IMS Common Cartridge (CC) Mime-type Registration Preliminary Review Request

[Colin Smythe]

Hi,

We wish to register a new Mime-type for the IMS 
Global Learning Consortium's Common Cartridge.
As part of that process we submit this application for preliminary peer review.

Inserted is the Registration Form.  The IMS's 
Common Cartridge specification, to which this 
application refers, is available at: 
http://www.imsglobal.org/cc/index.html.

--------------------------------------

Name : Colin Smythe

Email : csmythe at imsglobal.org

MIME media type name : Application

MIME subtype name : Standards Tree -imsccml+xml

Required parameters : There are no required parameters.

Optional parameters :  'charset'

The charset parameter of application/imsccml+xml 
is handled in the same fashion as for 
application/xml, as specified in Section 3.2 of 
[RFC3023].  However, per conformance of IMS 
Global Learning Consortium's Common Cartridge, 
valid Common Cartridge manifest documents MUST be 
in the UTF-8 character set.  If the charset 
parameter is present, it MUST take the value 
"utf-8". Common Cartridge processing software 
SHOULD check the charset field, and if it is 
present but not equal to "utf-8", MAY attempt to 
recover from the error by processing the document 
in the specified character set.


  Encoding considerations : 8bit

This media type may require encoding on 
transports not capable of handling 8 bit text.

Security considerations :

Several features of Common Cartridge manifest 
require dereferencing arbitrary URIs. 
Implementers are advised to heed the security 
issues of [RFC3986] Section 7.

Common Cartridge describes how learning content 
can be accessed.  A simple Digital Rights 
Management mechanism is defined through a Web 
Services based authorization protocol which a 
Common Cartridge instance may include.  All 
systems supporting the use of Common Cartridges 
must implement the authorization mechanism.

The specification does not constrain how any 
dynamic content may behave.  Therefore, systems 
must implement access controls that limit the 
access of any content to system resources.

  Interoperability considerations :

Interoperability is achieved through the use of 
the 'imsmanifest.xml' which has an associated 
XSD.  The interoperability considerations in 
Section 3.1 of [RFC3023] also apply to Common 
Cartridge manifest documents.  Common Cartridge 
manifest documents contain XML elements defined 
by each specific format, all of which are 
published specifications.  The Common Cartridge 
XSD which profiles the Content Packaging v1.2 
schema and the schemas which profile Common 
Cartridge usage of IEEE Learning Object Metadata 
v1.0 and
IMS GLC Question Test Interoperability (QTI) 
v1.2.1 have been defined using the IMS GLC 
SchemaProf tool v1.0. The tool produces a set of 
derived schemas, corresponding to the Common 
Cartridge schema and its profiled auxiliary 
schemas, against which any cartridge must 
validate.

SchemaProf also allows the application of 
additional constraints which further constrain 
how Common Cartridge may be used. These encompass:

(a) Static constraints - the parameters (e.g. 
file names) are fixed in the profile;
(b) Dynamic constraints - the parameters are 
taken from an instance document in the package 
e.g.  the href of a resource must point to a QTI 
file;
(c) Conditional constraints - the constraint depends on a condition.

To be deemed to comply with the Common Cartridge 
specification, cartridges must:

(a) Successfully validate against the Common Cartridge schema set;
(b) Satisfy all of the additional constraints.

Published specification :

This media type registration is for the IMS 
Global Learning Consortium Common Cartridge 
specification available at 
http://www.imsglobal.org/cc/index.html.  This 
specification was published in October 2008 after 
formal approval by the IMS GLC Technical Advisory 
Board.

The mission of IMS GLC is to create standards for 
the development and adoption of technologies that 
enable high-quality, accessible, and affordable 
learning experiences. IMS GLC is now enabling the 
next generation of Digital Learning Services, 
combining new forms of digital content, 
assessment, applications, and administrative 
services.

IMS GLC is supported by over 135 organizations 
â¤" the world⤁s leaders in educational and 
learning technology, including leading learning 
technology product suppliers and publishers, 
leading institutions of learning and training, 
and leading government and professional 
consortia. The breakdown of members is 58% 
leading corporations, 24% leading institutions of 
learning or school districts, and 18% consortia 
and/or government organizations. Currently, 47% 
of member organizations are headquartered outside 
the United States.

IMS GLC has approved and published some 20 
standards that are the most widely used learning 
technology standards in the world. Widely-used 
IMS GLC standards include meta-data, content 
packaging, common cartridge, enterprise services, 
question and test, sequencing, competencies, 
access for all, ePortfolio, learner information, 
tools interoperability, resource list, sharable 
state persistence, vocabulary definition, and 
learning design. These standards have been used 
widely in higher education, K-12 education, and 
corporate training in regions around the globe. 
All IMS GLC standards are available free of 
charge via the IMS GLC web site and can be used 
without royalty.

