Introduction to IMS Learning Design

Rob Koper Open University of the Netherlands

Introduction
Since the publication of the IMS Learning Design specification in February 2003 (LD, 2003) various parties aroun the !orl have been active to evelop tools, to e"peri#ent !ith Learning Design in practice, or to o research on the further a vance#ent of the specification$ %he &uropean 'o##ission (th Fra#e!or) *ro+ect ,-F.LD (200/), organise a platfor# for these parties to #eet each other, to e"change i eas an to iscuss future evelop#ents of Learning Design an Learning Design tools$ Many things have happene in 200/ an 2000 that provi es the buil ing bloc)s for future i#ple#entations$ %o #ention +ust a fe!, starting !ith the #ain publications in the last year1 2ust before the ,-F.LD pro+ect starte , a group of persons in the fiel !rote 22 chapters for a boo) about Learning Design (3oper 4 %attersall, 2000) that beca#e availeble in February 2000$ %he boo) contains 22 papers about the specification, architectures for tools, escriptions of tools, e"a#ples an #etho ologies for the esign of e5learning courses an (preli#inary) e"perience !ith IMS Learning Design, inclu ing the e"perience at the .pen ,niversity of the -etherlan s !ith its pre ecessor & ucational Mo elling Language (&ML, see 3oper 4 Man ervel , 200/)$ %he special Issue of the 2ournal of Interactive Me ia in & ucation (%attersall 4 3oper, 2000) has been publishe as a result of ,-F.LD activities$ It contains 67 papers that are reflections or up ates of the learning esign boo) chapters$ Further#ore a special issue of the I&&& 2ournal & ucational %echnology 4 Society (http188!!!$ifets$info8others8) has been establishe that !ill be publishe in Dece#ber 2000$ It contains 62 papers about Learning Design that provi es an overvie! of current research in the area$ %hese !ill be su##ari9e later$ :esi es these highlights of publications, #any #ore papers have been publishe by #any authors aroun the !orl in a variety of +ournals an conference procee ings (eg, search for ;IMS Learning Design< in scholar$google$co#)$ Many tools have been evelope in 20001 e itors, runti#e engines an player environ#ents$ %his !ill be iscusse later$ First e"a#ples that can be o!nloa e to test Learning Design has been create , using the ne! tools$ =n , last but not least a large an stable co##unity has been evelope aroun the specification to support its a option$ In this intro uction to the Learning Design :oo)let I !ill shortly intro uce the IMS Learning Design specification an !ill su##ari9e so#e current issues in Learning Design$

The Learning Design Specification

%he IMS Learning Design specification ai#s to represent the >learning esign> of >units of learning> in a se#antic, for#al an #achine interpretable !ay (3oper 4 .livier, 200/)$ = >unit of learning> can be any instructional or learning event of any granularity, e$g$ a course, a !or)shop, a lesson or an infor#al learning event$ = >learning esign> is efine as the escription of the teaching5learning

