The IMS Application Vetting Process and Data Privacy Standard Enable Trust Between Schools and App Providers

LAKE MARY, Florida, 29 October 2020 —IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global/IMS), the world-leading non-profit collaborative advancing educational technology impact, announced a new member benefit that provides institutions with a better way to understand the data privacy features of edtech apps and digital resources.

The IMS TrustEd Apps™ program uses IMS member-established criteria to evaluate edtech applications' policies for using and sharing student data and personally identifiable information. IMS facilitates the vetting process—relieving educational leaders from that responsibility and resolving issues with edtech suppliers. Already, IMS has vetted over 4,000 apps using the IMS community-developed rubric.

Immediate benefits for institutions include safeguarding against paid and free apps that violate student data privacy norms, saving time and money in the purchasing process, and quickly building a list of apps approved for use.

"TrustEd Apps gives institutional leaders one less thing to worry about when trying to support the needs of teachers, students, and parents in terms of data privacy,” said Dr. Rob Abel, CEO, IMS Global Learning Consortium. "The IMS community of 575 leading edtech market stakeholder organizations has established a new foundation for clarity about data usage and privacy. It is published and maintained as an open standard, allowing us to work together to achieve data privacy improvements in educational technology. IMS is doing the heavy lifting in terms of the vetting because we have the unique capability to work across all institutions and all suppliers."

"We went down the path of helping our teachers go through a vetting process on their own and keeping up an extensive list of apps and resources that teachers were interested in, but this process wasn't sustainable for our district,” said Kate Crawford, Director, Digital Learning & Media Services, Fayette County Public Schools. “Having IMS take this on is a huge deal for districts. We can leverage it so that teachers can focus on evaluating apps for instructional practice, but we're still getting that insight and transparency into the vendors and their privacy policies."

"We have about 23,000 students in our virtual program and over 77,000 students and 6,000 teachers total in our district, so we need to bring on vendors very quickly and make sure they work within our current ecosystem of technology solutions,” said Jeff McCoy, Associate Superintendent for Academics, Greenville County Schools. “IMS TrustEd Apps will help us cut through the backlog of having to vet and approve all of the apps coming in. Now, our academics department and our technology department have a partner to support and streamline our processes so we can get tools into the hands of our students and teachers quicker, while also ensuring their safety.”

Data Privacy certifications, app vetting results, and suppliers earning the new IMS TrustEd Apps Seal appear in the IMS Product Directory at imscert.org.

For more information or to join the IMS TrustEd Apps Alliance, visit trustedapps.org.

About IMS Global Learning Consortium

IMS Global Learning Consortium is a non-profit organization that advances technology to scale and improve educational participation and attainment affordably. IMS members are leading suppliers, higher education institutions, K-12 districts and schools, and government organizations that enable better teaching and learning by collaborating on interoperability and adoption initiatives. IMS sponsors the annual Learning Impact program, which focuses on recognizing the impact of innovative technology on educational access, affordability, and quality while developing the leadership and ideas to help shape the future of educational technology.

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Visualization Tool Powers Insights into Learner-Centric Data Across K-12 and Higher Education

LAKE MARY, Florida, 11 November 2020 — IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global/IMS), the world-leading non-profit collaborative advancing educational technology impact, announced today the release of the community-driven Student Learning Data Model for educational stakeholders to gain insights from the valuable data flowing through their digital ecosystem.

The IMS community developed the Student Learning Data Model as a lens into the myriad data available across the comprehensive set of IMS specifications that enable an informed analysis of edtech product usage, student engagement, and student progress.

Leaders across the IMS community, spanning K-12 and higher education institutions and technology suppliers, collaborated on the model's design and development. IMS is publishing it as an online tool, free and convenient for anyone to use. The model presents information in non-technical terms to make it more meaningful for those unfamiliar with IMS work.

"The IMS community is providing the leadership to make real-time learning analytics possible across the wide variety of educational products in today's market," said Dr. Rob Abel, chief executive officer, IMS Global Learning Consortium. "The Student Learning Data Model provides clarity on how open standards can work together within a learning institution's digital ecosystem to enable the data needed to improve student success and achievement."

IMS invited all education standards organizations to contribute to the Student Learning Data Model project. Currently, the IMS model includes the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Education Data Standards (CEDS). IMS has also developed a sophisticated set of mapping and discovery tools to facilitate the convergence of open standards from different sources.

Student data privacy is an essential component of learning analytics. IMS members created the TrustEd Apps program to guide all suppliers and institutions toward transparency in data use, collection, and sharing. IMS has vetted over 4,000 products of all types using an open standard privacy rubric designed to improve data privacy policies and practices.

The IMS Student Learning Data Model is available at https://site.imsglobal.org/standards/sldm.

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With Funding from the Charles Koch Foundation and Walmart, Wellspring Connects Institutions and Industry Using Digital Credentials to Advance Individual Opportunity and Talent Acquisition

LAKE MARY, Florida, 10 December 2020 — IMS Global Learning Consortium, the leading non-profit edtech innovation collaboration, and its affiliate charitable organization, the 1EdTech Foundation, announced progress on a multi-phase project bringing together educators and employers to meet the demands of a skills-based global economy.

The Wellspring Project aims to create a scalable and sustainable talent ecosystem through standards-based, interoperable technology, and verifiable digital credentials. As more innovative learning models emerge that focus on educational equity, learner agency, and skills mastery, digital credentials become valuable assets for institutions, individuals, and employers—to capture all learning experiences and achievements and translate them into more accurately matched education and job opportunities. Wellspring brings together educational institutions, employers, and industry associations to build an infrastructure for leveraging digital credentials to improve individuals' job opportunities and employers' hiring practices.

The first phase of the Wellspring Project, led by IMS and funded by the Charles Koch Foundation, explored the feasibility of dynamic, shared competency frameworks for curriculum aligned to workforce needs. Partnering with Education Design Lab and the Council for Adult and Continuing Education (CAEL), IMS organized cohorts of education providers and employers by common disciplines and related skills. Using learning tools that leverage the IMS Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange^® (CASE^®) standard, the cohorts mapped co-developed frameworks, digitally linking the data to connect educational program offerings with employer talent needs.

A comprehensive report summarizing Wellspring Phase I and its findings is available at https://www.imsglobal.org/about/wellspring/reports/phase1.

Support from the Charles Koch Foundation and Walmart ushers in the next phase of the project from January through June 2021. Wellspring Phase II expands the work on competency frameworks. Participants will develop reference software to demonstrate the creation, management, and sharing of skills-aligned digital credentials using the IMS Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) standard. This phase of the project also includes intensive primary research on the adoption of digital credentials and skills frameworks in over 700 employers.

"The Wellspring Project represents a tremendous opportunity to elevate and expand the use of interoperable digital credentials across education and business to enable career and life success," said Dr. Rob Abel, chief executive officer, IMS Global Learning Consortium. "Thanks to the support from the Charles Koch Foundation, Walmart, and other partners, IMS will continue to lead the breakthrough work and collaboration needed to bridge the gap between education and employment."

"We're inspired by IMS Global's commitment to lifelong learners and excited to continue supporting this important project," said Charles Koch Foundation Executive Director Ryan Stowers. "Through an innovative approach to digital credentialing, students can seamlessly connect to learning opportunities that help them discover their aptitudes and fulfill their potential, while also aligning with community needs and industry opportunities. That's an outcome that will benefit learners in a rapidly changing society."

"We are very excited to see the progress made towards building a talent ecosystem with verifiable skills," said Sean Murphy, Walmart.org. "We are pleased to support Phase II of the Wellspring project to accelerate the adoption and implementation of skill-based credentials for working learners to enable faster mobility through a skills-based system."

Wellspring will be front-and-center at the IMS Digital Credentials Summit, March 1-4, 2021, an annual cross-sector leadership event focusing on new learning models and ecosystem development to accelerate the talent continuum.

