Mandatory LOM fields related with content
Background
In Celebrate only 3 field used in S2QL search were mandatory:
- general.language
- general.keywords
- education.typicalagerange
IMS MD is based on IEEE LOM. In IMS Best Practice Guide they claim that following 13 fields are commonly used in different communities are:
- general.language
- general.aggregationlevel - Size and complexity of content structure. Single value. Fixed vocabulary (1 = individual media unit [text, photo, ...], 2 = simple multimedia unit [text + photo, ...], 3 = linked multimedia units [website], 4 = complex multimedia [animations and simulations]).
- technical.format - Technical data type of the resource (txt, rdf, pdf, html. gif, jpg, png. ...)
- technical.requirement.name - Operating systems(s) under which resource can run (only if Type='Operating System')
- educational.learningresourcetype
- educational.learningcontext of classification.purpose [Educational Level]
- educational.interactivitytype - The type of interactivity supported by the resource (Active, Expositive, Mixed, Undefined)
- educational.interactivitylevel - Level of interactivity between an end user and the resource (very low, … very high)
- educational.intendedenduserrole
- educational.difficulty
- educational.typicallearningtime - Approximate or typical time it takes to work with the resource (for example 01:30:00).
- classification.purpose
- classification.purpose [Educational Objectives] - Learning goal.
Sugestions
Based on background information, on idea that we separate activities from content and on toolbox functionalities we need following IEEE LOM fields:
- general.identifier – Unique ID for content. Can be generated automatically based on user name and date-time information. Necessary for linking and presentation in different graphical templates.
- general.language – Language of content (for example ee, fi, hu). Can be detected automatically from user profile. Maximum 10 items.
- general.keywords – Maximum 10 items. Should be added manually by author when saving or uploading content.
- lifecycle.version – Edition of the content. Can be added automatically when saving. Important for version handling.
- lifecycle.contribute.rolle [Author] – Name of author (or other contributor). Can be list of maximum 10 contributors.
- lifecycle.contribute.date – Date of creation or change. Important for metadata harvesting.
- educational.learningresourcetype - Specific kind of resource. Maximum 4 items. Fixed vocabulary (exercise, simulation, diagram, figure, table, narrative text, exam, experiment, problem statement, self assessment). Should be added manually by author when saving or uploading content (vocabulary is fixed and is not enough).
- educational.intendedenduserrole – User of content. Maximum 10 items. Fixed vocabulary (teacher, leaner, author, manager). Default value can be “learner”. User can change it manually.
- educational.context - The typical learning environment. Fixed vocabulary (school, higher education, training, other). Unsorted list maximum 4 items.
- educational.difficulty - How hard it is to work through the resource for the typical target audience. Single value. Fixed vocabulary (very easy, … very difficult). Should be added manually by author. Default value can be “middle”.
- rights.copyrightandotherrestrictions - Whether copyright or other restrictions apply. Single instance. Fixed vocabulary (yes, no). Default value can be “no”.
- relation.kind [ispartof] – For describing relation with other content. Metadata can be generated automatically when defining relations between content items. For linking general.identificator is necessary.
- relation.kind [requires] – For defining prerequisites for content.
- classification.purpose [discipline] - Subject area. Can be detected automatically from user profile. Can contain more than one discipline.
Most of the fields can be filled automatically by Toolbox based on content file or user profile information. Some of fields (like interactivity, time and objective) are left empty because they describe more activities then content.
