Practical Interoperability: Current issues and future directions

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Practical Interoperability Current issues and
future directions

• Sandy Britain
• for
• Ministry of Education

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A brief history of interoperability in
educational technology

• Traditionally administrative and academic
  sub-systems have been loosely connected

Administration
Teaching and Learning
Enrolment
Certification
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Electronic systems deployed in administrative area
Teaching and learning
Student Records System
Library System
Finance System
Research
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Then came networks, the internet, e-learning and
e-research

LMS systems
SRS
Digital content
Library System
Collaborative Software
Finance System
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Issue for institutions duplicating systems and
data
new LMS
All in one ? Content management ? Discover ? Cat
aloguing ? Course management ? Authentication ? Au
thorization ? Packaging
Now includes ? Content management ? Discover ?
Collaboration ? Course management ?
Authentication ? Authorization ? Packaging ?
Assessment
Complete solution ? Grading ? Audit ? Report ?
Course management ? Authentication ?
Authorization
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Issues for institutions

• Incompatible data formats
• Proprietary systems
• Duplication of functionality
• Paying for multiple systems...
• ...and to maintain data in multiple locations

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Possible Solutions

• Build key system functionality into a single
  product
• Create bespoke integrations between existing
  systems
• Get systems and data to work together (achieve
  interoperability) by defining open standard
  interface specifications
• Disaggregate existing systems into lightweight
  components with middleware layer

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IMS

• Metadata
• Content Packaging
• QTI
• Accessibility
• Enterprise
• Learner Information Profiling(LIP)
• Learning Design
• Digital Repositories Framework

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LMS systems
SRS
Enterprise
Content Packaging
Digital content
Library System
Metadata
Collaborative Software
Finance System
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Quick summary

• Interoperability is highly desirable if not
  essential
• Standards are necessary
• Specifications are one way to approach creating
  useful standards

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So far so good. But what does this mean in
practice in an institutional context?
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Content Interoperability

• Problem develop structured educational content
  in one application and then transport to run in
  another application
• Solution IMS content packaging, SCORM

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Enterprise Interoperability

• Problem Moving student and Course data from
  student records system to LMS system
• Applicable standards specification IMS
  Enterprise
• Issues Slow uptake of specs by vendors,
  heavy-weight specification, perceived as simpler
  and more cost-effective to create a lightweight
  bespoke solution

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Tools interoperability (Teacher)

• Problem The institutions LMS is a good tool
  for structuring and managing my course but
• For authoring content it is slow and inefficient
• I have other tools I want to use for creating
  specific lessons but dont want to confuse
  learners

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Demonstration of tools interoperability

• Moodle is the LMS
• eXe is the Content Authoring System
• LAMS is a specialist activity sequence creation
  and management system

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The power of this demonstrator

• Can author sophisticated content outside of the
  LMS
• Can embed complex and active tools within a
  course management environment
• Provides flexibility for the course author and
  coherence for the student

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What does the demonstrator show

• From a teacher perspective there is great benefit
  to being able to have interoperable tools
• There arent standards to do this at present
• Helps point the way for standards development
• Indicates where there is duplication of
  functionality in existing systems
• So do we need a new approach to building learning
  systems?