We carry out a report showing the state of the art about virtual communities, research groups and projects focused on the e-learning specification IMS Learning Design or directly related to it. This specification is currently becoming the most flexible and supported de facto standard for modelling full learning processes, as a complement for any structure of educational contents. Afterwards, as a consequence of the previous study, we develop a reading and a further analysis of the current

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... ma, and describe the key factors that show the relevance and impact of IMS Learning Design and also the main forthcoming challenges.