Domain Modeling In FREMA

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Domain Modeling In FREMA

• David Millard
• Yvonne Howard
• Hugh Davis
• Gary Wills
• Lester Gilbert
• Learning Societies Lab
• University of Southampton, UK

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What is FREMA?

• The e-Framework REference Model for Assessment
• JISC funded Project between Southampton,
  Strathclyde and Hull
• 2004 - 2006
• Aim to produce a Reference Model of the
  e-Learning Assessment Domain
• To aid interoperability and aid in the creation
  of Assessment Services for the e-Framework

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Definitions

• What is a Reference Model?
• A guide to help developers create web services
  that work with one another
• But there is more than one type of guide
• A standard data format
• A best practise example of service design
• A methodology for creating or describing services
• A description of what is currently available
• What is a Reference Model for Assessment?
• Assessment is a broad and complex domain
• Many different assessment scenarios
• More than one data model
• More than one set of cooperating services
• An active Community requires an evolving model

FREMA
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Domain Modelling
Domain Context
Domain Information Model
Stakeholders and Role Models
Goal and Function Model
1
Stakeholders and Personas
Domain System Model
Scenarios (workflows and narratives)
5
The FREMA Use Case
1
Stakeholders and Personas
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Personifying the actors
1
Stakeholders and Personas

• Will, Web services developer
• Scenario
• I want to lookup use cases and scenarios to
  help me design my application. This will help me
  to define my footprint in the assessment domain.
  I see there are some web services I could
  download but some are missing. What standards
  can I use when writing my own web services to
  ensure that I can interoperate with the web
  services Ive chosen?
• Yvonne, Institutional Resource Manager
• Scenario
• I want an overview of what this domain is all
  about. I want to know what standards are
  applicable in the domain to ensure that we comply
  with quality assurance requirements. I want to
  examine use cases and scenarios to understand the
  available footprints. I also want to know who
  the key players are and what the key projects
  are.
• Other Actors
• Early Adopter
• Toolkit developer
• Course developer
• And there are others . . .

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The Domain Actors
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Stakeholders and Personas

• These stakeholders are using the Domain Model
• There are other stakeholders who exist within the
  domain itself
• These will be identified as Actors in Scenarios
• For example, the external examination process
• External examiner
• Internal examiners
• Teachers
• Students
• Etc
• These can also be defined as actors in use cases,
  and described as personas

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Domain Modelling
Domain Context
Domain Information Model
Stakeholders and Role Models
Goal and Function Model
1
Stakeholders and Personas
2
Concept Maps
Domain System Model
Scenarios (workflows and narratives)
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Concept Mapping
2
Concept Maps

• We built concept maps of the domain of Assessment
• Series of expert workshops produced drafts
• These were taken to the community and opinions
  fed back
• Concept maps revised over time
• Engaged the community
• Built into a concept map tool for browsing
• All resources will be linked to at least one
  concept
• Users viewing the map can select concepts to see
  all the related resources
• Unlike directories, or search tools, they dont
  need to know what they are looking for!

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FREMAConcept Map (verbs)
2
Concept Maps
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Concept Mapping
2
Concept Maps

• But also an important activity in its own right
• Focused on the key activities in the domain (the
  functions)
• Captured the domain knowledge of the experts
• The goals in the domain
• Important functions
• Entities in the domain
• Begins to structure the knowledge
• Built a shared understanding of the domain
• Common vocabulary of domain areas

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Domain Modelling
Domain Context
Domain Information Model
Stakeholders and Role Models
3
Goal and Function Model
FREMA Ontology
1
Stakeholders and Personas
2
Concept Maps
Domain System Model
Scenarios (workflows and narratives)
13
A Knowledge Base
3
FREMA Ontology

• Decided to deliver our domain model as a
  searchable, flexible, dynamic website
• Built on a knowledge base
• Requires an ontology of resources in the domain
  with relationships between them
• The ontology is the schema that describes what
  types of resources and relationships are allowed
• (Ontology means the study of existence, and an
  ontology is a particular view of existence)
• The ontology is different than the concept map
• Concept maps shows areas of the domain
• Ontology shows what type of thing can be in the
  domain

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The FREMA Ontology
3
FREMA Ontology
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Domain Modelling
Domain Context
Domain Information Model
Stakeholders and Role Models
3
Goal and Function Model
FREMA Ontology
1
Stakeholders and Personas
2
Concept Maps
Domain System Model
Scenarios (workflows and narratives)
4
Semantic Wiki Pages
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A Dynamic Website
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Semantic Wiki Pages

