IMS Global Learning Consortium

IMS (Instructional Management System) Global Learning Consortium was established in 1995 as a “project of the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative of EDUCAUSE.” The non-profit group is a collaboration among stakeholders in digital education materials, including assessment and curriculum and learning. IMS provides technical specifications that enable high quality, interoperable formative and summative digital assessment.

Two primary initiatives from IMS Global that impact accessible assessments are the Question & Test Interoperability (QTI) and Accessible Portable Item Protocol (APIP) specifications. These specifications have been used for many years and were produced to ensure that content within assessment systems would be interoperable. Pearson is a proud member of IMS Global and takes part in several of the working groups and initiatives.

Paul Grudnitski, Pearson’s Vice President of Architecture and Innovation, has been an active member of IMS working groups for several years. He currently serves as one of four Co-Chairs of the QTI 3 Specification and was one of two Co-Designers of the QTI 3 Catalog information model design for accessibility supports. The Catalog design is the QTI 3 Accessibility Information Model Design that makes improvements to the previous model from APIP 1.1 and QTI 2.2 specifications. Paul was also the Editor of the QTI 3 Item Chapter of the Best Practices and Implementation Guide, a Contributor to the QTI 3 Accessibility Chapter of the Best Practices and Implementation Guide, and Lead Designer of the Smarter Application Assessment Information Format (SAAIF) to QTI 3 Item Format.