Lomtologies - issues and challenges in maintaining simple LOM-related vocabularies

Contents scene setting… the UK context LOM directions UK elearning vocabularies where formal meets informal using formal vocabularies to improve social tagging systems OR using informal systems to improve the maintenance of vocabularies

scene setting…

the UK context

LOM directions

UK elearning vocabularies

where formal meets informal

using formal vocabularies to improve social tagging systems

OR using informal systems to improve the maintenance of vocabularies

JISC CETIS represents UK colleges and universities on international learning technology standards initiatives principle channel between the UK community and IMS and IEEE LOM wide range of other elearning related activities range of community-based ‘Special Interest Group’ activities – e.g. CETIS Metadata and Repository SIG http://www.cetis.ac.uk/

represents UK colleges and universities on international learning technology standards initiatives

principle channel between the UK community and IMS and IEEE LOM

wide range of other elearning related activities

range of community-based ‘Special Interest Group’ activities – e.g. CETIS Metadata and Repository SIG

UK MEG group MEG = Metadata for Education Group informal grouping of parties interested in elearning issues across school, college and university sectors in the UK potentially useful home for UK vocabulary development but no funding now largely defunct http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/education/

MEG = Metadata for Education Group

informal grouping of parties interested in elearning issues

across school, college and university sectors in the UK

potentially useful home for UK vocabulary development

but no funding

now largely defunct

Higher Education Academy distributed service supporting provision of elearning in UK delivered thru range of subject centres focussing on needs of elearning practioners in UK universities previously known as the LTSN (Learning and Teaching Support Network) http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/

distributed service supporting provision of elearning in UK

delivered thru range of subject centres

focussing on needs of elearning practioners in UK universities

previously known as the LTSN (Learning and Teaching Support Network)

Intute JISC-funded service delivering subject gateways 4 major subject hubs (portals) science, engineering and technology arts and humanities social sciences health and life sciences joint catalogue of approx 120,000 high-quality Internet resources (using DC) about 80 subject-based Internet tutorials previously known as the RDN (Resource Discovery Network) http://www.intute.ac.uk/

JISC-funded service delivering subject gateways

4 major subject hubs (portals)

science, engineering and technology

arts and humanities

social sciences

health and life sciences

joint catalogue of approx 120,000 high-quality Internet resources (using DC)

about 80 subject-based Internet tutorials

previously known as the RDN (Resource Discovery Network)

UK LOM Core UK activity to build an application profile of IEEE LOM led by CETIS intended to meet UK requirements using UK-specific vocabularies where necessary activity never formally signed-off, but standardised enough to allow implementation

UK activity to build an application profile of IEEE LOM

led by CETIS

intended to meet UK requirements

using UK-specific vocabularies where necessary

activity never formally signed-off, but standardised enough to allow implementation

RLLOMAP joint activity between the RDN and the LTSN (RL LOM AP) developed an application profile of LOM – similar to UK LOM Core though slightly different developed or made use of vocabularies in the areas of: resource types UK educational levels UK educational contexts UK policy themes pedagogic terms

joint activity between the RDN and the LTSN (RL LOM AP)

developed an application profile of LOM – similar to UK LOM Core though slightly different

developed or made use of vocabularies in the areas of:

resource types

UK educational levels

UK educational contexts

UK policy themes

pedagogic terms

RLLOMAP – lesson 1 think about naming! LTSN became the HEA RDN became Intute which yields HILOMAP rather than RLLOMAP??! more seriously, there’s a danger of names getting built into URIs e.g. in the rdn_dc OAI-PMH format the http://purl.org/rdn/terms/annotation property note: I don’t think that ‘rllomap’ is built into any namespace URIs – but it could have been!

think about naming!

LTSN became the HEA

RDN became Intute

which yields HILOMAP rather than RLLOMAP??!

more seriously, there’s a danger of names getting built into URIs

e.g. in the rdn_dc OAI-PMH format

the http://purl.org/rdn/terms/annotation property

note: I don’t think that ‘rllomap’ is built into any namespace URIs – but it could have been!

