Are Education Technology Interoperability Standards Creating the Future?

1. Are Education Technology Interoperability Standards Creating the Future? Rob Abel, Ed.D. IMS Global Learning Consortium http://www.imsglobal.org/ rabel@imsglobal.org Twitter: #LearningImpact

2. Latest IMS Initiative: Open Educational Resources in the Cloud via Wave also known as: OER-Cloud-Wave

3. News Alert: 2006!

4. Standards consortia like IMS with a membership model are a thing of the past!

5. If it wasn’t for SCORM, there would be no need for IMS!

6. Well, whatever you do you better call it SCORM if you want people to like it!

7. Yeah, I’ve been involved in IMS and helped develop specification xxx, that stuff will never work!

8. You will never be able to get dominant suppliers to implement open standards!

9. Ed Walker is the same age as you Rob, all that grey hair is just a result of all the stress of IMS!

10. The “Hype” Cycle for LearningTech Standards? 1999-2000 ? 2005-7 1995-6

12. Are Education Technology Interoperability Standards Creating the Future?

13. Agenda • Is IMS work innovative? • The challenge of interoperability standards adoption in the education segments • What we think we might have learned in the last 6 years • Where do we go from here?

14. Definition of Innovation

17. IMS Mission Statement The mission of the IMS Global Learning Consortium is to advance technology that can affordably scale and improve educational participation and attainment

18. IMS GLC Mirrors The Market Ecosystem Collaboration Across Stakeholders Research & developmenton standards & interoperability Education Institutions, Districts, Systems • Acquire products adhering to standards to achieve strategic goals • R&D Education • Institutions Government Organizations • Set standards to ensure progress • Create and/or adhere to standards to enable market efficiency and opportunity • Suppliers

19. Are Education Technology Interoperability Standards Creating the Future?

20. Are Education Technology Interoperability Standards Enabling Innovation and Being Widely Adopted?

21. Innovation Scale? • Widely accepted, substantial improvement • Widely accepted, minor improvement • Somewhat accepted, substantial improvement • Somewhat accepted, minor improvement • Not yet accepted, substantial improvement • Not yet accepted, minor improvement

22. iPhone 3 roads 15 years

23. There Are Many Potential Roads An Innovation May Take And it’s Usually a Long Road

24. Agenda • Is IMS work innovative? • The challenge of interoperability standards adoption in the education segments • What we think we might have learned in the last 6 years • Where do we go from here?

25. Interoperability Standardsare Widely Adopted When: • Supplier Motivation is High, or • Buyers Care and Their Bargaining Power is High, or • Both Are True

26. Bringing the Horses to Waterin Emerging Markets Realization of Market Opportunity or Cost Savings Opportunity $$$

27. There Are Many Challenges • Market opportunity: Generally more prudent to invest in products than standards • Cost savings opportunity: You need to invest first before realizing savings • Entrenched interests in proprietary approaches

28. Attractive Industry-drivenAlternatives • Google • Apple • Adobe • Microsoft • Amazon • Other large suppliers

30. Consortium-Driven Standardsare Successful When • Suppliers Believe the Market Opportunity is Greater for Them by Cooperating with Others, or • Buyer Bargaining Power is High and Well-Coordinated, or • Ideally, Both

31. Buyer Bargaining Power isHigh When Dispersion is Reduced vs. vs.

32. This . . . .

33. ‘Checkmarks’ Are Not Enough “Vendors know the difference between clients’ asking for standards “compatibility” in order to check off a box on an RFP . . . that is why we must include true, tested, guaranteed interoperability as a priority in our purchasing decisions, and why we must pressure our current support vendors to provide it as a condition of their continuing good business relations with us.” -- Charles F. Leonhardt, Principal Technologist, Georgetown University

34. Net-Net Buyer awareness & support Enabling standard that delivers Viable Consortial Standard Perceived market opportunity Community commitment

35. Agenda • Is IMS work innovative? • The challenge of interoperability standards adoption in the education segments • What we think we might have learned in the last 6 years • Where do we go from here?

36. Learnings #1 • Standards need to be shaped/adjusted continuously by the practical and entrepreneurial needs of the market • Prime example: QTI v1.2  QTI v2  APIP  Future the inevitability of e-Assessment;

37. Learnings #2 • Suppliers must have a motivation to adopt; the motivation is always economic; voluntary adoption is the best test • Prime example: LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) becoming the best way to integrate

38. Learnings #3 • Mainstream end-users have the most to say about what is innovative in the end, but they are difficult to engage in the beginning; ease of use is most important factor • Prime example: Common Cartridge national standards, OER, e-textbook

39. Learnings #4 • Education segment standards consortia can succeed but they must be able to gather the resources to catalyze all of the above and most importantly deliver on interoperability

40. Net-Net Buyer awareness & support Enabling standard that delivers Viable Consortial Standard Perceived market opportunity Community commitment

41. How Do WeDo It? Annual Learning Impact Conference & LIA Awards Large-Scale Adoption Projects Ed Tech Interoperability Standards Technical Foundation for Distributed Innovation Adoption of Innovation at Scale Toward Strategic Goals Recognizing Impact on Access, Affordability, Quality of Education Purposeful Technology Innovation Applied to Improve Education

43. Learnings • Standards need to be shaped continuously by the practical and entrepreneurial needs of the market • Suppliers must have a motivation to adopt; the motivation is always economic; voluntary adoption is the best test • Mainstream end-users have the most to say about what is innovative in the end, but they are difficult to engage in the beginning; ease of use is most important factor • Education segment standards consortia can succeed but they must be able to gather the resources to catalyze all of the above and most importantly deliver on interoperability

44. Agenda • Is IMS work innovative? • The challenge of interoperability standards adoption in the education segments • What we think we might have learned in the last 6 years • Where do we go from here?

45. The Challenge & Opportunity:Instructional Improvement needs to be implemented This across all of this While Doing More with Less . . .

46. The Sea Change:Interoperability at the Core of the Academic Enterprise to Enable Efficiency, Flexibility, Innovation, a Better User Experience and Actionable Data

47. From Many, One

48. Summary • While there is still quite a lot of work to do . . . • Education technology standards seem to have a role in creating the future . . . • But to have a higher impact on innovation going forward we will need (1) standards at the core and (2) continued/more activism in various communities around the world . . .

50. Thank You!rabel@imsglobal.orghttp://www.imsglobal.org/@LearningImpact#imsglobal