I have just come from a meeting today about the JTAP programme, where
everyone seems to be getting excited about some of the implications of the
IMS project, which I know very little about. Called I think the
Instructional Management System, it is based in Educom. A quick quote from
its scope pages (found from the main web pages at
http://www.imsproject.org/):
"The IMS project has undertaken a broad scope of work. Building out from
the requirement for interoperability of instructional content and
management systems and from the requirement for working within complex
educational enterprises, we have identified five main areas in which we
are developing specifications and building prototype code:
"* Meta-data, the labeling of educational materials
"* Content, the actions and responses that IMS-compliant content may
perform
"* Management functions such as access control, session management,
tracking students' progress through learning processes, control over the
virtual learning environment, and security.
"* Profiles of students and instructors that include personal,
performance, and preference information.
"* External Interfaces to services external to the core management system
such as electronic commerce, backoffice, full-text indexing systems,
digital library services, and databases."
I believe JTAP has funded an IMS Centre of some kind, although I don't
have the URL at this stage.
There has always been too little linkage between the eLib programme and
developments in teaching and learning technology (including TLTP, TLTSN,
CTI etc), and also too little linkage with JTAP. My questions:
a) Does the advent of IMS represent a genuine opportunity to move towards
greater linkage?
b) Should some existing eLib projects be "encouraged" (;-) to move towards
use of IMS? If so, which kinds of projects?
c) Given the words above, and the idea of "information landscapes" with
some definition by lecturers and some modification by students themselves,
should IMS be important for hybrid library projects in particular?
--
Chris Rusbridge
Programme Director, Electronic Libraries Programme
The Library, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
Phone 01203 524979 Fax 01203 524981
Email [log in to unmask]
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