2.5 cm from top left corner

Tags by teachers -

what's expert indexers'
opinion on it?


Riina Vuorikari
European Schoolnet
Eminent 2008

Usefulness of metadata

validity, i.e. creating valid metadata for every learning resource, and

searchability, having the search tools in place to use that metadata.

Barritt, C. and F. Alderman (2004). Creating a Reusable Learning Objects Strategy. San Diego, Pfeiffer.

Metadata externally applied to an item

What is a tag?

What is a tag?

Metadata externally applied to an item

Usually by a user, not a librarian or other expert indexer

Personal marker to help associate with the resource

Can be used for sorting or managing

Provides identifier and/or description easy to get back!

Tags in MELT

1064 individual tags by teachers

Tags used 1994 times in 670 favourites

Tags associated with 463 distinct resources

85 users

1interactive50

2geschiedenis47

3Romeinen43

4latijn43

5Rome41

6koolielu41

7English40

8Romein33

9esl19

10history16

11culture16

12efl15

13vocabulary14

14quiz13

15subjonctif12

16grammar11

17Geografi10

18animation10

19London9

20fizika9

21angol9

25.1% of all tags501

Evaluation of tags by experts

How useful are the tags created by users (e.g. teachers) as metadata descriptors to describe learning resources?

Evaluation of tags by experts

10 learning resources from MELT

Some with high number of tags from teachers

Variety of content, languages and providers

10 15 indexer experts from MELT partners

Online questionnaire

Answers gathered in November 2008

Data and resources

Each resource had a different ratio of thesaurus terms and tags

23 thesaurus terms/ 89 tags

Number of Thesaurus termsNumber of Tags

53

49

313

36

27

25

115

118

17

16

2389

Evaluation of tags by experts

Each resource had a link and 3 questions

Q2. The current indexing keywords are: xx, xx.

Would you want to revise the original LOM description of the resource and, if so, which of the following terms might you adopt?

Q3. Below you can find teachers' keywords.

Compared to the current indexing words (xx), estimate their additional value as descriptors. Scale 1 to 5
(Does not add any useful information - Adds very useful information) Option: I don't understand the word

Results Q1

110 keywords, both thesaurus terms and tags

401 votes from experts

We use percentage of votes/resource

Both SD quite low, which indicates a low variance in the views of the experts (high agreement)

n=401ThesaurusTags

Average
votes44%29%

Standard dev0.290.24

Results Q1

21 thesaurus terms and 21 most voted tags

265 votes from experts

We use percentage of votes/resource

Most voted tags are relevant for expert indexers too!

n=265ThesaurusTags

Average44%65%

Standard dev0.290.14

1interactive50

2geschiedenis47

3Romeinen43

4latijn43

5Rome41

6koolielu41

7English40

8Romein33

9esl19

10history16

11culture16

12efl15

13vocabulary14

14quiz13

15subjonctif12

16grammar11

17Geografi10

18animation10

19London9

20fizika9

21angol9

25.1% of all tags501

Most used tags in MELT

Discrepancy between
users' needs and expert thinking..

1interactive50

2geschiedenis47

3Romeinen43

4latijn43

5Rome41

6koolielu41

7English40

8Romein33

9esl19

10history16

11culture16

12efl15

13vocabulary14

14quiz13

15subjonctif12

16grammar11

17Geografi10

18animation10

19London9

20fizika9

21angol9

25.1% of all tags501

Most used tags in MELT

Discrepancy between
users' needs and expert thinking

TAGS CAN FILL

THE GAP!!

Evaluation of tags by experts

How useful are the tags created by users (e.g. teachers) as metadata descriptors to describe learning resources?

A very provisional answer: they seem useful, but let's wait until the end of the story...

social bookmarks Metadata LOM tags folksonomy social tagging
multi-linguality social classification
thanks! for your attention
learning resources user communities
discover resources and items
questions?
teachers social navigation
social traces
paths, trails
flock

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