process that ta)es place in the unit of learning$ %he )ey principle in learning esign is that it represents the learning activities an the support activities that are perfor#e by ifferent persons (learners, teachers) in the conte"t of a unit of learning$ %hese activities can refer to ifferent learning objects that are use uring the perfor#ance of the activities (e$g$ boo)s, articles, soft!are progra##es, pictures), an it can refer to services (e$g$ foru#s, chats, !i)i>s) that are use to collaborate an to co##unicate in the teaching5learning process$ %he IMS Learning Design specification is evelope to #eet so#e specific re?uire#ents1 6$ Completeness1 %he specification #ust be able to fully escribe the teaching5learning process in a unit of learning, inclu ing references to the igital an non5 igital learning ob+ects an services nee e uring the process$ %his inclu es1 5 Integration of the activities of both learners an staff #e#bers$ 5 Integration of resources (learning ob+ects an co##unication8collaboration services) use uring learning$ 5 Support for both single an #ultiple user #o els of learning$ 5 Support for #i"e #o e (blen e learning) as !ell as pure online learning$ 2$ Pedagogical expressiveness1 %he specification #ust be able to e"press the pe agogical #eaning an functionality of the ifferent ata ele#ents !ithin the conte"t of a Learning Design$ @hile it #ust be sufficiently fle"ible to escribe Learning Designs base on all )in s of pe agogies, it #ust avoi biasing esigns to!ar s any specific pe agogical approach$ 3$ Personalization1 %he specification #ust be able to escribe personali9ation aspects !ithin a Learning Design, so that the content an activities !ithin a unit of learning can be a apte base on the preferences, portfolio, pre5)no!le ge, e ucational nee s an situational circu#stances of users$ In a ition, it #ust allo! the esigner, !hen esire , to pass the control over the a aptation process to the learner, a staff #e#ber an 8or the co#puter$ /$ Compatibility1 %he specification #ust enable learning esigns to use an effectively integrate other available stan ar s an specifications !here possible, such as the IMS (i#sglobal$org) an I&&& L%S' (ltsc$ieee$org) specifications$ :ecause a Learning Design specification e"ten s e"isting specifications, it also inherits #ost of the #ore general re?uire#ents for interoperability specifications an stan ar s, #ore specifically1 0$ Reusability1 %he specification #ust #a)e it possible to i entify, isolate, e5conceptuali9e an e"change useful learning ob+ects, an to re5use these in other conte"ts$ ($ Formalization1 %he specification #ust provi e a for#al language for learning esigns that can be processe auto#atically$ 7$ Reproducibility1 %he specification #ust enable a learning esign to be abstracte in such a !ay that repeate e"ecution, in ifferent settings an !ith ifferent persons, is possible$ %he IMS Learning Design specification consists of several co#ponents$ First of all it consists of a conceptual #o el (an ontology) for the escription of teaching5learning processes$ %his #o el is e"presse as an ,ML #o el (see figure 6)$

Figure 6$ %he conceptual #o el of IMS Learning Design

In essence the #o el says that learners perfor# a set of learning activities using learning ob+ects an services (to be foun in the activity environment) in or er to attain so#e e"plicit or i#plicit learning ob+ectives$ =s a result of the activities, the learners pro uce outco#es (e$g$ reports, foru#8!i)i contributions, etc$) that subse?uently can be use by others in their learning or support activities (e$g$ a teacher can provi e fee bac) to a report !ritten by a learner)$ %eachers, other staff #e#bers or peers can perfor# support activities to help learners !hen nee e $ %he esign can be static or a aptive, ta)en into account the e"isting co#petencies, nee s an circu#stances of the persons involve $ %he secon co#ponent of the specification is the Infor#ation Mo el$ %his ocu#ent specifies e"actly ho! the entities in the conceptual #o el relate to each other$ Further#ore it contains a escription of the e"pecte behaviour of runti#e syste#s$ %he infor#ation #o el is the core ocu#ent of the specification$ %he thir co#ponent of the specification is the :est *ractices an Infor#ation Aui e$ %his gui e specifies so#e use cases an (e"pecte ) best practices$ %he fourth co#ponent is calle a >bin ing>, that is the technology use to represent the infor#ation #o el$ %he learning esign specification is elivere !ith several bin ings1 a series of ,ML iagra#s (Bogten 4 Berhooren, 2002), an CML sche#a (see figure 2) an CML D%D>s$ %he ,ML iagra#s !ere create fro# the initial D%D$ %he tables in the infor#ation #o el an the CML sche#a>s !ere auto#atically generate fro# the ,ML iagra#s$

Figure 2$ *art of the CML sche#a tree of IMS Learning Design

%he result of this all is that a teaching5learning process can be co ifie into an CML file !ith references to the learning ob+ects an services nee e to perfor# the activities$ In practice, IMS Learning Design is use to create a 9ip5file using the IMS 'ontent *ac)aging specification ('*, 200/)$ %his 9ip5file can be e"change an interprete by any learning esign a!are runti#e engine$ %his engine !ill #anage the !or)flo! (>activity #anage#ent>) by presenting all the actors !ith a e?uate activities an resources at the right ti#e in the teaching5learning process$ For instance, !hen the esign of a unit of learning is as follo!s1
6$Learners iscuss a proble# !ith each other, analyse it an search for bac)groun infor#ation$ 2$Learners iscuss possible solutions an eci e upon a preferre course of action$ %his is !ritten into a report$ 3$%he teacher rea s the report an provi es for#ative fee bac)1 a itional resources to loo) at, i entifies proble#s !ith the propose solutions$ /$%he learners correct the report an sen it in for gra ing$ 0$%he teacher gra es the report$

