Ontologies to integrate learning design and learning content

1. Ontologies to integrate learning design and learning content Presentation for the UNFOLD/PROLEARN Workshop, September 22-23, 2005 Colin Knight, Dragan Gašević, and Griff Richards Laboratory for Ontological Research School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University Surrey Canada {cjk2, dgasevic, griff}@sfu.ca

2. Outline • Contexts • Reusing learning content • Repurposing learning designs • Using ontologies • LOCO and LOCO-Cite ontologies overview • Use cases and examples • Future work

3. Contexts • Learning Design offers tremendous potential for content repurposing • Reusable learning content (typically Learning Objects with SCORM or LOM metadata) that fits in a given learning design may be difficult to locate • Course authors could benefit from advice on how to repurpose existing static content using collaborative or task-based methods

4. Reusing learning content • Requirements for effective reuse of learning content in a learning design: • control over granularity • remove metadata that is irrelevant in the new context (example: objectives) • each time a learning object is reused, keep a record of how it was used to facilitate future recommendation

5. Reusing learning content • Solutions: • to address issues of granularity, we used the ALOCoM ontology for content repurposing (a ProLearn effort) • Store context-related metadata separately • To facilitate record keeping of how learning content is used in learning designs, we used LOCO-Cite as a bridging ontology

6. ALOCoM Ontology represented graphically

7. Repurposing learning designs • A learning design may be highly context-related and cannot be reused in different situations • The learning design will likely contain underlying patterns that can be repurposed • It is necessary to establish what part of the learning design constitutes the generative pattern and what part is context-dependent (content, objectives, and prerequisites) and needs to be replaced • When a learning design is successfully repurposed, keeping a record of what parts were changed will help identify the underlying generative pattern

8. Learning object context • Remove the 1 to 1 mapping between learning designs and learning objects • Keep information related to the context of use separate from the object being reused Learning Object Context Learning Objects Learning Designs

10. LOCO and LOCO-Cite ontologies • LOCO structure based on IMS-LD Level A • LOCO-Cite is the bridging ontology between LOCO and ALOCoM and is associated with highly context-dependent information such as competencies

11. Graphical representation of LOCO-ontology

12. An example learning object for content disaggregation

13. Disaggregated content

14. Disaggregated content integrated into a learning design

15. Use cases • Selecting a learning design and learning content based on competencies • Locating quality learning content and learning designs for a given instructional situation (and not have to create it every time)

16. Goals • Extend features of a LD editor to: • Import/export LOCO ontology compliant learning designs • Enable searching of learning object and learning design repositories during the authoring phase • Create LOCO and LOCO-Cite compatible repositories of learning designs

17. Conclusion • Is the payoff from reusability worth the effort? • Can ontologies deliver practical benefits for LD users? • Future work is needed to enhance the ontology, including addition of IMS-LD Level B and C compliance