Caliper Analytics: All about Caliper Analytics | Magic EdTech

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Caliper Analytics: Everything you need to know.

  • Published on: December 14, 2021
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  • Updated on: September 5, 2025
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  • Reading Time: 3-4 min
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Authored By:

Rishi Raj Gera

Chief Solutions Officer

What is Caliper Analytics?

The Caliper Framework helps educators capture consistency and measure learning activity. It defines a common language and standard platform that organizations and universities can use to label learning data and measure effectiveness. Caliper Analytics leverages data science methods, standards, and technologies, built upon IMS Global standards, to provide the best-practice recommendations for transport mechanisms.

 

Common challenges educators face in today’s scenario

With the growing number of learning activities taking place online, data analytics and information specific to learning activities are increasingly being captured. This increased amount of data provides educators and education institutions with insight into specific learning interactions and their outcomes.

Further, this data allows educators and educational institutions to take specific action to improve their learning systems so that students can comprehend learning objectives in the most efficient way possible; however, all efforts surrounding this have been built upon keeping data locked away which prevents the educators, students, and institutions from seeing a holistic view of what is truly happening in the learning environment. There is a widespread need for data to be collected with a single approach.

For example, consider an instructor seeking to transform the classroom environment for students. He/she utilizes video platforms for lessons and assignments. Class discussions are conducted online, and courses are administered using a learning management system. Analyzing the behavior of the students in relation to the questions they pose and conversations they have is vital to holistically understanding their comprehension and performance. Yet, exploring these correlations is often too challenging of an exercise. Is the data required for analysis actually collected? If it exists, who owns it? If ownership isn’t the issue, what about privacy concerns? If privacy protocols are in place, how can the instructor retrieve the data? If retrievable how difficult is it to combine with data collected on other platforms?

How Caliper Analytics can be beneficial in these scenarios

This is where Caliper Analytics comes in! The Caliper Analytics Specification seeks to address a number of these issues by providing a structured approach to describing, collecting, and exchanging learning activity data. Since organizations analyze their environments in different ways and many curriculums ask students to work in various learning environments, establishing a common vocabulary for describing learning interactions is a central objective. In addition, promoting data interoperability, data-sharing, and data-informed decision-making are important goals.

Implementing the Caliper frameworks in current work scenarios

To execute this framework, Caliper defines a number of metric profiles, each of which models a learning activity or a supporting activity that helps facilitate learning. Each profile provides a domain-specific set of terms and concepts that application designers and developers can use to describe interactions, such as videos, tests, or online grading, in a consistent manner with a shared vocabulary.

IMS Global enables products to be certified through testing programs. The certification process is the fastest and most efficient way to achieve product integration that complies with specific standards. For educational institutions and EdTech providers, ensuring that products are compliant is the best way to allow your tools and content to work together, granting you the benefits of certification.

As an IMS Global contributing member, we are curious to understand if you use Caliper Analytics and how. Feel free to email us your thoughts or experiences at marketing@www.magicedtech.com.

Source: https://www.imsglobal.org/activity/caliper

 

Written By:

Rishi Raj Gera

Chief Solutions Officer

Rishi Raj is a seasoned consultant with over 25 years of experience in edtech and publishing. He brings a unique blend of strategic thinking and hands-on execution to his role as Chief Solutions Officer at Magic. Rishi excels at managing a diverse portfolio, leveraging his expertise in product adoption, student and teacher experiences, DE&I, accessibility, AI solutions, market expansion, and security, standards & compliance. As a thought leader in the field, he also provides advisory and consulting services, guiding clients on their journeys to success.

FAQs

Caliper gives you a shared vocabulary and “metric profiles” (e.g., media, assessment, forums) so different tools label the same learning actions the same way. That makes it far easier to combine LMS, video, and assessment data without brittle, one‑off mappings—and to compare evidence across courses and platforms.

Start with one or two high‑value use cases (e.g., video engagement + quiz outcomes). Map those sources to the relevant Caliper profiles and stream events to a central endpoint or warehouse. Prove value with initial dashboards, then add sources/profiles iteratively.

No. Caliper is a data model and transport spec, not a policy. You still set governance for consent, retention, and access, and you implement secure transport/minimization to meet FERPA/GDPR and your institutional rules.

Certification validates conformance, which reduces integration friction, speeds procurement with institutions that prefer certified vendors, and gives teams a clear target for interoperability testing.

Define a small set of questions first (e.g., “Where do learners stall?” “Which activities predict success?”), ensure consistent IDs to join events across tools, and review results with faculty/IR so findings lead to content changes, support triggers, or course design tweaks.

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