Education working group: Draft proposal

Title:

Education Working Group: Draft Proposal

Creator:
Creator:
Date Issued:
2000-04-30
Identifier:
Replaces:
Not applicable
Is Replaced By:
Latest Version:
Status of Document:
This is a DCMI Working Draft.
Description of Document: This document is a Draft Proposal of the Dublin Core™ Metadata Initiative, and is intended to reflect consensus reached within the Education Working Group of the DCMI. It reports decisions reached by DCEd through its online discussions and face-to-face meetings in Frankfurt (October 25-27, 1999) and Melbourne (February 19-20, 2000). A full report in support of this Final Working Draft Proposal may be found in the DCEd Report of Deliberations. DCEd proposes: (1) two new domain-specific elements with accompanying element qualifiers for adoption; and (2) endorsement of three elements from the Instructional Management System (IMS) namespace (pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding with the IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) working group).

This document is a Draft Proposal of the Dublin Core™ Metadata Initiative [DCMI], and is intended to reflect consensus reached within the Education Working Group [DCEd] of the DCMI. It reports decisions reached by DCEd through its online discussions and face-to-face meetings in Frankfurt (October 25-27, 1999) and Melbourne (February 19-20, 2000). A full report in support of this Final Working Draft Proposal may be found in the DCEd Report of Deliberations. Links to appropriate sections of the Report have been provided below.

DCEd proposes: (1) two new domain-specific elements with accompanying element qualifiers for adoption; and (2) endorsement of three elements from the Instructional Management System (IMS) namespace (pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding with the IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) working group).


Dublin Core™ Namespace Proposal:

Audience Element

In the education and training domain, the capacity to designate various aspects of the intended users of (or audience for) the educational resource being described is an important function for networked information discovery and retrieval.

Proposed Audience Element:

Name: audience
Label: Audience
Definition: A category of user for whom the resource is intended.
Comment: Frequently, creators and publishers of resources in education and training explicitly state the category of user for whom the resource is intended. In like fashion, end-users in the education/training domain frequently search using audience characteristics as search terms.
See Also: Element discussion in the Report of Deliberations.

Encoding Schemes for Audience:

DCEd recognizes the need for increased search precision through the use of controlled vocabularies. Various implementations in the education domain have adopted such element encoding schemes to denote various classes of audience traits based on national, organizational, and cultural needs. No DCEd element encoding schemes are put forward in this proposal.

Qualifiers that refine Audience

Name: mediator
Label: Mediator
Definition: An entity that mediates access to the resource.
Comment: The audience for a resource in the education/training domain are of two basic classes: (1) an utimate beneficiary of the resource (usually a student or trainee), and (2) frequently, an entity that mediates access to the resource (usually a teacher or trainor). The Mediator element refinement represents the second of these two classes.

† DCEd recognizes that in addition to the Mediator element refinement, Audience may be more precisely expressed in the education domain through a number of facets denoting audience traits (e.g., education/training level, levels of pysical and intellectual ability, etc.). These traits will most likely suggest additional element refinements in the future. No such additional element refinements are put forward in this proposal.

Encoding Schemes for Mediator:

DCEd recognizes the need for increased search precision through the use of controlled vocabularies. Various implementations in the education domain have adopted such element encoding schemes to denote types of mediators based on national, organizational, and cultural needs. No DCEd element encoding schemes are put forward in this proposal.


Standards Element

In the education and training domain, the capacity to designate various academic and process standards to which the educational resource being described has been associated is an important function for networked information discovery and retrieval. Frequently, end-users search for resources that are useful in helping students/trainees in achieving educational goals and objectives as promulgated by various companies, organizations, and governmental bodies.

Proposed Standards Element:

Name: standards
Label: Standards
Definition: A reference to an established education or training standard to which the resource is associated.
See Also: Element discussion in the Report of Deliberations.

Qualifiers that refine Standards:

Name: identifier
Label: Identifier
Definition: Where available, an identifier that serves to uniquely identify the standard being associated.

Name: version
Label: Version
Definition: Information identifying the version of the standard being referenced (e.g., a year of publication, a version number, etc.).
Comment: Occasionally, the unique identification of a standard is a function of both an identifier and a version.


IEEE LOM/IMS Namespace Proposal:

In conformance with the DCMI commitment to modular metadata, the DCEd members propose endorsement of the use of the InteractivityType, InteractivityLevel, and TypicalLearningTime data elements (Education Category: 5.1, 5.3, and 5.9 respectively) from the IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) standard for P1484.12.

IEEE Interactivity Type Data Element:

Name: InteractivityType
Label: InteractivityType
Definition: The flow of interaction between this resource and the intended user.
See Also: Data element discussion in the Report of Deliberations.

Encoding Schemes for InteractivityType:

IEEE Restricted Vocabulary

IEEE Interactivity Level Data Element:

Name: InteractivityLevel
Label: InteractivityLevel
Definition: The degree of interactivity between the end user and this resource.
See Also: Data element discussion in the Report of Deliberations.

Encoding Schemes for InteractivityLevel:

IEEE Restricted Vocabulary

IEEE Typical Learning Time Data Element:

Name: TypicalLearningTime
Label: TypicalLearningTime
Definition: Approximate or typical time it takes to work with this resource.
See Also: Data element discussion in the Report of Deliberations.

Encoding Schemes for TypicalLearningTime:

IEEE Restricted Vocabulary