What is CC (IMS Common Cartridge)?
IMS Common Cartridge is a 1EdTech standard for packaging a complete course so it can move between learning platforms. A cartridge is a zip with a manifest that organises web content, files, links, discussion topics, quizzes in QTI format and LTI tool links into a course structure. It is common in education publishing and university course exchange.
How Personal Academy handles it
Personal Academy imports Common Cartridge packages as content two levels deep, without the QTI quizzes or LTI links inside a cartridge, through a staff-run import today.
A worked example
Suppose a 300-person professional body licenses an introductory course from a publisher that ships it as a Common Cartridge. The cartridge holds readings, a module structure, quizzes and a link to an external simulation. After import, the readings and structure arrive as lessons. The course team rebuilds the quizzes in the question bank and adds the simulation link by hand before publishing the course to members.
Common Cartridge was created by IMS Global, now 1EdTech, so that publishers and institutions could exchange whole courses rather than individual learning objects. Where SCORM focuses on one trackable unit of content, a cartridge describes an entire course: its modules, the order of items, and the different kinds of resources inside.
A cartridge is a zip file containing imsmanifest.xml and the resources it lists. Resource types include web content such as HTML pages and files, web links, discussion topics, assessments and question banks written in the IMS Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) format, and LTI links that launch external tools. The manifest organisation can be nested to several levels, mirroring weeks, units and lessons.
Several versions exist. Version 1.1 added LTI links, 1.2 added more QTI support, and 1.3 aligned the format with LTI 1.3. A thin variant, sometimes called a thin cartridge, contains only links and LTI references, with the content itself hosted by the publisher.
Importing a cartridge well means mapping each resource type to something the receiving platform understands. Web content and files usually map cleanly to lessons. Quizzes need a QTI importer that matches the platform question types. LTI links need the receiving platform to act as an LTI platform and have the tool registered. Nesting beyond what the receiving course structure allows must be flattened. That is why a platform may import a cartridge partly, and why it is worth checking which resource types arrive intact before a large migration. A trial import of one representative cartridge, checked item by item against the original course, is the quickest way to find out.