RLLOMAP – lesson 2 don’t fracture the community RLLOMAP is (quite widely??) used and cited but everyone really wants to talk about and use UK LOM Core (or even just LOM) by developing RLLOMAP we helped the community move forward but ultimately left a division not drastic for interoperability but potentially divisive for the community there’s a long term interoperability cost each time a new application profile is created?

don’t fracture the community

RLLOMAP is (quite widely??) used and cited

but everyone really wants to talk about and use UK LOM Core (or even just LOM)

by developing RLLOMAP we helped the community move forward but ultimately left a division

not drastic for interoperability

but potentially divisive for the community

RLLOMAP – lesson 3 ensure sustainability need to ensure that RLLOMAP is maintained particularly important for the vocabularies policy themes vocabulary pedagogic terms vocabulary UK Educational Contexts (UKEC) UK Educational Levels (UKEL) etc. e.g. regular (twice-yearly) meetings to check/update?

ensure sustainability

need to ensure that RLLOMAP is maintained

particularly important for the vocabularies

policy themes vocabulary

pedagogic terms vocabulary

UK Educational Contexts (UKEC)

UK Educational Levels (UKEL)

etc.

e.g. regular (twice-yearly) meetings to check/update?

Wider environment the wider environment is also changing IEEE have initiated activity designed to lead towards next-generation LOM IEEE and DCMI have jointly created a DCMI/IEEE LTSC Taskforce note: these activities likely to change the syntax we’re used to but (broadly speaking) the semantics being encoded will remain much the same

the wider environment is also changing

IEEE have initiated activity designed to lead towards next-generation LOM

IEEE and DCMI have jointly created a DCMI/IEEE LTSC Taskforce

note: these activities likely to change the syntax we’re used to

but (broadly speaking) the semantics being encoded will remain much the same

DCMI/IEEE LTSC Taskforce aim is to align use of DC in LOM currently LOM and DC can’t easily be mixed in XML why? because they don’t currently shared a common underlying model e.g. nesting in LOM/XML doesn’t carry the same semantics as nesting in DC/XML intention is to use the DCMI Abstract Model i.e. interpreting the semantics of LOM in terms of the DCMI Abstract Model

aim is to align use of DC in LOM

currently LOM and DC can’t easily be mixed in XML

why? because they don’t currently shared a common underlying model

e.g. nesting in LOM/XML doesn’t carry the same semantics as nesting in DC/XML

intention is to use the DCMI Abstract Model

i.e. interpreting the semantics of LOM in terms of the DCMI Abstract Model

What is the DCMI Abstract Model? a set of rules defining how DC metadata descriptions are constructed A description is made up of one or more statements … Each statement instantiates a property/value pair and is made up of … … Each value string is a simple, human-readable string … … a set of human-readable statements (as per above) also formalised using UML

a set of rules defining how DC metadata descriptions are constructed

A description is made up of one or more statements …

Each statement instantiates a property/value pair and is made up of …

…

Each value string is a simple, human-readable string …

…

a set of human-readable statements (as per above)

also formalised using UML

What is the DCMI Abstract Model? (2) independent of particular syntaxes but descriptions that comply with the model can be encoded using any of the recognised DCMI encodings i.e. XHTML, XML and RDF simple largely based on resource, property, value triple can be mapped to the RDF model highly extensible

independent of particular syntaxes

but descriptions that comply with the model can be encoded using any of the recognised DCMI encodings

i.e. XHTML, XML and RDF

simple

largely based on resource, property, value triple

can be mapped to the RDF model

highly extensible

Example description Description Set ( Description ( Resource URI ( <http://purl.org/poi/rdn.ac.uk/12345-67890> ) Statement ( Property URI ( dc:title ) Value String ( &quot;Wilfred Owen and Realism&quot; Language ( en-GB ) ) ) Statement ( Property URI ( dc:language ) Value String (&quot;en-GB&quot; ) Syntax Encoding Scheme URI ( dcterms:RFC3066 ) ) Statement ( Property URI ( lom:keyword ) Vocabulary Encoding Scheme URI ( a:NLS ) Value String ( &quot;Owen, Wilfred&quot; ) ) ) )

UK Educational Levels developed under MEG list of 14 levels covering ‘foundation’ (pre-school) thru to post-doctoral levels largely specified in terms of typical age, e.g. UK Educational Level 9 Definition: Undergraduate degree level. Typical age range: 18+ started life as a 12-level list

developed under MEG

list of 14 levels covering ‘foundation’ (pre-school) thru to post-doctoral levels

largely specified in terms of typical age, e.g.