In this esign there is a se?uential or ering of five activities$ &ach person !ithin a learner group !ill get the first activityD this can be so#ething li)e this1
Activity Description: =ttache you !ill fin a proble# that you have to solve in collaboration !ith your fello! stu ents$ Discuss the proble# !ith your fello! stu ents (e$g$ using the foru# or in a class roo#)$ Search an stu y #aterial that you thin) is necessary for the solution of the proble# (using the library an 8or Internet resources)$ Environment learning objects and services): 5 *roble# 5 Foru# 5 Internet Eesources

%he result of the secon activity is that the learner group !ill pro uce a report (outco#e)$ %he teacher !ill be notifie that the outco#e of group C is available an s8he !ill get the support activity to

provi e fee bac) to the report$ @hen the teacher has provi e the fee bac), the learners !ill be notifie an get learning activity /$ @hen activity / is co#plete , the teacher is notifie that the report is sen in for gra ing$ %he learners again !ill get a notification of the teachers gra e$

Roadmap for Learning Design Implementation

It is goo to notice that IMS Learning Design is nothing #ore or less than the set of afore#entione co#ponents1 so#e ocu#ents an so#e bin ings$ :efore the specification can be use in practice, several tools have to be evelope 1 authoring tools, content #anage#ent syste#s an runti#e environ#ents$ %he roa #ap for the practical i#ple#entation of Learning Design !as efine as follo!s (3oper, 200/)1 6$ 2$ 3$ /$ Specification (February 2003) =!areness Eaising (February 200/) First generation of tools (February 2000) De#onstrators, usability i#prove#ent of tools, application profiles an confor#ance testing (20008200() 0$ =ctual use of Learning Design in practice an the evelop#ent of a co##unity of users (F 200()$ =t the ti#e of !riting it is .ctober 2000$ @here are !e no! in this roa #apG In the perio 200/52000, the &uropean 'o##ission fun e the pro+ect ,-F.LD (200/) to support the co5or ination an isse#ination of Learning Design activities$ %he pro+ect !as highly successful1 #any #eetings !ere organise throughout &urope$ %he participants ca#e fro# all over the !orl $ *eople presente their !or) to each other, !ere traine to use the ne!ly evelope tools, teste the interoperability of tools, iscusse the esign of ne! soft!are an infor#e each other about ne! plans$ In con+unction to this, the &, fun e the %&L'&E% pro+ect (200/) that is !or)ing on application profiles an confor#ance tests for a variety of specifications, a#ong !hich Learning Design$ %he results shoul be elivere in 200($ =lso the &, pro+ect *E.L&=E- (200/) has the co#ing years so#e !or) pac)ages that are irecte to IMS Learning Design$ .utsi e &urope, the 'ana ian L.E-&% pro+ect (200/) is, a#ong other things, !or)ing on learning esign ontologies an authoring environ#ents$ :esi es these large scale fun e E4D pro+ects, #any s#aller pro+ects, e$g$ *hD research !or), is e"ecute at the #o#ent all over the !orl $ So#e of the !or) is reporte in this special issue$ %he first tools in ee appeare in the beginning of 2000$ =t the #o#ent there are #ore then 20 ifferent tools available (see Ariffiths et al$, 2000 for a iscussion an overvie!)$ Several authoring environ#ents are available that support the evelop#ent of the learning esign CML files an 9ip5 files$ %o be #entione are Eeloa (2000), M.%H (*a?uette et al! 2000), =s)5LD% (3ara#piperis 4 Sa#pson, 2000) an 'opper=uthor (2000)$ Further#ore there is the 'opper'ore engine (Bogten 4 Martens, 2000D Martens 4 Bogten, 2000) that can interpret an set up learning esign files$ 'opper'ore ho!ever oes not provi e a user5interface (a so5calle >Learning Design *layer>)$ = player a s a user5interface, but also integrates services (chats, foru#s, etc$) that are referre to in the learning esign$ Further#ore it inclu es an a #inistration #o ule to i#port8e"port learning esign pac)ages, to create a run of a unit of learning, to a persons, to put persons in the correct roles an to connect to e"ternal syste#s (e$g$ stu ent a #inistration, portfolio syste#s, etc$)$ %here are several prototypical players available, but #ost of the# are still too un er evelope to use in actual practice$ =lso several integrate syste#s (=lfanet1 Ban Eos#alen et al$, 2000D L=MS1 Dal9iel, 2003) are available, ho!ever these are or very prototypical (=lfanet) or o not yet confor# to the IMS Learning Design specification (L=MS)$ Last but not least, there is a gro!ing set of e"a#ples an test units of learning available at #oo le$learningnet!or)s$org that can be use to e#onstrate the ifferent possibilities of learning esign$ %he challenge for the co#ing perio !ill be to buil a player an to integrate so#e of the tools into a platfor# that can be use to use learning esign

