Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) Service v1.1: Conformance and Certification

Introduction

Scope and Context

The Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) Service Specification v1.1 is the definition of how systems achieve the exchange of information about academic standards, competencies, and/or skills. The goal for CASE is to replace the current ways of documenting a learning standard and competency, typically in a PDF or HTML document, by one which is both human and machine-readable. Using this CASE v1.1 specification will make it possible to electronically exchange academic standards, competencies, and/or skills between applications, systems, and tools.

Status of this Document

This document is released for public adoption and implementation of the CASE Service 1.1 Specification. Public contributions, feedback on adoption of the specification, comments and questions can be emailed to: support@1edtech.org

Structure of this Document

The structure of the rest of this document is:

Number	Section	Description
1.	THE CONFORMANCE PROCESS	The formal process to be undertaken by a vendor wishing to obtain CASE Service conformance certification;
2.	SERVICE PROVIDER CONFORMANCE	The conformance requirements that must be achieved for the certification of a CASE Service Provider;
3.	SERVICE CONSUMER CONFORMANCE	The conformance requirements that must be achieved for the certification of a CASE Service Consumer;
4.	CASE SERVICE CERTIFICATIONS	A comparison of the endpoint certification requirements for a Service Provider and a Service Consumer.

Nomenclature

Number	Section	Description
1.	API	Application Programming Interface
2.	IUT	Implementation Under Test
3.	JSON	Java Script Object Notation
4.	CASE	Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange
5.	REST	Representation State Transfer

References

Number	Section	Description
1.	[CASE, 17a]	1EdTech Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) Service 1.1 Candidate Final Document, G.Nadeau, R.Grogan, C.Smythe and J.Hobson, 1EdTech Learning Consortium Inc., July 2017, https://standards.1edtech.org/case/info/case-info-v1p1.
2.	[CASE, 17b]	1EdTech Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) Service 1.1 REST/JSON Binding Candidate Final Document, G.Nadeau, R.Grogan, C.Smythe and J.Hobson, IMS Global Learning Consortium Inc., July 2017, https://standards.1edtech.org/case/rest/case-rest-v1p1.

The Conformance Process

Conformance Testing Process

The process for conformance testing implementations of CASE Service includes the following:

Number	Step	Notes
1.	Go to the 1EdTech CASE Conformance Certification Test Suite.	Conformance Test Suite links are available in the 1EdTech CASE Service Alliance and the relevant link details are given in Sections 3 and 4 of this document.
2.	Follow the onscreen instructions to run the tests for certification testing for the REST-based implementation of CASE v1.1.
3.	1EdTech Members can certify for CASE v1.1 or CASE v1.0. Go to the 1EdTech Become a Member web page to begin.	1EdTech Contributing, Affiliate, and CASE Alliance Members may get certified as a CASE Consumer and/or Provider. Suppliers who pay for CASE Network 2 access receive a CASE Alliance Membership, which provides the ability to become certified as CASE Providers and/or Consumers.
4.	Go to the 1EdTech Conformance Test Suite for CASE.	A comparison of the endpoint certification requirements for a service provider and a service consumer.
5.	Follow the onscreen instructions to run the tests.	A comparison of the endpoint certification requirements for a service provider and a service consumer.
6.	Once the test has been successfully run, submit a printout of the test results, complete the 1EdTech Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) Conformance Test Results form, located on the CASE Conformance and Certification web page, and send the test results and the completed form to conformance@1edtech.org.
7.	1EdTech will review the results and issue a conformance certification number.

Once the test has been successfully run, submit the print out of the test results along with the following information to conformance@imsglobal.org:

1. Your Name
2. Your Organization
3. Your Product Name and Version
4. Date the Product was tested
5. Whether you are a Service Provider, a Service Consumer or both.

All tests for either profile must be passed successfully to be considered 1EdTech compliant.

Requirements for CASE Service 1.1 Conformance

All of the REQUIRED feature tests MUST be passed successfully to be considered 1EdTech CASE Service compliant. If a system is to be certified for any of the OPTIONAL features then the corresponding tests for these MUST ALSO be passed. When using the conformance test systems you are required to identify which optional features are supported by the implementation under test. The conformance test systems will then test ALL of the REQUIRED and identified OPTIONAL features to confirm their correct implementation. The 1EdTech Product Certification directory will then identify the set of optional features that are certified as being compliant.

