CETIS Review March 2009:
Educational Technology Standards Bodies
This report is a summary of a report made to CETIS Board in March 2009. It is an update relative to the October 2008 Review. The reader is assumed to be broadly familiar with the work of the various specifications/standards bodies mentioned; this is not a primer.
1. IMS Global Learning Consortium
Members of JISC CETIS have attended both IMS quarterly meetings since the last CETIS Board. We continue to participate in a review-and-query mode and our current areas of focus are: Learner Information Services (formerly Enterprise Web Services) v2, Question and Test Interoperability v2.1, Learning Tools Interoperability v2, ePortfolio revision, Common Cartridge and SOA Best Practices. We have some interest in the Targeted Retention Systems (TRS) group, although their initial literature survey is rather disappointing.
The departure of both co-chairs of the QTI project team, coupled with some confusion arising from changes in IMS specification development and release policies was identified by CETIS as a challenge where a more active level of participation on our behalf is needed, not least to help protect the considerable existing investment in QTI by JISC. There was also some frustration from members that QTI 2.1 appeared to have been abandoned but as of March 14th IMS staff have begun to coordinate activity to finalise QTI 2.1.
We have provided input to chartering and subsequent review of the SOA Best Practices. This work is split between generic SOA content and scenarios based on experience IBM and Oracle have had in Higher Education. The timeline for this work is very similar to the "soa pack" that CETIS is producing (to be released under the title “Technology change in higher education – a service oriented approach”[1]) as well as the SURF "A Manager’s compact guide to SOA ". We have decided to produce our work independently and to leave the IMS guide as being from a different perspective. We anticipate follow-on work in IMS and hope to engage in productive discussions around the different styles and takes on the subject of soa in HE that these three, and other works, contain.
2. Centre for European Normalisation
The relationship between the "Learning Technology Workshop" (LTWS), an open-participation forum and the formal standardisation body, Technical Committee (TC353) seems to be working well; the LTWS acts as a consensus building vehicle such that work in TC353 can progress quickly.
The hard work to ensure that the Metadata for Learning Opportunities is compatible with XCRI seems to be paying off and we are confident that continued activity will ensure that the resulting EN will not differ from the current draft in problematic ways.
New work is starting in TC353 on "Learner Mobility": Diploma and Certificate Supplements in electronic form. CETIS staff are working both as contributing experts (NB: Simon Grant as an independent consultant) and to align this work with the HEAR pilots.
Two members of CETIS form part of the UK delegation to the April meeting.
3. British Standards Institute – Committee IST/43
BSI has three important factors in its favour that are not found in any other body: independence, it is the national body for ISO and CEN, expertise in professional services around standards.
In November 2008, Mike Collet stood down as the chair of IST/43, a position he had held since its inception 8 years ago. Adam Cooper put himself forward and became chair without opposition.
Participation in the committee remains at a relatively low level and the relationship between IST/43 and ESCS ISB remains to be developed into an effective one. The good news is that Rob Englebright (BECTA) has joined the committee. At the February meeting there were discussions around participation with a few ideas suggested to break the vicious circle that participation depends on workplan but workplan depends on participation.
4. Education Schools and Children’s Services Information Standards Board
CETIS continues to provide a Board member, engage with the Portfolio Learning Opportunity and Transcript SIG and to contribute some work to the Technical Support Service.
There is some worthwhile business occurring, see for example the February newsletter. Of particular interest to JISC is that XCRI received fast-track approval and a policy on convergence of transcripts was approved. The latter, an attempt to head off divergence between MIAP, the HEAR and Bologna/DS, is an example of the kind of intervention that can be effected via the ISB SIGs.
The ISB now falls under John Callery, Chief Enterprise Architect in DCSF, with whom Bill Olivier, Myles Danson and Adam Cooper met to discuss matters of common interest in application of Enterprise Architecture. Coordination between pockets of activity within the overall system is the key challenge for ISB but one where the immense complexity has caused slow progress towards the vision. It is hoped that the developing Enterprise Architecture work will provide a framework to realise the greater good of the system.
Mark Cummings, probably the prime agent in DCSF for driving the ISB idea into reality, has a new role in CIO Group and is replaced by James Vincent.
5. HR-XML
In the year since we joined HR-XML we have participated a little. The crossover between HR and HE (both ways) remains a topic of interest, and occasional monitoring occurs to identify if any specific reasons to participate in the development of HR-XML 3 have arisen. Dialogue between HR-XML and IMS (over their ePortfolio spec) has been arranged, but progress and outputs are as yet unclear. We will review membership when renewal is due but expect to renew and to strengthen our work in this area.
