| | March 20168Enabling Next Generation Digital Learning Environments: Why Standards Matter!By Jack Suess, VP-IT & CIO, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyTwo years ago, Rob Abel, Malcolm Brown, and I wrote an article for EDUCAUSE Review titled, A New Architecture for Learning. The articled posited that for higher education to support students and faculty as connected learners and instructors, we must rethink our approach to academic technology architecture. At the foundation of that architecture is information technology, in its role as the strategic enabler of connected learning. This article will provide an update on how we have progressed towards this vision, where we are going, and what you can do to help.The article described some of the recent standards, such as learning tools interoperability (LTI) and LTI2 that had improved the ability for learning tools to work together. Today, hundreds of software products support either LTI or LTI2. At the same time, the article highlighted that these improvements alone were insufficient in reaching our goal of supporting the individualized needs of learners and instructors. The article noted that to bring about the change we were seeking would require greater cooperation and collaboration across our national organizations to build a shared vision. Thanks to support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the leaders of our national organizations, and many campus instructional technologists and leaders, I am glad to report that I see tremendous progress taking place. One example, through the support of the Gates foundation, Malcolm Brown, Joanne Dehoney, and Nancy Millichap interviewed thought leaders across higher education and developed a report titled, Next Generation Digital Learning Environment (NGDLE). Through extensive interviews with over 70 people, this report examined the current learning management system (LMS) and extended the technical description described in A New Architecture for Learning with the functional gaps keeping higher education from achieving connected learning. The major finding was redefining the role of the LMS:"Over time, the LMS needs to be supplemented (and perhaps later replaced) by a new digital architecture and components for learning that contribute to and enable the transitions that higher education is currently experiencing. The challenge is to build on the value of the LMS as an administrative tool by In My Opinion
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