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IMS Global Learning Consortium Accelerates the Impact of OneRoster for Schools and Suppliers through the New Standards First Program

LAKE MARY, Florida, 23 March 2021 — IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global/IMS), the world-leading non-profit collaborative advancing edtech and learning impact, announced today the launch of the Standards First program to facilitate digital ecosystem interoperability.

The program consists of three key components:

1. Continuous support services, including targeted technical resources and training for both edtech suppliers and school districts
2. A new compatibility certification for edtech suppliers and school districts enabling verification of live product integrations
3. A pledge of support for making open standards the first and primary choice for integrations

Over 50 IMS Contributing Members took the lead in supporting this initiative by signing the Standards First pledge. For institutions, the pledge demonstrates their advocacy for standards-based integrations and gives them a voice in the larger educational community. For suppliers, the pledge is an indicator of trust and transparency about their use of open standards. Now, anyone can endorse Standards First by signing the pledge.

IMS is launching Standards First with the IMS OneRoster^® standard. An overwhelming number of school districts across the U.S. use OneRoster to get the digital resources they need on day one of learning. However, inconsistent implementation of the standard means the promise of plug-and-play integration—to securely and reliably exchange student data—falls short. Standards First is the best way to achieve an agile, scalable, data-rich edtech ecosystem that supports every institution and every learner.

"Standards First is a call-to-action for the entire edtech community, so all learners and learning institutions can get the choice, cost savings, and data privacy that open standards enable," said Dr. Rob Abel, chief executive officer, IMS Global Learning Consortium. "We are pleased to step up to lead Standards First because our members are those organizations in the edtech sector that are most dedicated to making standards-based integrations the norm in education and learning."

IMS Contributing Members signing the Standards First pledge in advance the public launch are Accelerate Learning, Inc., Amplify, Baltimore County Public Schools, Bibb County Public Schools, Blackboard, Broward County Public Schools, Burke County Public Schools, CatchOn, Cengage, Cisco, City Schools of Decatur, Classworks, Clayton County Public Schools, Crosstown High, D2L, EdGate Correlation Services, Edina Public Schools, Edmentum, Examity, Fayette County Public Schools, Forsyth County Schools, Fulton County Schools, Gainesville City Schools, Global Grid for Learning (GG4L), Gwinnett County Public Schools, Hall County Schools, Harford County Public Schools, Henry County Schools, Hudson School District, Idaho Digital Learning Alliance, iDatafy, Identity Automation, Illuminate Education, Infinite Campus, Inc., Instructure, Keller Independent School District, Kimono, Lee County Public Schools, Maryland State Department of Education, Michigan Data Hub, North Allegheny School District, OESIS Network, Oracle, Otus, Partners4Results, Richland School District Two, SAFARI Montage, Savvas Learning Company LLC, School District of Philadelphia, School District of Pickens County, Turnitin, Tyler Technologies, Unicon, Inc., VitalSource, and Volusia County Schools.

“The Standards First Pledge positions education organizations to leverage our collective voice to require an even playing field when purchasing and implementing instructional tools.”
—Emily E. Bell, Ed.D., Chief Information Officer, Fulton County Schools

"The Standards First initiative is critical for districts to be intentional with the adoption and implementation of data systems. Its aspirational goal allows for a deeper partnership between districts and instructional systems as we identify, plan, and implement data interoperability, which benefits all parties."
—Steve Buettner, Director of Media and Technology, Edina Public Schools

"As a smaller district, we can capitalize on the teamwork from IMS Standards First participants to achieve better equity in access to edtech resources for our students and teachers."
—Jill Hobson, CETL, Chief Technology Officer, Gainesville City Schools

"In collaboration with a community of edtech leaders, the Standards First initiative by IMS Global helps my district improve instruction while also providing the necessary support to ensure interoperability among our edtech products and resources."
—Brian Blanton, Ed.D., Chief Information Services Officer, Henry County Schools

"We are excited about IMS Global's Standards First initiative. Putting interoperability at the center of digital learning will help ensure equal access for all students."
—James Dale Cornelius, Chief Information Officer, Maryland State Department of Education

"At Gwinnett County Public Schools, we're encouraged that the Standards First initiative by IMS Global will help continue to move the industry towards full adoption and use of IMS open standards."
—Dr. Debbie Durrence, Chief Data Officer, Division of Data Governance, Gwinnett County Public Schools

"Working with standards creates efficiency in education; standards allow our team to focus on what matters most, students. Standards First is putting students first."
—Ryan Gravette, Director of Information and Technology, Idaho Digital Learning Alliance

"IMS Global continues to support the students and teachers of Clayton County Public Schools with the Standards First initiative. This initiative is critical relative to supporting access to interoperable edtech tools and resources for all district stakeholders."
—Rod Smith, Chief Technology Officer, Clayton County Public Schools

"Seamless integration of our edtech resources is imperative for an effective digital ecosystem that serves all students and teachers. The IMS Standards First initiative ensures seamless integration with our edtech suppliers."
—Aaron Turpin, Ed.D., Assistant Superintendent of Technology, Hall County School District

“In the School District of Pickens County, our commitment to the IMS standards stems from our commitment to provide an easily accessible, secure digital ecosystem for our students and teachers. Our teachers and students have come to expect web applications that work like “magic!” While they may not understand the technical specs behind making this work, those of us procuring the software do. The magic ingredients are the IMS Standards! IMS Certified products give us the confidence that apps will easily fit into our digital ecosystem with minimal effort, so our students can reap the instructional impact of the software quickly.”
—Barbara Nesbitt, Ph.D., Assistant Superintendent for Technology Services, School District of Pickens County

“The IMS Global Standards First initiative is an important step forward at a time when, more than ever, the work of the EdTech community is critical to supporting access and improving outcomes in teaching and learning around the globe. Blackboard is honored to be among the first to take the Standards First Pledge, which aligns clearly with our values and practices. A standards-first approach is at the foundation of our integration frameworks and our architectures. We have long promoted standards as the basis for third-party developers and partners to customize and extend our EdTech platform, and the Standards First initiative will further support this approach.”
—Tim Tomlinson, Chief Product Officer, Blackboard

"D2L is thrilled to be part of the IMS Standards First initiative. IMS community-developed and governed standards help institutions achieve a seamless, plug-and-play digital learning ecosystem while providing more choice and reducing total cost of ownership. This approach reflects D2L's mission to transform the way the world learns so that all students reach their full potential."
—David Koehn, Senior Vice President of Product Management, D2L

“The Standards First Initiative validates our strategic direction. As an industry collaborative for data exchange between schools and edtech vendors, GG4L is always pleased to promote open standards and the elimination of proprietary integration APIs. This initiative will further accelerate the digital transformation in schools while ensuring equity and improved security best practices.”

