Dublin Core Metadata Initiative DCMI Education:

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Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Education

• Stuart A. Sutton, Associate Professor
• The Information School of the University of
  Washington
• Seattle, Washington, USA

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Agenda

• 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?

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History 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

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Guiding 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)

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Problems with the principles in real world
applications
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Extensibility 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

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Extensibility 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

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Profile Development ProcessesDCMI Education
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Task 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

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Task 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).

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Task 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?

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DC-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

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Example 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

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DC-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

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DC-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

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Refining 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

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EducationallyPurposed RepurposedObjects

• Defining Metadata Roles and Objectives
• DCMES/DCEd IEEE LOM

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Purposed 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

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Purposed 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

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Repurposed 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

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RepurposingUsing the Warwick Framework

Learning Object Logical Container
Digital Object
Standards Mapping Metadata
Teaching Methods Metadata
Descriptive Metadata for NIDR
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DCMES 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)

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DCMI/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

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Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)
EducationCase Study 2 DCEd

• Stuart A. Sutton, Associate Professor
• The Information School of the University of
  Washington
• Seattle, Washington, USA