Applications which use this media :

The Common Cartridge defines an open format for 
the distribution of rich, web-based content. It 
is designed to ensure the correct installation 
and operation of content across any Common 
Cartridge conformant platforms and tools. The 
specification defines a profile for the use of 
the following specifications which are (in the 
versions adopted here), already widely 
implemented and in use across the community:

(a) IEEE LOM encompassing;
(b) IMS GLC Content Packaging v1.2;
(c) IMS GLC Question and Test Interoperability v1.2.1;
(d) IMS GLC Authorization Web Service v1.0.

The LOM, Content Packaging and Question and Test 
Interoperability specifications have each been 
profiled to simplify their use. Thus their scope 
has been constrained to those features commonly 
implemented and in use by the community. 
Experience suggests that interoperability 
problems that have arisen with implementations of 
these specifications are frequently the result of 
differing interpretations of the specs and 
options being taken that lead to divergence in 
behavior. A key goal of the Common Cartridge 
specification therefore has been to provide a 
tighter definition of their use thus eliminating 
this divergence. The resulting profile also lends 
itself to more effective conformance testing of 
implementations.

Additional features offered by the Common Cartridge include:

(a) A new resource type for initiating discussion forum interactions;
(b) Inclusion of a question bank (i.e., a QTI 
objectbank), offering tutors additional questions 
to those contained within the pre-configured 
assessments, which they can configure around the 
core material;
(c) Optional authorization to protect either the 
whole cartridge, or selected cartridge resources;
(d) The present versions of the specifications 
supported under Common Cartridge have been 
selected to offer existing implementations a low 
barrier to adoption of the Common Cartridge. It 
is to be anticipated that as new versions of 
these specifications achieve widespread adoption, 
they in turn will be adopted thus further 
enhancing the features supported in future 
versions of the Common Cartridge.
    
Only platforms which meet the conformance 
requirements identified in the CC specification 
and fully implement the CC Authorization service 
can claim CC compliance.  

Additional information :

1. Magic number(s) : There is no always present single initial octet sequence.
2. File extension(s) : The CC manifest file must 
have the name  'imsmanifest.xml'.
3. Macintosh file type code : TEXT
4. Object Identifiers: Not applicable.

Other Information :

The conceptual model of the Common Cartridge is 
similar to "cartridge-like" features found in 
existing commercial vendor solutions, several of 
the features of the Common Cartridge are 
included.  Conceptually, a Common Cartridge is a 
package of content and meta-data that is 
integrated into an LMS learning context. At a 
high level, this may directly correspond to the 
notion of "course" in the target LMS. There is no 
guarantee of the cardinality of the relationship 
from "learning context" to "Common Cartridge", 
i.e., the LMS may enforce an arbitrary 1-1 
relationship. The data contained in the package 
breaks down into the following categories:

(a) "Learner Experience" Data. These are the 
resources presented directly to the learner, i.e. 
content resources;
(b) Supplemental Resources. These are resources 
that may be optionally integrated into the 
learning context by an instructor or other 
facilitator e.g. question bank;
(c) Operational Data. Data used to control 
behavioral aspects of the LMS display/interaction 
with the cartridge e.g. authorization;
(d) Descriptive Meta-data. This is the defined 
IEEE LOM data, and is represented via existing 
bindings.

A Common Cartridge is an IMS GLC Content Package 
conforming to the following basic structure:

(a) A Common Cartridge may define a single 
organization, or include no organization. 
Multiple organizations are not permitted and the 
default attribute for organizations is not 
therefore supported. The single organization is 
used on import to integrate with the learning 
context, and defines the basic navigation 
structure for the package. The organization 
assumes the predefined "hierarchical" structure;
(b) Only "Learner Experience" resources may be 
included in the 'organization' hierarchy;
(c) Operational data (authorization, 
cartridge-level meta-data) are defined via 
discrete resource types within the package;
(d) Supplemental resources must not appear in the 
organization. The LMS provides a way for the 
instructor/facilitator to inspect/deploy/utilize 
these resources as they see fit;
(e) Common Cartridge resources must be identified 
with GUIDs, in order to facilitate proper 
integration in systems that execute "by 
reference" content usage.

Person to contact for further information :

1. Name : Colin Smythe
2. Email : csmythe at imsglobal.org

Intended usage : Common

There are no further comments.

Author/Change controller :

The Editor for the IMS GLC Common Cartridge specification was Kevin Riley
(kriley at imsglobal.org).

Revisions of the specification are underway but 
these will be backwards compatible and will
always require the presence of the manifest 
document which is the subject of this 
registration.

----------------------------------

This is our first attempt at such a registration 
so please forgive any obvious errors on our part.

Thanx.


Colin S.
-- 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMS Global Learning Consortium * Innovation * Adoption * Learning
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Colin Smythe
Chief Architect
IMS Global Learning Consortium Inc.

Tel: +44-(0)114-2334009
Fax: +44-(0)114-2334009
Mobile: +44-(0)793-2636911
SkypeName: dunelmcolins
SkypeIn(UK): +44(0)20-7193-5892
SkypeIn(USA): +00-1-978-631-0548
Email: csmythe at imsglobal.org
Web: http://www.imsglobal.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.alvestrand.no/pipermail/ietf-types/attachments/20090816/e223cf4c/attachment.htm