Standards, Metadata, Learning Object Repositories, Portals Dr Charles Duncan 3 April 2003

Agenda Introduction UK Organisations Standards Metadata and beyondLearning object repositories Portals Bringing it together The future: learning design?

Introduction Charles Duncan –Senior lecturer, Edinburgh University, –Project manager of many e-learning projects 1985 – present, including EuroMET winner of European Academic Software Award 1998 –CETIS EC SIG co-chair –Co-founder and CEO, Intrallect, 2000 –

Intrallect provides Solutions for Learning Object Management –Strategic consultancy –Software –Bespoke development and customisation

UK Organisations Schools –Primary (5-12) –Secondary (12-18) Further Education (FE) Colleges –Vocational (16 + ) –“In work” Training Universities (Higher Education HE)

Learning and Teaching bodies JISC 1 –CETIS –RDN (Resource Discovery Network) –Regional Centres LTSN ILTHE HESDA (Cooke Report 2 ) BeCTA –NLN ALT (SURF) Others –UKOLN –UK-MEG

CETIS Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards –IMS, SCORM, CEN/ISSS, etc –News and discussions –SIGS (coordinated) Metadata and digital repositories Pedagogy Accessibility Assessment Educational content

Standards Why are standards needed? –Sharing –Reuse –Interoperability –Avoid proprietary systems –Promotes new activities (or does it?)

IMS Student Instructor Registry/ Authority Collected learning resources Pedagogy Competencies Activities Course Delivery system Dialogue Tests/ assessment Administration Library Vocabulary METADATA ENTERPRISE QUESTION and TEST INTEROPERABILITY SIMPLE SEQUENCING DIGITAL REPOSITORY INTEROPERABILITY COMPETENCY DEFINITION LEARNING DESIGN LEARNER INFORMATION PROFILES

Other bodies ADL –SCORM IEEE –LTSC Learning Object Metadata (LOM) 3 CEN/ISSS –Internationalisation of LOM ISO and national standards bodies

Metadata and Beyond IEEE Learning Object Metadata –First e-Learning standard Application profiles –CanCore, SingCore, UKCMF 4 Internationalisation –CEN/ISSS

IEEE LOM

Application profiles Mandatory and optional fields Agreed vocabularies Agreed use of indentifiers 5 Mapping educational levels 6 Common classification system Minimise/exclude extensions What skills are needed for metadata creation? 7

Accessibility

Learning Object Repositories Networked storage of learning objects 8 –To promote sharing and reuse –Learning object economy

Digital Repositories are.. Not portals… –Safe, organised, reliable storage Not libraries… –Not quite, but good analogy –Many people can put books on the shelves Not VLEs… –No prescribed pedagogy –Interoperability through standards

Digital Repository Interoperability

Finding objects Task Search Gather Alert Browse DR Response Expose –Object? –Metadata? –Selected metadata? –Priority?

Browse

Requesting objects Task Request –ID? –Unique? DR Response Deliver –Raw –Streamed –Packaged –Metadata only?

Publishing objects Task Publish –Metadata? Deliver –From one repository DR Response Store –Metadata? Store –In another repository

Aggregator tool Task Aggregate –Metadata? DR Response Deliver –Update Metadata? Store aggregation

preparing presentations IMS Package College VLE

URL

Very useful lesson plan for geography field trips

Roles Librarian Contributor Borrower Casual user Administrator Software Agents –Alert, search, browse, aggregate, deliver, harvest

Some examples SeSDL: Scottish electronic Staff Development Library – MERLOT: US and Canada – intraLibrary: –

Positioning IntraLibrary IntraLibrary is a Learning Object Management System, which means it : –is a strategic technology which underpins a mixed learning environment 9 –improves the management of all learning assets –leads to better quality teaching material with less effort

Current Situation?

Using a LOMS

intraLibrary Demonstration

Portals One-stop shop? 10 –How many? –People change their context Must be adaptable –by providers –by institutions –by individuals

Resource Discovery Network ? ?? Humbul EEVL

SOSIG Example

Bringing it together Key technologies 11 –Z39.50 for searching –OAI PMH for exposing metadata –RSS for alerting –OpenURL for resolving “appropriate copy”

JISC Information Environment

The future: Learning Design Ability to define learning activities 12 Capable of handling collaborative learning Design independent of implementation Ability to share and reuse designs

MSG-CAL granularity course Structure, size and duration of a course are totally determined by teachers module Largest part of MSG-CAL, about 45 minutes long, complex navigation includes sequences and choices module unit-of-study Between 5 and 10 per module, includes specific reference library, external URL and communications groups. Knowledge objects arranged linearly module knowledge-object Between 2 and 4 per unit of study. Equivalent to a web page. Usually contains one interaction module resource Fundamental resources such as images, animations and video.

Interaction/ problem-solving NameInteraction MCQ (multiple choice question) Multiple choice question. The question, options and feedback may all include images. There can be many questions in a quiz or only one. More than one correct answer is allowable. Matrix questionSimilar to a multiple choice question but there can be several choices such as true/false or visible/ir/wv. Image hotspotQuestion in which the answer is given by clicking on an area in an image. Multiple correct and incorrect answers are possible. Multi-spectral images are supported through toggling images from one channel to the next. Drag and dropBoth text-based and image-based drag and drop exercises are possible. These require the student to correctly place objects in defined locations. Multiple correct locations are possible and mismatched numbers of draggable objects and drop locations are also possible. Useful for getting students to label diagrams or construct logical process sequences. AnimationAnimate sequences of images with ability to play in single-step, loop or swing modes. Student can control play speed. Includes ability to play only every second image to simulate first generation Meteosat. Slide showSequences of images with extended captions with forward and backward paying under student control.

Knowledge objectsUnits of studyModules Creating new lessons

Contact details Charles Duncan (0) Intrallect Ltd Braehead Business Park Braehead Road Linlithgow EH49 6EP Scotland

References 1 Acronym definitions, acronyms.doc 2 FINAL REPORT of the TQEC on the Future Needs and Support for Quality Enhancement of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Jan 2003, cooke_report.pdf 3 LOM (Learning Object Metadata), LOM_WD6_4.pdf 4 UK Common Metadata Framework, Draft X4L Application Profile, UKCMF_X4L_v0p2p2.doc 5 Identifiers for Learning Objects, a discussion paper from Intrallect, 4 Feb 2003, identifiers.doc 6 (Not) an Idiot’s Guide to Metadata, Charles Duncan, Lorna Campbell and Gerry Graham, submitted to ALT-C 2003, duncan-campbell-graham.doc 7 Quality Assurance for Digital Learning Object Repositories: The Power of Metadata, Sarah Currier, Jane Barton, submitted to ALT-C 2003, currier_bartron_03.doc 8 Digital Repositories: e-Learning for Everyone, Charles Duncan, eLearn International, Feb 2003, elearninternational_edin_feb2003.doc 9 The Value of Managing Learning Objects, Charles Duncan, Intrallect White Paper, Jan 2003, loms_value.pdf 10 JISC Information Environment Architecture, Baseline Portal Functional Specification, Andy Powell, Mar 2002, ie.html 11 The DNER Technical Architecture: scoping the information environment, Andy Powell, Liz Lyon, May 2001, dner-arch.pdf 12 The pedagogical and technological basis of 2nd generation e-learning in satellite meteorology, Charles Duncan, EUMETSAT Satellite Data Users Conference, Sept 2002, eml.doc