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TECHNICAL STANDARDS FOR THE DIGITAL EDUCATION REVOLUTION NEWSLETTER
June 2010: Issue 6

ITInteroperability is a newsletter aimed at informing you about technical, standards and interoperability projects pertinent to education in Australia. It includes news items on local interoperability projects as well as summarising activity in international standards bodies relevant to education in Australia.

This is the final edition of the relatively short lived ITInteroperability. This newsletter has been part of the Technical Standards Project funded by DEEWR under the Digital Education Revolution. The newsletter formed a component of the overall engagement with the education community and has attempted to keep the community aware of relevant global activities.

While the Technical Standards project concludes on 30 June 2010, the work of developing adapting and implementing specifications is ongoing and regular communication and engagement across the education sectors is critical. In the immediate period beyond 30 June 2010, the e-learning initiatives section of DEEWR has carriage of establishing new arrangement for this work.

All outputs from the project can be found at Technical Standards for Digital Education Project.

We hope you have found ITInteroperability a useful information source. Members of the USQ-Link Affiliates team would like to thank everyone who contributed to the project especially members of the focus groups. No doubt we will meet in other forums in the future.

Australian News


Technical Standards for Digital Education - Digital Education Revolution (DER) Final Focus Group Meeting and Highlights

The DEEWR funded Technical Standards for Digital Education Project is due to finish at the end of June 2010, so it is timely to once again thank all of the jurisdiction representatives that provided input and guidance to the project.

In 2009 at the request of the Link Affiliates team, DEEWR invited jurisdictions to nominate key people to participate in a number of focus groups, reflecting the key topic areas being investigated by the project including:

  • 21st Century Curriculum Content
  • Accessibility
  • Curriculum Description
  • Lesson Plans
  • Learning Content Discovery and Exchange
  • E-Portfolio Technologies
  • Integrated Learning Environments

In some cases, focus groups also included representatives from key organisations such as Education Services Australia, the Australian Human Rights Commission, and representatives from Vocational Education and Training and Higher Education.

This process has enabled many rich cross-jurisdictional discussions to take place. Focus group members have been able to actively engage with the Technical Standards project and it has also given people an opportunity to hear about trends and influences in other jurisdictions.

Our experience suggests that such groups work best when there is a shared goal that the group is working towards, and having someone to coordinate meetings and follow up on actions obviously helps. As our work progressed, it also became apparent that there were some overlaps in the topics of the focus groups, and the Link Affiliates team have provided some advice to DEEWR on how some of the topic areas could be merged if such focus groups are to continue.

The Link Affiliates team enjoyed the opportunity to receive feedback and input from focus group members, and we're grateful for the knowledge and experience people were able to contribute. The focus groups have been instrumental in shaping and informing the outcomes of the project. The last meeting of focus groups took place on the 17 June and was a combined one. It was an opportunity to share knowledge and outputs across the focus groups and point to future directions.

More information:


Results from the International IMS Learning Impact Awards (LIA)

This year's international Learning Impact Awards was held in Long Beach, California from 17-20 May. There were three Australian entries in this year's competition who were finalists from the Australian Regional finals held at this year's IDEA10 series of events in Melbourne. They performed exceedingly well yet again against a strong international contingent. All three entries received awards for their applications of technology that address the significant challenges facing education, including in the:

  • Established category:
    • Bronze Award: Tasmania Polytechnic and Skills Institute's Mobile Assessment and Online Recognition using QTI solutions
  • New/R&D category:
    • Silver Award: Western Sydney Institute of TAFE's Mobilae - mobile learning, assessment and evidence gathering
    • Bronze Award: Education Services Australia's Personal / Professional learning network

The Australian entrants were very pleased with the results they achieved. The quality of all entrants was exceedingly high and there was strong representation from large, multinational vendors through to smaller educational organisations. The award process was highly competitive with each entrant having up to 5 minutes to impress the judges and conference delegates. There were approximately 250 delegates to present to in small groups over a two hour period. All entrants deserve some form of recognition for simply getting through the judging process. It was very pleasing to see the ePortfolio application PebblePad from the University of Wolverhampton winning a platinum award in recognition for all they have achieved. The Learning Impact Awards are designed to recognise the most impactful use of technology worldwide in support of learning. This unique program evaluates established, new, and research efforts in context at an implementing learning institution.

