Apologies for cross posting - this is because I'm coming at several issues
and problems from several different angles & lots of different groups and
initiatives seem relevant.

I would like to ask for some help from those of you on this list, who have
involvement, or expertise in the cataloguing, classification, metatags etc
related to Reusable Learning Objects, particularly related to subjects
covered by the medical and health sciences curricula.

I've recently taken on a part time secondment as the elearning resources
coordinator for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sheffield. The
job description and project plan are still "under construction", but I do
know that it involves creating a catalogue of existing elearning activities
within the faculty. This is intended to help staff learn from each other's
experience, and find out if there are good quality resources that have
already been created, which they could adapt for their own courses or
modules without having to start from scratch.

To achieve this we are examining the options surrounding the creation of a
database of "objects" (which could be digitised video, sound files, still
images, quizzes, simulations etc). Obviously this needs to be easily
searchable and browsable via the web. It seems likely that the records of
the resource should have MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms attached,
however data will also be required related to pedagogical issues and
technical data about file format, size etc.

I am aware of the importance of having a good database structure from the
outset and doing our utmost to ensure interoperability with other related
resource collections.

I have been looking at IMS, LOM, SCORM etc standards and formats Z39.50 &
XML etc & I'm confused between them and am having problems specifying what
the database should include and what it should be able to do.

I have already found out about a range of projects, which seem to have some
relevance to the issues e.g.;

ACETS
http://www.acets.ac.uk

FILTER http://www.filter.ac.uk/

LOM Learning Objects Metadata
http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/

Medical Education Taxonomy Research Organisation (METRO)
http://srv1.mvm.ed.ac.uk/metro/index.asp

Sociologies of Health and Illness ELearning Databank (SHIELD)
http://www.medgraphics.cam.ac.uk/SHIELD/

IMS Global Learning Consortium
http://www.imsproject.org/

UK's Metadata for Education Group
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/education/

CETIS
http://www.cetis.ac.uk

I would appreciate any guidance from members of the list but have some
specific questions;

Should we go it alone & create a database or establish some sort of
collaboration with one or more of the existing projects?

What classification, thesaurus and metadata systems should we employ?
Which is "best" LOM, SCORM, IMS?

What actions should we take at the early specification stage to ensure
interoperability and some degree of "future proofing"?

I realise that posting this to this list may get some differing views but
I'm anxious to explore all options before going ahead too far with this
work.

Rod
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http://www.rodspace.co.uk