Learning Technology Standar d s Observatory

Learning Technology Standards Observatory Luis Anido-Rifón Grupo de Ingeniería de Sistemas Telemáticos (GIST) University of Vigo

Contents • Project Team • Introduction • Support for a Dynamic Observatory • A Multilingual Observatory • Roles involved • Interoperability • Additional Functionality • Population • Technical support • Hosting • CWA • Timeline

The Project Team • PT leader: Luis Anido-Rifón • PT members: • Manuel Fernández-Iglesias • Martín Llamas-Nistal • Manuel Caeiro-Rodríguez • Judith Rodríguez-Estévez • Juan Santos-Gago • Fernando A. Mikic • Luis Álvarez-Sabucedo Grupo de Ingeniería de Sistemas Telemáticos ETSI Telecomunicación University of Vigo

Introduction • The output of this work will be • A dynamic Observatory for Learning Technology Standards • A set of administration tools to manage the entire web site. • Different lingual versions of the observatory may be provided as a result of this work. • Further population will be based on administration tools with restricted permissions over the observatory data.

Support for a Dynamic Observatory • Structure and contents will be dynamic. • Structure will consist on a tree composed of a three-level category system and a fourth level for contents • Each node in the first three levels will have a page linked to it. • The fourth level will have as many pages linked as desired.

Support for a Dynamic Observatory (ii) • To create and fill the repository administrators will follow a three-step procedure: • Create the structure • Create contents (www pages) • Bind contents to nodes in the structure • The whole process will be supported by a Web-based authoring tool.

Generating a dynamic structure. Example

Generating a dynamic strucutre. Example

Generating a dynamic strucuture. Example

Generating a dynamic structure. • Administration tools will allow to: • Create a node in the structure • Rename • Enable/Disable (visible / not visible) • Delete

Generating dynamic contents • Contents are supported by two main components: • Pages: containers for information • Elements: media elements to be included in pages • Pages  SCO • Elements  assets

Generating dynamic contents. Elements (i) • Authoring tools provided will facilitate the creation of the following types of elements to be included in pages: • Paragrahps • Text + Images • Hyperlinks • Enumerates • Itemizes

Generating dynamic contents. Elements (ii) • Advanced elements will support to directly introduce HTML code in a page. In this way, other multimedia elements not included in the pre-defined elements can be used in the observatory. • A tool to upload embedded objects will be provided.

Generating dynamic contents.

Generating dynamic contents (ii) • Pages may be annotated with keywords and areas (selected from a pre-defined set of areas of interest for the observatory). This information will be used by an internal search engine to help users to locate contents in the observatory.

Generating dynamic contents (iii) • Example: A page containing a description on LOM draft 4.0 may be annotated as follows: • Keywords: LOM, previous versions • Areas: Educational Metadata • The set of areas of interest will be dynamic (add a new area, remove, etc.)

So far, we have a container structure and a pool of pages with contents. The last step is to bind a page from the pool to a node in the structure. Binding contents and structure (i)

Binding contents and structure (ii) • This binding is implemented through a simple UI where users just need to match the element of the structure with the page already created in the previous step. • This binding can be modified, removed or created at any time using the authoring tool. • The same page may be bind to two or more nodes in the structure

Binding contents and structure

Index • Project Team • Introduction • Support for a Dynamic Observatory • A Multilingual Observatory • Roles involved • Interoperability • Additional Functionality • Population • Technical support • Hosting • CWA • Timeline

Multilinguality (i) • Different views of the observatory (structure+contents) may exist. One instance per EU language is possible. • Each lingual view of the repository will be managed by a concrete administrator responsible for the development and maintenance of its contents. • Different lingual versions may have different contents and structure. • The same individual may be responsible for more than one lingual version of the repository.

Multilinguality (ii) • Different language versions may be completely different. Actual contents depend on those responsible for filling it; for example, User20 is responsible for the observatory in German, …

Multilinguality (iii) • While User21 is responsible for the observatory in English

Multilinguality (iv) • Interface towards standards observers will be automatically updated according to the information provided by administrators. Therefore, support for the whole set of EU languages will be automatically provided. • Nevertheless, some pre-defined labels are fixed (e.g. the word “news” to access the news system). Help from the WS will be required to translate them to the whole set of EU languages. • The interface for administration and authoring tools will be developed in English.

