A Survey of E-learning ContentAggregation Standards

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal

August 14, 2014

KMEL’14The 4th International Symposium on

Knowledge Management & E-LearningTallinn, Estonia

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Outline

1 Motivation2 Content Aggregation Specifications

1 IMS Content Packaging2 ADL SCORM3 IMS Common Cartridge4 Tin Can (xAPI)5 Aggregation Standards comparision

3 Ensemble framework1 Architecture2 Data Model3 GUI4 Experiment

4 Conclusions

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Motivation

E-Learning Interoperability

Impressive evolution of e-learning

Specialized and disparate systems appeared to fulfil the needsof teachers/students in formal/informal learning

repositories of learning objectsauthoring toolsintelligent tutorsautomatic evaluatorsrecommendation systemslearning management systems

Heterogeneity raises interoperability issues

Solution: standardization of content

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Motivation

E-Learning Framework

Creation of the Ensemble E-Learning Framework (EeF)

to foster the practice of computer programmingto facilitate the teaching-learning process of computerprogramming

Need to formalize content (programming exercises) amongseveral heterogeneous systems

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Content Aggregation Specifications

Learning Objects (LO)

Any chunk of decontextualized learning information, digital ornon-digital (e.g. image, text, video, game or sound)

Lego bricks approach: packaging of LOs of low granularityinto larger granularity objects

Used as components to assemble larger learning modules orcomplete courses (content packaging)

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Content Aggregation Specifications

Learning Objects > Content Package

File (e.g. ZIP) with a XML manifest and content resources

Manifest describes the LO using a metadata standard (LOM)

Several content aggregation formats:1 IMS Contant Packaging2 ADL SCORM / Next Generation SCORM (eXperience API)3 IMS Common Cartridge

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Content Aggregation Specifications

IMS Content Packaging (IMS CP)

Launched in 2000 by IMS Global

Assembles resources and metadata into an archive in ZIPformat with its content described in a XML manifest filenamed imsmanifest.xml

Contains the following sections:1 Metadata - describes the package as a whole2 Organizations - describes the organization of the content

within a manifest3 Resources - contains references to resources (files) needed for

the manifest and metadata describing these resources4 Sub-manifests - defines sub packages

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Content Aggregation Specifications

IMS Content Packaging (IMS CP)

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Content Aggregation Specifications

Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)

Launched in 2000 by ADL

Application profile for content packaging that extends IMS CP

Defines a set of rules for the communication between clientside content and a host system called the run-timeenvironment (e.g. LMS)

Introduced a complex idea called sequencing, which is a set ofrules that specifies the order in which a learner mayexperience content objects

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Content Aggregation Specifications

Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Content Aggregation Specifications

SCORM Next Generation - Experience API (xAPI)

Released as version 1.0 in April of 2013 by Rustici Software

Records and tracks all types of learning experiences

Learning experiences are simple statements in a ”Noun, Verb,Object” format

Learning experiences are recorded in a Learning Record Store(LRS)

LRSs can exist within traditional Learning ManagementSystems (LMSs) or on their own

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Content Aggregation Specifications

SCORM Next Generation (Tin Can API)

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Content Aggregation Specifications

IMS Common Cartridge (IMS CC)

Launched in 2008 by IMS

Open format for the distribution of rich web-based content

Organizes and describes a learning object based on two levelsof interoperability:

contentcommunication

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Content Aggregation Specifications

IMS Common Cartridge (IMS CC)

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Content Aggregation Specifications

Aggregation Standards comparision

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Ensemble Framework

Architecture

a network of e-Learning systems participating inteaching-learning process in complex domains.

Composed by the following systems and tools:

Learning Objects Repository - to store/retrieve exercisesEvaluation Engine - to evaluate students exercisesLearning Management System - to present exercisesIntegrated Development Environment - to code the exercises

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Ensemble Framework

Data Model

Formalize programming exercises as learning objects.

IMS CC was the selected specification

the support to represent an entire course with different levelsof authorization (e.g. administrators, teachers, students)the massive support for systems interoperability using the freshLTI specification

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Ensemble Framework

GUI

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Ensemble Framework

Experiment

Conducted at ESEIG - Polytechnic Institute of Porto

First-year Mechanical Engineering students

Algorithms and Programming course

Two classes:

Experimental group - use EnsembleControl group - use traditional approach

Experiment occurred in 6 lab sessions

In each session students had 3 exercises to solve

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Ensemble Framework

Experiment

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Conclusions

This study is part of an effort to choose the most suitablespecifications and standards for an e-learning framework calledEnsemble

It gathers information on e-learning content aggregation mostprominent specifications (e.g., IMS CP, SCORM, XAPI andIMS CC)

We concluded that the most suitable specification for theEnsemble framework is IMS CC specification. Main reasons:

the support to represent an entire course with different levelsof authorization (e.g. administrators, teachers, students)the massive support for systems interoperability using the freshLTI specification

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards

Questions

Thanks very much!Questions?

http://www.eseig.ipp.pt/docentes/raq

Ricardo Queiros and Jose Paulo Leal A Survey of E-learning Content Aggregation Standards