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Overview of the project 

This is a JISC funded project to investigate the authoring of IMS LD with practitioners. It is funded under the Design for Learning programme.

Project partners: The University of Bolton, St Helens College, Phosphorix Ltd.

Practitioners were supported in drawing up IMS Learning Design units of learning. During this process the RELOAD IMS LD editor was evaluated, and the team gathered user requirements for a “practitioner-friendly” user interface to such an editor. A prototype user interface was produced and the project investigated how this may be implemented within a real institutional context.

The project is managed by Mark Barrett-Baxendale.

Key messages

1. Both teaching practitioners and learners are generally positive about using IMS Learning Design. The experience of using IMS LD is obviously limited to a very small number of staff and students within two institutions, but the project has demonstrated, on a small scale, that users are generally positive about the utility of tools based on IMS Learning Design. 
2. The project has shown that it is possible for novice users to author IMS Learning Design units of learning, but that this requires a considerable amount of support.
3. More usable authoring tools are required to allow practitioners to work more independently, perhaps progressing from a simpler tool to a more sophisticated application as their skills develop.

Vision

At the moment there is a gulf in usability between the simpler tools (such as LAMS) and fully fledged tool sets such as Reload/ReCourse and SLeD. There is a need for tools that allow a practitioner to use various planning and authoring tools, but with IMS LD as the “glue” that makes interoperability possible.