Intro to ASPECT Adopting Standards and Specifications for Educational Content

1. Intro to ASPECTAdopting Standards and Specifications for Educational Content Frans Van Assche EUN Senior Advisor

2. A project co-funded by the European Union, through the eContentplus programmehttp://ec.europa.eu/econtenplus 2

3. Implementations of Standards and Specs exist already today 3

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5. Ministries of education Austria Estonia Finland Flanders (Belgium) France Hungary Iceland Israel Ireland Italy Lithuania Norway Poland Portugal Region of Catalonia Slovenia Spain Sweden Publishers FWU Cambridge-Hitachi Cambridge University Press Skolavefurinn Contento Promethean Young Digital Planet Siveco Dunlem e-Learning Others The European Schoolnet ARIADNE Foundation KULeuven OERcommons Cité des Sciences Open University (UK) 5 The LRE Network

6. Why raising awareness of standards and specifications is not enough? 6

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9. We are convinced that, if properly structured and managed, new best practice networks (BPN) frameworks can help redress the ‘disconnect’ between standards’ organisations and the educational community by: • focussing on implementing standards as well as raising awareness, and • supporting emerging standards and specifications that map to and are influenced by best practice related to the use of ICT in schools. • The ASPECT project 9

10. 10 Key interoperability questions What is the use of Educational Content • if it is too hard to integrate it in my own technical environment or I can’t use it in my LMS? • if it is too hard to adapt it (although I’m allowed to). What travels well? • if it is too hard to get it • if I don’t know whether and how I could use it • if I have no means to evaluate it • if I can’t find it • if I can’t share it and expose it even if I wan’t to

11. 11 Crux of ASPECT Interoperability Issues Standards Interoperability of Standards And BEST PRACTICE

12. 12 Discovery Search Retract Soc. Recommend. Agent based Evaluate Expose Choose Resolution Describe Get Create Integrate Reference or LO Adapt & Reuse Disaggregate Aggregate Modify the sequence Modify the content Integrate Use/Play Local Delete

13. 13 WP4 Dissemination, creating impact • Metadata: IEEE LOM, Dublin Core • Query Language: CQL, PLQL, LRE=QL • Vocabulary: XVD, VDEX, ZTHES, SKOS • Protocol: SQI, SPI, SRU/SRW, OAI=PMH • Registry: CORDRA, ADL Registry WP2 Content Discovery WP5 WP6 Best Practices Implementation of best practices School Pilots WP3 Content Use • Format: IMS Content Packaging • SCORM, IMS Common Cartridge, • IMS QTI • Identifier: Handle System, DOI • Digital Rights Management: • Creative Commons, IMS Common • Cartridge, LRE DRM WP7 Evaluation Quality Assurance

14. 14 Best Practice on Different Levels of Interoperability Technical Semantic Political

15. 15 Standards & Specifications • IEEE LOM, Dublin Core • IEEE LOM and DC are well adopted. DC is for content in general while LOM is designed for educational content. The major need is to be able to transform metadata instances from one format into another. While solutions for mapping the default specifications exist, good solutions are lacking for specific application profiles of IEEE LOM and DC. • The ASPECT partners will make all their content available through the LOM. This is part of WP5.

16. 16 Standards & Specifications • XVD, VDEX, ZTHES, SKOS, CEF • ZThes has a wide adoption and the latest version has improved features for internationalisation. VDEX has a wide adoption as well. XVD is the most advanced specification supporting mappings between vocabularies and alternative structures but it has very little adoption at this stage. SKOS has currently the best approach to the mapping of vocabularies. Hence transformers between the formats should be offered to the wider audience of vocabulary developers. However, this is not sufficient. All too often it is the case that Application Profile developers invent vocabularies again and again. Apart from being inefficient, it harms the semantic interoperability of different application profiles. Given this situation, adoption can be best supported by providing a registry for vocabularies and mappings between vocabularies that allows for uploading and downloading in different formats. • The ASPECT project will evaluate all specifications and adopt one or more as an input and/or output format of the European Vocabulary Bank (part of the ASPECT service centre). In addition the ASPECT will investigate to what extent mappings between these different specifications are possible. This work will be performed as part of WP2. Results will feed into WP5.

17. 17 Standards & Specifications • SQI, SPI, SRU/SRW, OAI-PMH, SWORD • SRU/SRW are well adopted in the library world. SQI has a good adoption in the European Learning Technology world and many MoEs have adopted it for exchanging LOM instances in the LRE. SQI has been developed in order to support more advanced features such as asynchronous communication and different query languages in federated LOR networks. It is our conclusion that SQI could be profiled to support SRU/SRW such that both specifications could be used in a federated search scenario. OAI-PMH is well adopted also in the European LT world. As it is dealing with a different scenario (harvesting), it can co-exist with the other specifications. SPI is at the specification stage. It is work planned under CEN/ISSS contract. • The ASPECT project will evaluate all specifications and adopt one or more as for exchanging metadata and content. As a minimum all content providers will adopt SQI and/or OAI-PMH. In addition it will be investigated to what extend these specifications can be made interoperable through for example profiling or a run-time gateway. Finally ASPECT will co-operate with CEN/ISSS in order to test the new SPI specification. This work will be performed as part of WP2. Results will feed into WP5.

