An Institutional Pledge to Support the Principles of the
Technology in Higher Education in Support of Innovation for Success Program

 

Overview | Eligibility | THESIS Pledge

Overview

“Technology in Higher Education in Support of Innovation for Student Success” or THESIS for short, is a collaboration among leading colleges and universities worldwide to enable a 10-100x improvement in the adoption of innovative digital technologies in support of teaching and learning.  Pledging support for THESIS signifies a commitment to the work of an institutional-led community to evolve to an academic IT enterprise that is based on open standards.  These open standards make technology experiences more seamless and productive for teachers and students, reduce the time and cost of integration, and reduce barriers to entry for new suppliers.

THESIS provides an easy, free framework to help colleges and universities to take the first steps towards an open academic enterprise and provides the support to make procurements and upgrades that advance the adoption of open standards relatively easy and at no additional cost. Specifically, THESIS is designed to:

• Break the status quo of closed, proprietary systems that make the use of digital technology in various combinations difficult to use for teaching and learning. 
• Help institutions of all kinds become more productive and efficient through the adoption of proven IMS interoperability standards that will save 10-100x the cost/time to implement and support a seamless interface of educational applications, content, and data with the academic enterprise.
• Enable an institution to become more agile in integrating new technologies and digital content, and providing support for evolving new personalized learning environments.
• Enable content and data to be migrated from one platform to another platform with ease.
• Help improve the consistency in the use of technology and digital resources by faculty, which in turn will enhance the student learning experience.
• Facilitate information sharing about innovative and sustainable uses of technology that can help improve access, affordability, and quality of personalized educational experiences.

By pledging to support THESIS, your institution will join a collaboration of higher education institutions who encourage the adoption of the principles of the THESIS program that will accelerate the adoption of the IMS standards to enable faculty and students to work more efficiently and effectively. 

Contact Us if you are interested in learning more about THESIS.

 

Eligibility

Any college or university may pledge to participate in the THESIS program. There is no cost to participate in the collaboration. Institutions pledging support will be provided the following IMS support to further the stated goals for THESIS:

• Serves as the authoritative source on the development, adoption, and impact of interoperability to enable and transform digital learning environments.
• Provides the appropriate wording that specifies requirements for relevant procurements.
• Access to support forums and informational webinars that provide the support and training required for IT and academic technology staff to understand where opportunities exist today and how to incorporate the adoption of open standards, including what to look for when engaged in a procurement or upgrade to advance the stated goals of THESIS.
• Finally, IMS is prepared to get experts involved in the rare case that an individual institution or system encounters an interoperability issue with an IMS certified product. Typically this is not needed for products that have already been certified.  But this form of troubleshooting with community involvement is an essential feedback mechanism and insurance policy.

Qualification for the above IMS support requires an official executive commitment (e.g. president, provost, CFO or CIO) to encourage IMS Global Learning Consortium certification as part of the campus procurement policy. The executive endorsement is essential because IMS will be making an investment in supporting your institution and needs some assurance of commitment at the institutional level. In addition, the executive endorsements for THESIS aid IMS in its work to encourage suppliers to fully adopt IMS open interoperability and achieve certification.  Membership in IMS Global is not required.

 

THESIS Pledge

Interested institutions may submit a request to participate in THESIS to IMS Global. Upon receipt of your pledge, IMS will contact you to confirm your request to join the THESIS community. Upon confirmation, IMS will provide you with the THESIS toolkit of reference materials and access to support forums to help your institution begin to incorporate adoption of IMS interoperability.