Title: Dublin Core Metadata Initiative DCMI Education:
1Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Education
- Stuart A. Sutton, Associate Professor
- The Information School of the University of
Washington - Seattle, Washington, USA
2Agenda
- A bit of history (educational metadata)
- A few principles (DCMES)
- DC-Education Application Profile
- Current Proposal
- Continuing Development
- A few distinctions (DCMES IEEE LOM)
- What do they share?
- How do they differ?
3History Educational Metadata
- 1996 Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM)
- 1997 Education Network Australia (EdNA)
- 1997 Instructional Management Systems (IMS)
- 1998 IEEE Learning Technologies Standards
Committee Learning Object Metadata (LOM) - IMS
- ARIADNE
- 1999 Formation by DCMI of the DC-Education
Working Group - 2000 Pending MoU between DCMI and IEEE LTSC
4Guiding Principles of DCMES
- Limited, Clearly Defined Purpose
- Shallow description of objects for cross-domain
networked information discovery and retrieval
(NIDR) - Not for deep description
- Not for object management
- Modularity
- Coexistence of disparate, but complementary
metadata - Extensibility
- Additional Elements (domain and local)
- Element qualifiers (making more refined
statementsrefining element semantics) - Value qualifiers (making more controlled
statementsrefining element content)
5Problems with the principles in real world
applications
6Extensibility Problem Examples
- Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM)
- Application profile ( but we didnt know to call
it that!) - Few new local elements
- Many local element qualifiers
- Education Network Australia (EdNA)
- Application profile ( but they didnt know to
call it that!) - Many new local elements
- Few local element qualifiers
- Result Tower of Babel!
- Little interoperability beyond unqualified DCMES
- Little interoperability even in instances of
shared semantics
7Extensibility Conquering the Babel
- Creation of the DC-Education Working Group
- DCMI Levels of Interoperability
- Cross-Domain Elements and qualifiers judged
widely useful across disciplines and communities
of practice (cross-domain coreDCMES) - Domain Elements and qualifiers judged useful
within a domain, but perhaps not across domains
(domain core--DCEd) - Local Elements and qualifiers useful for local
applications or in constrained federations of
applications (non-core) - Managing Complexity DCMI Registry
8Profile Development ProcessesDCMI Education
9Task 1 Exploration of the Extant Domain Metadata
- Common statements across domain-specific
initiatives - Crude metric2 or more projects
- Common classes
- Audience
- Duration
- Learning Processes/Characteristics
- Standards
- Quality
10Task 2 Basic Guiding Questions
- Is there a real existing cross-domain need? If
so, then - Can the need be solved with a value qualifier for
an existing DCMES element? If so, do that else
- Can the need be solved with a qualifier for an
existing DCMES element? If so, do that else - Can the need be solved with an element (or
element qualifiers) of an existing non-DCMES
element? If so, do that else - Create a new DCEd element (and, if necessary,
element and value qualifiers).
11Task 3 Refined Criteria for New Elements and
Qualifiers
- Is there a clear requirement for it in support
of resource discovery in the education domain? - Can it be clearly defined?
- Is it practical?
- Does it support interoperability?
- Are there alternative ways of implementing it?
- Are there existing implementations or controlled
vocabularies, etc., supporting it?
12DC-Education Application Profile
- DCMES Namespace
- Contributor
- Coverage
- Creator
- Date
- Description
- Format
- Identifier
- Language
- DC-Education Namespace
- Audience (Mediator)
- Standard (Identifier Version)
- Relation.ConformsTo
- IEEE LOM (P1484.12) Namespace
- Interactivity Type
- Interactivity Level
- Typical Learning Time
- Publisher
- Relation
- Rights
- Source
- Subject
- Title
- Type
13Example Content Standard
- McREL
- Notation M.2.1.3
- Mathematics
- Standard 2 Understands and applies basic and
advanced properties of the concepts of numbers - Level 1 K-2
- Benchmark 3 Understands symbolic, concrete, and
pictorial representations of numbers (e.g.,
written numerals, objects in sets, number lines) - http//mcrel.org/standards/math/ver2M.2.1.3
14DC-Education Application Profile
- DCMES Namespace
- Contributor
- Coverage
- Creator
- Date
- Description
- Format
- Identifier
- Language
- DC-Education Namespace
- Audience (Mediator)
- Standard (Identifier Version)
- Relation.ConformsTo
- IEEE LOM (P1484.12) Namespace
- Interactivity Type
- Interactivity Level
- Typical Learning Time
- Publisher
- Relation
- Rights
- Source
- Subject
- Title
- Type
15DC-Education Continuing Refinements
- Learning Processes Characteristics
- Teaching/learning theories
- Assessment mechanisms
- Student groupings
- Etc.
- Refining Audience
- Making more precise statements about the audience
for an object
16Refining Audience
- Education/training level
- 5th grade
- Linguistic ability
- Native language English
- Vocational training sector
- Building construction
- Intelligence/ability
- Gifted students
- Physical/emotional disabilities
- Students with attention deficit disorder
- Gender
- Cultural/linguistic groupings
- Native Americans
17EducationallyPurposed RepurposedObjects
- Defining Metadata Roles and Objectives
- DCMES/DCEd IEEE LOM
18Purposed Objects
- Educationally Purposed Objects
- Objects designed to meet educational objectives
e.g. - Digital textbooks
- Digital lesson plans, activities, examinations
- Digital curriculum modules
- Digital simulations for mixing and matching with
instructional modules - IEEE LOM AssumptionSingle (monolithic) metadata
record for an educationally purposed object - Instructional Management Systems (IMS)
- ARIADNE
-
19Purposed Objects Goals
- Discovery of learning objects
- Deployment of learning objects (e.g., content
model protocols for exchanging objects) - Management and use of learning objects (e.g.,
control integration of multiple objects,
sequencing of those objects and launching object
methods) - Management of interactions among teachers
learners, the learning objects, and instructional
shells (e.g., TopClass, Blackboard, WebCt) and
enterprise software (PeopleSoft) - Result Pretty complex stuff
-
20Repurposed Objects
- Some objects are not originally purposed as
educational objects but may be repurposed as
such e.g. - earth satellite data integrated into a learning
object - GIF image of President Clinton integrated into a
learning object on the U.S. presidency - Definitional problem Whats not capable of
informing and transforming (i.e., not capable of
being repurposed as an educational object)?
Probably nothing - DCMI addresses NIDR for both purposed and
repurposed objects
21RepurposingUsing the Warwick Framework
Learning Object Logical Container
Digital Object
Standards Mapping Metadata
Teaching Methods Metadata
Descriptive Metadata for NIDR
22DCMES IEEE LOM
- Both share a resource discovery role
- Discovery defines the boundaries of the
DCMES/DCEd role - Discovery is the jumping off point for more
complex object management processes in IEEE - Metadata instances
- IEEE LTSC assumes a monolithic metadata record
for an object - DCMI assumes modular metadata packages for an
object stemming from potentially different
organizations and communities of practice (and
the potential logical aggregation of those
packages)
23DCMI/IEEE LTSC MoU
- Goals
- Agreement for honoring namespaces
- Mechanisms for integrating DCMES/DC-ED and IEEE
LOM elements in an application profile - Mechanisms for cooperation in the evolution of
metadata for educational objects
24Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)
EducationCase Study 2 DCEd
- Stuart A. Sutton, Associate Professor
- The Information School of the University of
Washington - Seattle, Washington, USA