Building the Contributor’s Gateway:The OISE Experience

Julie Hannaford

Digital Services Librarianjhannaford@oise.utoronto.ca

November, 2008

Vocabulary

- What is a Learning Object?- defined as: a “reusable digital educational

resource” – see http://www.cancore.ca

- Examples: - A Flash game that demonstrates an

educational concept - An interactive quiz that allows students to test

their knowledge- A teacher-created lesson plan in MSWord or

PDF - An online educational unit or activity

Examples of LOs

http://elearningontario.ca/eng/bank/Default.aspx

Vocabulary- What is a Learning Object Repository?

- Stores educational resources and their associated metadata records

- Educational resources and their metadata records can be shared between repositories

- Goal: interoperability

e-Learning Ontario Strategy

• Aim:• Provide all school boards with e-learning tools

• Two main components:• Provincial Learning Management System:

Desire2Learn (D2L)• Learning Object Repository (K-12) known as the

Ontario Educational Resource Bank (OERB)• Teachers contribute resources to the OERB through the

Contributor’s Gateway (OISE)

E-Learning Ontario Strategy• Objectives:

• Build repository with many valuable resources: “the power of one”

• Provide alternatives and flexibility for at-risk students• Credit recovery

• Increase graduation rates• Improve numeracy and literacy• Improve connectivity options for students in remote

areas

National Implications• Connectivity between repositories can be • extremely worthwhile

• National linking mechanism is a long-term • possibility via Council of Ministers of Education,• Canada (CMEC)

• Consider advantages to sharing resources • between repositories

• Cost issues related to resource development• Storyboard and programming time

Metadata Considerations: What Standards are Available?

• DC Education: http://dublincore.org/educationwiki/DC_2dEducation_20Application_20Profile

• IEEE-LOM: http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/files/LOM_1484_12_1_v1_Final_Draft.pdf

• CanCore: http://www.cancore.ca

• GEM: Gateway to Educational Materials:

http://www.thegateway.org/about/documentation

• Upcoming: Metadata for Learning Resources

• For a good introduction to existing educational standards, see this article: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue55/currier and for another on harmonizing standards, see here: http://ariadne.cs.kuleuven.be/lomi/images/5/52/D4.7-prolearn.pdf

Metadata Considerations: What Did We Want to Describe in Our Metadata?

• Consultation with main end users: teachers – what did they need to know?

• Audience – teacher, student, etc. • Resource Type• Curriculum Expectations – credit recovery• Subject• Pedagogical information• Copyright Details

Metadata Decision• CanCore selected for metadata purposes

• Greatest level of description possible • Other Canadian repositories already using CanCore =

interoperability• CanCore is an application profile derived from IEEE-

LOM, a well-recognized, international educational metadata standard

IEEE LOM 1484.12.1-2002• 76 data elements• Hierarchical• 9 main data elements divided into

• Aggregate data elements• Simple data elements (leaf nodes)

• Only leaf nodes can hold a value• Draft available for free viewing:

• http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/files/LOM_1484_12_1_v1_Final_Draft.pdf

LOM Element Attributes• Name – name of the element• Explanation or definition• Size – how any times should it appear? Is it

repeatable?• Order – if it is repeatable, how should it be ordered?• Example – best practices• Value space – specifies specific vocabularies• Datatype

IEEE-LOM/CanCore Comparison• LOM

• 76 elements – very detailed; also very complex• Lack of interoperability for some elements• Little documentation regarding element use

• CanCore• 46 elements – extraction of LOM elements

considered to be most interoperable/useful• Extensive guidelines• Simplifies and interprets the LOM

General Elements

Lifecycle Elements

Meta-Metadata Elements

Technical Elements

Rights Elements

Relation Elements

Classification Elements

Classification Elements cont’d

Adaptation of CanCore• Sometimes local adaptations to metadata schemes

are necessary

• Use care not to make too many changes• Need to maintain goal of interoperability

• Examples: • Intended End User Role – vocabulary expanded (“parent”)• Learning Resource Type – vocabulary expanded• New fields to describe copyright details

• Copyright Bring Forward Reason and Date• New fields for more pedagogical information:

• Learning Style and Teacher Learner Strategy• Contributor Email Address

Demo – Contributor View

• Contributor Demonstration

Issues Related to Contributor Workflow

• Copyright:• How do we balance protecting contributors’

rights with end users’ need for access?• Should end users be able to modify

resources and upload these new versions?• Creative Commons: possible model for the

future (http://www.creativecommons.ca)• Do contributors have all necessary

copyright clearances?• Need to educate teachers about copyright

Creative Commons – License Selection

Creative Commons Code

Creative Commons - Layman’s Language

Creative Commons – Legal Agreement

Issues Related to Contributor Workflow

• Review Process/Quality Control?

• Granularity: How small should a resource be?• Whole course could be a resource• An image could be a resource• Need for ‘happy medium’

• Metadata: • What information is the contributor qualified to• provide? • What is the cataloguer’s role?

Subject Access• Requirements: bilingual, searchable online,

acceptable level of description

• Some early options:• ERIC Thesaurus• Canadian Education Index Thesaurus

• Final choices:• LCSH• Canadian Government Core Subject Thesaurus (

http://en.thesaurus.gc.ca)

Metadata Issues

• Cataloguing Curriculum Expectations:

• Each curriculum subject and strand (topic) has its own set of expectations

• There are overall expectations with accompanying specific expectations

• 26, 000 expectations are revised on an ongoing basis by the Ministry

• How do we keep the records up to date and who should make the changes?

- Management of retagging admin. procedures

•

Searching the OERB

• Need for multiple search options:

• Basic Search

• Advanced Search

• Browse by Curriculum

Technologies: RSS • Stands for Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site

Summary or RDF Site Summary

• Enables syndication or sharing of news or updates

• Aggregator gathers RSS feeds

• New resources added to OERB can be found via RSS feeds

Wish List: Web2.0• Teacher tagging of resources

• ‘My favourites’ – ‘delicious’ style • bookmarking

• Tag clouds

• Faceted browsing

• Multiple downloads: ‘shopping cart’

• Can we suggest?

General Planning Issues• Workflow:

• Revision of workflows for all user types over course of project

• Revision of interfaces and templates to ensure maximum user friendliness

• Need for ongoing translation: English/French• Bug tracking

• Training and End User Support: • Online glossaries • User documentation & manuals• Captivate videos

Acknowledgements

• OISE/UT• Laurie Harrison• Mark Hume• Hyun-Wook Jo• Paul Steacy

• e-Learning Ontario• Ron St. Louis• Urs Bill