CASE Conformance Mark

After you have submitted your successful conformance information to conformance@imsglobal.org, and received confirmation and a registration number from 1EdTech Consortium, Inc., you may then apply the appropriate conformance mark. The 1EdTech Global conformance chart will list your conformance details. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at any point.

Membership in the CASE Service Alliance is the only way to achieve official conformance to the CASE Service standard. Products without a 1EdTech conformance Registration Number are not considered to be compliant by 1EdTech Consortium, Inc.

The Changes In CASE v1.1

CASE 1.1 serves as a minor upgrade to CASE 1.0. CASE 1.1 still consists of two distinct services that were available in previous version, which are: CASE Provider and CASE Consumer. The goal for CASE 1.1 is to release a small update to address active integration concerns as well as provide clarity for implementing organizations. The sections below describe an overview of the new API path and each new feature. The new API path and any added features will be checked during the review process for CASE 1.1 Provider and CASE 1.1 Consumer certifications.

New API Path and Features in CASE 1.1

The goal for CASE 1.1 is to release a small update to address active integration concerns as well as provide clarity for implementing organizations. The sections below describe an overview of the new API path and each new feature. The new API path and any added features will be checked during the review process for CASE 1.1 Provider and CASE 1.1 Consumer certifications.

New to CASE v1.1	Required	Optional	Notes
API Path Change	X		The API endpoint path for CASE 1.1 changes the BASEURL to /ims/case/v1p1
New Fields and Model Changes		X	Will be reviewed, if included in the CASE v1.1 certification submission
Framework Types		X	Will be reviewed, if included in the CASE v1.1 certification submission
Associations Pointing to non-CASE Frameworks		X	Will be reviewed, if included in the CASE v1.1 certification submission
Rich text with Markdown and LaTeX		X	Will be reviewed, if included in the CASE v1.1 certification submission
Extensions to CFItems and other entities		X	Will be reviewed, if included in the CASE v1.1 certification submission
CASE Consumer Certification Requirements	X		Required as a minimum either a CFPackage or CFItem must be supported

Requirement for CASE 1.1 Certification

API Path Change:

The API endpoint path for CASE 1.1 changes the BASEURL to /ims/case/v1p1.

Optional for CASE 1.1 Certification

New fields and model changes:

These are brief descriptions of the new fields, see the sections below for more thorough descriptions and implementation guidance.

New Fields	Description
API	Application Programming Interface
CFDocument.frameworkType	Specify the framework type of the CFDocument
CFDocument.caseVersion	The CASE version for the CFDocument. Currently, the only expected value is 1.1 since this field does not exist for CASE 1.0.
CFItem.subject	Allow individual items to have different subjects from the main document
CFItem.subjectURI	Allow individual items to have different subjects from the main document
CFAssociation.notes	Allow notes for associations
CFAssociation.originNodeURI.targetType	Specify the type of the referenced association
CFAssociation.destinationNodeURI.targetType	Specify the type of the referenced association
CFAssociation Types	Added isTranslationOf
Extensions	CFItem, CFDocument, and CFAssociation JSON entities can now include an extensions field, which can include additional sub-fields that are not included in the defined CASE information model

Framework Types

CFDocument now has an optional field frameworkType. This allows framework creators to indicate what type of framework this is, for example course codes.

• With the release of CASE 1.1, course codes is the only official type.
• For CASE 1.1 framework types and their data will not be certified.

Associations Pointing to non-CASE Frameworks:

CFAssociations now allow the originNodeURI and destinationNodeURI to point to non-CASE frameworks. This is a large change since it changes how CASE consumers process associations since it can no longer be assumed the target is a CASE object. To help guide implementors the field targetType was added to these association pointers.

• The default value is CASE. This is intended to be an open vocabulary with a shared set defined by the CASE workgroup over time.

Rich text with Markdown and LaTeX:

Many item statements need to utilize basic formatting and support for math and other rendered text. In CASE 1.1, many fields MAY now contain Markdown and math-related LaTeX. While it is possible to display this content without rendering the Markdown/LaTeX, all systems that display CASE items SHOULD render the Markdown and LaTeX, e.g. using JavaScript libraries such as Marked and KaTeX or MathJax.

List of fields that now support Markdown and LaTeX:

• CFItem.fullStatement
• CFItem.notes
• CFAssociation.notes
• CFDocument.notes
• All description fields
• See the best practices section on Markdown and Latex and the appendix examples of rendered Markdown and LaTeX for more guidance and examples of how Markdown and LaTeX should be properly rendered.