courses in actual practice$ Aiven the enor#ous a#ount of activity in the fiel , !e can e"pect that this !ill be realise in the ne"t year$ .ne factor of i#portance !ill be a ne! large &, fun e pro+ect, calle %&-'o#petence (2000) that !ill have as one of its #ain tas)s to buil an open source learning esign platfor# that can be use in lifelong co#petence evelop#ent$ Further isse#ination activities !ill be co5or inate , a#ong other initiatives, through the *E.L&=E- (200/) net!or) of e"cellence in professional learning$

Current Issues in Learning Design

=s state in the intro uction, there are several topics that are of #a+or interest at the #o#ent$ %hese !ere analyse in the e itorial of the special issue of the I&&& & ucational %echnology 4 Society +ournal, an can be su##ari9e as follo!s1 6$ %he use of ontologies an se#antic !eb principles an tools to1 a) create a ne!, an #ore precise bin ing for Learning DesignD b) integrate learning ob+ects an learning esignsD c) to represent specific pe agogical approaches (learning esign )no!le ge)D ) to buil soft!are agents that operate on the learning esign )no!le ge to support in the evelop#ent of units of learning$ 2$ %he use of learning design patterns1 a) to support learning esigners to evelop specific learning esigns (e$g$ collaborative esigns, a aptive esigns)D b) that are auto#atically etecte (pattern recognition) in Learning Design co e units of learningD c) to capture best practices an learning esign )no!le ge (relates to ontologies a c an )$ 3$ %he evelop#ent of Learning Design Aut"oring and Content #anagement Syste#s, inclu ing the follo!ing issues1 a) %he evelop#ent of a (stan ar ) graphical notation for learning esignsD b) Io! to support the reuse of Learning Design 3no!le ge an Learning Design *ac)agesD c) %he evelop#ent of learning esign specific tools to support teachers in a specific conte"tD ) %he ?uestion ho! learning esigners shoul be supporte !ith tools an ho! teachers shoul be supporte !ith tools (the teacher as a esigner)D e) %he integration of learning esign an assess#ent e itors in a single authoring environ#ent$ /$ %he evelop#ent of $earning Design Players! inclu ing the follo!ing issues1 a) Io! to integrate the variety of specifications (eg, IMS LD, IMS J%I, S'.EM, IMS LI*) an the connections to other syste#s in an e5learning infrastructure (stu ent a #inistration, portfolio syste#s, financial syste#s) into a single, easy to use learning environ#ent$ b) Io! to instantiate an integrate co##unication an collaboration services that are calle by a Learning Design$ &g, foru#s, !i)i>s, chatsD are generic service oriente architectures suitable to o the +obG =t !hat costsGD c) Io! to esign a usable, po!erful an fle"ible user5interface for a *layer environ#entG ) Io! to integrate Learning Design into e"isting Learning Manage#ent Syste#s (li)e Moo le, :lac)boar an L=MS)G e) Io! to integrate Learning Design =uthoring Syste#s an Learning Design *layers, inclu ing the ?uestion ho! to eal !ith runti#e a aptationsG 0$ Io! to use an integrate set of Learning Design tools in an integrate !ay in a variety of settings (e$g$ in universities, training, blen e learning)$

Conclusion
In this paper, the IMS Learning Design specification is shortly su##ari9e , a roa #ap is presente

for its i#ple#entation an current issues in research, evelop#ent an i#ple#entation are specifie $ In the references you can fin a variety of resources that you can rea or use to )no! #ore about IMS Learning Design$ %he specification is consi ere to be of enor#ous i#portance to the e5learning fiel , because it offers the functionality to create si#ple an a vance course pac)ages that o #ore then presenting so#e se?uence content to learners$ %he IMS Learning Design specification is nee e to create interoperable, fle"ible, effective, efficient an attractive e5learning courses that are heavily nee e to ay$ Io!ever, !e are still so#e!here half!ay on the roa #ap for real i#ple#entations1 user frien ly tools an goo practices involving real users have to be evelope the co#ing years$

References
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