of its SCORM community to engage in these IMS workgroups while IMS establishes a process for those organizations wishing to engage in these joint activities. Beginning on January 1, 2007, the partnership will establish one place for the critical mass of interested organizations to come together to evolve SCORM-related IMS work, such as Content Packaging and Simple Sequencing and other areas of mutual interest. “We believe this agreement will clarify the process to engage for those organizations interested in evolving the SCORM-related IMS work and will foster a higher level of collaboration across the global distributed learning community,” comments Paul Jesukiewicz, Deputy Director of the ADL Initiative. “ADL would like to see all the supporters of SCORM worldwide join the new SCORM-related workgroups and developers network in IMS. IMS is making it extremely easy to do so, and it will allow us to work together more effectively than in the past.” In addition, the partnership establishes a process for ADL and IMS to cooperatively approve distribution and derivative works of the IMS SCORM-related work through third-party standards organizations, an area of increasing importance worldwide. "The member organizations of IMS are united in advancing the impact of learning technology worldwide, but, we have not had processes in place to coordinate the efforts of standards organizations in support of this end,” says Rob Abel, Chief Executive Officer of IMS. "We see this partnership as representing an important milestone in supporting the needs of the learning community to accelerate both interoperability and innovation worldwide, and I invite interested organizations to contact me directly to get involved in this important work.”2006-11-13AccesibilityArchitectures & InterfacesAssessmentCollaborationCompetencyContent AggregationDigital RepositoriesEducational Modelling LanguagesGlossaryIntellectual PropertyInternationalisationLocalisationMedia FormatsMetadataRuntimeSecurityStudent AssessmentStudent ManagementUser InterfacesVocabularies