Caliper Analytics provides more than a specification. Caliper also provides open source code and APIs (the SensorAPI™) to enable rapid implementation of the standard.

The Caliper standard:

• Establishes a means for consistently capturing and presenting measures of learning activity, which will enable more efficient development of learning analytics features in learning environments
• Defines a common language for labeling learning data, which will set the stage for an ecosystem of higher-order applications of learning analytics
• Provides a standard way of measuring learning activities and effectiveness, which will enable designers and providers of curriculum to measure, compare and improve quality
• Leverages data science methods, standards, and technologies
• Builds upon existing IMS standards
• Direct access to the LMS captured events as they occur
• Use of scalable, commercially available messaging streams
• Support for real-time messaging intervention use cases
• Support for supplier-specific metric profiles

Learning Information Services (LIS)

LIS is a specification for the exchange of Enterprise Data between the major systems in use at learning institutions. Typically data about learners, faculty, courses and the enrollment relationship between them all is held within a Student Information System (SIS). This system typically is then used to populate other systems, for example Learning Management Systems, Library Management Systems, Learning Object Repositories ... and that process can often be manual - data being extracted from the SIS, and then subject to reformatting into proprietary APIs and formats for import. Often this is done by a human, often complex and error-prone. As systems are upgraded, so the APIs and formats change.

LIS solves the scalable data exchange problem by providing standards-based service and data models. LIS means that often "one-click" in the SIS is enough to create student, course and enrollment records in Learning Management Systems - without the need for error-prone human intervention or reformatting. Furthermore, at year end, LIS provides mechanisms to allow final grades to be exported back into Student Information systems.

Overall LIS means that labor is removed from institutional staff back onto systems developers at supplier organizations. Integration is no longer something that an institution needs to do in a proprietary manner. Rather the institution is freed to use technical and support staff to add value for students and faculty.

Course Planning and Scheduling (CPS)

CPS is an extension of LIS that allows for Planning and Scheduling systems to communicate with Student Information Systems in a standards-based way. There is no need for proprietary integrations with several different systems - rather planners can implement the CPS model and be interoperable with all CPS enabled SISs. CPS means that SIS systems now can use more intelligent logistical information, provided by the planning system when creating classes. This does not require the SIS to implement complex logistic and planning algorithms.

Overall, in a world where resources such as space are becoming more scarce, CPS provides automation to help institutional planners ensure that the right classes are being held in the right places and at the right times, without the need to manually create records inside an SIS, or by implementing custom integrations.

OneRoster

The OneRoster standard is designed to be a subset of the full Learning Information Services standard that focuses on a School's needs to exchange roster information and grades. The standard includes both SOAP and REST-based bindings make it quicker and easier to implement the exchange of information about people, membership, courses, and outcomes. In addition to the services, OneRoster specifies a format for CSV files that are typically exchanged between the school and the vendor to populate the roster information needed to gain access to publisher content, learning tools, portals, and learning environments.