Issues in Common Cartridge and SCORM

1. Issues in Common Cartridge and SCORM Yong-Sang Cho Principal researcher of KERIS (Korea Education and Research Information Service) zzosang@keris.or.kr

2. Agenda • Brief History and Challenges • Common Cartridge • Common Cartridge & SCORM • Success Factor and Issues in Common Cartridge

3. Brief History and Challenges

4. Brief History of Learning Interoperability Catalysts • 1996-9: - Moving the Computer-Based Training (CBT), programmed instruction model to the web: content/player centric approaches - Proliferation of learning technology start-ups of a wide variety • 1999-2002: - Course Management Systems (CMSs) proliferate in higher education - Learning Management Systems (LMSs) gain a hold in corporate training, especially for self-paced, compliance-type training - CMSs focus on organizing supportive materials for courses - LMSs continue to focus on CBT model with features for human capital management - CMSs accepted as a mainstream enterprise application and also as the platform for improved distance learning in higher education segment - Most learning technology start-ups and many initiatives in the learning space by larger corporations do not survive the bursting of the Internet bubble - reality sets in as to the newness of using technology to support learning

5. Brief History of Learning Interoperability Catalysts • 2002-Now: - New web portals, enterprise applications, and online searching in the education segments supporting specific curricular areas, assessment, and faculty/teacher development - Open source CMSs have become a factor - Open content initiatives have become a factor - Renewed, more stable growth with consolidation • 2006-Now: - Collaborative authoring and learning - Web 2.0 - Mobile rich media (iPods) - Social Networking (Second Life) • Future (prediction): - Continued proliferation and need for integration of educational resources and activities from a variety of sources - Continued domination of web sources and formats

6. Learning Integration Challenges • System Integration: Proliferation of new learning applications that do not provide for exchange of data about users • Instructional Integration: Difficulty in combining learning activities from a variety of products, vendors, and sources into a coherent lesson plan and/or learning experience • Content Integration: Difficulty in using content from a multiplicity of publishers and/or teacher created content in the same learning system platform • Assessment Integration: Proliferation of new learning and assessment applications that do not provide results of learning activities readily usable by teachers or administrators • Quality of Learning: Achieving quality is about creating relevance of content to the learning context, not about the specific packaging of the content

7. Common Cartridge

8. What is the Common Cartridge? • Background of Common Cartridge • SCORM has and is focused on rather granular learning objects, typically used in a self-paced computer-based learning paradigm, • Common Cartridge is focused on addressing the full range of online learning content and applications that support a more comprehensive instructor-led learning experience, such as a course, lesson, or seminar. • Over the last 10 years, the application of the Internet to support educational experiences has skyrocketed. - Instructor-developed content, such as syllabus, notes, presentations, etc. - Pre-packaged digital content, such as publisher produced digital assets - Online assessments, tests, quizzes, etc - Online asynchronous discussion forums for student participation and collaboration - Launch and exchange of information with separate learning applications and tools, such as assessment systems, adaptive tutors, wikis, etc. - Authorization to access all-of-the-above based on licensing scheme

9. What is the Common Cartridge? • Common Cartridge Learning Integration • System Integration: Will support LTIv2.0 protocol for interactions among tools and learning or course management platforms • Instructional Integration: Enables collections of learning resources of various types and sources, including explicit support for collaborative learning tools • Content Integration: Establishes course cartridge native formats endorsed by educational publishers, and supports SCORM and a wide variety of established content formats, eliminating platform lock-in • Assessment Integration: Explicitly supports the most widely used standard for exchanging assessment items • Quality of Learning: Fits within the educational context of enabling instructors to assemble lesson plans of various resources and publish those as reusable and changeable packages

10. What is the Common Cartridge? • Common Cartridge Features • Metadata – descriptive metadata for cartridges based on simple Dublin Core • Rich content - html, xml, web links, SCORM - Media files (mpg, jpg, mp3) - Application files (e.g. Microsoft Office) • Integrated assessments - Multiple choice (single or multiple response) - True/false - Essay - Simple fill in the blank - Pattern match • Discussion forums • Authorization for protected content

