Following the discussion at yesterday's UK LOM Core meeting I couldn't
resist the temptation to try to define what it is for. This required a
bit on what is LOM for. Here, for general criticism, is my shot at it....
Charles Duncan
What is LOM for?
It is for describing learning objects. Strictly speaking it is for
exchanging descriptive information on learning objects. However, LOM is
designed to be "expansive" - it aims to include a very wide range of
descriptive elements. Not every project will use every element. Some
projects use the LOM as a means of defining the data elements they
should store internally about learning objects. While this usefully
builds on the knowledge and experience of others, it is not the primary
purpose of the LOM. Projects can decide to store either more or less
material than the full LOM element set to describe their learning
objects. Since the purpose of the LOM is to define the syntactic
structure for exchanging information it is only at the stage of
importing or exporting metadata that the LOM becomes significant. On
importing, if an internal system stores less than the full LOM then
there is a risk of losing information in imported metadata. On
exporting, there are no serious consequences of using less than the full
LOM. The benefits of choosing to use LOM are that the work of defining
which data elements to use and their syntax is already defined, and
established as an international standard, so exchange with others is
simplified.
What is the UK LOM Core for?
The UK LOM Core aims to enhance the value of the LOM for a specific
community, the UK educational community (HE, FE, primary, secondary,
pre-school, community and lifelong education). Since no community is
expected to use every LOM data element the UK LOM Core identifies the
elements of greatest value to this community and proposes that some
elements are of such importance that they should be considered
"mandatory". Other elements, of lesser importance, are still
"recommended". In addition communication is greatest when a community
shares a common vocabulary so UK LOM Core offers a vocabulary specific
to UK education. The benefit of choosing to use the UK LOM Core is that
metadata exchange with others in the UK education community works at
the semantic level as well as the syntactic level: a common language (UK
LOM COre) is used based on a common grammar(LOM). Note that where LOM is
"expansive" and attempts to cover a very wide range of purposes, UK LOM
Core is "reductive" in that its mandatory elements specify the minimum
elements that should be use for effective communication.
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