As computers are increasingly used for storing and delivering online tests and exams, it's important to have an exchange language that questions and assessments can be described in, so that if you author a question in one system and want to deliver it in another system, you can easily transfer it. Good questions take a lot of effort to write and check, and a standard question language will allow portability of data as computer standards change.

The IMS Question and Test Interoperability specification (QTI) defines a standard format for the representation of assessment content and results, supporting the exchange of this material between authoring and delivery systems, repositories and other learning management systems. It allows assessment materials to be authored and delivered on multiple systems interchangeably. It is, therefore, designed to facilitate interoperability between systems^[1].

The specification consists of a data model that defines the structure of questions, assessments and results from questions and assessments together with an XML data binding that essentially defines a language for interchanging questions and other assessment material. The XML binding is widely used for exchanging questions between different authoring tools and by publishers. The assessment and results parts of the specification are less widely used.

Background

QTI was produced by the IMS Global Learning Consortium, which is an industry and academic consortium that develops specifications for interoperable learning technology. QTI was inspired by the need for interoperability in question design, and to avoid people losing or having to re-type questions when technology changes. Developing and validating good questions is time consuming, and it's desirable to be able to create them in a platform and technology neutral format.

QTI version 1.0 was materially based on a proprietary Questions Markup Language (QML) language defined by QuestionMark, but the language has evolved over the years and can now describe almost any reasonable question that one might want to describe. (QML is still in use by Questionmark and is generated for interoperability by tools like Adobe Captivate).

The most widely used version of QTI at the time of writing is version 1.2, which was finalized in 2002. This works well for exchanging simple question types, and is supported by many tools that allow the creation of questions.

Version 2.0 was released in 2005, with v2.1 due for release in 2008^[2]. 2.0 addressed the item (individual question) level of the specification only, with 2.1 covering assessments and results as well as correcting errors which had become apparent in 2.0. Version 2.x is a significant improvement on earlier versions, defining a new underlying interaction model. It is also notable for its significantly greater degree of integration with other specifications (some of which did not exist during the production of v1): the specification addresses the relationship with IMS Content Packaging v1.2, IEEE Learning Object Metadata, IMS Learning Design, IMS Simple Sequencing and other standards such as XHTML. It also provides guidance on representing context-specific usage data and information to support the migration of content from earlier versions of the specification.

Because v2.0 was limited to items only, and v2.1 has yet to be formally released by IMS (although two public drafts plus an addendum are currently available), uptake of v2.x has been slow to date. The delay between the release of 2.0 and 2.1 (over three years to date) may have hindered uptake to some extent, with developers reluctant to commit to v2.0 knowing that v2.1 is in development. The use of a profile of v1.2.1 in the IMS Common Cartridge specification may exacerbate this. A number of implementations are emerging, however, and uptake may increase once the specification is finally available in a stable form.

Timeline

Applications with IMS QTI support

• Online Learning And Training
• QuestionMark Perception
• ATutor
• ILIAS
• Moodle
• Diploma
• Sakai
• Tenereo

Footnotes

External links

• IMS QTI website
• IMS website
• Questionmark
• Adobe Captivate
• TOIA (Technologies for Online Interoperable Assessment) - this project has now ended and software is no longer available
• QTI Tools
• JISC CETIS Assessment special interest group
• List of QTI products, projects and resources

ca:QTI it:Question and Test Interoperability ru:Qti