—Robert Iskander, Chairman & CEO, Global Grid For Learning (GG4L)

"We see IMS Global as a leader of this direction in the education market and are excited about partnering to contribute to the development and expansion of open standards. As an organization that is deeply committed to open standards in education, Standards First is a great way for us to demonstrate that commitment and link arms with our like-minded peers."
—Michael Webb, CTO, Identity Automation

“Infinite Campus fully supports IMS Global community efforts to drive digital ecosystem interoperability. Standards First empowers educators to maximize student achievement, which is central to our mission of Transforming K12 Education^®.
—Barry Brahier, Ph.D., Chief Product Officer, Infinite Campus

“At Instructure, we believe that open standards are central to building highly efficient outcomes-driven learning environments. The Standards First initiative focuses on openness, seamless integration, and simplicity, which allow for a more effective connection at the point of learning between the educator and student, where it matters most."
—Melissa Loble, Chief Customer Experience Office, Instructure

“With the current volume of digital learning solutions and resources available to K-12 school districts, Standards First aims to move the bar in terms of ensuring these enterprise systems not only function together but support ecosystems designed to simplify the user experience for students, teachers, administrators, and parents. The program will help remove the complex technical issues that districts face when integrating their systems and allow them to focus on providing meaningful digital learning opportunities for their students.”
—Tim Beekman, President & Co-Founder, SAFARI Montage and Chair of the IMS Board of Directors

“At Savvas Learning Company, we have always been committed to open standards and consider it a vital way to help our customers, teachers, students, administrators, and caregivers focus on the best teaching and learning experiences. Digital ecosystem interoperability is more important than ever, and we are wholeheartedly committed to the Standards First program.”
—Michael Chai, SVP Product Technology, Savvas Learning Company

"Tyler Technologies is honored to be an IMS Contributing Member and very excited to contribute to the early dialogue in support of the Standards First initiative. At Tyler, our vision of Connected Communities drives us to improve technology integration by schools and municipalities. The open integration standards set forward in the Standards First pledge are in alignment with that vision, and we believe it will result in the improved use of technology to drive student success."
—Sean Marlow, Sr. Vice President & General Manager, Schools Division, Tyler Technologies, Inc.

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The Comprehensive Learner Record Standard Helps Learners Succeed Today and Prepare for their Future

LAKE MARY, Florida, 18 May 2021 — IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global/IMS), the world-leading non-profit collaborative advancing edtech and learning impact, announced today the first technology suppliers to certify products for its Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) standard, which enables individuals to curate and own their learning and employment records.

A comprehensive learner record is a verifiable official digital credential issued by educational institutions and employers to learners and workers, allowing them to organize and maintain their academic achievements, co-curricular competencies, milestones, and skills. Individuals can use a CLR to highlight and share their lifelong learning profile at any stage in their academic or professional journey. 

The CLR standard by IMS describes how the learner's information is structured and shared. It is the key to unlocking the interoperability, security, and verifiability of all learning and achievement data. It's easily shared among the various stakeholders and departments along the way, providing the transparency and standardization they've come to expect in our digital world.

The information contained within a CLR can be any learning achievement, including microcredentials or digital badges. CLR captures achievements published using the popular IMS Open Badges standard and enables their alignment to competency frameworks and learning standards.

Using an IMS CLR-certified tool, learners can share their verifiable achievement records and skills with potential employers or other educational institutions, opening doors to new opportunities. The first leading edtech suppliers to certify products for the CLR standard include AEFIS, ELocker, RANDA Solutions, and SmartResume by iDatafy.

The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) recommends the IMS CLR standard to its over 11,000 members as "the only comprehensive data standard in place today that meets the objectives of an official institutional learning-focused and comprehensive learner record." IMS and AACRAO are working together to develop an implementation guide to support institutions adopting CLR.

"Learners of today and tomorrow have a story to tell—their own. The Comprehensive Learner Record empowers them to create and share their story from K-12 to higher education to career," said Rob Abel, Ed.D., chief executive officer, IMS Global Learning Consortium. "Thanks to the leadership of IMS members enabling a foundation for the digital credentials ecosystem, the groundbreaking CLR standard is now available for widespread adoption."

"We wanted to develop technology to make more informed decisions, and create more robust, open-minded discussions with students and their mentors," said Mustafa Sualp, AEFIS CEO and founder. "We are thrilled to announce our IMS Global CLR certification, which allows students to leverage their learning achievements through our technology and accelerate our efforts to meet heightened interest in providing CLR to our higher education partners to improve student discourse, engagement, and even corporate education efforts."

"We are proud to announce that ELocker, an IMS Contributing Member, is one of the first organizations to receive IMS certification for the CLR standard," said Nick Hathaway, ELocker CEO. "Our joint development effort with the University of Central Oklahoma and Olivedon Gradintelligence showcases how CLR enables the easy exchange of data between credentials services internationally so individuals can use their credentials to verify their achievements and match opportunities for employment and personal development."

“The CLR has the potential to be more than a record of an individual’s learning,” said Marty Reed, RANDA Solutions CEO. “In our implementations, we are leveraging it as a comprehensive data transport, extending the record from learning to healthcare, and ultimately a foundation of the digital identity portfolio.”

“The future is clear. Job seekers that have educational, workplace and skills based achievements certified by trusted third parties on SmartResumes, or other IMS certified CLR products, will have a distinct advantage over fellow job seekers lacking these credentials,” said Dave Wengel, iDatafy® Founder and CEO. “We are proud that our SmartResume® product is successfully vetted and certified by the IMS Global team for meeting their CLR and Data Privacy standards.”

To aid in implementing CLR, IMS makes CLR Reference Implementations and Prototype Applications available to its members, including a viewer and a wallet app to manage CLRs and a builder app to create and edit CLR data.

For more information on CLR in education and the workplace, go to https://www.imsglobal.org/about/clr.

To access the CLR 1.0 specification documents, go to https://www.imsglobal.org/clr.

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TrustEd Apps Program Helps District Leaders and Educators Make Informed Decisions on Digital Learning Products

LAKE MARY, Florida, 25 May 2021 — IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global/IMS), the world-leading non-profit collaborative advancing edtech and learning impact, announced today that IMS Contributing Member CatchOn is the first preferred partner providing live TrustEd Apps data to school districts through the CatchOn platform.

The IMS TrustEd Apps program for student data privacy is a collaboratively developed process to proactively guide and support institutions and edtech suppliers in secure data use, collection, and sharing.

Through TrustEd Apps, IMS independently vets the policies of hundreds of edtech companies annually to determine their level of support for student data privacy. The rigorous app vetting process uses an easy-to-understand rubric designed and approved by IMS member organizations as an open standard. IMS provides support and training to help suppliers improve their data privacy policies and practices. Suppliers providing evidence that they meet the requirements earn IMS Global's Data Privacy certification. IMS also provides support and training to member school districts to become certified in the TrustEd Apps process.

Data Privacy certifications and vetting results appear in the IMS Product Directory at imscert.org.

As a TrustEd Apps Preferred Partner, CatchOn brings the IMS data privacy rubric results and regulatory compliance information directly to teachers and administrators through its platform.

Leveraging CatchOn’s data analytics, school districts can see the apps and online tools their students and teachers use on their school devices, both inside and outside the school building. To help districts simplify their privacy vetting process and further safeguard student data, CatchOn’s new privacy badging identification feature enables users to quickly see if an application currently holds the IMS TrustEd Apps Seal, including FERPA, COPPA, and GDPR compliance. This new privacy feature will also allow IMS member districts to access its IMS data privacy rubric results and regulatory compliance information.

"IMS developed TrustEd Apps to improve data privacy practices and transparency in educational technology," said Dr. Rob Abel, chief executive officer, IMS Global Learning Consortium. "CatchOn's TrustEd Apps preferred partnership means that school districts can better serve their teachers, parents, and students through easier access to student data privacy information backed by the ongoing collaboration among hundreds of school districts and suppliers in IMS."

“CatchOn is honored to be IMS Global Learning Consortium’s first preferred partner providing TrustEd Apps data to school districts through our data analytics platform,” said Monica Cougan, CatchOn’s Manager of Strategic Relationships and Initiatives. “With the exponential growth in the number of devices and digital tools being used to facilitate and support learning, ensuring students’ and staff members’ data is protected is critical. Through this partnership, CatchOn and IMS Global are providing districts an additional layer of security to their current compliance practices while simultaneously streamlining their data privacy management efforts.”

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Significant milestone supporting over 4.3 million students is a turning point for ubiquitous OneRoster interoperability, the foundation for Digital on Day One

LAKE MARY, Florida, 20 July 2021 — IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global/IMS), the world-leading non-profit collaborative advancing edtech and learning impact, announced today over 100 signatories of the recently published Standards First pledge to support collaboration and transparency that ensures standards-based interoperability is the first choice in edtech. Standards First ensures all stakeholders are investing together for better user experiences at lower integration costs.

