Learning Resource Metadata on the WebPhil Barker & Lorna Campbell

Lorna M Campbell@lornamcampbellCetis / EDINA

Phil Barker@philbarker

Research FellowHeriot-Watt University

LRMI PREHISTORY & PRECURSORSOur adventures with LOM, Semantics and Open Education

In the beginning was…the LOM

1484.12.1 Standard for

Learning ObjectMetadata

Using LOM

Facilitating Access to Information on Learning Technology for Engineers 2001.• Engineering.• Library/Pedagogy/eLearning input

RDN / LTSN LOM Application Profile 2003.• All subjects

UK Learning Object Metadata Core 2003.

IMS Learning Resource Meta-data

IMS Meta-data Best Practice Guide for IEEE 1484.12.1-2002 Standard for Learning Object Metadata, 2006 .• Bindings and best practice for IEEE LOM.

Semantic technologies & linked data

Semantic Technologies in Learning and Teaching (2008 - 2009)A Jisc mini-project / Cetis working groupThanassis Tiropanis et al University of Southampton

http://www.semtech.ecs.soton.ac.uk/

The Semantic Web, Linked and Open Data. Lorna M Campbell, Sheila McNeill (2010)A Cetis briefing paper

http://publications.cetis.org.uk/2010/39

The development of semantic applications for teaching and learning for HE/FE over the next 5 years

could be supported in a number of steps:

1)Encouraging the exposure of HE/FE repositories, VLEs, databases and existing Web 2.0

lightweight knowledge models in linked data formats. Enabling the development of

learning and teaching applications that make use of linked data across HE/FE institutions; there is

significant activity on linked open data to be considered

2)Enabling the deployment of semantic-based searching and matching services to

enhance learning. Such applications could support group formation and learning resource

recommendation based on linked data. The development of ontologies to which linked data will be

matched is anticipated. The specification of patterns of semantic tools and services using linked

data could be fostered

3)Collaborative ontology building and reasoning for pedagogical ends will be more

valuable if deployed over a large volume of education related linked data where the

value of searching and matching is sufficiently demonstrated. Pedagogy-aware applications

making use reasoning to establish learning context and to support argumentation and critical

thinking over a large linked data field could be encouraged at this stage

from SemTech final report, 2009

DC-Ed

• 2006 - 2011.• Dublin Core Education Application Profile Task

Group.• Focused on defining resource classes and

domain model.• Also worked in collaboration with IEEE LTSC.

http://dublincore.org/groups/education/

Barker, P., & Campbell, L. M. (2010). Metadata for Learning Materials: An Overview of Existing Standards and Current Developments.Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning, 7(3-4), 225–243. Retrieved from http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/publicationFiles/2010/TICLMetadata/

A brief flirtation…ISO MLR

• ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 • ISO 19788 - Metadata for Learning Resources,

parts 1 to 11

Eduprog vs edupunk

The UKLOM Lies Down… by David Kernohan, #Eduprog Grand High Mage.

Open Educational Resources• UKOER: 3 year, £15M programme to

release HE resources under Creative Commons licences. (2009 – 2012).

• Funding for institutional, individual and subject-based consortia projects.

• 66 projects, >10,000 OERs.

• Cetis provided strategic technical advice and support to funders and projects.

UKOER guidelines

• Use openly accessible systems to disseminate resources:Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, SlideShare, ... Jorum UK HE repository

• Minimal metadata requirementsTitle, Author, Subject, Date, Licence ...

• Facilitate aggregation of resource information, e.g. via RSS / ATOM feeds.

• Make sure resource has a good textual description and is findable on Google.

LEARNING RESOURCE METADATA INITIATIVEWhat on earth could justify another attempt at educational metadata?

Motivation

Promote the sharing of educational resources by helping people find content that meets their specific needs.

Recognising that people will try to find web resources through Google.

Motivation

Meet Pam, let’s say she wants to teach a lesson about the Declaration of Arbroath (1320)

Photo by Vgrigas Tyninghame copy of the Declaration of ArbroathBy various Scottish barons

Photo by Vgrigas

MotivationShe might search Google:

MotivationThere are many

educational parameters Pam might use to narrow the search results to those which are more appropriate, but Google doesn’t support them. She is forced into a fragmented world of specialist search services based on (often siloed) metadata.

Photo by Vgrigas

Author J. Cetis?

Screen shot from Google Scholar. NB, J CETIS = JISC CETIS, the author’s affiliation

Schema.org

a joint effort, in the spirit of sitemaps.org, to improve the web by creating a structured data markup schema supported by major search engines.