• Need to turn our Knowledge Base into a website
• Can be done dynamically
• Resources displayed as web pages
• Relationships displayed as hypertext links
• Resources are also placed on the concept maps
• The ontology and the concept maps offer
  alternative interfaces
• Concept maps are more intuitive
• Ontology is more structured

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Ontology Example
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Semantic Wiki Pages
Organisation JISC
Organisation University of Southampton
Project FREMA
Is funded by
Is involved in
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Implementing the Website
4
Semantic Wiki Pages
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Semantic Wiki
4
Semantic Wiki Pages

• Semantic Wiki
• a wiki in which all the pages and links are typed
• Open editing, but with Administrator controls
• Users can edit
• Resources
• Relationships between resources
• The ontology itself
• Enables full evolution of the Domain Information
  and System models
• Enables Smart Searching and Analysis
• Semantic Search
• Dynamic Gap Analysis

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Browsing the Wiki
4
Semantic Wiki Pages
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Dynamic Gap Analysis
4
Semantic Wiki Pages
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Domain Modelling
Domain Context
Domain Information Model
Stakeholders and Role Models
3
Goal and Function Model
FREMA Ontology
1
Stakeholders and Personas
2
Concept Maps
Domain System Model
Scenarios (workflows and narratives)
4
Semantic Wiki Pages
5
Use Cases and Interaction Diagrams
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Scenarios
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Use Cases and Interaction Diagrams

• Scenarios capture a certain activity (function)
  within the Domain
• Can be captured at different levels of formality
• From narrative descriptions
• Through to real interacting services

Service Implementations
Service Interfaces (WSDL)
Service Workflows (BPEL)
FREMA
formality
Service Expressions
Service Interactions
Use Cases
Written Scenarios
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Service Usage Model
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Use Cases and Interaction Diagrams

• Describes a scenario in which services work
  together
• Use Case Diagram
• Set of Abstract Logical Service Expressions
• Interaction Diagram

Service Implementations
Service Interfaces (WSDL)
Service Workflows (BPEL)
FREMA
Service Expressions
Service Interactions
Use Cases
Written Scenarios
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Use Cases and Narratives
5
Use Cases and Interaction Diagrams

• Formal as a Use Case Diagram
• Informal as a Narrative Description

Service Implementations
Service Interfaces (WSDL)
Service Workflows (BPEL)
FREMA
Service Expressions
Service Interactions
Use Cases
Written Scenarios
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Service Expression SRC
5
Use Cases and Interaction Diagrams

• Logical, abstract description

Service Implementations
Service Interfaces (WSDL)
Service Workflows (BPEL)
FREMA
Service Expressions
Service Interactions
Use Cases
Written Scenarios
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Service Interaction Overview
5
Use Cases and Interaction Diagrams
Service Implementations
Service Interfaces (WSDL)
Service Workflows (BPEL)
FREMA
Service Expressions
Service Interactions
Use Cases
Written Scenarios
28
Service Interaction Diagram
5
Use Cases and Interaction Diagrams
Service Implementations
Service Interfaces (WSDL)
Service Workflows (BPEL)
FREMA
Service Expressions
Service Interactions
Use Cases
Written Scenarios
29
Domain Modelling
Domain Context
Domain Information Model
Stakeholders and Role Models
3
Goal and Function Model
FREMA Ontology
1
Stakeholders and Personas
2
Concept Maps
Domain System Model
Scenarios (workflows and narratives)
4
Semantic Wiki Pages
5
Use Cases and Interaction Diagrams
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Scenario Technical Developer

• Will, Technical Developer
• I want to lookup use cases and scenarios to
  help me design my application. This will help me
  to define my footprint in the assessment domain.
  I see there are some web services I could re-use
  but some are missing. What standards can I use
  when writing my own web services to ensure that I
  can interoperate with the web services Ive
  chosen?

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How did things go?

• Excellent reaction from the Community
• Lots of engagement (concept mapping)
• Has helped the community to understand their
  domain
• Useful resource for people researching the domain
  (reading)
• But limited contribution to the Wiki itself
• Reading is as easy as browsing the web
• Writing takes more technical skill
• Perceived as intimidating
• Overhead of adding your project details
• Openess vs. Control
• Finding a guardian (Assessment SIG?)
• Protecting the Wiki
• Have had some limited problems with spam
• Future Plans
• Currently evaluating the Wiki through our own
  tools projects
• Looking to build more natural authoring tools

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Afternoon Workshop

• Hands-on activity
• A chance to try out some of the FREMA methodology
  for Domain modelling
• Stakeholder and Persona modelling
• Concept Mapping
• Ontology Construction
• Authoring in a Semantic Wiki
• Well be very pleased to see you!