The document summarizes the results of the ICOPER project, which aimed to develop best practices for competency-driven higher education through the creation of an ICOPER Reference Model (IRM). The IRM provides a meta-model and examples of activities, processes, services, and data formats to support competency-based learning. Prototypes implementing aspects of the IRM were also developed and evaluated with end users. The project involved collaboration across Europe to advance interoperability standards for online education.

1. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
The ICOPER Reference Model:
Interoperability for a
New Higher Education
2009-04-15
Bernd Simon, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien (Editor, Presenter)
+ many, many contributors see icoper.org
An eContentplus
Best Practice Network

2. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Agenda
1. Higher education approaching a new paradigm
2. Our Research: The ICOPER Project
3. First Results: The ICOPER Reference Model

3. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Agenda
1. Higher education approaching a new paradigm
2. Our Research: The ICOPER Project
3. First Results: The ICOPER Reference Model

4. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
New Learning Media has arrived …
Open Educational
User-driven Content Social Networks
Resources
… driving Change in Higher Ed from buttom up.

5. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Outcome based learning
Paradigm shift: from what is taught to what is learned
Competencies
“From Top to Down”: Skills Learning
• Bologna Declaration: Outcomes
European Higher Education Area
Knowledge
• European Qualification Framework
Learning

6. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Agenda
1. Higher education approaching a new paradigm
2. Our Research: The ICOPER Project
3. First Results: The ICOPER Reference Model

7. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Who we are:
 23 partners from all over Europe
 10 WP leaders
 13 Project partners
 Open Network philosophy: everyone can get
involved, contribute, and benefit
 To learn how get involve go to:
www.icoper.org

8. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Consortium
• Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien • NCSR Demokritos
• UK Open University • Institut National des Télécommunications
• University of Cyprus • University of Vienna
• University of Leicester • Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
• Open University of the Netherlands • AGH University of Science and Technology
• University of Jyväskylä • Kaunas University of Technology
• IMC AG • Knowledge Markets Consulting GesmbH
• Tallinn University, Centre for Educational • Oslo University College
Technology
• Synergetics nv
• Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Paris
• GiuntiLabs
– HEC
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
• Jozef Stefan Institute
• Umeå University, Department of Interactive
Media and Learning
• Humance

9. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme Lead by:
WP1 Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien Austria
WP2 Synergetics nv Belgium
WP3 University of Vienna Austria
WP4 UK Open University UK
WP5 IMC AG Germany
WP6 Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Spain
WP7 University of Jyväskylä Finland
Oslo University College Norway
WP8
& NCSR Demokritos Greece
GET/INT France
WP9
& GIUNTILABS Italy
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien Austria
University of Leicester UK
WP10 Jozef Stefan Institute Slovenia
Knowledge Markets Consulting GesmbH Austria

10. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Our Mission:
ICOPER
collects and further develops
best prac8ces for
the design, the development and the delivery of
interoperable content
suppor8ng competency‐driven higher educa8on
10

11. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Project mission & objectives
ICOPER develops best prac8ces suppor8ng
competency‐driven higher educa8on
Defining
Learning
Outcomes
Designing
Teaching
Assessment Methods &
Learning Learning
Designs
Outcomes
Content
Learning Development
and Re‐use
11

12. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Project mission & objectives
Best Practices supporting
… stakeholders … … when it comes to:
• Learners • Introducing learning
• Instructors outcomes
• Content Authors • Finding & adapting or
“fitting” learning
• Technology Providers resources
• Software Developers • Easing the process of
• University Management capturing, sharing,
re-using, and improving
learning resources
• Providing interoperable
technologies 12

13. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Project mission & objectives
Three Main Objectives:
1. Analyse and facilitate the adoption of
standards and specifications
2. Make learning resources accessible
3. Validate standards and specifications and
condense them into the
ICOPER Reference Model (IRM)
13

14. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
ICOPER Contributions
1. Access a critical mass of more than 12,500 hours of
integrated educational content.
2. Systematically analyze and assess the implementation of
existing specifications (e.g. IMS RCDEO, IMS LD, SQI, QTI)
for Delivering Competency-Driven Educational Content
3. Ensure European-wide user involvement, cooperation, and
adoption of standards within a large community to support all
phases of standardization
4. Condense findings into an ICOPER Reference Model which
will be fed back to standards bodies
5. Provide a Technical Roadmap for competency-based learning
6. Establish a Virtual Institute for Training and Consulting

15. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Agenda
1. Higher education approaching a new paradigm
2. Our Research: The ICOPER Project
3. First Results: The ICOPER Reference Model
• Meta Model Exemplified
• Prototypes
• Design and Evaluation

16. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
What is the IRM about?

17. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
What is the IRM about?
http://www.icoper.org:8080/rid=1H50YCXCC-1T39P24-1ST/ICOPER%20Reference%20Model%20%28IRM%29

18. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
IRM: Meta Model
(4) Learning & Teaching Activites Human-to-Human
(3) IT-Supported Processes & Human-to-Machine
Use Cases
Machine-to-Machine
(2) Service (1) Data

19. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Example Activity: Generation and use
of learning outcomes

20. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Example Process:
Enriching a Unit-of-Learning

21. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Example Service:
Simple Query Interface 1/2

22. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Example Service:
Simple Query Interface – Methods 2/2

23. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Example Data Format:
Personal Achieved Learning Outcomes (PALO)

24. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Agenda
1. Higher education approaching a new paradigm
2. Our Research: The ICOPER Project
3. First Results: The ICOPER Reference Model
• Meta Model Exemplified
• Prototypes
• Design and Evaluation

25. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
The IRM in Action 
(4) Learning & Teaching
Activites
(3) IT-Supported Processes &
Use Cases
(2) Service (1) Data

26. co-funded by the
European Community Project results: WP1
eContentplus programme
Open ICOPER Content Space (OICS)
26

27. co-funded by the
European Community Project results: WP1
eContentplus programme
27

28. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
28

29. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
DotLRN Integration

30. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme

31. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme

32. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Moodle widgets displaying
recommended units of
learning and recommended
teachers.

33. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Facebook Add-on

34. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Agenda
1. Higher education approaching a new paradigm
2. Our Research: The ICOPER Project
3. First Results: The ICOPER Reference Model
• Meta Model Exemplified
• Prototypes
• Design and Evaluation

35. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Process Modelling for IRM
HOW DO WE MODEL? FIRST EXPERIENCES
• The BPMN specification v. 2.0 Beta 1
• Freely download as a pdf document • The process diagrams have
from expressive power to communicate the
http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?dtc/ potentias of technology enhancement
09-08-14 • Easy to depict what will change, and
• Under the Object Management where does the benefit come as
Group’s (OMG) site www.omg.org compared to manual processes
• Pages dedicated to BPMN:
http://www.bpmn.org/ • Common context: The IRM Pool
• Roles in different combinations ->
Lanes in the models
• Different process models deploy lanes
according to the roles active in the
process
35

36. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
BPMN

37. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Introducing a
Service Middle
Layer

38. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Service Middle Layer
Service abstraction Requirements
• User management and • Extensible resource types
learning outcome profile • Stable identifiers
service
• Manage relations between
• Recommendation service resources
• Search and retrieval service • Manage heterogeneous types
• Publication service of metadata
• Retrieve information through
expressive queries
• Retrieve content in different
result formats, package
formats

39. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Re-using Standards and Specifications

40. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Re-using Standards and Specifications
CEN MLO OAI-PMH
CEN SPI OpenID
DOI/OpenURL PLE
eContent mobile Portlets
Eportfolio RCDEO
HR-XML Competency RFID
IEEE LOM SCORM
IMS LD SQI
IMS QTI Web-Services
ISO MLR XML

41. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Drawing conclusions through evaluation
1. End-user evaluation with instructors, learners,
curriculum developers, administration or
management
2. Engineering evaluation with implementers, tool
developers and technology providers
3. Epistemological evaluation with researchers
and standardization bodies

42. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
End-user Evaluation

43. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Engineering Evaluation

44. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
The ICOPER Referene Model –
Ready for a new Paradigm
in Higher Education!?
(4) Learning & Teaching
Activites
(3) IT-Supported Processes &
Use Cases
(2) Service (1) Data

45. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
We are happy to share these slides
with you under the following conditions:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/at/

46. co-funded by the
European Community
eContentplus programme
Contact
• Outreach and dissemination
– Vana Kamstiou, Demokritos, Athen
vana@dat.demokritos.gr
– Tore Hoel, Oslo University College
tore.hoel@hio.no
• Project Coordinator
– Bernd Simon, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien
bernd.simon@wu-wien.ac.at