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cmi5 Working Group

Spearheading efforts to increase adoption of the cmi5 specification and to facilitate DoD’s transition to xAPI across a range of learning platforms

The purpose of this working group is to assist users in adopting cmi5, including using it as an xAPI Profile. The working group also focuses on incorporating potential additions to the specification, and identifying challenges for adopting cmi5, such as approvals required by various DoD organizations for deploying the software on their networks and other secure environments. The working group welcomes government and industry stakeholders who are actively supporting DoD organizations or looking to start using or expand their use of cmi5.

In 2022, the cmi5 Working Group submitted a Project Authorization Request (PAR) to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to become a technical standard. This will firmly establish cmi5 under a standards-development organization. As this standard transitions to IEEE, much like xAPI, efforts to incorporate all changes into a “2.0” version of cmi5 are underway and in lengthy discussion in the working group. The working group meeting information will not change, but one meeting per month will become an official IEEE meeting and will follow their policies and procedures.

The founding goal of cmi5 is to provide a better alternative to current eLearning technical standards like the Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee (AICC) standard and the Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM®). The cmi5 specification was developed to be more flexible, robust, and adaptable than AICC and SCORM. The cmi5 specification is essentially a profile for using the xAPI specification with traditional learning management systems (LMSs), ensuring plug and play interoperability between LMSs and learning content. Because xAPI is highly generalized to support many different use cases, a set of “extra rules” (called a profile) is needed to ensure interoperability for a given use case.

In 2013, the group decided to align with the efforts of xAPI to enable the specific goals of:

  • A simplified data tracking model
  • The ability to record and report/retrieve content-defined data
  • Support for the content-as-a-service (CaaS) model of delivery
  • Device/OS/browser independence
  • The ability to share data between learning activities

To help facilitate cmi5 adoption, the ADL Initiative has made available a cmi5 content player and a conformance test suite (CTS), to ensure conformance of delivered courses and to determine if an LMS can correctly play cmi5 courses. This working group is identifying potential cmi5 modifications and extensions that will allow the player and CTS to meet identified needs outlined in DoD use cases.

Date Started: 20 February 2013

Meeting Schedule: Meetings are every Friday from 10:30 – 11:30 AM Eastern Time.
Participants can contact Andy Johnson at Andy.johnson.ctr@adlnet.gov

Group Page / Website: http://aicc.github.io/CMI-5_Spec_Current/