THE CLASSIFICATION OF E-LEARNING

RESOURCES METADATA: A PROPOSAL

Alina Stasiecka

, Jacek Plodzien

, Ewa Stemposz

1,2

Institute of Computer Science, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Ordona 21, Warsaw, Poland

Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technologies, ul. Koszykowa 86, Warsaw, Poland

Keywords: Distance learning, e-learning resources, metadata, quality, reuse, SCORM.

Abstract: In the paper we present our proposal of identifying and classifying e-learning resources metadata. The

research is based on the analysis of the results of a special questionnaire that we have developed to evaluate

e-learning resources. During the analysis we identified and then categorized several items of information

that proved to be essential; we especially focused on the quality and the reuse potential (reusability).

We compared those information items with the definition of metadata in the SCORM 2004 standard to

find out which of them are new and which are already available in the standard. The main contribution of

the paper is the definition of the most important of our metadata categories: Didactics, Evaluation,

Reusability, Quality, and their elements. As we will show, a lot of the elements are new. In our opinion, they

could become a useful part of the SCORM standard.

1 INTRODUCTION

One of the main e-learning issues is, apart from

creating content, defining metadata for that content.

Such metadata are useful both for the learner (e.g.,

to get important information about a learning

resource before buying it and about technical

support when using it) and for the authors of e-

learning resources (to provide the learner with such

details). In consequence, metadata are a part of e-

learning standards, in particular the SCORM 2004

standard (ADLNET, 2004).

Despite, or rather because of, putting metadata

into SCORM and other standards, the issue is still

under research. In the paper we would like to present

our proposal of how to classify e-learning metadata.

The classification is based on the analysis of data

that we have collected with the help of a special

questionnaire – the questionnaire was filled out by

users of various e-learning resources. During the

analysis we identified, and then subdivided into

groups, several information items that proved to be

an essential part of their description. Those

groups/categories are the following: Basic

Specification, Didactics, Evaluation, Functionality,

Usability, Environment, Formal Requirements,

Reusability, and Quality. We also compared

elements of our groups with the metadata defined in

SCORM 2004 to find out which of them are new

and which are already available in the standard.

Due to space limit, in this paper we concentrate

only on the most important of our categories:

Didactics, Evaluation, Reusability, and Quality. The

remaining categories will be discussed in other

publications.

As we will show, a lot of the elements that we

have identified are new, that is, they do not exist in

the SCORM standard. Moreover, the other elements

are usually modified. In our opinion, both the new

and modified elements increase the usefulness of e-

learning resources metadata and therefore they

would be a useful part of the standard.

The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2

we discuss the main four categories. Some elements

of the other categories are presented in Section 3.

Section 4 concludes the paper and outlines some

ideas for our future work.

2 THE NEW METADATA

CATEGORIES

In this section we present in detail our four most

important new metadata categories and their

elements. In order to make the presentation as

readable as possible, the specification of each

332

Stasiecka A., Plodzien J. and Stemposz E. (2006).

THE CLASSIFICATION OF E-LEARNING RESOURCES METADATA: A PROPOSAL.

In Proceedings of WEBIST 2006 - Second International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Society, e-Business and

e-Government / e-Learning, pages 332-338

DOI: 10.5220/0001248403320338

 SciTePress

category has a table format; such a table has the

following columns:

• The Element column specifies the names of the

elements for a given category. Some elements are

parent elements (as in the SCORM standard) – in

such a case the column has a Child Element

subcolumn.

• The Description column has the textual

description of the elements.

• The Value Type column specifies the value type

for the elements. For some elements we use types

from the SCORM standard, for the others we

define our own types. If an element is a parent

element (has no value associated with it), then its

Value Type field is blank.

• The Mult column specifies the multiplicity

requirements for the elements.

• The SCORM Cat/El column specifies whether a

given element is a part of the SCORM standard.

If it is not, then the appropriate field of the

column has the “none” value. Otherwise, the

corresponding SCORM category/element is

specified. We use the dot notation

Category.element

.element

. ... .element

, where

element

denote subsequent elements and child

elements for the Category.

• The Weight column specifies the weights for the

elements. This column is defined only for the

table for the Quality category.

2.1 The Didactics Category

The Didactics category provides metadata for

describing the conformance of the structure of an e-

learning resource to the model of effective learning

(Allesi & Trollip, 2001). The model utilizes two

basic learning paradigms: knowledge delivering

(lecture-based learning) and knowledge creating

(problem-based learning); its basic idea is to give

equal importance to both of those paradigms. We

have applied this idea and developed a proposal for

the structure of a good e-learning resource; the

structure is presented in Figure 1.

level I

level II

Introduction Main content

Practical problems

Knowledge retaining

Knowledge transfer

Examples of applying new

knowledge in practice

Summary

Recapitulation

Indicating opportunities

for skills and knowledge

transfer to a new

context

Literature

Dictionary of key

concepts

Evaluation

Self-evaluation

Problem

questions

Feedback

Definition of

didactic objectives

Motivating the

learner to start

using the resource

Abstract and

indication of

key elements

Prerequisites

for the resource

Questionnaire(s)

about the resource

Figure 1: The structure of a resource conformant to the model of effective learning.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF E-LEARNING RESOURCES METADATA: A PROPOSAL

333

Element

Child Element

Description Value Type Mult SCORM

Cat/El

structure The conformance of the resource to

the model of effective learning

(based on the order and the

proportions between the didactic

components of level I and level II).

