As a lurker I hesitate to enter this conversation, but can I just add the importance of metadata in terms of helping with accessibility (for assistive technology users such as those with screen readers and keyboard / touch screen only access etc) as well as usability. Onix have guidelines for epub http://www.idpf.org/accessibility/guidelines/content/meta/onix.php
Best wishes
E.A.
Mrs E.A. Draffan
WAIS, ECS , University of Southampton
Tel +44 (0)23 8059 7246
Mobile +44 (0)7976 289103
http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk
http://www.emptech.info
From: Open Educational Resources [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brandon Muramatsu
Sent: 02 September 2014 22:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Usability work on OER metadata entry
Back when I was doing learning object metadata for a living...
• We were rarely successful at getting end-users (faculty, authors, etc.) to enter metadata. Everyone wanted to have it, nobody wanted to take the time or effort to enter it.
• When we did try and have users enter metadata, we always started with the "easy" fields like title and author -- which always turned them off to completing the task and entering the metadata for which they were uniquely qualified to provide. (This all comes from the library approach to resource cataloging.)
• Metadata entry was all forms based and lead a colleague to say publicly, in many keynotes "All forms must die!" -- And started his work on automatic metadata generation (If a page is web based, you can parse the HTML for a title as in the <title> tag, and look at headings, and look for expressions of the license by looking for the formats Creative Commons uses, etc.).
• Oh and Google won the search game a decade ago on the open Web. Yes structured metadata can theoretically improve the results, but Google has to recognize it and do something with it (hence the LRMI and microdata approaches). And the value of the LRMI approach to metadata on the open web is good right up until the marketers figure out how to use it to skew search results. (Ok that might be a bit cynical, but was fun to write.)
In any event I'd focus the collection of metadata for the information that the provider is uniquely qualified to provide, and find some other way of gathering the rest of the metadata you believe you need.
(I do value metadata, and I'm prepared to enter it to make my life easier, but that might not be as much as what you need to make your life easier.)
Brandon
On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 3:56 AM, M.Chesterman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
On 01/09/14 11:20, Ken Chad wrote:
> I have been using the Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) approach as a very effective way of looking a user 'needs' and issues of usability. It's not specifically for OER, but is a well established methodology and works well in many contexts. In simple terms it's about asking what 'jobs' users need to get done -- for which OER (in your context --and more specifically OER metadata) is the solution. It's a very pragmatic, down-to-earth approach that can help build better solutions...
> Ken
Thanks Ken,
I think you are right to be looking outside of the area of OER.
I should have realised that the issue of usability for data entry and
forms is something common to many areas and broadening my search, I came
up with many resources.
This is a cracker as a starter - 23 tips.
http://www.userfocus.co.uk/resources/formschecklist.html
Thanks!
Mick
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