Improving the discoverability of learning materials with Linked Data

ELAG May 2013Sarah Brown

• The Open University is a world leader in modern distance learning, the pioneer of teaching and learning methods which enable people to achieve their career and life goals studying at times and in places to suit them

• The OU’s mission is to be open to people, places, methods and ideas

• The OU has developed its own style of distance learning called 'supported open learning‘

• Based in Milton Keynes with regional and national centres across the UK

The Open University (OU)

• The Open University was the world's first successful distance teaching university, founded on the belief that communications technology could bring high quality degree-level learning to people who had not had the opportunity to attend traditional campus universities

• The OU opened to its first students – 25,000 of them - in January 1971

• The OU has been faithful to its mission of openness to methods. Over three decades the university was quick to harness the potential of new media for teaching and learning and from the mid-1990s began the massive exploitation of the internet that has made the OU the world's leading e-university

History of the OU

• The OU is the largest academic institution in the UK, in terms of student numbers. It has: – more than 240,000 students– close to 7,000 tutors– more than 1,100 full-time academic staff– more than 3,500 support staff

• Open University students are not just in the UK.• Our students come from the widest possible range of backgrounds• Teaching and learning has been transformed• With the advent of MOOCs, the OU launched Futurelearn in 2012. A

partnership of a number of institutions, Futurelearn will bring together a range of free, open, online courses

• Therefore the OU has a rich heritage of archived learning materials in many formats. An increasing number of thesematerials are being preserved in a digital format

And today…

The OU Digital Library (OUDL)

history of distance educationhistory of the OU

papers of OU VIPs OU research projects

What is the Open University Digital Library?

Preserving selected OU historical, learning, teaching and research material.

OU and VLE websites

re-usable contenthigh-quality course showcases

institutional memory

SELECT COLLECT PRESERVE

The OUDL is currently in development and will be launched publicly soon

The OU Digital Library (OUDL)

Flexible

Extensible

Digital

Object

Repository

Architecture

Open source, created by and supported by the digital preservation

communitypurpose-designed to meet our needs

OUDL and the Fedora digital library

Supports international metadata standards

PREMIS – METS – MODS – EAD – DC - OAI

• Semantic Technologies Enhancing the Lifecycle of Learning Resources

• An eighteen month JISC-funded project being run by OU Library Services

• Working with semantic web experts in the OU’s Knowledge Media Institute

• STELLAR is part of the JISC Digital Infrastructure Programme – Enhancing the Sustainability of Digital Collections

• Other projects in this strand are working on:• The UK Web Archive• The digital library for the Linnean Society

• STELLAR runs until July 2013

The STELLAR project

Taking collections preserved in the OUDL, the STELLAR project was established to:

• Develop a detailed understanding of the value of legacy learning materials as perceived by academic staff and other key stakeholders

• Experiment with the use of semantic technologies in a digital library environment to ascertain the extent to which the perceived value of these materials might be enhanced and to consider the sustainability implications of using semantic technologies.

• Inform the development of digital libraries of learning resources by contributing to the evidence base for their effectiveness

• Increase the return on investment of learning materials by developing an evidence based model for lifecyclemanagement

STELLAR project aims

1. Capturing perceptions

Personal and professional perspectives of value

· I would be disappointed if the OU learning materials that I helped to produce were not kept

· I keep my own copies of the OU learning materials that I am involved in producing

· I would be pleased if others chose to reuse of reversion the OU learning materials that I have helped to produce

Financial / bottom line perspectives of value

· I think that there is a monetary value to non-current OU learning materials

· The OU could make savings if more learning material were reused

Value to HE and academic communities

· Maintaining an archive of non-current OU learning materials is important to the reputation of the OU

· I think the non-current OU learning materials are important in the context of the history of higher education

· I think the non-current OU learning materials are important in showing how the OU taught at particular times in history

Value to internal processes and cultures

· I keep my own copies of the OU learning materials that I am involved in producing

· When producing new OU learning material, I am likely to look to previous material, whether for inspiration or for potential reuse

· I would be more likely to explore existing non-current learning materials if there were a better way of finding them.

Using a balanced scorecard approach we conducted a benchmarking survey of academic staff and stakeholders to investigate the value they place on non-current learning materials

A total of 561 completed responses • 89.2% of respondents (501) agreed or strongly agreed

with the statement that maintaining an archive of non-current OU learning materials is important to the reputation of the OU.