11. What is the Common Cartridge? • Common Cartridge File Structure

12. CMS/LMS/VLE/IMS Learner Runtime Common Cartridge LMS DB/ Repository Import Function XML Rendering SCORM Engine Discussion Forum Assessment Authorization Tools Interop Interface -Launch and data exchange with standalone learning tools • Packaging of digital content • Metadata (tagging of content with descriptive attributes) • Question and test formats • Collaborative discussion forums set-up information • Invocation of web or enterprise application • 3rd party format (SCORM, MPEG, Quicktime, etc) • Cartridge authorization information Web or Enterprise Learning Application Digital Content Authorization Service What is the Common Cartridge? • Common Cartridge Conceptual Diagram

13. What is the Common Cartridge? • Common Cartridge Building Blocks Builds upon the widely implemented IMS Content Packaging specification, adding support for the following standards: • Metadata - ISO 15836:2003: Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (mapped to the corresponding elements in LOM) - IEEE 1484.12.1-2002: Learning Object Metadata - IEEE 1484.12.3-2005: LOM Schema binding (loose binding) • Content - IMS Content Packaging v1.2 - IMS Question & Test Interoperability v1.2.1 - SCORM 1.2/2004 • IMS Authorization Web Service v1.0

14. What is the Common Cartridge? • Future Evolution of Common Cartridge (started from 2007) • Enhanced assessment (QTI v2.1) • Web/enterprise integration with third-party tools and services (LTI v2.0) • Lesson plans (Common Cartridge K-12) • Competency maps based on educational standards (DICE: Dynamic Instructional Content Exchange) • Accessibility support • Convergence with Digital Textbook (eTextbook)

15. Common Cartridge & SCORM

16. Common Cartridge & SCORM • Common Cartridge was designed to meet a very different need than SCORM - Common Cartridge was designed for online support of all forms of teaching and learning - SCORM was designed for self-paced computer-based training • The designers of Common Cartridge were product companies and publishers who had extensive experience with SCORM but found it inadequate to meet their needs • Common Cartridge was designed to be compatible with SCORM 2004 - SCORM 2004 3rd Edition (the latest version) shares two specifications with Common Cartridge: IMS Content Packaging & LOM Metadata - SCORM 2004 3rd Edition is based on IMS Simple Sequencing • Users of SCORM 2004 will find Common Cartridge very complementary - Those not using sequencing can convert directly to Common Cartridge - KERIS will test a SCORM 2004 engine that can be incorporated to play SCORM content with sequencing via an IMS TI interface

17. Common Cartridge & SCORM • Comparison of Common Cartridge and SCORM

18. Success factor and issues in Common Cartridge

19. Factor for Success • Based on 10 years experience in learning content interoperability. • Based on the most widely used interoperability standards for learning content and assessment. • Supported by the leading educational publishers, assessment organizations, and learning platform providers and leading open source/open content initiatives. • Easy to implement and flexible. • Enables mapping to things we use and understand: textbooks, lesson plans, courses. • Supports the overwhelmingly predominant educational and training paradigm: self-directed but guided learning with an instructor in the loop, coordinated with assessment and online communal learning (discussions). • Component standards are in a very healthy state of improvement and evolution to support future needs.

20. Major issues and Topics regarding Common Cartridge • The most important issue in developing standards in an emerging market is a very high payback to the industry • Achieving engagement of a critical mass of organizational participants※ The larger the number, the greater economy of scale that is achieved and the more likely the standard will change the market • Selection of the right set of interoperability points • Delivering a quality set of specifications, especially with respect to enabling conformance to interoperability • The segment and regional spread of Common Cartridge and how this will be achieved※ IMS Korea launched and is researching how to use Common Cartridge in Korean education segment and industry

21. Thank You !!!