Having met this goal, the IMS community is full speed ahead, encouraging broader support from suppliers and districts. Over 4.3 million students in the U.S. are served by this first wave of institutional signatories of Standards First, representing the use of over 800 edtech products common to K-12 districts of all sizes across the United States. IMS members represent over 200 school districts, state agencies, and universities in the U.S., impacting over 23 million students. Over 400 edtech suppliers are members of IMS.

The pledge signatories have indicated that they will abide by a set of common-sense principles that enable mutual trust and support. A signatory is not required to be an IMS member organization to benefit from the support provided by Standards First. The pledge applies to the use of all open standards, not just those standards from IMS.

“We’ve learned that more than a great standard is needed to ensure interoperability and get past what sometimes feels like an endless cycle of last-minute customizations across the K-12 ecosystem,” said Tim Beekman, President of SAFARI Montage and Chair of the IMS Board of Directors. “Thanks to the commitment of stakeholders working together via the pledge to get this right, as well as a new set of integration diagnostic tools provided by IMS, we are finally able to get on the path to rostering consistency in K-12.”

“The Standards First pledge is the commitment that gets us all on the same page with respect to setting expectations collectively across school districts, states, and their supplier partners,” said Dr. Emily Bell, Chief Information Officer at Fulton County Schools. “Open standards as the first choice means important benefits that include safe interoperability, more time for teachers to connect with students, and timely access to the right learning resources for students.”

“I want to thank the more than 650 IMS member organizations that are leading the investment in open standards in edtech worldwide,” said Dr. Rob Abel, CEO of IMS Global Learning Consortium. “Their unwavering support and commitment to the cause of supporting faculty and students with seamless interoperability based on open standards is making edtech better for schools and institutions of all sizes every single day.”

All edtech stakeholder organizations are invited to support Standards First.

A new report sponsored by the 1EdTech Foundation and IMS Global Learning Consortium as part of the Wellspring Initiative presents data on employers' readiness to use standards-based digital skills frameworks and credentials for talent management

LAKE MARY, Florida, 14 December 2021 — IMS Global Learning Consortium, the leading non-profit edtech innovation collaboration, and its affiliate charitable organization, the 1EdTech Foundation, announced today the availability of a new research report that benchmarks and guides future strategies for adopting digital credentials and competency frameworks in corporate hiring and talent development practices. This data is critical in today's job market, where employers struggle to find high-quality candidates.

The study, led by Northeastern University's Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy, synthesizes data from 750 talent leaders across a full range of U.S. industry sectors and organizational sizes. The report shows that employers believe industry-led external competency frameworks can help create a more fluid market for talent in their industry. Increasingly, organizations rely on analytics and skills-based hiring, believing they will lead to more equitable results in recruiting and hiring. While most human resource management systems already use some form of job role competency banks, digital credentials are steadily gaining recognition. Employers view digital credentials as an opportunity to evaluate skills and specialized knowledge with built-in evidence.

Notable results from those surveyed include:

• 73% of employers are using talent analytics in some way to improve hiring

• 69% of employers support industry-led competency frameworks

• 87% of HR leaders report having heard of digital badges, with almost half (48%) noting they have encountered badges in screening candidates or hired a badge holder

• 34% of HR leaders indicated their organization uses hiring strategies with a lens on competencies over college degrees

• 42% of respondents say their organization is exploring and considering skills and competency-based hiring approaches

The research was conducted as a part of Wellspring, a multi-year initiative by the 1EdTech Foundation and IMS to accelerate the adoption of an open technology standards-based education-to-employment ecosystem. The Charles Koch Foundation and the Walmart Foundation provide financial support for the Wellspring Initiative.

DOWNLOAD THE EMPLOYER READINESS REPORT.

"Standards-based digital credentials offer a solution for improving employer talent management strategies," said Dr. Rob Abel, president of 1EdTech Foundation and CEO of IMS Global Learning Consortium. "This research, a key project in the larger Wellspring Initiative, provides market intelligence on employers' understanding and readiness for using digital credentials and competency frameworks in corporate recruiting, hiring, and workforce development."

Learn more about the Wellspring Initiative and how to get involved.

The summary report provides insight into breakthrough high-impact innovations for K-12, higher education, and lifelong learning

LAKE MARY, Florida, 15 December 2021 — IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global/IMS), the world-leading non-profit collaborative committed to achieving a Standards First and inclusive edtech ecosystem, announced today the availability of the 2021 Learning Impact Report. The report summarizes the 28 evidence-based technology projects that advanced to the final round of competition for the 2021 Learning Impact Awards.

IMS Global's annual awards competition recognizes innovative digital learning technology and strategies implemented for education or workforce training to transform educational experiences and elevate learning impact. Each project summarized in the Learning Impact Report aligns with a pragmatic trend defined by the IMS Learning Impact Framework, which identifies and tracks forward-moving solutions and collaborations for digital teaching and learning.

"Our goal for the Learning Impact Awards and subsequent report is to recognize the innovations making an impact on educational experiences and outcomes, then create open standards to advance the solutions across the ecosystem, said Dr. Rob Abel, chief executive officer at IMS Global Learning Consortium. "In the early years of the program, which began in 2007, it was rare to find a project that fully endorsed standards. Now, most of the finalists are using at least one IMS standard. This is exactly the virtuous cycle of innovation and large-scale adoption that we hoped to establish."

The annual Learning Impact Awards competition is open to all educational institutions, states, edtech suppliers, and workplace training organizations worldwide. The nomination period for the 2022 Learning Impact Awards opens on 24 January 2022 and closes on 28 February. At the annual Learning Impact Conference (Nashville, Tennessee, 13-16 June 2022), IMS announces the winners.

View the 2021 Learning Impact Report.

For more information on the IMS Learning Impact Awards, visit imsglobal.org/lia.

The National eLearning Center in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is to become a strategic partner in spreading the use of open technology standards across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) educational technology ecosystem

LAKE MARY, Florida, USA and RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, 8 February 2022 — IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global/IMS), the world-leading non-profit collaborative advancing edtech and learning impact, and the National eLearning Center (NELC) of Saudi Arabia today announced a memorandum of understanding to partner on the launch of IMS MENA. IMS MENA will be managed by NELC with full support from IMS Global for the purpose of accelerating an interoperable edtech ecosystem to achieve high-quality learning experiences in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East and North Africa region.

The National eLearning Center, established as an independent entity by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Council of Ministers, aims to enhance trust in eLearning, providing lifelong equal access to eLearning, and leading sustainable innovation in eLearning in order to achieve trusted online learning for all. NELC provides a national eLearning platform, FutureX, while also setting standards for online learning, providing licensing, studies, consultation, training, and qualification services. Through IMS MENA, NELC will become the focal point for IMS projects and certification in the region, including translating IMS standards to Arabic. IMS MENA will offer its services to all countries in the MENA region.

“Given the rapid use of technology in education and training, it is imperative that edtech ecosystems are interoperable and adopt the best standards to ensure quality online learning is delivered to the stakeholders, said Dr. Abdullah Alwalidi, the Director General of NELC. NELC is pleased to be identified by IMS Global as a regional partner for advocating and implementing the best global edtech standards in the region. IMS standards would strengthen NELC’s comprehensive portfolio of online learning excellence standards.”

IMS Global is the world’s largest edtech collaboration across K-12, higher education, and corporate education, consisting of over 700 member organizations. IMS interoperability standards enable a diverse and innovative ecosystem by providing the foundation of connectivity that enhances learning experiences across an ever-expanding set of products, including learning platforms, portals, tools, curriculum, assessment, badging/credentialing, student information systems, and learning analytics. IMS MENA becomes IMS’s fourth regional initiative, joining IMS Europe, IMS Japan Society, and IMS Korea.

