Riina: What are the aims regarding IMS Learning Design in your project?
Dai: I am working on the SCOPE project, and we are using the IMS Learning Design standard to implement a training course. I am convinced that this new standard, which was approved as a final specification 10th of February 2003, will bring a number of important practical benefits to teachers and the education agencies which support their work.

Riina: What could be the advantage of using Learning Design compared to ordinary metadata?
Dai: There are a vast number of documents and applications available on the web which can be used in teaching, both free of charge and for sale. Finding the document you need, however, is a challenging task, even with the help of a search engine. While it may be possible to find a document, it is much more difficult to locate one which is intended for an audience of, for example, ten year old primary school children. A number of metadata standards have been established, and if appropriate metadata has been included (and this is a big "if") then it becomes much easier to find useful documents.

What metadata does not do, however, is give a teacher or parent any idea of what learning activities might be possible with the resources that have been found. This is where IMS Learning Design has a key role to play.

Riina: What kind of elements do you use that makes Learning Design pedagogically specific?
Dai: Using Learning Design a description can be created in XML which defines a Unit of Learning. The elements include :

• the resources used (such as web pages, programs, paper documents...) 
• instructions for learning activities
• templates for structured interactions
• conceptual models (e.g., problem-based learning
• learning goals, objectives and outcomes
• assessment tools and strategies

Riina: Well, this sounds to me like a learning resource. Is one “Unit of Learning” same as one learning resource?
Dai: As can be seen, the learning resources (documents, web pages, applications...) are only one of the elements of a Unit of Learning, and indeed the same document may appear in a number of different Units of Learning serving a quite different purpose in each. This approach holds out the promise of teachers being able to exchange, browse and search for learning materials which match their own pedagogic approach, target learners, assessment strategies, etc.

When teachers find the Unit of Learning, the way in which it is intended to be used will also be clearly described. Clearly, for this approach to be widely accepted, it is vital that Learning Design does not impose a particular pedagogical perspective on its users. Because of this it has been specified not as a limited number of pedagogical templates, but as a language which can be used to describe any learning methodology, ranging from, for example, discussion groups with no content materials, to structured read and test approaches with no personal contact.

Learning Design is the only standard available which has this range of pedagogic expressivity. Another aspect which sets apart Learning Design is that it moves beyond defining learning activities to be carried out by a single user, and supports the definition of activities involving groups of people, whose states change as activity develops, and also includes interactive services in the Unit of Study.

Riina: So do you think this might help teachers actually to plan a lesson?
Dai: In some ways, then, from the perspective of the teacher or educational agency Learning Design can be seen as a sophisticated and standardised planning methodology, which enables learning activities to be defined to a high level of detail and shared between teachers and learners.

Riina: Do you think this could help teachers to save time?
Dai: It can offer a great deal more. A Learning Design Unit of Study explicitly states all the information required for setting up a learning activity. Consequently, if the activity is carried out using web documents (1), then it is possible to take a Unit of Study and automatically set up and run the learning activities defined.

This is done by an application known as a "player", which generates a set of web pages, and manages the interactions of the learner with the system, other learners and teacher. This functionality holds the promise of great time savings, especially in preparing for complex activities, for example a negotiation simulation (2). These time savings are still greater if one considers that reuse of a complex unit of study like this may be simply a matter of changing a few roles to fit a new learning context.

Riina: When a resource has been described, can it be re-used?
Dai: More radical adaptations of the Unit of Study are also possible, so, continuing with the example of a negotiation activity, new material and resources could convert a peace negotiation into a negotiation about handling an environmental catastrophe, while maintaining the logic of the negotiation and the flow of activities.

Riina: Sounds interesting, but when can the public get their hands on this?
Dai: IMS Learning Design is has now been approved, and the first players for Learning Design will become available in 2003, together with commercial and opensource tools which will make the standard manageable by non experts.

Riina: Thanks for this interesting moment. Can people contact you?
Dai: If you would like more information on this, please feel free to contact me at david.griffiths@tecn.upf.es.

SCOPE project: http://www.tecn.upf.es/scope/

---

(1) Learning Design can be used in any technological context, and does not have to be used in conjunction with the web or any other technological support

(2) See, for example, the Versailles Role Play Experience, ibid, section 2.11

---

Background and links:

IMS Learning Design originates from Educational Modeling Language (EML). The language was originally developed at the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL) after extensive examination and comparison of a wide range of pedagogical approaches and their associated learning activities to obtain a good balance between generality and pedagogic expressiveness. Now IMS will continue the development in a wider, and more international community.

EML in Open University NL
http://eml.ou.nl/

IMS Global Learning Consortium:
http://www.imsglobal.org/

Learning Design Final Specification v1.0 Released. http://www.imsglobal.org/learningdesign/index.cfm

IMS Learning Design Best Practice and Implementation Guide for more details: http://www.imsglobal.org/learningdesign/ldv1p0pd/imsld_bestv1p0pd.html

Impact of e-learning grows worldwide: http://www.imsglobal.org/pressrelease/pr030228.cfm

---

At the same time elsewhere:

An Australian e-learning software developer, WebMCQ Pty Ltd (www.webmcq.com), has created an EML/IMS Learning Design system for use with schools and teacher training. Initial reviews by Australian teachers have been very positive.

The first version will be completed by April 2003, with further development work throughout the year. WebMCQ are currently exploring opportunities for international collaboration.

For details contact James Dalziel - james@webmcq.com