Apologies for cross posting...
I agree with Andy and Phil's conclusion that we should go with the revised
14 level version of the UKEL. In addition I also feel that this has been a
valuable exercise. In particular I found respondents additional comments
very interesting as I think they highlight the fact that we need to make
absolutely explicit what this vocabulary is and is not for. I also agree
that as far as useful next steps go we should consider reviewing the
mappings and agreeing definitions if possible. I'm less clear about how we
should go about facilitating this though! :-}
While I'm here I'd like to raise another issues relating to UKEL. I think
most of you are probably aware that BSI has launched a panel with a view to
standardising UK LOM Core. Do list members feel that the UKEL vocabulary
should be included as part of this activity? Is it appropriate to attempt
to standardise a fuzzy vocabulary of this kind? The first meeting of the
panel takes place in Glasgow tomorrow so any comments would be very
welcome.
All the best
Lorna
On 23 Sep 2005, at 17:04, Andy Powell wrote:
Firstly, apologies for not having followed up on our survey for quite some
time! Other things have got in the way and this issue has, unfortunately,
been left on the back-burner.
The survey results can be seen by going to
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/surveys.cgi?A=hp&LMGT1=UK-MEG
then choosing the "UK Educational Levels" concluded survey.
To summarise:
- most people agree that "educational level" is useful for resource
discovery and that having a UK-wide list is a good thing.
- the picture of what exact form that list should take is less clear. The
revised 14-level list at
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/twiki/bin/view/Metadata/UKEL
gets the most votes. But it gets less than 50% of the total vote. I.e.
most people want to do something else, but there is no clear winner as
to what should be done.
Despite that... ( :-) ) it seems to me that if we accept the functional
requirements outlined at the top of the revised list above, then the
current 12-level list is ruled out (because it doesn't meet the requirement
to cover pre-school through to doctoral degree level) - so we can ignore
that part of the vote! Bear with me, I'm trying to move us forward here...
:-)
Going with the 14-level list does not rule out developing a simpler list in
the future if we need to - so we can forget about the 'Develop something
simpler' part of the vote!
Ditto the 'Do something else' vote!
So, it seems to me, that moving the proposed 14-level list forward is the
best thing to do for the time being. In which case, we need to agree the
proposed mappings in the Wiki and maybe come up with some definitions where
we can.
OK, so I can already hear people shouting "well, why the hell did you
bother with the survey then?" :-). But I don't see what else to do...
Thoughts, as always, welcome...
Andy
--
Distributed Systems, UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/a.powell
tel: +44 1225 383933 msn: [log in to unmask]
Resource Discovery Network http://www.rdn.ac.uk/
--
Lorna M. Campbell
Assistant Director, CETIS
University of Strathclyde
+44 (0)141 548 3072
http://www.cetis.ac.uk/
Apologies for cross posting...
I agree with Andy and Phil's conclusion that we should go with the revised
14 level version of the UKEL. In addition I also feel that this has been a
valuable exercise. In particular I found respondents additional comments
very interesting as I think they highlight the fact that we need to make
absolutely explicit what this vocabulary is and is not for. I also agree
that as far as useful next steps go we should consider reviewing the
mappings and agreeing definitions if possible. I'm less clear about how we
should go about facilitating this though! :-}
While I'm here I'd like to raise another issues relating to UKEL. I think
most of you are probably aware that BSI has launched a panel with a view to
standardising UK LOM Core. Do list members feel that the UKEL vocabulary
should be included as part of this activity? Is it appropriate to attempt
to standardise a fuzzy vocabulary of this kind? The first meeting of the
panel takes place in Glasgow tomorrow so any comments would be very
welcome.
All the best
Lorna
On 23 Sep 2005, at 17:04, Andy Powell wrote:
Firstly, apologies for not having followed up on our survey for quite some
time! Other things have got in the way and this issue has, unfortunately,
been left on the back-burner.
The survey results can be seen by going to
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/surveys.cgi?A=hp&LMGT1=UK-MEG
then choosing the "UK Educational Levels" concluded survey.
To summarise:
- most people agree that "educational level" is useful for resource
discovery and that having a UK-wide list is a good thing.
- the picture of what exact form that list should take is less clear. The
revised 14-level list at
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/twiki/bin/view/Metadata/UKEL
gets the most votes. But it gets less than 50% of the total vote. I.e.
most people want to do something else, but there is no clear winner as
to what should be done.
Despite that... ( :-) ) it seems to me that if we accept the functional
requirements outlined at the top of the revised list above, then the
current 12-level list is ruled out (because it doesn't meet the requirement
to cover pre-school through to doctoral degree level) - so we can ignore
that part of the vote! Bear with me, I'm trying to move us forward here...
:-)
Going with the 14-level list does not rule out developing a simpler list in
the future if we need to - so we can forget about the 'Develop something
simpler' part of the vote!
Ditto the 'Do something else' vote!
So, it seems to me, that moving the proposed 14-level list forward is the
best thing to do for the time being. In which case, we need to agree the
proposed mappings in the Wiki and maybe come up with some definitions where
we can.
OK, so I can already hear people shouting "well, why the hell did you
bother with the survey then?" :-). But I don't see what else to do...
Thoughts, as always, welcome...
Andy
--
Distributed Systems, UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/a.powell
tel: +44 1225 383933 msn: [log in to unmask]
Resource Discovery Network http://www.rdn.ac.uk/
--
Lorna M. Campbell
Assistant Director, CETIS
University of Strathclyde
+44 (0)141 548 3072
http://www.cetis.ac.uk/
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