“IMS Global is pleased to be partnering with and supporting NELC to increase eLearning trust and innovation in Saudi Arabia and the region,” said Dr. Rob Abel, Chief Executive Officer of IMS. “We believe that the mission of NELC is synergistic with that of IMS, and together we can create a leap forward for the global adoption of an interoperable edtech ecosystem.”

Leading edtech collaborative welcomes six new members to its board of directors

LAKE MARY, Florida, 29 March 2022 — IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global/IMS), the leading non-profit collaboration furthering an open and trusted educational technology ecosystem worldwide, announced new members joining its board of directors in 2022.

The new board members are Emily Bell Ed.D., chief information officer of Fulton County Schools; Barry Brahier, Ph.D., chief product officer at Infinite Campus; Nicole Englebert, vice president of higher education development at Oracle; Marc Nelson, vice president of product management at Savvas Learning Company; Serena Sacks-Mandel, US customer success leader-education at Microsoft; and Carrie Vail, senior director of product interoperability strategy at PowerSchool.

These leaders join more than a dozen education sector leaders representing IMS Global’s more than 730 member organizations, including school districts and states, higher education institutions, suppliers, and non-profits. The board is charged with overseeing the IMS business and providing leadership on behalf of all the members.

“The IMS board represents a cross-section of K-12, higher ed, and industry leaders, dedicated to creating an innovative technology ecosystem of products and services that accelerates the progress of learners and educational institutions of all kinds,” said Rob Abel, Ed.D., CEO of IMS Global. “Our board members contribute to the greater good by leading innovations that have shaped the current edtech ecosystem and are shaping better educational experiences that can power learner potential into the future.” 

The board also elected a new chairperson, Rick Johnson, vice president of product strategy at VitalSource, and a new vice-chair, Paul Czarapata, Ed.D., president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Melissa Loble, chief customer experience officer at Instructure, currently serves as board secretary.

“I am honored to serve as the new IMS board chairperson alongside these extraordinary leaders,” said Johnson. “I trust that our new board members will bring valuable and diverse perspectives to the table as we look to the future of edtech and how we may increase learner success around the world.”

The current board comprises representatives from five K-12 districts, five higher education institutions, two industry associations, and eight suppliers.

The new brand reflects the impact this unique and growing non-profit community is having on education technology around the world

LAKE MARY, Florida, 25 May 2022 — The world’s leading non-profit collaborative in educational technology and digital learning has a new look and new name. Today, IMS Global Learning Consortium officially launched its new brand, 1EdTech™ Consortium.

1EdTech signifies a collaboration united in enabling an open, innovative, and trusted tech ecosystem across K-12, higher education, and corporate learning that lifts the potential in every learner. The new 1EdTech brand has been under development with input from across the IMS member community for several years.

As IMS and now as 1EdTech, the community will continue its pivotal role in enabling digital learning innovation. 1EdTech members have been at the center of the rise of learning platforms featuring seamless learning experiences, the acceleration of learning tools, technology-enhanced digital assessment, data-informed teaching and learning, integration that enables digital on day one of learning, advancements in digital microcredentials and learner records that open up new possibilities for lifelong learners and defining the future of learning application trust and accessibility. 1EdTech community growth has accelerated to more than 740 member organizations from 28 countries represented by more than 7,000 individual collaborators.

“The 1EdTech brand reflects the passion of our community in working together to achieve what none of us can achieve on our own,” explained Dr. Rob Abel, CEO of 1EdTech. “We work collaboratively on the common foundations for an open, innovative, and trusted educational technology ecosystem bolstered by what amounts to an unparalleled joint investment in technical work that lifts the entire sector.”

“The members, board, and staff worked together to define what we wanted the new brand to signify moving forward,” said Rick Johnson, 1EdTech Board Chairman and VP of Product Strategy at VitalSource. “1EdTech represents a commitment from us all to find new ways to collaborate and accelerate the impact that technology can have on education and learning worldwide.”

1EdTech member organizations represent K-12 school districts, state departments of education, higher education institutions, government-led initiatives, and edtech suppliers. The unique and expansive collaborations with thought-leaders and innovators from all sectors allow for a digital ecosystem that works for everyone. It brings transformative digital learning tools that work together to ease the learning experience for educators and learners while saving institutions time and money in implementation; creates adaptable tools that enable personalized learning pathways at all levels; provides insights on how technology improves learner success, retention, and outcomes; and leads to learner achievement, opportunity, and employment with digital credentials. 

1EdTech will celebrate its new brand at this year’s Learning Impact Conference in Nashville, June 13-16, 2022.

Enabling learning application trust, equity at scale, verifiable achievement, and timely availability of data are shaping the future of education and learning

LAKE MARY, Florida, 7 June 2022— Under its new brand, 1EdTech™ Consortium, the world’s leading non-profit collaborative in educational technology and digital learning announced today its commitment to accelerating a complementary set of educational leadership strategies that are essential to improving learning experiences and outcomes in K-12, higher education, and lifelong learning over the next decade.

The strategies are educational application and ecosystem trust, curriculum and instructional equity at scale, improving the capturing and sharing of achievement, and data-informed student success.

The 1EdTech community believes educators and learners deserve a trusted, innovation-ready, future-proof, connected digital ecosystem. As our members work together to help evolve education technology to fit the needs of all, we also need to ensure the digital tools we use are safe. Moving forward, our community is leading the application of evolving trust requirements for student data privacy and adding interoperability, accessibility, and community alerts to build trust across the edtech ecosystem.

The 1EdTech community is leading efforts to accelerate the adoption of digital curricula, learning tools, and next-generation learning platforms to enable instructional equity in educational institutions of all types and sizes. 1EdTech is currently forming an executive advisory council on curriculum and instructional equity for superintendents, presidents, provosts, and CEOs to help guide our work on enabling personalized learning strategies through seamless access to digital resources that align with educational standards. The goal is for educators to have a wide selection of high-quality digital products so they can tailor learning experiences for their local needs.

The 1EdTech community is also playing a pivotal role in developing verifiable micro-credentials and learner records that will improve capturing of learner achievement and connecting those achievements to opportunities. 1EdTech is participating in a new Credential Futures Coalition, a group of non-profit organizations working together to enable the next generation of collaboration between learners, education providers, and employers.

Finally, the 1EdTech community, led by some of the world’s top-ranked universities, has introduced a new “developer commons program” designed to help institutions and suppliers ensure that learners, faculty, and institutions can reap the benefits of potential insights from digital learning. These institutions are collaborating on defining and implementing “data-ready apps” that ensure reliable and timely access to data that fits within an institutional product ecosystem. Using data to give educators, advisors, and students the ability to make adjustments before it’s too late, we will improve student success, edtech products, and educational practice on an ongoing basis.

“The accelerated growth of 1EdTech to more than 750 member organizations—all leaders in creating the future of edtech—and thousands of certified products is a very encouraging sign that an open, innovative, and trusted ecosystem that lifts all learners is becoming a reality,” said Dr. Rob Abel, 1EdTech CEO. “We are so proud of the accomplishments of all our members as they benefit from their own strategies while creating the open ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders around the world.”

Education and technology leaders will highlight these strategies at the upcoming Learning Impact Conference in Nashville, June 13-16. Learn more about Learning Impact 2022.

Click here to read more in a blog post from 1EdTech CEO Rob Abel.

1EdTech’s QTI 3 provides a foundation to support greater equity while also enhancing the integration of real-time assessment into more learning platforms and applications

LAKE MARY, Florida, 8 June 2022— Allowing educators to take advantage of the latest developments in accessibility and digital assessment innovation is the goal behind the latest standard released by 1EdTech™ Consortium, the leading non-profit educational technology partnership worldwide.

