On 8th November 2006 the IMS LD Summit was held at the OUNL in the Netherlands. The summit provided an update on the latest uses of the IMS LD specification, and a chance to get input from IMS on their view of the future. There was also an open market were participants could have a close look at applications which use the specification.

The event was opened by Rob Abel, the CEO of IMS Global Learning, who provided an IMS Global Learning Consortium Overview. He stressed IMS's enduring purpose to promote innovation, adoption and learning. The stress on adoption was related to an announcement that the regular IMS Alt-i-lab conference will now be called Learning Impact, and will host the an Awards and Recognition Program, which will showcase effective use of IMS specifications. The first conference in the new
format will be in Vancouver, British Columbia the 16th - 19th April 2007, as announced on the IMS site. Rob Abel stressed the significance of the new Common Cartridge specification, which he has received significant support from vendors. Some people at the event described Common Cartridge as being 'like SCORM but aimed at Higher Education rather than training, and without the tracking of page turning'. You might like to look at the Sakai Video Report on Common Cartridge.

Rob Koper then gave an overview of OUNL/LD work, explaining its origins in work carried out on EML by OUNL between 2000 and 2003. He then described the benefits which IMS LD can offer, and gave an introduction to the TENCompetence project, sponsor of the event, which is using IMS LD in the context of Life Long Competency Development.

The next session was a Demonstration of formative assessment with IMS LD and QTI, by Colin Tattersall, Daniel Burgos and Hubert Vogten of the OUNL. The use of IMS LD together with IMS QTI in the same Unit of Learning has not been simple for authors, and this demonstration showed how it
can be done. This work is related to that being done in TENCompetence on assessment processes (computer supported collaborative assessment, peer assessment, 360 degree feedback, portfolio assessment...

My own presentation, Dai Griffiths on IMS-LD, Progress and prospects, set out to provide some
perspective on what IMS LD is trying to achieve, the challenges which it is facing, and to give an overview of work being carried out in Europe and the UK. In this I was assisted by Sheila MacNeil who is
working on the Design for Learning programme funded by JISC.

I was impressed how many currently active initiatives we were able to discuss. At the bottom of this page I've put a list of currently active LD projects which I
mentioned in my presentation or which I saw at the summit. There are no doubt more out there, and I'd welcome information from anyone who tell me about more to add. A number of these projects are
building on existing Open Source LD applications, such as CopperCore, Reload and SleD (see UNFOLD for a list which includes this earlier work).

Jean-Philippe Pernin and Anne Lejeune gave a presentation on Learning Design: the “French Touch”, outlining IMS LD activity in France, which many of us in the English
speaking world are often largely unaware of. They described a French take on the specification and some of the applications which are being developed.

Sue Bennett of the University of Wollongong, Australia, described the work which they have been doing on Learning designs: Creating strategies and tools to support university teaching. They have created and investigated clear and easy to use representations of pedagogic designs, and are now working on creating tools and
processes which can embed these in teachers working environment. We were delighted to hear that this work has been funded, and that a new project with UOW, OUNL and Janison Solutions will shortly be commencing.

A list of currently active LD Projects (please let me know about any more that I can add !)

• JISC Funded Design for Learning Projects

  
  

• LD4P The project is developing an interface for the Reload Learning Design Editor suitable for use by teaching practitioners, producing learning designs, and investigating sharing.

  
  

• D4LD. The project is working to improve the stability of the SLeD Learning Design player, provide access to LD courses, integrate with courses from other institutions, and offer a component within the design for learning framework.

  
  

• Projects funded by the IST programme of the European Commission

  
  

• TENCompetence, as mentioned above, is working with LD in the context of Life Long Competence development, and is producing tools for creating Units of Learning as well as run time systems, and a specification for using additional services in Units of Learning.
  

  
  

• The Prolearn Network of Excellence has a strand looking at IMS LD in the context of professional learning.

  
  

• The iClass integrated project has developed ASK-LDT, a graphical authoring tool for Learning Design.
  

  
  

• The Prolix integrated project, which is using the specification to plan the learning activities needed when a change in a business process occurs.

  
  

• Calibrate, a STREP project which is providing tools for teachers based on IMS LD for use in the collaborative exchange of learning resources in schools.

  
  

• The Cooper project is using IMS LD in their work supporting long-distance cooperation of teams of students working on complex projects

  
  

• Funded by the Leonardo programme of the Europan Commission

  
  

• OpenDock, a Leonardo programme project which is developing an IMS LD aware repository called OpenDocument.net and demonstrator for Vocational Education and Training.

  
  

• Other initiatives

  
  

• LAMS sent a message to the Summit which announced the availability of the first version of IMS LD level A export

  
  

• .LRN LD modules (A, B and C) were demonstrated at the Open Market, and there is also a User Guide

  
  

• Moodle includes IMS LD compatibility on its development road map.

  
  

• The Cosmos IMS LD editor, being developed by Yongwu Miao at OUNL (shown at the open market at the Summit)

  
  

• Work on Graphical authoring of IMS LD at Complutense University of Madrid (shown at the open market at the Summit)

  
  

• The ModX graphic tool which supports IMS LD

  
  
  
  

Posted by Dai Griffiths, Reader in eLearning, CETIS the University of Bolton, 20th November 2006