Hi,
Sorry to drag up an issue from a while ago (I've been a bit slack in reading
my email lists during august).
I'm involved in management of the Curriculum Online metadata scheme. We
originally started out with an extensive list of terms (20 or so) taken from
the QCA NC site and BECTa's Virtual Teacher Centre. We are going to be
adopting the CELEBRATE vocab in the next update to the metadata scheme. This
is partly for future proofing (as we may want to interoperate with other
european schools portals), but also as feedback from users suggested that
there were too many resource types, and there were differences in opinion as
to their meaning.
I would advise that whichever vocab you decide on (and there are many) you
also need to provide clear definitions of what the terms mean. This needn't
be prescriptive, but without some guidance, there can be big differences in
understanding.
The other important differnce between CELEBRATE and other LOM
implementations is the use of an ordered list of resource types instead of a
set. I think this improves the search interface because users need to know
what the predominant resource type is, not necessarily all the components.
For example, a geography resource may be a streaming video file that
introduces the topic of climate change, it lasts 30 minutes, and has a
single page of questions for completion after the user has seen the film.
Although it contains questions this is not predominantly an assessment
resource. It's an exploration of the topic and should be tagged as such,
with the assessment resource type (if it appears in the metadata at all)
being further down the ordered list. This problem raises itself more when
you start dealing with large courseware modules. It would be extremley rare
for a large course to not contain elements of assessment, but if that's not
the predominant type, then a user who was searching for assessment products
is not going to understand why it appears in their search results. I realise
this isn't a perfect solution, but I do think that having an ordered list is
an improvement.
I would be very interested to hear any other opinions on this.
Ian
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-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Richardson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 05 August 2003 23:46
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Is there a resource type standard vocabulary?
Hi Phil, all,
Thank you to everyone who has replied, much appreciated and yes very
helpful... :-)
Im really glad I asked the question now... I will be thinking long and hard
about the answers you have given and will report back when Ive made a
decision...
Cheers
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Barker
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 05/08/03 11:22
Subject: Re: Is there a resource type standard vocabulary?
Hello Steve, hello all,
As you've found the problem isn't so much "is there a resource type standard
vocabulary" as "how come there are so many!". Perhaps the one reason for
there being so many is that the requirements for this vocablualary vary
strongly depending on what it is that is being described. For example a
repository storing disaggregated learning objects or assets of low
aggregation level (eg single images, animations, simulations) wouldn't get
very far with the list you give below. I can't send you a URL and say "this
is the resource type vocabulary you should use", but I would point you the
approach which has been taken for RDN/LTSN collaborative work. In summary,
the RDN-Type list is the Dublin Core resource type list plus a list of
supplementary resource types. For the LTSN work it was felt this in turn
needed supplementing with resource types which were more specific to
learning and teaching resources. You can see a draft list at
http://www.rdn.ac.uk/publications/rdn-ltsn-ap/types/
For the RDN Types see http://www.rdn.ac.uk/publications/cat-guide/types/
For the DC Type see http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-type-vocabulary/
I would suggest that DC Type is as close to a "standard" vocabulary as you
will find, and it looks like it might describe the same sort of thing as
your list below (well, OK, *the* standard vocabulary is the one in the LOM,
but it doesn't look like that would fill the same space as the list you give
below). You may find you need to supplement the DC Type list. From the point
of view of UK HE/FE interoperability (which I recognise might be more
important to me than to an EU project) using terms from the RDN and RDN/LTSN
resource type vocabularies would be the best way to do this.
On a different tack, another EU project, CELEBRATE has produced an
application profile of the LOM which has the following resource type
vocabulary: (See http://mdlet.jtc1sc36.org/doc/SC36_WG4_N0035.pdf)
{assessment, drill and practice, exploration, glossary, guide, information
resource, open activity, tool}. (for info on Celebrate see
http://www.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/index_celebrate.cfm)
Hope this helps, Phil.
Steve Richardson wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> This is probably the greatest of all unanswerable questions... But I
> can try and hope...
>
> Im currently developing the database for the resource repository for
> the project Im working on and we need to come up with a vocabulary for
> the resource type. One of the Managers has been using reference
> manager and has extrapolated the following list from there as a
> suggested list of terms to classify resource by:
>
> Journal - Full Paper
> Abstract - published
> Abstract - presented at conference
> Book
> Book Chapter
> Electronic Citation
> Report - published
> Magasine Article
> Personal communication
> Motion Picture/Video Clip
> Slide Presentation
> Computer Programme
> Data File
>
> I don't know reference manager at all and cant find anything sensible
> on the web that tells me where these terms are from or if they even
> refer to a particular standard.
>
> I *can* find various vocabularies... on various web-sites... but its
> all a bit confusing really... :-S
>
> All I want to know is - is there a standard vocabulary for resource
> types that *should* be used in preference to any other standard/ad hoc
> schema?
>
> Please consider that I am working on a European project.
>
> Thank you for your help.
> Kind regards
> Steve
>
>
> One should not worship machines any longer or use them as workmen. One
> should collaborate with them. Jean Cocteau 1929
>
> - -------
>
> Steven Richardson
>
> ProFaNE Internet Systems
>
> School of Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting,
>
> Coupland III,
>
> University of Manchester
>
> Oxford Road,
>
> Manchester
>
> M13 9PL
>
> Great Britain
>
> Tel: +44161 275 8226
>
> Mob: +447866 566 834
--
Phil Barker Learning Technology Adviser
ICBL, School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences
Mountbatten Building, Heriot-Watt University,
Edinburgh, EH14 4AS
Tel: 0131 451 3278 Fax: 0131 451 3327
Web: http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/~philb/
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