Extensions to CFItems and other entities

The CASE 1.0 spec explicitly disallowed “proprietary data elements” in CASE JSON. However, in CASE 1.1, CFItems, CFDocuments, CFAssociations, and other entities MAY include an extensions field, which can in turn include sub-fields for names and values that are outside the spec. A system consuming CASE can simply ignore the entire extensions field, and/or any extension sub-fields, that the system doesn’t “know” or “care” about. By nesting all custom data in an extensions field, we avoid namespace collisions with field names that may be introduced in future CASE versions. Best practice is to use camelCase for field names, for consistency with official CASE fields.

Requirement Option Added for CASE 1.1 Consumer Certification

The set of endpoints that MUST be supported by a CASE 1.1 Service Consumer can be EITHER a CFPackage or CFItem.

Service Provider Conformance

In Tables 3.1 and 3.2, the following should be noted:

For a CASE Service 1.1 implementation the 'Endpoint' value should be appended to the string '/ims/case/v1p1/'; The 'Mode' is used denote whether the system is responsible for issuing the request (Init) or responding to the request (Resp).

Required Endpoint Support

The set of endpoints that MUST be supported by a Service Provider is listed in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1 The endpoints that must be supported by a compliant CASE Service Provider.

Service Call	Endpoint	HTTP Verb	Mode
getCFPackage	/CFPackages/{sourcedId}	GET	Resp
getAllCFDocuments	/CFDocuments	GET	Resp
getCFDocument	/CFDocuments/{sourcedId}	GET	Resp
getCFItem	/CFItems/{sourcedId}	GET	Resp
getCFItemAssociations	/CFItemAssociations/{sourcedId}	GET	Resp
getCFAssociation	/CFAssociations/{sourcedId}	GET	Resp
getCFAssociationGrouping	/CFAssociationGroupings/{sourcedId}	GET	Resp
getCFConcept	/CFConcepts/{sourcedId}	GET	Resp
getCFItemType	/CFItemTypes/{sourcedId}	GET	Resp
getCFLicense	/CFLicenses/{sourcedId}	GET	Resp
getCFSubject	/CFSubjects/{sourcedId}	GET	Resp

3.2 Optional Endpoint Support

The set of OPTIONAL endpoints that MAY be supported by a Service Provider is listed in Table 3.2.

Table 3.2 The endpoints that MAY be supported by a compliant CASE Service Provider.

Service Call	Endpoint	HTTP Verb	Mode
getCFRubric	/CFRubrics/{sourcedId}	GET	Resp

Service Provider Compliance

The functional capabilities of such systems are:

• They must support all of the required endpoints;
• They may support any of the optional endpoints;
• They must supply all of the required data fields in the JSON payloads;
• They must be capable of supplying all of the optional data fields in the JSON payloads (conformance testing requires ALL data fields to be populated);
• They must not provide extension data fields in the JSON payloads;
• They may support the endpoint payload pagination query parameters. If supported the corresponding response HTTP header extensions MUST be supported;
• They may support the endpoint payload filtering query parameters;
• They may support the endpoint payload sorting query parameters;
• They may support the endpoint payload field selection query parameter.

The Conformance Test System used to certify a CASE 1.1 Service Provider is available at: https://validate.imsglobal.org/CASEv1p1_CTS_ServiceProvider/index.html

Service Consumer Conformance

In Tables 4.1 and 4.2, the following should be noted:

• For a CASE Service 1.1 implementation the 'Endpoint' value should be appended to the string '/ims/case/v1p1/';
• The 'Mode' is used denote whether the system is responsible for issuing the request (Init) or responding to the request (Resp).
• For CASE 1.1 Consumer Certification Requirements, an additional endpoint value was included to ease with implementations: Required as a minimum either a CFPackage or CFItem must be supported.

Required Endpoint Support

The set of endpoints that MUST be supported by a Service Consumer is listed in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 The endpoints that must be supported by a compliant CASE Service Consumer.

Service Call	Endpoint	HTTP Verb	Mode
getCFItem OR getCFPackage	/CFItems/{sourcedId} OR /CFPackage/{sourcedId}	GET	Init

Optional Endpoint Support

The set of OPTIONAL endpoints that MAY be supported by a Service Consumer is listed in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2 The endpoints that MAY be supported by a compliant CASE Service Consumer.

