Having recently returned from Korea e-Learning week conference:

Apparently Jeff Young of the U.S. Chronicle of Higher Education was there and today published an article on IMS Contributing Member Hanyang Cyber University.

I returned from this trip very enthusiastic about the potential for the Korean university members of IMS to take a leadership role on the emerging IMS Campus initiative. One of the leading cyber universities - Seoul Cyber University - submitted a Learning Impact nomination that features the IMS Common Cartridge. Similarly, DUNET submitted a nomination of an LTI-based framework being set up at Yeungnam University that will most likely serve several universities in Korea. Both have been invited as finalists to the global Learning Impact awards.

So, Korea will achieve tremendous leverage by leading on the return on investment in the IMS standards. In the U.S., we are primarily seeing this type of motivation only in state or other systems - where there is the strong need to cooperate on/share resources. Much of the leveraging of technology in higher education in the U.S. has to do with motivation. And, necessity is the mother of motivation. My hats off to IMS Korea for leading the world in interoperability standards which is already showing signs of helping to lead in innovation - based on the interest outside of Korea in their innovative approaches.

-Rob Abel