I get questions in my travels about the status of various IMS work - making me think that people are not reading press releases and newsletters . . .

One of those questions is "When will LTI be done? It's such an important part of enabler for the IMS vision?"

Answer: Consider it done - meaning that it is here now and in wide use. McGraw-Hill and Blackboard announced DoMore - a seamless integration between M-H Connect and Create and Blackboard (see video of DoMore here). It's based on LTI. There is a lot that is really awesome about DoMore:

1. This is one of a bunch of examples where two IMS members used LTI because it does a better job than the proprietary integration path. LTI is easier!

2. The resulting integration exemplifies how the experience is substantially improved for students and teachers - two systems become one - removing the sign-on and other technical barriers to adoption.

3. The power of LTI is of course that it opens up the market. It now is much easier to integrate a wide range of tools in this seamless fashion. Tools can come from big suppliers, small suppliers (like Noteflight!), and faculty/institutional developed. Using LTI is like being part of one worldwide educational tool community where the tools are platform independent.

In other words, LTI is simply better then other integration approaches. It's easier and more powerful.

Please also don't let the fact that there is currently Basic LTI and there is a more robust Full LTI coming make you hesitate. The road from Basic LTI to LTI is something that the IMS technical staff and members have planned and will continue to make sure is seamless. Basic LTI is out there and is enabling easier, better integrations in a wide variety of products. Certified products include:

Agilix, Blackboard (pretty much all versions - older ones via plug-in), CourseSmart, Desire2Learn, DUNET, CafeScribe, Jenzabar, Learning Objects, Moodle, Noteflight, OLAT, Sakai, and Wimba. You can see others we know about in progress here .

-Rob Abel

Edited: 01/30/2011 at 09:31 AM by rabel