Service Call	Endpoint	HTTP Verb	Mode
getCFPackage	/CFPackages/{sourcedId}	GET	Init
getAllCFDocuments	/CFDocuments	GET	Init
getCFDocument	/CFDocuments/{sourcedId}	GET	Init
getCFItemAssociations	/CFItemAssociations/{sourcedId}	GET	Init
getCFAssociation	/CFAssociations/{sourcedId}	GET	Init
getCFAssociationGrouping	/CFAssociationGroupings/{sourcedId}	GET	Init
getCFConcept	/CFConcepts/{sourcedId}	GET	Init
getCFItemType	/CFItemTypes/{sourcedId}	GET	Init
getCFLicense	/CFLicenses/{sourcedId}	GET	Init
getCFSubject	/CFSubjects/{sourcedId}	GET	Init
getCFRubric	/CFRubrics /{sourcedId}	GET	Init

Service Consumer Compliance

The functional capabilities of such systems are:

• They must support all of the required endpoints;
• They must 'handle' all of the required data fields in the JSON payloads;
• They may 'handle' any of the optional data fields in the JSON payloads;
• The presence of extension data fields in the JSON payloads should not cause the systems to fail but the handling of these messages is implementation dependent;
• They may support the endpoint payload pagination query parameters. If supported the corresponding response HTTP header extensions MUST be supported;
• They may support the endpoint payload filtering query parameters;
• They may support the endpoint payload sorting query parameters;
• They may support the endpoint payload field selection query parameter.

NOTE: From a conformance perspective, 'handle' means that the consumer must store the data in a persistent manner and must demonstrate that storage. Conceptually, if a read request was made to the service consumer for that record then all of the data supplied by the service provider should be recovered.

The Conformance Test System used to certify a CASE 1.1 Service Consumer is available at: https://validate.imsglobal.org/CASEv1p1_CTS_Consumer/

CASE Service Certifications

A system that successfully achieves CASE Service certification will have a certain set of functional capabilities. CASE Service certification does NOT guarantee interoperability for ALL features between ALL other CASE Service compliant solutions. The set of functional properties that a CASE Service certified product may have is shown in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1 A comparison of the certifications available for a CASE Service compliant product.

Service Call	Endpoint	Provider	Consumer
getCFPackage	/CFPackages/{sourcedId}	Required	Required as a minimum either a CFPackage or CFItem must be supported
getAllCFDocuments	/CFDocuments	Required	Optional
getCFDocument	/CFDocuments/{sourcedId}	Required	Optional
getCFItem	/CFItems/{sourcedId}	Required	Required as a minimum either a CFPackage or CFItem must be supported
getCFItemAssociations	/CFItemAssociations/{sourcedId}	Required	Optional
getCFAssociation	/CFAssociations/{sourcedId}	Required	Optional
getCFAssociationGrouping	/CFAssociationGroupings/{sourcedId}	Required	Optional
getCFConcept	/CFConcepts/{sourcedId}	Required	Optional
getCFItemType	/CFItemTypes/{sourcedId}	Required	Optional
getCFLicense	/CFLicenses/{sourcedId}	Required	Optional
getCFSubject	/CFSubjects/{sourcedId}	Required	Optional

Some key points to note from Table 5.1 are:

• A system could be certified as a service provider, a service consumer or a service provider/service consumer;
• For a service provider ONLY the 'getCFRubric' operation is OPTIONAL;
• For a service consumer ONLY the 'getCFItem' OR 'getCFPackage' operation is REQUIRED;
• ALL systems MUST support the 'getCFItem' operation.

About this Document

Title: 1EdTech Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange Service (CASE) v1.1: Conformance and Certification

Editors:

Susan Haught, 1EdTech Consortium, Inc. Colin Smythe, 1EdTech Consortium, Inc.

Co-chair:

Pepper Williams, Common Good Learning Tools, Inc.

Version: 1.1

Version Date: 24th, January, 2025

Status: 1EdTech Final Release

Summary: The 1EdTech Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange (CASE) Service is used to exchange information about the learning and education competencies. This standard defines a set of data models for competency frameworks, competency documents, competency definitions, competency associations, rubrics, rubric criterions and rubric criterion levels. It also describes how this data can be exchanged using a set of service calls. This document contains the definition of conformance and certification for service consumers and service providers.

Revision Information: First release of this specification.

Purpose: For public adoption.

Document Location: https://www.imsglobal.org/case/