1. Comparing Educational
Metadata Schema
The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM)
IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM)
Canadian Core
Denise Petrik, Alexis Stapp,
and Jasmine Woodson

2. What are Educational Materials?
And why do they need special metadata?
Educational materials include
- Lesson Plans
- Classroom Activities
- Evaluation Materials (Tests, Quizzes)
In order to truly help teachers, information
specific to the educational field must be
identified in metadata describing these materials.
EXAMPLES: grade level, difficulty level, academic standards
met, or resources needed

3. History and Background
Timeline
GEM: created in 1996.
LOM: developed in the late 90s, made official in 2002.
CanCore: began development in 2000, published in 2002.
Brief Description
Provide structure and guidelines for educational resources -
termed "educational materials" in GEM and "learning objects" in
LOM and CanCore.
GEM - meant primarily for digital objects
LOM and CanCore - cover both digital and analog objects

4. Structural Differences
GEM - based on Dublin Core
- added eight elements, some of which can be qualified
- fairly simple
LOM - based on GEM, and therefore DC.
- greatly expanded: added nine categories and nearly 70
elements
- much more complex
CanCore - based on LOM
- simplifies LOM, making it less complex and ambiguous
- application profile: more 'best practice' recommendations than
a metadata standard

5. Other Structural Notes
- CanCore developed as a simplified version of LOM --
but elements can come from standards other than LOM
- GEM highly user-oriented with great user support
- no such support in LOM
- The lack of user support in LOM is one of the many things
CanCore seeks to improve upon

6. Content Standards
GEM has controlled vocabularies for some of its elements
and advocates the use of others for others.
- resource types, relationships, subjects, etc.
- not all elements are required
LOM does not have its own vocabularies
- makes use of other vocabularies
- not all elements are required
CanCore requires some use of controlled vocabularies (not
its own)
- no elements are mandatory

7. Coding Language
GEM - designed for HTML
- but the creators were aware of other languages on the
horizon, like XML.
LOM and CanCore - both used with XML.

8. Implementation Difficulties
GEM
- concerns with storage
- incomplete metadata (Academic Standards)
- simplicity = fewer search facets
LOM
- extremely complex = specialized training needed
- requirements for metadata (or lack thereof) can lead to loss
of flexibility and functionality
CanCore
- fewer elements = better interoperability
+ less rich resource description

9. Current Use
GEM
Items catalogued by Consortium members are aggregated
on The Gateway, its own catalog site
LOM
Does not have its own catalog site
Used in various repositories and digital collections
CanCore
Used primarily in public educational institutions in Canada

10. Current and Future Concerns
GEM
- some updates made in form of new fields
- ex. user-generated content: ratings and comments
LOM
- standard reviewed in 2007
- potential for user-generated content in future
CanCore
- adapting to work with RSS
- planned training & support services

11. Thank you for
listening!