Building on the groundbreaking success of Question and Test Interoperability^® (QTI^®) 2 as the foundation for large-scale digital assessment conducted for statewide and national testing, 1EdTech has finalized the release of QTI 3. QTI 3 will make it easier for states, nations, institutions, and edtech providers of all types to incorporate high-quality, accessible online assessments into a wide range of learning experiences. To achieve this, QTI 3 solves some major challenges that have been inherent in creating and delivering high-quality digital assessments across platforms, namely consistent rendering, use of the latest web accessibility technology, support for libraries of custom interactions, and more seamless integration.

“High-quality assessment needs to evolve rapidly to be more easily integrated into a wide variety of learning situations and software products used by students, faculty, and assessment organizations to provide timely insights while also meeting the highest bar for digital accessibility to meet the needs of all learners,” explains Dr. Rob Abel, 1EdTech CEO. “Just as QTI 2 enabled large-scale, real-time digital assessment for organizations around the world, QTI 3 is the breakthrough that will enable digital assessment innovation to reach all learners across the widest array of learning scenarios and products.”

Using QTI 3, educators may use digital assessment tools to see how well each student understands a textbook lesson with questions embedded in the text; programs can help a student think through a problem if they answered a question incorrectly; educators may assign online lab experiments that students may not get to in class; and more. All of this can now be done with multiple tools working together under one learning platform, instead of educators and learners having to jump around to different products and systems. The QTI 3 standard allows them to work together without overwhelming IT departments with custom integrations.

“QTI 3 provides Smarter Balanced an industry-standard format for delivering our item content to a diverse set of test administration platforms,” said Tony Alpert, Smarter Balanced Executive Director. “By using an industry-standard format, we expect that service providers will be able to import our world-class content and associated accessibility resources with increased fidelity and less effort.”

“I’m excited by QTI 3’s alignment to HTML5, its expanded and expressive vocabulary for item rendering, and most of all, its improved support for Web accessibility standards. I think QTI 3 has great potential in the marketplace and am looking forward to seeing how it moves forward,” said Jason Craft, principal software architect at Pearson. 

“The QTI 3 standard contains significant advances when it comes to creating assessments that support the needs of learners with disabilities,” said Markku Hakkinen, Ph.D., Educational Testing Service Director of Accessibility Standards and Inclusive Technology. “Assessment content creators and delivery systems will be able to leverage the accessibility features of QTI 3 to support, for example, students who utilize screen readers, in a standards-based manner. ETS is proud to be a Contributing Member of the QTI working group and 1EdTech to advance educational technology standards that work for all students.”

All of 1EdTech’s standards are open and available. Access the QTI 3 specification documents here.

Anyone interested in learning more may participate in the QTI 3 Bootcamp & Hackathon at the upcoming Learning Impact Conference in Nashville, June 13-16. There will also be sessions presented by 1EdTech members already leveraging the advanced capabilities of QTI 3 to improve curriculum, instruction, and learner outcomes. Learn more about Learning Impact 2022.

2022 Learning Impact Awards Celebrate Transformative Solutions for K-12, Higher Education, and Lifelong Learning

LAKE MARY, Florida, 9 June 2022— 1EdTech™, the world-leading non-profit collaborative advancing edtech and learning impact, announced the nine winning projects in the Learning Impact Awards 2022 competition. The two Platinum Award winners were recognized for an innovative solution to combat COVID learning loss over the summer months and a teaching platform that allows institutions of higher education to share high-quality images as interactive and engaging learning tools.

The 1EdTech Learning Impact Awards recognize high-impact, evidence-based digital learning solutions and strategies implemented in an educational setting to elevate learning experiences and impact. A panel of institutional leaders—who observe and evaluate the project presentations—and the edtech community-at-large vote for the winners. From the 34 finalists in this year's competition, expert judges and public voters selected those demonstrating the most significant impact on personalized learning, institutional performance, and the digital learning ecosystem.

2022 Platinum Awards

This year's Platinum Award winners include Gwinnett County Public Schools, the 13th largest school district in the U.S., which teamed up with Classworks to mitigate learning loss and unfinished learning precipitated by COVID and prepare students for the upcoming school year. They created a customized, online Summer Enrichment and Acceleration (SEA) program that leveraged 1EdTech's Competency and Academic Standards Exchange^® (CASE^®) framework to provide superior standards-based learning experiences for all students. Learn more about their project, Using CASE to Power Standards-Based Learning for All Students.

The other Platinum Award-winning project came from OpenLearning and the Biomedical Education Skills and Training (BEST) Network. Their online image-based teaching platform allows institutions to share large, high-quality images and knowledge, providing cost-effective and equitable access to biomedical images and tools worldwide. The non-profit BEST Network brought together academics from leading medical schools to address this critical need in biomedical and life science education. Learn more about their project, Slice: Enabling Inter-Institutional Sharing of Large, High-Quality Images and Virtual Microscopy Slides.

2022 Gold Awards

• Building an Interoperable Statewide Digital Ecosystem (View SAFARI Montage and South Carolina Department of Education's project video)

• XCredit (View Muzzy Lane and Education Design Lab's project video)

2022 Silver Awards

• Haverhill Makes Quick Recovery from Ransomware Attack with ClassLink (View ClassLink and Haverhill Public Schools' project video)

• HenryConnects (View Common Good Learning Tools and Henry County Schools' project video)

2022 Bronze Awards

• BadgeMe, IBM's Badge Application Workflow Solution (View IBM's project video)

• Competency-Based Tracking for Interprofessional Education Leveraging Institutional Data (View the University of Michigan's project video)

• Learning e-Portal – ''L-Gate'' (View Uchida Yoko Co., Ltd.'s project video)

The annual Learning Impact Awards competition is open to all educational institutions, school districts, states, edtech suppliers, and workplace training organizations worldwide. Organizations from Australia, England, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Turkey, and the United States participated in the 2022 competition. View all project resources submitted by the finalists.

2022 Honorable Mentions

• A New Integrated Learning Platform "ClassPad.net" (Casio Computer Co., Ltd.)
• Art Courses Provide Real-World Evidence of Knowledge and Skills Mastery (Florida Virtual School and FlexPoint Education Cloud)
• BellXcel - An Evidence-Based Youth Programming Software (BellXcel and Magic Edtech)
• Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) Program using Parchment Award CLR Services (Parchment and Temple University)
• Conscious Capitalism Simulation: Teaching Corporate Responsibility through Serious Games (Marketplace Simulations and Western Governors University)
• CTE Courses Build Soft Skills & Increase Employability (Florida Virtual School and FlexPoint Education Cloud)
• DigitalEd Helps University of the Sciences Deliver Engaging Online Learning in STEM (DigitalEd and University of the Sciences)
• Elements of Success – Promoting Self-Regulated Learning through Learning Analytics (University of Iowa)
• Enhancing HyFlex Instruction for Multiple Learning Modalities (Purdue University Teaching and Learning Technologies)
• FeedbackFruits Tool Suite at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (FeedbackFruits and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania)
• Happy Students, Happy Learners: Lt Increases Student Engagement at the University of Auckland (ADInstruments and University of Auckland)
• High Resolves: Empowering Young People from Across the Globe with Real-Time, High-Impact Learning (OpenLearning and High Resolves)
• Implementing NEO LMS at Mindbuilders Preschool (Cypher Learning and Mindbuilders Preschool)
• JA Titan® Blended Model Program (Junior Achievement USA)
• Kaplan's MCAT® Live Online Course: Blending Personalized Asynchronous Learning with Compelling Live (Kaplan)
• MagicBox and Folens Ease Assessment with Homework Space (Magic Edtech)
• mCourser (Learnetic SA)
• Noni™ – a Digital Coach for Building Trauma-Sensitive Classrooms (Noni and Teaching Strategies)
• Open A.I. Language Learning Authoring and Execution Tools Leveraged by QTI / LTI (Digital Knowledge Co. Ltd.)
• Pikmykid Notification System (Pikmykid)
• Proximity Learning: Connecting All Learners with the Expert Teachers They Deserve (Proximity Learning)
• Re-energize Students: Using the Metaverse to Immerse Students in their Learning Experience in Online (Virbela. Tec Virtual Campus and Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey)
• Synapse V.R. (Nucco and Southern New Hampshire University)
• UNDP in Turkey: Education Mapping and Workforce Alignment of Syrian Refugees in Gaziantep (Sertifier and UNDP)
• University of Leeds Accomplishes a "Digital by Default" Strategy with Gradescope by Turnitin (Turnitin and University of Leeds)

A summary of trends from all projects will be presented in the 2022 Learning Impact Report to be released in the early fall. The nomination period for the 2023 competition will open in January.