Schema.org FAQ, http://schema.org/docs/faq.html

What the human sees

What the computer sees

<h1>Learning Resource Metadata Initiative: using schema.org to describe open educational resources</h1><p>by Phil Barker, Cetis, School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University <br />Lorna M Campbell, Cetis, Institute for Educational Cybernetics, University of Bolton. April 2014</p>

What the computer needs

What schema.org providesAn agreed hierarchy of entity

types.An agreed vocabulary for

naming the characteristics of resources and the relationships between them.

Which can be added to HTML (as microdata, RDFa or JSON-LD) to help computers understand what the strings or text mean.

What schema.org looks like<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle"><h1 itemprop="name">Learning Resource Metadata Initiative: using schema.org to describe open educational resources</h1><p itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"> <span itemprop="name">Phil Barker</span>, <span itemprop="affiliation">Cetis, School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University</span></p><p itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"> <span itemprop="name">Lorna M Campbell</span>, <span itemprop="affiliation">Cetis, Institute for Educational Cybernetics, University of Bolton</span></p></div>

LRMI: Learning resource metadata initiativeFunded by the Bill and Melinda Gates

Foundation 2011 - 2014Co-led by Creative Commons and AEP (preK-12

learning group division of the Association of American Publishers)

Working group including educators, publishers, metadata specialists

Aim:make it easier to publish, discover, and deliver

quality educational resources on the web

LRMIschema.org didn’t have a way of naming the educational

parameters that could have helped Pam narrow her search, so LRMI added them.

• Educational alignment (more later)• Educational role (of target audience)• Educational use• Interactivity type • Is based on (url)• Learning resource type• Time required• Typical age range• Use rights URL

http://www.lrmi.net/the-specification

✔

LRMIschema.org didn’t have a way of naming the educational

parameters that could have helped Pam narrow her search, so LRMI added them.

• Educational alignment (more later)• Educational use• Interactivity type • Is based on url• Learning resource type• Time required• Typical age range• Use rights URL• Educational role (of target audience)

http://www.lrmi.net/the-specification

DONEAdded to schema.org April

2013*

*except use rights URL

Educational alignment

An alignment to an established educational framework, e.g.

• Shared curriculum or syllabus• Shared framework of competency

requirements• Set of educational levels• Modules making up a program of study

Allows encoding of statements like • “this resource teaches X” • “this resource assess X”• “this resource requires knowledge of Y”• “this resource has reading level N”• “this resource is used in module F29DO”

Educational alignment

An alignment to an established educational framework

Educational alignmentLRMI elements identify something in an

educational framework, they do not describe the framework.

CURRENT STATE OF LRMI & FUTURE PLANSand can the linked learning community help?

Implementations

Initial implementation by:• Connexions• Curriki• Gooru learning• ISME• Jorum• Merlot• Peer2Peer Uni• Open Tapestry

• Learning Registry

• Awesome stories• BBC Bytesize• Brain POP• Digital Chalkboard (e.g.)• CTE Online• Learn by cam• Learnzillion• MIT OCW• Nova Southeastern Uni• OER Commons• Open University, OpenLearn

Google custom search enginehttps://www.google.co.uk/cse/

Google custom search engine

Google custom search

Implementations

Points to note:• they exist.• not every implementation exposes LRMI

metadata, some use it internally.• schema.org is a lightweight, loose

ontology, implementation is looser.• no agreement on value spaces, either

terms or meanings •(e.g. educational level, 1st Grade, Primary 1).

see also Martin Hepp from Ontologies to Web Ontologieshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE7vQyEk7UY

LRMI Status

Gates funding is over, so now what?

LRMI is now a Task Group with the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. http://wiki.dublincore.org/index.php/AB-Comm/ed/LRMI/TG

LRMI terms are a community specification of DCMI.

http://dublincore.org/dcx/lrmi-terms/ (aligned with schema.org terms)

What next?

• Extending LRMI: Events? Courses?•new schema.org extension mechanism

• Use beyond schema.org scenario•stand-alone JSON-LD•eTextBooks

• Recommended value vocabularies• Linked data representation of educational

frameworks (alignment)

Questions?

• Does this help with the endeavour to expose lightweight linked data?

•can you get the data out of web pages?

• How do we encourage linked data representation of educational frameworks?

• How much goes into schema.org (or similar) or should we just reuse existing ontologies?

• Can you cope with the the quality of data that can be provided at web-scale?

Licence

This presentation “LRMI: Learning resource metadata on the web”

by Phil Barker <phil.barker@hw.ac.uk>, Heriot-Watt University

and Lorna M Campbell <lorna.m.campbell@icloud.com>,

of Cetis http://www.cetis.ac.uk is licensed under the

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/