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Industry Standards
Interoperability is described as the single biggest reason for adopting each proposed e-learning standard. It's a legitimate goal, but it's also one of the most poorly understood of the perceived benefits. Content that adheres to AICC, SCORM, and IMS standards is not instantly transferable from one platform to another -- generally programmer interaction is required. Typically, the more sophisticated a course, the more complex the back-end engine that runs it. AICC, SCORM and IMS don't define what that engine is; they define the standards for how to launch a course object, not how to actually serve that course object. What the "standards" specifically standardize is the data about a course or a piece of a course. What they don't specify is how those course pieces look, or how they present themselves to, and interact with, the user. The IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc. (IMS standards), is working with Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC standards), Advanced Distributed Learning (SCORM standards) and other standards committees to develop one set of standards which will serve today's e-learning vendors. The ADL has stated that SCORM will adopt the IMS standards for interoperability as they become finalized. IMS has two key goals:
In other words, IMS is primarily a standard for detailing the "construction" of a course, and therefore for transferring of courses from one CMS to another. It is the standard to use if you wanted a course built by one company to be deliverable on another company's platform. Content data, by definition, would not contain programming for communicating with an LMS. It is this functionality that keeps the competitive field open and eliminates the need for a single source solution to a company's training needs. IMS works in conjunction with other standards. While the IMS standard contains all the data necessary for a "proprietary" CMS to display and score the course, using the CMS's internal methods, it is not limited to that method. It works with AICC to communicate between separate LMS and CMS products. So while IMS contains scoring information, it doesn't contain specific standards for event tracking and sending those events to a LMS; this interaction is covered by AICC and SCORM standards. Training clients should look for vendors that support both standards, one for constructing the course, and one for tracking students as they use it, in order to ensure the greatest flexibility. Cognitivity's platform is built from the ground up according to the parameters set forth in the current IMS standards. Specifically, IMS is a standard for creating content to be moved between content management systems (CMS) systems. It is the CMS that is responsible for talking to the learning management system (LMS) and therein lies the interoperability. We understand how confusing standards can be. We do our best to put them into words you understand. If you have additional questions on the standards or if you our unsure if your existing courseware will work on our platform, please contact us at std_help@cognitivity.com. Additional standards information is available at: IMS: http://www.imsglobal.org/ -- Copyright © 2002-2005 Cognitivity -- |
The e-learning industry is in its formative stages, and as such, is in the process of defining the standards that will define the products our new industry produces. Some standards have come out recently, others are due soon, and all will no doubt undergo significant revisions in the coming years. If we accept the assumption that there is no one correct method of learning, or even of e-Learning, we begin to understand why the development, adoption and enforcement of one standard is so difficult.