UK Educational Level 9 Definition: Undergraduate degree level. Typical age range: 18+

started life as a 12-level list

UK Educational Levels usage in LOM/XML… <classification> <purpose> <source>LOMv1.0</source> <value>educational level</value> </purpose> <taxonPath> <source> <string language=&quot;x-none&quot;>UKEL</string> </source> <taxon> <entry> <string language=&quot;x-none&quot;>UK Educational Level 5</string> </entry> </taxon> </taxonPath> </classification> just strings…

usage in LOM/XML…

Assigning URI to vocabulary terms good practice in DC metadata to assign and use URIs to terms (not just strings) so that each term in vocabulary is globally and uniquely identified value URI vs. value string in DCAM therefore need to assign a URI to each term in UKEL and other vocabularies and declare using RDFS/SKOS have assigned a PURL UK Educational Level 4 = http://purl.org/meg/UKEL/level9 note that this URI is still under discussion…

good practice in DC metadata to assign and use URIs to terms (not just strings)

so that each term in vocabulary is globally and uniquely identified

value URI vs. value string in DCAM

therefore need to assign a URI to each term in UKEL and other vocabularies

and declare using RDFS/SKOS

have assigned a PURL

UK Educational Level 4 = http://purl.org/meg/UKEL/level9

But what about maintenance? what does the PURL resolve to? who owns it? who is responsible for maintaining and serving the SKOS declaration? who is responsible for updates? need body with interest and persistence … the interested parties in the UK are relatively short term

what does the PURL resolve to?

who owns it?

who is responsible for maintaining and serving the SKOS declaration?

who is responsible for updates?

need body with interest and persistence

… the interested parties in the UK are relatively short term

Using UKEL in tagging systems but what about social tagging systems like Flickr, del.icio.us and Connotea? these systems allow end-user to assign simple ‘tags’ to resources wouldn’t it be neat if we reached agreement about how to tag by educational level and other key ‘educational’ terms? in UK, why not simply agree to all use ‘ukel4’ as tag for ‘UK Educational Level 4’… or better, reach global agreement as to what ‘el4’ means – it can’t be that hard can it?!?

but what about social tagging systems like Flickr, del.icio.us and Connotea?

these systems allow end-user to assign simple ‘tags’ to resources

wouldn’t it be neat if we reached agreement about how to tag by educational level and other key ‘educational’ terms?

in UK, why not simply agree to all use ‘ukel4’ as tag for ‘UK Educational Level 4’…

or better, reach global agreement as to what ‘el4’ means – it can’t be that hard can it?!?

del.icio.us example UKEL-based tag

Flickr example UKEL-based tag

Tagging beyond UKEL… is it possible to go further? can we agree how to tag by educational level, pedagogy (instructionalMethod), high-level subject and resource type most tagging systems have simple APIs allowing services to be built across systems based on common set of tags… … but where ‘our’ tags are related to an educational requirement

is it possible to go further?

can we agree how to tag by educational level, pedagogy (instructionalMethod), high-level subject and resource type

most tagging systems have simple APIs

allowing services to be built across systems

based on common set of tags…

… but where ‘our’ tags are related to an educational requirement

Features of folksonomies open - no centralised control no formal definitions associated with tags understanding of meaning comes from common usage URIs not assigned to tags no simple mapping to commonly used metadata properties e.g. tags not necessarily appropriate values for dc:subject

open - no centralised control

no formal definitions associated with tags

understanding of meaning comes from common usage

URIs not assigned to tags

no simple mapping to commonly used metadata properties

e.g. tags not necessarily appropriate values for dc:subject

Summary Formal Informal LOM futures, DCMI/IEEE LTSC Taskforce, UKEL URIs, LO repositroies, etc. tagging systems, Flickr, del.icio.us, Connotea, folksonomies lomtologies as glue

Lomtologies an informal and potentially fluid vocabulary that is useful in the context of describing learning resources and that is maintained by the community thru social tagging systems without central control where each term comprises a ‘tag’ and a URI Do lomtologies help to give the community ownership of the maintenance problem? Does the use of existing vocabularies as lomtologies improve the use of tagging systems?

an informal and potentially fluid vocabulary

that is useful in the context of describing learning resources

and that is maintained by the community thru social tagging systems

without central control

where each term comprises a ‘tag’ and a URI

Discuss … discuss…

… discuss…