Stephen Downes

This article published as Toward Simple Learning Design 2.0: Simple interoperability for learning activities in Computer Science & Education, 2009. ICCSE '09. 4th International Conference 894 - 897 July 25, 2009. [Link] Type: A - Publications in Refereed Journals [List all Publications]

IMS-LD is no longer evolving while facing an increasing number of critiques. The specification is still not implemented by any leading brands in the e-learning industry. The current development of new IMS specifications offers a window of opportunity to rethink IMS-LD. After discussing IMS-LD, trying to understand the existing critiques and analyzing the new technical context, this paper proposes the guidelines for the creation of this new learning design specification. A PDF version of the paper is available here.


Abstract-In 2003, based on the work done by the OUNL on
Educational Modeling Language, IMS-LD was released and
brought to the research community a new era in the design of
learning activities. Six years later, IMS-LD is no longer evolving
while facing an increasing number of critiques. The specification
is still not implemented by any leading brands in the e-learning
industry. The current development of new IMS specifications
offers a window of opportunity to rethink IMS-LD. After
discussing IMS-LD, trying to understand the existing critiques
and analyzing the new technical context, this paper proposes the
guidelines for the creation of this new learning design
specification. This specification would be split in two
specifications satisfying both the instructional designers and the
learning platform developers and vendors. The specification
optimized to learning platform vendors, called Simple Learning
Design 2.0 will be designed to ease the deployment of the learning
design concepts in the existing Learning Management Systems.
SLD 2.0 is currently developed in the context of the SynergiC3
project.
Index Terms-