Simple LD Design

The terminology used here is defined in IMS-LD v1.0.

Process Description

A learning design has a method associated with it. Each method may have one or more plays. If a method has more than one play, they are executed concurrently. Each play has one or more acts that are executed sequentially. An act may have one or more role-parts associated with it. Each role-part maps to exactly one activity or activity structure. Each activity describes what the role-part does and what environment is available to execute it.

An activity can be further refined to be one of three things:

• A learning activity - an activity for the learner.
• A support activity - a supporting activity.
• An activity structure - a structure of activities that may be sequenced.

Completion of an activity creates an outcome, which may in turn trigger an notification (Level C).

An environment is a sequenced set of resources (including learning objects) or services. Sequencing defaults to linear, but may be more complex as specified by IMS Simple Sequencing.

The Act Object

Each act object is an entity.

The Activity Object

The activity object is a base class extended by LearningActivity and SupportActivity. Each activity is an entity, and thus includes properties that can be used as metadata.

The LearningActivity Object

The SupportActivity Object

The Environment Object

Each environment is an entity.

The LearningElement Object

This object is not part of the IMS-LD specification. It is intended to abstract the things that can be done in a Sakai environment. The LearningElement is a Sakai entity.

LearningElement is extended by:

• LDTool
• SakaiTool
• LearningObject
• LDResource
• RemoteService

The LDTool Object

Extends LearningElement. LD tools are a kind of Sakai tool that meets LD Tool Requirements.

The SakaiTool Object

Extends LearningElement. Sakai tools are any registered, active Sakai tool. Sakai tools are always wrapped in an iFrame at this time.

The LearningObject Object

Extends LearningElement. Learning objects are packages of learning content, sequenced and delivered by a SCORM runtime environment (TBD).

The LDResource Object

Extends Learning Element. An LD resource references a resource managed by the Sakai content hosting service.

The RemoteService Object

Extends Learning Element. A remote service is any service that can be defined by a URL that generates content that can be aggregated in a div or iFrame. Information may be passed to the remote service (TBD). This object allows tools to be written in languages other than Java.