New generation of e-learning technologies

At present an exciting shift from focusing on learning objects to emphasizing learning activities appears in the study of e-learning technologies. The release of IMS Learning Design (IMS LD) specification becomes the representative of this significant development. IMS LD specifies how people with certain roles perform a set of structured activities in certain learning environments. It revolutionizes e-learning by capturing the "activity" of education, rather than simple collection of ordered contents to learn. In this paper we first introduce the innovative and interesting specification and then review the tools related to IMS LD. In the end we give an overview of current research issues for LD.