Look here for more information on the 1EdTech Learning Impact Awards.

Agreement provides Georgia educators access to TrustEd Apps Management Suite

LAKE MARY, Florida, 30 August 2022— The state of Georgia took an active step to prioritize student data privacy at its meeting Thursday in Atlanta. The Georgia State Board of Education approved a state-wide partnership with the 1EdTech™ Consortium (1EdTech). 1EdTech is a non-profit collaboration of more than 740 leading education sector organizations, including states, school districts, universities, and edtech suppliers.

The partnership allows every publicly funded school in Georgia to deploy 1EdTech’s TrustEd Apps™ Management Suite, making it easy to provide information on educational technology resources and tools to administrators and teachers. 1EdTech vets the privacy policies of hundreds of edtech companies annually, using an open standard privacy rubric designed and approved by 1EdTech members. 1EdTech has vetted more than 8,000 edtech applications through this process and published the results in a teacher-friendly dashboard. TrustEd Apps gives institutions, administrators, and teachers the help they need to determine if an educational technology tool meets their expectations for data privacy.

“Many districts don’t have the staffing or time to thoroughly review a product’s data privacy policy before deciding to adopt it for use in classrooms,” said Dr. Rob Abel, CEO of 1EdTech. “That leaves them two choices, either don’t adopt new tools that could benefit teaching and learning or adopt the tool without fully understanding what student information it's collecting or sharing outside to third parties. TrustEd Apps does that work for them, so they have a wider and more secure set of options.”

While the partnership provides access to every publicly funded school in the state, some Georgia districts were already working with 1EdTech to improve their digital ecosystems and student safety. Those districts are now excited to collaborate even more closely across the state.

“In the last few years, technology use has grown, along with the need to ensure student data is secure,” said Jill Hobson, Chief Technology Officer for Gainesville City Schools. “The TrustEd Apps rubric meets what we consider critical needs for review and will be a big burden lifted for school districts, especially smaller ones like Gainesville City that don’t have the capacity to do this on our own. As a state, we collaborate well, and the ability to easily share our experiences with different tools will be extremely valuable to every district in Georgia.”

"1EdTech provides an excellent opportunity to network with our peers in Georgia and beyond as well as powerful resources, such as product interoperability certifications and the TrustEd Apps dashboard,” said Jim Farmer, Chief Technology Officer of Fayette County Schools. “These valuable resources help districts address what can essentially become the 'Wild West' of people using edtech tools at the expense of time, security, and privacy. The community-developed standards from 1EdTech empower districts to dramatically improve implementations and integrations and the dashboard allows us to deal with the challenge of vetting resources in a time-saving, structured way. I know it will be extremely helpful to all Georgia districts."

“1EdTech has provided significant support for our district as we’ve worked to develop a digital ecosystem that ensures high levels of interoperability and digital privacy,” said Brian Blanton, Chief Information Officer of Henry County Schools. “It’s exciting to know that the Georgia Department of Education is scaling this support to districts across the state.”

“TrustEd Apps allows us to provide the privacy and security information to our principals so they can focus their efforts on determining the instructional value of a product,” said Dr. Aaron Turpin, Assistant Superintendent of Technology for Hall County Schools.

Georgia is the third state to partner with 1EdTech, and the first to enable TrustEd Apps collaboration with all publicly funded schools. Last year, South Carolina was the first state agency to set up TrustEd Apps statewide for 82 school districts, and earlier this year, the state of Arizona started a 1EdTech pilot program with 20 districts.

1EdTech Consortium and HR Open Standards Consortium partner to better match employee skills with employer needs

LAKE MARY, Florida, and AURORA, Colorado, 5 October 2022— Offering a better way to hire is the goal of a new joint initiative between 1EdTech™ Consortium and HR Open Standards Consortium.

The collaboration between these two leading non-profit organizations will allow job-seekers to showcase their accomplishments in a meaningful way for employers and allow employers to easily and reliably find employees with the skills they need.

The initiative combines 1EdTech’s digital credentials standards, Open Badges and Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR Standard™), with the next-generation HR Open Resume/CV standard. This combination creates a standards-based resume that incorporates an individual’s academic achievements, skills, and workplace milestones in a more illustrative and digitally verifiable way through a digital wallet or platform, helping to make hiring processes more efficient and equitable.

“More than 50 million Open Badges have been issued worldwide, and leading institutions, including Arizona State University, Southern New Hampshire University, Western Governors University, and more, are implementing a CLR,” said Dr. Rob Abel, CEO of 1EdTech. “Combining these successful efforts with HR Open is the next logical step towards bridging the worlds of education, corporate learning, employment, and human resources. We are encouraging market adoption of this work in conjunction with 1EdTech’s ongoing Wellspring Initiative.”

“1EdTech and HR Open have a long history of working together, and we are proud to partner on standardizing verifiable digital credentials. We are committed to improving the employment journey, and this new opportunity to collaborate will bring together many elements from the learning and employment ecosystem,” said Leslie Erwin, HR Open President.

Founded in 1999, the HR Open Standards Consortium is the only independent, non-profit, volunteer-led organization dedicated to developing and promoting a standard suite of specifications to enable human-resource-related data exchanges.

This initiative is made possible by the 1EdTech Foundation with generous support from Walmart.

1EdTech Community Releases OneRoster 1.2, Encouraging Immediate Adoption

LAKE MARY, Florida, 20 October 2022— Keeping track of student progress and leveraging that data to help students succeed just got a lot easier thanks to the latest version of 1EdTech’s OneRoster® standard, with version 1.2 released publicly today.

1EdTech (formerly IMS Global) community members across K-12 districts and edtech suppliers collaborated to evolve OneRoster to enable the automated transfer of assessment results and both standards-based and competency-based grades for the benefit of teachers and administrators. Teachers and administrators can now see all of the results data in one system, enabling them to focus time on helping students succeed. They will also save countless hours previously spent manually recording grades and scores.

OneRoster allows schools to securely and reliably exchange roster information, course material information, and grades between systems. The 1.2 update works with other 1EdTech standards, including Question and Test Interoperability® (QTI®), Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI®), and Caliper®, to allow its assessment results profile to pull more detailed information from various systems and tools, and transfer that data directly back to one gradebook of record. 

Assessment and grade information becomes even more valuable to educators when combined with 1EdTech’s Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange® (CASE®). CASE matches the digital content to state academic standards, giving educators a better sense of how well a student is grasping the required concepts. 

With all this information, teachers can better tailor lessons or extra assistance to an individual student’s needs by assigning assessments or additional resources for the needs of individual students. 

“OneRoster has been the lynchpin to enable a better K-12 digital ecosystem for several years,  and now OneRoster will make it easier to provide data across a district’s ecosystem to educators automatically, and in time to help students,” said Dr. Rob Abel, 1EdTech CEO. “We encourage all market participants to achieve OneRoster v1.2 certification as soon as possible to enable these benefits for end-users.”

