Are Education Technology Interoperability Standards Creating the Future?

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘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

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

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?

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;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

From Many, One

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 . . .

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

Are Education Technology Interoperability Standards Creating the Future?