This Standard defines a data model for describing, referencing, and sharing competency definitions, primarily in the context of online and distributed learning. This Standard provides a way to represent formally the key characteristics of a competency, independently of its use in any particular context. It enables interoperability among learning systems that deal with competency information by providing a means for them to refer to common definitions with common meanings. This Standard enables information about competencies to be encoded and shared. This Standard does not define whether a competency is a skill, knowledge, ability, attitude, or learning outcome, but it can be used to capture information about any of these. Policies regarding reusable competency definitions (RCDs), such as the best practice to look for an existing definition to reuse instead of inventing a new one for the same purpose, are outside of the scope of this Standard.