“The inclusion of Learning Objectives in the OneRoster 1.2 standard will allow standards- and competency-based gradebooks to communicate across platforms,” explained Rachel Johnson, Director of Enterprise Solutions, Loudoun County Schools. “The result will be collectively hundreds of teacher hours saved as the double entry of grades in LMS and official gradebooks will now be an archaic process. Vendors looking to truly improve the outcomes for students and teachers should look to adopt version 1.2 before the 2022-2023 school year is over to allow teachers to take advantage of this opportunity.”

“As both a provider and a consumer of OneRoster data, PowerSchool is excited for the specification improvements addressing problems important to our customers, like Preferred Name Syncing and Score Scales,” said Carrie Vail, Senior Director, Product Management at PowerSchool. “Through the adoption of OneRoster 1.2, there is an opportunity to empower educators by reducing time spent on tedious double-grading entries across a district’s entire digital ecosystem.”

The OneRoster 1.2 version also enhances user management so educators can access everything they need without logging off and back into various tools.

“Gainesville City Schools is happy to support the adoption of this version of OneRoster,” said Jill Hobson, Chief Technology Officer of Gainesville City Schools. “The improvements in security, demographic data and support for standards-based grading using CASE are invaluable to K-12 schools. 1EdTech has been very responsive in developing OneRoster to match the evolving needs of educators.”

“When teachers have actionable information at their fingertips, students more easily experience success,” said Dr. Barry Brahier, Chief Product Officer of Teaching and Learning for Infinite Campus. “OneRoster 1.2 brings OneRoster’s rock-solid interoperability to new realms of information, including support for the standardized test scores with the Assessment Results Profile and competency-based grading approaches by incorporating the Competency and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) specification. OneRoster 1.2 means 1EdTech is once again making the vision for the edtech ecosystem a reality. And that’s great news for teachers, students, and every K-12 stakeholder.”

“At D2L, we strive to give our customers the solutions and open learning ecosystem they count on so that they can help their students reach their full potential.  As a leader in the edtech ecosystem, we know the critical importance of efficient, standards-based integration. The newly released OneRoster® 1.2 standard enables the flow of critical information that brings alive the promise of competency-based results across platforms, eliminating the need for double entry of grades and saving teachers hundreds of hours collectively. We plan to support school districts that we partner with by adopting the OneRoster 1.2 standard, and we thank 1EdTech for their leadership,” said Stephen Laster, Chief Operating Officer at D2L.

1EdTech encourages suppliers to adopt the new version as quickly as possible so customers may take advantage of all it has to offer. More information on the OneRoster 1.2 specification may be found on the 1EdTech website by clicking here.

The TrustEd Apps Certified Leader Program kicks off at the 2022 Digital Curriculum and App Innovation Summit

LAKE MARY, Florida, 7 November 2022— 1EdTech™ Consortium, the leading non-profit educational technology partnership worldwide, launched the TrustEd Apps Certified Leader (TACL) Program for improving the digital learning experience today. TACL is designed to help K-12 and higher education leaders develop a comprehensive strategy to implement a trusted, open, and innovative, best-in-class edtech ecosystem at their institutions.

“We’ve reached the point when every institution, K-12 through higher education, and even professional development, use some type of digital learning,” said Dr. Rob Abel, 1EdTech CEO. “1EdTech uses open standards to improve the instructional experience by blending together technical innovation with effective pedagogical practices. This program walks participants through that process and helps them apply the skills and knowledge they gain to design a trusted digital learning ecosystem.”

The program is divided into five learning modules: data privacy and accessibility; curriculum innovation and strategies; designing the digital learning ecosystem; data insights for learner success; and learner achievement opportunities. The first module for the initial cohort kicked off at 1EdTech’s Digital Curriculum and App Innovation Summit this morning.

“As director of instructional technology, I need to combine my curriculum knowledge, as a former teacher, with more technical knowledge,” said Leigh Anne Scherer, director of instructional technology for North Clackamas Schools in Oregon. “These modules help me bridge that gap so we can have productive and in-depth conversations when finding the best tools to use in the district.”

“Companies should be held to a higher standard to ensure the tools will do what they say they do,” said Greg Bagby, coordinator of instructional technology for Hamilton County Schools. “This is a place where I can verify tools are compatible and compliant with what I have in place in my ecosystem.”

“I want a better understanding of data privacy to provide knowledge back to our districts and teachers,” said Angela Ingram, knowledge and interoperability manager for Georgia’s Department of Education. “There is a lot of important information that educators at all levels need to understand to protect our students’ information.”

Each module will take approximately ten hours to complete, with three different components: synchronous learning, an individual project, and an assessment. Participants will earn a digital open badge (a portable, verifiable credential that can be shared across all platforms implementing the Open Badges 2.0 standard) for each completed module, and become TACL certified once all five badges are earned. The TACL certifications earned by this cohort are planned to be awarded at 1EdTech’s Learning Impact Conference to be held in Anaheim, California, June 5-8, 2023.

More information on the program can be found by clicking here.

Board members are leaders in the 1EdTech mission to power learner potential

LAKE MARY, Fla., January 19, 2023 — 1EdTech (formerly IMS Global) added eight new directors for 2023 and re-elected one incumbent via its annual member board election process.

1EdTech is the world’s leading non-profit collaboration dedicated to powering learner potential by fostering an open, trusted, and innovative edtech ecosystem with more than 870 members worldwide, representing K-12, higher education, corporate learning, and edtech suppliers.

The recently elected board members are: 

• Dr. Gwendolyn Britton, Vice President, Product Strategy, Southern New Hampshire University
• Annie Chechitelli, Chief Product Officer, Turnitin
• Jim Chilton, EVP, Chief Technology Officer & GM INFOSEC, Cengage
• Dr. Christopher Davis, VP of Academic Services and Quality, University of Maryland, Global Campus
• Sarah DeMark, VP, Workforce Intelligence & Credential Integrity, Western Governors University
• Jeff McCoy, Associate Superintendent, Academics, Greenville County Schools
• Marc Nelson, VP of Platform Product Management, Savvas
• Dr. Shana Rafalski, Chief of Staff, Clark County School District
• Darlene Rankin, M.Ed., Director, Instructional Technology, Katy ISD

The new members will join more than a dozen others from educational institutions, supplier organizations, nonprofits, and industry to oversee the business of 1EdTech and provide leadership on behalf of all members.

Paul Czarapata, president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, will be the 1EdTech board chair for 2023. Melissa Loble, chief customer experience officer at Instructure, will be the board vice-chair for 2023. Dr. Vince Kellen, chief information officer of the University of California San Diego; Dr. LaTanya McDade, superintendent of Prince William County Public Schools; and Serena Sacks-Mandel, global chief technology officer at Microsoft, have been added to the 1EdTech board executive committee in 2023.

Jack Suess, CIO for the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Donna Kidwell, chief information security and digital trust officer for Arizona State University, will step down from the board after years of dedicated service.

“I want to thank Jack and Donna for their hard work in helping us build 1EdTech to what it is today,” said Czarapata. “I’m grateful they will continue to help us move this work forward as Contributing Members, and I look forward to working with our new board members who will bring new ideas and perspectives to our work.” 

1EdTech’s board comprises representatives from seven K-12 institutions, seven higher education institutions, and ten supplier organizations. 

“Our board members are very special people from very special organizations that are actively leading the creation and adoption of the open and trusted edtech ecosystem that lowers the barriers to innovation and increases opportunities for all learners at all levels,” said Dr. Rob Abel, CEO of the 1EdTech Consortium. “The leadership from our board and our Contributing Members are having a profound impact on educational institutions' ability to accelerate and scale both strategic and operational innovation.”