Roles involved • There are four different roles involved: • Standards observers. • Administrators: • General administrator • Observatory administrator • Local administrator

Roles involved: Local administrator (i) • Responsible for managing the structure and the contents below three-level nodes • They define subcategories below the second-level nodes. • They produce pages to be used in the third and fourth levels.

Roles involved: Local administrator (ii)

Roles involved: Local administrator (iii) • The same local administrator may be responsible for different categories in different lingual versions of the observatory

Roles involved: Local administrator (iv) For example, user2 may be responsible for entering and maintaining information on IEEE LTSC, LOM and PAPI in English and French and IMS consortium, LIP and SCORM in Spanish, while user 3 may be responsible for AICC and CMI in English, French and Spanish and IEEE LTSC, LOM and LIP in Italian.

Roles involved: Observatory administrator (i) • Responsible for the dynamic development of the main structure of the Web site. • Responsible for one or more lingual views of the observatory. • He will also be allowed to act as local administrator in the lingual versions he is responsible for

Roles involved: Observatory administrator (ii) • At least, the observatory administrator would create a first level category for “standardization bodies” (with each body appearing as a second level category below it, e.g. LTSC, IMS, ADL, etc.) and for each standardization category or area (e.g. metadata, learner profiles, runtimes, packaging, etc.).

Roles involved: General administrator • Responsible for managing observatory administrators and local administrators (e.g. definition of new users, assignation of responsibilities). • The general administrator will have complete access to the different lingual versions of the repository available.

Roles involved

Interoperability (i) • In addition to the previously presented dynamic information system, administrators will have the possibility to enter metadata about the different standards present in the repository. • For this, the PT will define a conceptual model and a binding to XML for describing e-learning standards and e-learning standardization bodies.

Interoperability (ii) • Administrators with the correct permissions will be allowed to fill a metadata record to be binded to a page. • Publication needs approval by the observatory administrator. • This record will be used to generate the corresponding XML file.

Interoperability (iii) • Metadata about e-learning standards (conceptual model): • Name: LOM • Version: 1.0 • Date: June 2002 • Area: Educational Metadata • Institution: IEEE LTSC • Editor: Erik Duval • Locator: http://ltsc.ieee.org/ • Summary: This standard defines ….

Interoperability (iv) • Binding to XML <standard> <name>LOM</name> <version>1.0</version> <date>June 2002</date> <area>Educational Metadata</area> <institution>IEEE LTSC</institution> <editor>Erik Duval</editor> <locator>http://ltsc.ieee.org/</locator> <summary>This standard defines…</summary> </standard>

Interoperability (v) • The main page of the observatory will provide a link to those available downloable “metadata” files about the standards in the observatory • Although this data may also be displayed to standards observers, the main aim is to provide a mechanism to transfer information to other e-learning standards observatory/portals.

Additional Functionality (i) • Open discussion forum • News: administrators will be able to define news which will be displayed in the Observatory.

Additional Functionality (ii) • Events. administrators will be allowed to publicize events related to the learning technology standardization process. Initial data for an event will be the same as provided for a page in the observatory main structure. The home page of the observatory will include an events display area where they will be shown according to the event dates. Past events will be automatically deleted from this area.

Additional Functionality (iii) • Events calendar. Using this information, a calendar with the information about events will be displayed to users. • News and events letter bulletin. Using data from news and events, the repository will create a monthly bulleting including news published and events celebrated during that month. This bulleting will be created in PDF

Additional Functionality (iv) • Notification mechanism. There will be a notification mechanism to allow users to subscribe to the news and/or events information system. News and information on events will be sent by e-mail.

Additional Functionality (v) • Standards producers agenda. An agenda will be developed to provide access and contact information for those individuals actively involved in the learning technology standardization process. Approval for being included in the agenda will be granted by the general administrator.

Additional Functionality (vi) • Internal search engine. To locate information on standards or standardization bodies. This engine will use keywords and areas marked when contents are annotated.

Learning Technology Standar d s Observatory