Digital learning content is becoming more and more commonplace. However, the creation of this learning content is usually done in specialized publishing platforms, that may lock in the content. This prevents the learning content from being discovered automatically, and hinders its uptake. A more general approach for authoring discoverable learning content is needed. We built a user-friendly authoring environment for creating digital publications, enriched with multimedia and interactivity features. This authoring environment outputs the created content in open formats, independent of any publishing platform. We adjusted our authoring environment to create semantically enriched learning content using the RDFa syntax, without the need for manual intervention. This presentation and accompanying video (users.ugent.be/~bjdmeest/lile_demo.mp4) shows how well-structured and well-annotated digital learning content can be created and validated using our authoring environment. The result is a discoverable publication in an open format, ready to be distributed as is, or ready to be imported in existing publishing platforms.

1. Creating Discoverable Learning Content
Using
a User-Friendly Authoring Environment
Ben De Meester
Hajar Ghaem Sigarchian, Tom De Nies, Anastasia Dimou,
Wesley De Neve, Erik Mannens, Rik Van De Walle
University Ghent – iMinds – Multimedia Lab
Linked Learning meets LinkedUp: Learning and Education with the Web of Data
Collocated with ISWC2014

2. On the menu:
Discoverable Learning Content in EPUB 3…
… and the authoring environment to make that
happen
Demo

3. Discoverable Learning Content
in EPUB 3…

4. L/CMS
SCORM/…
LOM
Distribution
Package format
Metadata
Current situation

5. Current situation
Closed
ecosystem
L/CMS
SCORM/…
LOM
Distribution
Package format
Metadata

6. L/CMS
SCORM/…
LOM
THE WEB
(including L/CMS)
Alternative
EPUB 3/EDUPUB
SCHEMA.org/…
(including LOM via LRMI)

7. BUT…

8. You can’t (practically) create linked content like this:

9. The user-friendly
Authoring Environment
to make linked learning content

10. DEMO
users.ugent.be/~bjdmeest/lile_demo.mp4

19. Next steps
Exploit EPUB 3/semantic annotations
Auto-discoverability of learning content
User testing the Authoring Environment
Increase capabilities of e-reading for better learning

20. Link to the paper: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1254/2_meester.pdf
Our project
Our pilot project partners:
Special thanks to SWSA for support in the form of a travel grant