SELEAC 2003-4715 / 001-001 Standardization and Using Didactical
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SELEAC 2003-4715 / 001-001 Standardization and using didactical metadata within the project SELEAC Topics of the current trends and suggestions to optimize didactical metadata of the CustomDP-System Fraunhofer IAO 1 Table of contents 1 Introduction 3 2 General survey of current trends concerning metadata and standardization organisations in the field of e- learning 3 2.1 Metadata 3 2.2 Standardization organisations 4 3 General survey of current trends concerning standardization and quality of didactical concepts 8 3.1 Learning Object Metadata (LOM) 8 3.2 Limitations of LOM and conclusions for CustomDP 10 3.3 Ariadne 14 3.4 Educational Modelling Language (EML) 16 3.5 Essener-Lern-Modell (ELM) 17 3.6 Features of the Educational meta-data management toolkit EM2 23 3.7 UK Learning Object Metadata Core 24 4 Summary of the suggestions for modifications of metadata within CustomDP 25 4.1 Metadata in CustomDP 25 4.2 Synopsis of metadata in LOM and CustomDP 25 References 28 Appendix 1: Survey on Vocabulary Usage of Learning Resource Type 29 Appendix 2: Synopsis of educational metada in LOM and CustomDP 31 2 Fraunhofer IAO - Seleac 2003-4715 / 001-001 1 Introduction An abundance of methods to develop and to standardise e-learning offered in different contexts makes it quite difficult to find the right information for specific questions concerning the development and design of e-learning content. One ambition within the project Seleac is to improve the didactical metadata for the content of the CustomDP System. The following text deals with current questions and discussion concerning the design of metadata, especially didactical metadata. Chapter one starts with some basic information on the field of metadata and a survey of standards developed by different committees that deal with standard-related issues, each with different background and focus points. Subsequently three of these models – Learning Object Metadata (LOM) based on SCORM, ARIADNE and the so called Essener Lern-Modell (ELM) - especially including pedagogical and didactic data are discussed more precisely in Chapter two. In a third step (chapter three) different approaches to describe didactical aspects of learning objects are summarized and checked regarding their applicability for a transfer to the CustomDP system 2 General survey of current trends concerning metadata and standardization organisations in the field of e-learning 2.1 Metadata Metadata are structured data about resources. The term metadata emanates from the librarianship and was used a long time before the web was created. Their main aim is to describe and to categorise contents for making them available. The main goal for the future is to make learning objects retrievable as easy as a book in the library. But not only for facilitating effective search, also for supporting re-use of educational material metadata plays a crucial role. Especially in the field of education via internet different organisations are working intensively to develop specific metadata patterns. Central categories to describe didactical aspects of learning material are the subject (which topic is discussed), the didactical kind of knowledge (which questions the content will 3 Fraunhofer IAO - Seleac 2003-4715 / 001-001 answer), the didactical type of media (which kind of demonstration is used), and the attainable competence (what will be the benefit for capability after working on the subject). In the field of didactical metadata a deficiency in experiences and implementation is discussed among experts. Some ideas of current models will be explicated in chapter three. The current discussion about metadata will continue, since the supply of electronic information will grow as well as the importance of an efficient use of this offer. Therefore a set of organisations work on the field of standardization of metadata. In the following section the most influential standardization organisations are described. 2.2 Standardization organisations In the 90s many groups started working on various additional aspects of metadata and standardization not only in the web but also in the field of e- learning environments and digital data bases. Most of them are related with the DCMI. For a better understanding of the metadata landscape, the following picture will give a survey about the most famous consortia and standardization organisations, that determinate the current proceedings. Their background, main focus and their ideas concerning pedagogical metadata will be briefly summarized. Figure 1: Overview of consortia and standardization organisations ISO SC 36* International Standards Organisation Subcommittee number 36 IEEE-SA* CEN / ISSS* Centre de European Normalisation / Institute of Electrical and Information Society Electronic Engineers Standardization System Standards Associaton ADL / SCORM IMS ARIADNE EUN Advanced Instructional Management Systems Distributed Learning Association of Remote Initiative, Instructional Authoring and Distribution Networks for Europe organisation Aviation Industry AICC DCMI Dublin Core Metadata Initiative CBT Committee *considered as major bodies for technology standard accreditation 4 Fraunhofer IAO - Seleac 2003-4715 / 001-001 DCMI One of the first initiatives was the so called Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI). With this organization, founded in Dublin, Ohio, in 1995, an interdisciplinary discussion started to promote the widespread adoption of interoperable metadata standards and developing specialized metadata vocabularies for describing resources that allow for a more intelligent information discovery system. Individuals from many different backgrounds and disciplines committed to building and developing metadata standards, practices, policies and technologies. Dublin Core does not contain any elements of pedagogical relevance. http://dublincore.org ISO SC 36 The International Standards Organisation (ISO) is a network of national standard institutes from 140 countries and works in partnership with international organisations, governments, industry, business and consumer representatives. ISO IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission has set up a Subcommittee, SC number 36 on “Information Technology for Learning, Education and Training”. This committee has invited the IEE LTSC to submit the LOM specification when it is finalized, so that the formal process for accepting LOM as a standard at ISO level can be substantially shortened (usually the process of ISO-certification takes about ten years). http://www.iso.ch IEEE LTSC The Institute of Electric and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Inc. is a non- profit, technical professional association with more than 360.000 individual members in approximately 175 countries, set up in 1996. It works in 20 different areas of information technology for learning education and training and has adopted a general strategy to standardize the “smallest, useful, doable, specification that has technically feasibility, commercial viability and widespread adoption”. IEEE is a global organisation, but rather U.S. centric. http://www.ieee.org CEN / ISSS / LTWS 5 Fraunhofer IAO - Seleac 2003-4715 / 001-001 The Centre Européen Economic Community (CEN) was founded in 1961 by the national standard bodies in the European Economic Community and EFTA countries. The CNN Information Society Standardisation System (ISSS) works on seeking to ensure that any standards reflect European need, that they can be internationalised and localised. In 1999 the European Commission gave a mandate to Centre Européen de Normalisation (CEN) to identify a work-plan for Europe in the area of learning technology interoperability; they set up the Learning Technologies Workshop (LTWS). The basic idea is to encourage the effective development and use of relevant and appropriate standards for learning technologies for Europe. In the specific case of LOM, LWTS has evaluated a number of related specifications. http://www.cenorm.be/isss ADL The Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADL) is an initiative sponsored by the US federal government. As part of its objective, ADL produced the SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model), a specification for reusable learning content. The firs version was published in 1999. ADL has integrated LOM in SCORM. Version 1.2 of SCORM will also incorporate the IMS Metadata and Content Packaging specifications. http://www.adlnet.org/ IMS The Instructional Management Systems Global Learning Consortium is the most advanced group developing learning technology interoperability specifications. Since its formation in 1997 it has become an independent, subscription-based non-profit organisation that recently launched a subsidiary, IMS Europe. In 1997 work similar to the ARIADNE metadata developments was taking place in the IMS Consortium. When both groups became aware of each others existence, they decided to make a joint submission to the IEEE LTSC. That was the so-called ‘base-document’, which is the origin of the current LOM specification. The IMS metadata include educational objectives, prerequisites and a comment for the pedagogical method, intended by the resource. According to Prof. Erik Duval, President of the ARIADNE foundation, only LOM enables end users to identify and locate in a more effective and efficient way those learning objects that my be of relevance to them. http://www.imsglobal.org 6 Fraunhofer IAO - Seleac 2003-4715 / 001-001 ARIADNE The Association of Remote Instructional Authoring and Distribution Networks for Europe organisation started as a European