DAM Runtime Implementation In a Nutshell By: LCdr Roger St-Pierre

Goals of this R&D was to explore: How to create SCO content in an appearance neutral manner How to encode appearance properties; and How to implement this within an LMS

General Approach XML Semantic Markup – DocBook SCOs devoid of stylistic information XML schema was developed to constrain the appearance of a SCO IEEE LOM Technical.format Educational.learningResourceType AccLIP IMS user preferences

Overall Sequence of Events DAM: User CSS SCO: Final XHTML AccLIP: CSS TILE: Auxiliary Srvc DAM: Match Content To Location, Add Content Elements SCO: XHTML + Intra-SCO Navigation + Top, Bottom, Left, Right Content ToC Hdr, Ftr Tools Logo, Part Location LMS: SequencerLMS: CP DAM: XSL SCO: XHTML + Intra-SCO Navigation LMS ADL DAM RTE SCO MetadataXSL

Styling Information LMS CP Manifest ORGANISATION Appearance: -declaration of XSL based on Technical.format and Educational.learningResourceType -location of Logo and its Alternative text ITEM LOM: Technical.format and Educational.learningResourceType ITEM LOM: Technical.format and Educational.learningResourceType LMS Logo Info XSL Style Sheet DAM: … DAM: XSL Default Technical.format Educational.learningResourceType SCO: DocBook XML

Semantic Model-View-Controller model XML Expresses the “Model” XML SCOs contain no style (“View”) and no code (“Controller”) Who provides additional “controller” information in the transformation and how? (e.g. Intra-SCO Navigation)

DocBook Semantic Markup Numerous XSL style sheets for transforming into XHTML, PDF, etc. I.e. quite flexible in terms of tranformation Suitability for e-Learning? Primarily used for documentation No provision for interactive content such as Forms

DAM Markup Includes Method for transforming SCO into XHTML Method for defining transformation based on type of SCO Way of specifying auxiliary services Way of specifying a logo; and Way of defining layout

Metadata Attributes technicalFormat Used to define the format of the input to the XSLT process learningResourceType Used to further constrain the transformation based on type of SCO

Binding Technique for DAM Markup Option 1 - Internal to Content Package Option 2 - External to Content Package with reference in the CP; and Option 3 – DAM Markup itself references the CP (I.e. Option 2 reversed)

Conclusion It can be done; but will require a consensus on issues such as: 1.Use of Metadata to obtain style 2.Standardization of content semantic markup 3.Binding technique for DAM markup 4.Best practices