The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the U.S. member body to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is seeking expert participants on behalf of ISO Technical Committee (TC) 232 Working Group (WG) 2 on Education and learning services. All U.S. stakeholder organizations in relevant fields and industries are strongly encouraged to get involved by January 31, 2019.
The WG is planning to review/amend the International Standard, ISO 29991, Language learning services outside formal education-Requirements.
According to ISO, standardization in the field of education and learning services focused on, but not limited to: services; management systems; facilitators; assessments; terminology; ethical conduct. The TC will base its work on market needs, state of the art and feedback taking into account the net benefit of the interested parties and learners with special needs. The TC will also take into account ISO's global relevance policy with regard to the parts of the world not directly represented in the TC work.
About ISO 29991
This International Standard specifies requirements for language learning services outside formal education. These include any language learning services that are addressed to language learners themselves, as well as to interested parties that are acquiring the services for the benefit of learners.
The key features of any such service are that the goals of learning are defined and evaluated, and that it involves interaction with the learner. The instruction can be delivered face-to-face or mediated by technology, or it can be a blend of both. Entities interested in using this International Standard include language learning service providers of all kinds and sizes, as well as associations or consortia of language learning service providers. In cases where the language learning services are provided by an organization that delivers products (goods and services) or other learning services in addition to language learning services, this International Standard only applies to language learning services.
This International Standard is not specifically aimed at schools, colleges and universities, which provide language learning as part of a formal educational system, but may be useful to them as a tool for reflection and self-evaluation.
Prospective U.S. TAG participants for ISO TC 232 WG 2 or for those seeking more information should contact U.S. TAG administrator Ms. Ashley Wiand at [email protected] and the U.S. TAG Chair Bill Rivers at [email protected].