18. 18 Standards & Specifications • CQL, PLQL, LRE-QL • These are all abstract query languages that operate on a conceptual model instead of, for instance, relational tables. They have been developed by different parties involved in federating LO repositories and are used to interrogate metadata following the IEEE LOM. In the end it would be better to have a single well thought through query language. • ASPECT will thus first investigate this route and, if this is not possible, try to establish translation mechanisms. LRE-QL is already an application profile of PLQL. This work will be performed as part of WP2. Results will feed into WP5.

19. 19 Standards & Specifications • SCORM, IMS Common Cartridge, IMS Content packaging • SCORM is in Europe well adopted in the military world in a NATO context, and to a large extent by commercial publishers, especially for training purposes. However, the adoption in the school sector is limited. Cited barriers include the limited pedagogical models (primarily instructional design) SCORM supports, as well as the steep learning curve demanded if one would like to repurpose a SCO, a situation that occurs much more frequently in the school sector. • IMS Common Cartridge is a specification under development. Content Packaging, Question/Test Interoperability (QTI) and Metadata, with the IMS Tools Interoperability Protocol. Partners in the consortium being part of IMS, will release the first player in Q2 2008. As such, it is at the beginning of the adoption life cycle and adoption support measures will therefore be in terms of awareness raising, and demonstrators. • The ASPECT project will not address the barriers to SCORM, as it will involve a long-term effort within the LT research and pedagogical communities. • The ASPECT project will however help content providers to use SCORM as well as Common Cartridge to content. As part of establishing best practice, it will be investigated what barriers exist for content providers in using these two specifications. This work will be performed as part of WP5 with the help of WP3.

20. 20 Standards & Specifications • IMS-QTI • IMS-QTI is reasonably well adopted and works well for what it is supposed to do. While the consortium recognizes that the educational world needs more advanced specifications to fully support assessment, this is not retained as an objective • The ASPECT project will help content providers to use IMS-QTI as part of the new IMS Common Cartridge specification. This work will be performed as part of WP5 with the help of WP3.

21. 21 Standards & Specifications • CORDRA • CORDRA is a model that is not really adopted in Europe. One of the barriers is the confusion between the general model and its specific implementation and deployment within the US DoD in the ADL-Registry. Nevertheless it is an important specification. Specific elements, such as the Handle System for identifiers, is of particular interest. • Hence, ASPECT will analyse and compare the technological options offered and set-up a demonstrator implementation to be used by content and metadata providers. This work will be performed as part of WP3.

22. 22 Standards & Specifications • Creative Commons • Creative Commons is by now well adopted. There are however some problems that hamper its adoption. First, as content providers are creating variants, interoperability of those variants becomes a problem. In addition there is a usability problem. EUN’s two and a half year experience with the implementation is that, although Creative Commons is very simple, end-users such as teachers and learners make regular mistakes (about 30%) when uploading material. • Therefore, the ASPECT project will investigate these usability issues in order to improve the adoption and practice of Creative Commons. This work will be performed as part of WP5 with the help of WP2 & WP3.

23. 23 Standards & Specifications • ISO/IEC 19796-x • This quality standard, based on European pre-work in the CEN/ISSS workshop learning technologies will be adapted to the project’s needs. By nature, the process-oriented standard ISO/IEC 19796-1 is adaptable to different organizational contexts. The other parts of the standards series will also be used: ISO/IEC 19796-3 (reference methods and metrics) will be used to derive quality measures, ISO/IEC 19796-4 (good practice guide) will be input for the guidelines • Therefore, the ASPECT project will implement those standards and provide feedback on the further development of those standards. This work will be performed as part of WP5 with the help of WP7

24. Expected results 24

25. Facilitate the adoption of learning technology standards and specifications with a specific focus on the school sector 25

26. Take into account teachers’ views as well as those of technical experts during the pre-standardisation process 26

27. Assess standards and specifications through their implementation on a critical mass of educational content 27

28. Make recommendations on the combination of a number of standards to ensure more transparent interoperability 28

29. More specifically 29

30. ASPECT will be actively working with more than 200 leading European experts, professional and policy makers in Ministries of education... 30

31. ...as well as with pre-standardisation and standardisation bodies 31

32. Impact at least one IMS Specification 32

33. ASPECT is also committed to produce at least 33 • Two CEN Workshop AgreementTwo ENs created by TC353— Information and Communication Technologies for learning education and training

34. One of the main outcomes will be the creation of theASPECT Service Centre 34

35. LOR registry Vocabulary bank for education Application profile registry Automatic translation service for metadata Compliance testing Transformer service: turn metadata & vocabularies into another format Access to known interoperability issues Learning Technology Observatory 35 ASPECT Service Centre

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37. Information For Learning Object eXchange (ILOX) 37

38. FRBR Is an Example of Materialization 38

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40. Learning Object Copies 40

41. Issue 41 When I discover a learning resource (work or expression) I should be able to request a copy (item) in a given format (manifestation)

42. Manifestation Names & <Parameters> 42 Preview (will require best practice) Thumbnail of <Mime Type image/xxxx> Metadata in <URI of the schema> Experience (as rendered in my user interface – “remote play”) Package in <format>

43. 43 Indicators

44. 44 Indicators

45. 45 Indicators

46. 46 Indicators

47. How can you benefit fromASPECT? 47

48. Join the ASPECT community 48

49. Access ASPECT resources 49

50. Access ASPECT resources 50