More information:


VET Sector updates

  • VET Teachers E-learning Toolkit update

    The USQ-Link Affiliates team were contracted to conduct a survey and a series of interviews to update the VET Teacher E-learning Toolkit and its companion document, Commonly-used E-learning Applications and Tools in VET. VET teaching practitioners were asked to provide information on the e-Learning tools and applications they were using in the delivery of learning content, and report some of the problems in using these tools. Secondary to this was the identification of new tools and functionality that does not currently sit within the VET teacher E-Learning toolkit. IT staff were asked to provide additional information on the requirements needed to support these tools and applications within their organisation.

    A revised version of both documents will be submitted to the E-standards Expert Group (EEG) for review in August/September 2010.

    More information:

  • m-Learning standards review

    The USQ-Link Affiliates team have been commissioned to review the VET mobile technology standards and client platform information for mobile devices published by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. This review and update process aims to ensure that the current formats, specifications and equipment identified continue to reflect the needs of the VET e-learning practitioner. Mobile formats and devices that were identified in the 2008 and 2009 VET emerging technology trials will also be assessed and tested within an authentic VET teaching environment.

    Updates to the m-learning standards documents will be submitted to the EEG for review in September 2010.

    More information on the current m-Learning standards:

  • 2010 Emerging technology trials

    Since 2008, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework) has made funding available to registered training organisations (RTOs) for the trialling of emerging technologies.

    The purpose of this annual funding opportunity is to explore emerging technologies and identify areas where future standards work may be required. The trials are also an important tool for identifying ways that the emerging technologies may be utilised in teaching and learning in the wider national training system. Six emerging technology trials were recently announced for 2010:

    1. NSW New England Institute of TAFE: iPhones and virtual training rooms will be used in this trial to deliver training and professional development to builders anywhere, anytime
    2. Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE: This trial will pilot augmented reality technology on mobile phones (eg Wikitude) to deliver a range of media to enhance the geographical locations captured via the compass sensors and GPS systems in mobile devices.
    3. TAFE SA Adelaide North Institute: The trial team will explore whether electronic versions of printed books (e-books) can provide streamlined training that can be accessed at a time and place convenient to the learner, increasing time on the job for apprentices in the beauty industry.
    4. Tasmanian Polytechnic: This trial will research current experiences and practices in virtual world projects to develop standards and guidelines to increase reliability, interoperability and reduce access issues for teachers, trainers and learners.
    5. Box Hill Institute: This work will explore how iPods, smart phones and social learning tools can be used to enhance course engagement and retention for a group of disenfranchised learners.
    6. Wodonga Institute of TAFE: An investigation of streaming point of view (POV) digital footage into live classrooms will be undertaken, in order to bridge large distances when providing training to geographically dispersed commercial cookery apprentices.

    More information:


Croger Audit and Roadmap released

Croger Associates Pty Ltd was engaged by DEEWR to assist in the development of a road map for improving interoperability in the Australian education sector. The road map is based on an audit of the current state regarding the interoperability of systems and infrastructure throughout the sector. The Australian education sector co-operates on the use of ICT for education through AICTEC (the Australian ICT in Education Committee). NIDAAG (the National Interoperability and Digital Architecture Advisory Group) has been established to advise AICTEC about interoperability.

The final report of a high-level audit and assessment of interoperability in the Australian education sector is available on the AITEC website.


International News


Kuali Open Library Environment

We have reported in a previous newsletter about the Kuali Open Library Environment project, intended to develop open source library software for the University sector. The Kuali foundation held a workshop at Colorado State University, during which the Kuali OLE partners met to get the project started (officially the project begins July 1), and decide how to proceed and what its initial scope should be. The workshop established the core user stories that the software will address, and the range of user roles that will interact with the software.

