Through working with the IMS Learning Design Workgroup in the initial stage and more recently with the Valkenburg Group, GTK has developed an authoring tool, the Komposer® Suite, to enable educational resource developers with limited technology background to create IMS-compliant content packages. We believe that a working tool is essential in order to promote IMS CP. We have attended numerous e-learning conferences and displays in 2003/2004 and learnt that the educational sector (in Canada, at least) is slow in responding to the application of the technology. We intend to start piloting the tool in September 2004 and will report on the use of the tool to the UNFOLD Project in a subsequent update.

Creating resources in accordance with the IMS Learning Design Specification requires a good understanding of the Specification, but the concept of LD is several steps ahead of most educational resource developers. Komposer® Suite version 1.0 allows the authoring of IMS CP elements in the Word environment. Users may take this opportunity to learn the simple CP structure before moving on to a more sophisticated LD structure. We will include the LD elements in the next version. The architecture of the Komposer® Editor also allows for the future possibility of LD editing with only minor modification.

You can download Komposer Version 1.0 here

System Requirements

The Komposer® Suite uses Microsoft® Word as the authoring platform. To install the Komposer® suite, you will need

• Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP
  
• Microsoft® Word 2002, Microsoft® Word 2003
  
• Internet Explorer Version 5.5 and above
  
• Microsoft .NET Framework Version 1.1

Overview

There are 4 components to the Komposer® Suite:

1. Microsoft® Word provides a familiar authoring environment for content creation. When the Komposer® Suite is launched, a Styling Template will be generated and placed in the Word application to make formatting simple and easy to use.
   
2. The Generator allows users to convert the entire document into a content package ready to be delivered online with one "click". Content package used in this document and educational resources are in most of the time interchangeable.
   
3. The Editor is designed for the more advanced users to edit the manifest, a document used to describe the content package.
   
4. The Player allows learners to view the content through Internet Explorer.
   

Enhancements

• Authoring Environment
  
• A new floating panel has been developed to enable easy application of styles in authoring interactive quizzes.
  
• Better layout control through the use of tables in the Word environment.
  
• Editing
  
• The Editor edits any manifests which conform with IMS CP Specification, including those not initially generated by the Komposer® Suite.
  
• Player
  
• Audio and Video Players have been integrated into the Application. Audio clips and video clips can be played while working interactively with other content, such as attempting a quiz with reference to a video clip, on the same page.
  
• The Player does not validate the manifest file and will play any manifests that follow the IMS CP format including those not initially generated by the Komposer® Suite.

Under Development

• An International Edition.
• A Player for the Mac Environment.
  
• Adding ftp function to allow uploading of content packages.
  

Next Stage

• Adding LD Elements

Practice Development

• Komposer® has been introduced to the Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning (ABEL) Project participants for a pilot project that runs from September 2004 through August 2005. The Project has been funded by CANARIE.
• Other pilot projects will be launched in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia in September 2004.
  
• Joint activities with Harcourt Canada, a Reed Elsevier plc company, will be organized to promote the use of IMS CP as standards for educational resource development.

• The Fudan University Press is using the Komposer® Suite to deliver the multimedia component of a College English Course in CD format and allow professors to edit the source document using the tool. Over 200 higher education institutions are expected to use the tool in 2005/2006.