• 75.9% of respondents thought that this should be maintained in perpetuity.

• 90.16% of respondents (504) agreed or strongly agreed that non-current learning materials are important to the context of the history of higher education.

• 91.75% of those respondents who were involved in module production (356) agreed or strongly agreed that when producing new OU learning material, I am likely to look to previous material, whether for inspiration or for potential reuse.

“Some of the materials

which the OU has

produced in the past

continue to be definitive,

field-leading and

innovative, and are

recognised as such by

other scholars. We need

to keep copies of this as

part of our institutional

legacy”.

“We are the world leaders in distance learning, so our curriculum designs are much admired and so are our materials. It would be remiss of us not to treat them as potential objects of scholarship themselves”.

“The OU has produced some extraordinary courses in the past, comprised of material no longer covered today. This material can complement existing courses, and would be a fantastic extra resource for current students. This is particularly important since, under the new fee arrangements, value for money will be crucial”.

2. Enhancement• Based on feedback from

the survey three legacy OU modules were selected for enhancement

• All materials for the modules were included: print, A/V and supplementary items

• Digital versions of the materials were stored in the OUDL

• Metadata was created or improved for all the content

• The materials were enhanced using semantic technologies

The modules selected comprised a wide range of materials

Range of learning resource types

STELLAR allowed us to link the metadata for all this module content, making it more discoverable & reusable

A metadata module record was created which connects the complicated web of content and metadata associated with each module

Module Information

A relationship model has also been defined showing all the possible relationships between the elements of the module

Fedora record

course

Fedora record

Basic linked data model(for data.open.ac.uk and to comply with current module descriptions)

doau:a103“An Introduction to the Humanities”

dc:title | rdfs:label | courseware:has-title

courseware:is-taught-present

dc:subject

courseware:Course | mlo:LearningOpportunitySpecification | aiiso:Module | xcri:course

rdf:type

“false”aiiso#code

“A103”

jacs:V900 | doau-topic:arts-and-humanities

doau:a102

dc:isVersionOf

doau:a101

daou-library:339347dc:isVersionOf

“An introduction to the humanities : resource book 2”

dc:title

courseware:has-courseware

Application of Linked Data

• A tool has been developed by our Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) to search the linked data representations of the digital library

• Text entered into the tool is passed through a semantic meaning engine and concepts are matched against the concepts contained within the digital library dataset.

• A selection of the closest matches are then displayed. These link through to the object in the Fedora digital library

• The semantic web tool analyses the meaning of those words and finds related material

• As well as retrieving material from the digital library the tool can also show related material from other datasets

Changing the “sliders” gives a new selection of material

Text entered or pasted in by user

A selection of the closest matches are then displayed. These link through to the object in the Fedora digital library.

The user can directly access digitised content stored in the OUDL and use as required.

Materials include those originally in print, audio and video formats

It is also possible to access the extensive metadata about the course or element of the course, held on a data.open.ac.uk page

data.open.ac.uk

3. Evaluation• We have recently commenced the evaluation phase

of the project• Through workshops and surveys we are asking people

how they find the tool, how they might use it and what’s its value would be

• Early indications are positive…

Initial evaluation responses

Provisional conclusions from evaluation• Stakeholders place a high value on legacy learning

materials and believe these should be preserved• If materials are easily discoverable and accessible they

will be used in future course production• Applying semantic technologies to materials in a digital

library provides users with a broader range of materials • Enhancing old materials with semantic technologies

makes them more likely to be referred to or reused• There could be financial benefits to

transforming content in this way

Learnings so far…• We found significant effort was required to improve the metadata for

these materials• To make best use of the Linked Data, it was beneficial to digitise and

preserve all course materials (including those not previously considered). There is a trade-off between the value of getting extra detailed content digitised and added to the system and the cost of cataloguing.

• However, what we have developed for the STELLAR project is already being used to enhance the OUDL – e.g. linking from course materials to related iTunesU material

Our thanks to JISC for funding the STELLAR project

Contact detailsProject blog: www.open.ac.uk/blogs/stellar Email: stellar@open.ac.uk Twitter: #oustellar