While the partners are from US universities, the e-Framework is participating in the project: the e-Framework will contribute user perspectives on behalf of the UK library sector, and it will help document the external-facing interfaces of the planned software in a service-oriented way, using e-Framework methodologies. Kuali is required to produce a working demonstration of core functionality by the end of the first year of funding; the workshop agreed that the priority for service development will be functionality around acquiring resources; this will "drive a spike" through many of the services required for the system, and includes such functions as purchasing, interlibrary loans, and licensing. Acquisition functionality also includes electronic resource management, which is a particular pain point for the UK library sector.

More information:


News from Standards Bodies


IMS Global Learning Consortium

... creating standards for the development and adoption of technology-enhanced learning
  • The Basic Learning Tools Interoperability Standard, for which we reported public review in the preceding newsletter, is now being finalised. The LTI specification, of which Basic LTI is the first phase, enables interoperability between educational applications and learning management platforms; as a lightweight integration protocol it has aroused considerable interest in the US market, and is also being explored for use in Australia.
  • The Learning Object Discovery and Exchange (LODE) base document has been released. LODE focuses on interoperability in the discovery of both learning content, and of the repositories that host them; the base document specifies a base information model for resource search, a model for describing repositories and their discovery interfaces, and ILOX, a model for organising search results that are at some level the same (different versions, formats, locations). The Link Affiliates team has contributed extensively to the development of LODE, representing the Australian Education sector.
  • The Learning Information Services (LIS) v2.0 specification, has been released for public review and comment. LIS defines how systems manage the exchange of information that describes people, groups, memberships, courses and outcomes within the context of learning; it uses open web services and covers learner cohort provisioning, gradebook exchange, and student systems applications. LTI has some overlap with the scope of SIF, although LIS is primarily intended for tertiary sector use.
  • The IMS Access For All v2.0 Final Specification is now complete; it incorporates a Digital Resource Description (for accessibility metadata on the learning resource), and a Personal Needs and Preferences Description (for specifying accessibility requirements from the user). The new release is consistent with the ISO/IEC 24751 Access For All standard, itself based on an earlier version of this IMS specification.
  • The next quarterly meeting of IMS will be held at the University of Koblenz in Germany, 2-5 August 2010.

More information:


Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI)

Version 1.0 of IMS Basic LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) has been formally approved. LTI address the need for software platforms such as Learning Management Systems to integrate with services such as those offered with Web 2.0. LTI is an important specification for IMS and heralds the recognition that traditional software platforms will need to integrate and interact with services from the 'cloud'. There is increasing recognition from vendors and customers alike that increasingly services will move to the cloud rather than being deployed on customer infrastructure. Vendors see this as an opportunity to decrease their costs. It is envisaged they will save development costs from having to be able to support multiple hardware and software environments by deploying their solutions in the cloud. Cost savings can then be redirected to increased investment in newer and richer functionality. Customers potentially obtain cost benefits too through not having to invest and maintain their own dedicated hardware and software platforms. LTI is in part a response to the way Web 2.0 and the world of mashups is reshaping the way we use the Web. New tools and services are becoming available daily for Internet users. Many of these services will have applicability in teaching and learning settings. LMS and other vendors cannot hope to keep up with the rate of change and introduction of new services. LTI helps them and their users to integrate new services from the cloud into their LMS environment, allowing for new teaching and learning opportunities. Basic LTI addresses the launching of such services/tools from the LMS. Full LTI will support more complex integration scenarios and will be released at a later date.

More information:


OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards)

... driving the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society

The following specifications are entering public review:

More information can be found at Oasis (News - April, May 2010):


W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)

... developing interoperable technologies

The following news items have been announced recently by W3C:

More information:


About ITinteroperability

This newsletter is an output of the Technical Standards and Specifications: Development and Deployment for the Digital Education Revolution (DER) Project - funded by the Australian Government's Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).

The Link Affiliates team who contribute to the newsletter are part of the Australian Digital Futures Institute (ADFI) at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). To keep up to date with Link Affiliates activities go to:

Please send feedback to: linkaffiliates@usq.edu.au


Unless specifically indicated, the views expressed in this newsletter are the personal opinions of the contributors and may not represent the opinion of the University of Southern Queensland or any associated projects or funding bodies - please refer to the Policies/Disclaimers page.


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