The HR-XML organisation continues to be active following the sudden and slightly turbulent departure of their former CEO.
6. International Standards Organisation – IEC JTC1 SC36
CETIS continues to follow SC36 work via participation in BSI IST/43 but no-one is attending the March 2009 meeting (New Zealand). There is little to report since the last Board meeting with some exceptions:
· Metadata for Learning Resources: CETIS declined to fully engage with this activity due to concerns about the scope and direction of this work. Instead a position paper was drafted which was submitted to WG4 by the UK national body as an expert contribution. This paper was well received as it supported a radical re-drafting of the MLR documents which was being undertaken at the time. CETIS propose to maintain a watching brief on this work and to liaise with WG4 through the representative of the UK national body. We may also be in a position to undertake discrete interventions at specific points depending on the availability of key personnel.
· Competency Reference Model: This is a “Technical Report” not a formal standard but may be of interest as it relates to other work we have identified. CETIS members drafted the UK response to the recent ballot.
· Progress of SCORM and IMS Content Packaging: Uptake of ISO versions of these seems likely.
7. Systems Interoperability Framework
SIF no longer stands for "Schools Interoperability Framework", reflecting an already-widened aspiration rather than a change in the core membership.
We have not participated recently but may do so in future.
8. IEEE LTSC
LTSC has a new chair, Don Holmes. Work continues on competencies, previously suspended following the death of its prime mover, and we will keep a watching brief. Wilbert Kraan continues to participate in the Resource Aggregation for Learning Education and Training (RAMLET) work.
9. Learning Education and Training Systems Interoperability
LETSI seems to have had a rebirth. Their strategy seems to be to have a more clear focus on defining and developing a successor to SCORM (presently named SCORM 2.0) rather than the previous broader ambition and entanglement with the IPR and maintenance of the current SCORM (this stays with ADL). LETSI is still squaring up against IMS and still saying it will not develop standards but is now promoting a "community based software model".
It seems likely that there will be continued IMS vs LETSI competition and an element of ill-feeling. The question is whether IMS's existing momentum in a certain direction, Common Cartridge + LTI + ..., can be beaten by a potentially more agile and less encumbered LETSI.
LETSI is now looking more interesting and more likely to succeed and we will pay closer attention.
10. Suppliers Association for Learning Technology Interoperability in Schools
We continue to observe SALTIS from a distance.
11. W3C
Scott Wilson is engaging with the W3C Widgets Working Group, and contributed to the face-to-face meeting at Orange Labs last month.
12. Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
Phil and Lorna have been contributing to the DC Education Application Profile Module being developed by the DC Education Community however there is little progress to report since DC2008 in September. In a recent Status Report to the DC Executive the Education Community moderators noted that while there has been considerable interest in the DC Ed AP there is a lack of volunteers with sufficient resources to devote to this task. In addition a surge of activity in the ISO Metadata for Learning Resources has diverted considerable attention and energy from the available international educational metadata standards community.
It is also worth noting that the JISC funded Scholarly Works Application Profile has just been formally reviewed by the DCMI Usage Board and is likely to act as an invaluable point of reference for the development of future DC application profiles based on the Singapore Framework.
13. Website Addresses for the Above-mentioned Bodies
1. IMS Global Learning Consortium: http://www.imsglobal.org
2. Centre for European Normalisation
· LTWS: http://www.cen.eu/cenorm/businessdomains/businessdomains/isss/activity/wslt.asp
· TC353: http://www.cen.eu/CENORM/BusinessDomains/sectors/isss/cen+tc+353.asp
3. British Standards Institute IST/43: http://www.bsi-global.com/en/Standards-and-Publications/Industry-Sectors/ICT/ITEducation/
4. ESCS Information Standards Board: http://www.escs-isb.org.uk/
5. HR-XML Consortium: http://www.hr-xml.org/
6. ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36: http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink?func=ll&objId=806742
7. Schools Interoperability Framework Association UK (now “Systems” not “Schools”): http://www.sifinfo.org/uk
8. IEEE LTSC: http://ltsc.ieee.org/
9. Learning Education and Training Systems Interoperability: https://letsi.org/
10. Suppliers Association for Learning Technology Interoperability in Schools: http://www.saltis.org/
11. Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Education Application Profile Task Group: http://dublincore.org/educationwiki/DC_2dEducation_20Application_20Profile
CETIS Review March 2009: Educational Technology Standards Bodies
Adam.Cooper Page 1 of 4
[1] http://soa.cetis.ac.uk