0 or 1 none

modelConfLevel_I The conformance to the model –

for level I.

{very good,

good, sufficient,

insufficient, no

conformance}

0 or 1 none

modelConfLevel_II The conformance to the model –

for level II.

{very good,

good, sufficient,

insufficient, no

conformance}

0 or 1 none

quality The quality of the didactic

components.

{very good,

good, sufficient,

insufficient}

0 or 1 none

learningParadigm The prevailing learning paradigm

used by the authors of the resource.

{lecture-based,

problem-based,

balanced}

0 or 1 none

learningTime The expected (by the author of the

resource) time that the learner

needs to work through the resource.

0 or 1 Educational.

typicalLearn

ingTime

effective The effective time (in hours). Duration Data

Type

0 or 1 none

continuous The time may include pauses (in

days).

Duration Data

Type

0 or 1 none

2.2 The Evaluation Category

The Evaluation category provides metadata for the

evaluation methods of:

• the results of the learning process (it concerns the

learner);

• the usefulness and quality of the resource itself.

WEBIST 2006 - E-LEARNING

334

Element

Child Element

Description Value Type Mult SCORM

Cat/El

selfEvaluation The tools supporting the learner’s

self-evaluation.

0 or 1 none

simulation The kinds of simulation

supporting the learner’s self-

evaluation.

{case studies, role

playing, games, guided

analysis}

0 or

none

drillAndPractice The kinds of questions supporting

the learner’s self-evaluation.

{one-choice questions,

multiple-choice

questions, matching,

jigsaw puzzles, open

questions}

0 or

none

problemQuestion The questions for the conceptual

context of group problem-solving.

0 or 1 none

solving The questions for testing the

ability to solve the problems

discussed in the resource, but in a

new context.

{good quantity,

sufficient quantity,

insufficient quantity, no

questions}

0 or 1 none

isolating The questions for testing the

ability to isolate the characteristics

of the beginning situation and of

the expected situation.

{good quantity,

sufficient quantity,

insufficient quantity,

no questions}

0 or 1 none

evaluating The questions for testing the

ability to evaluate the solutions

proposed by others.

{good quantity,

sufficient quantity,

insufficient quantity, no

questions}

0 or 1 none

substantiating The questions for testing the

ability to substantiate the solutions

of the problems.

{good quantity,

sufficient quantity,

insufficient quantity, no

questions}

0 or 1 none

questionsStrategy The strategy of choosing

questions.

{fixed sequence,

random, previous-

answers driven, mixed,

no questions}

0 or

none

feedback The existence of a feedback

mechanism.

0 or 1 none

corrAnswFeedback The existence of correct-answer

feedback.

{yes, no} 0 or 1 none

auxQuestFeedback The existence of auxiliary-

questions feedback.

{yes, no} 0 or 1 none

reporting The existence of evaluation

reporting.

{yes, no} 0 or 1 none

questionnaire The possibility to evaluate the

resource with the help of a

questionnaire (e.g., questions

about its quality).

{yes, no} 0 or 1 none

THE CLASSIFICATION OF E-LEARNING RESOURCES METADATA: A PROPOSAL

335

2.3 The Reusability Category

The Reusability category provides metadata for

describing the reuse potential of the resource, that is,

the possibility to use it to create another e-learning

resource.

Element

Child

Element

Description Value Type Mult SCORM

Cat/El

useContext The description of the context(s) in

which the resource can be used.

CharacterString Data

Type

0 or More none

relation Links to other resources related to the

resource.

Link Data Type *) 0 or More Relation

platform The platforms on which the resource

has been tested.

Platform Data Type *) 0 or More none

standard The information about the standard(s)

that the resource is conformant to.

0 or More none

name The name of the standard. CharacterString Data

Type

0 or 1 none

certificate The name of the certificate granted. CharacterString Data

Type

0 or 1 none

date The date on which the certificate was

granted.

DateTime Data Type 0 or 1 none

body The body that granted the certificate. CharacterString Data

Type

0 or 1 none

contactInfo The (author, technical support etc.)

contact information necessary to

use/reuse the resource.

{very good, good,

sufficient, insufficient}

0 or 1 none

reference The information on the

persons/institutions that recommend

the resource.

Reference Data Type *) 0 or More none

user The information on the

persons/institutions that have used or

are using the resource.

User Data Type *) 0 or More none

opinion A list of opinions about the resource

by its users.

Opinion Data Type *) 0 or More none

*) Our data type; to be defined.

2.4 The Quality Category

The Quality category provides metadata for

describing the quality of the resource.

Currently, the weight of each element

influencing the quality of the e-learning resource as

a whole is 1. We plan to perform new statistical

research on the data that we are collecting with a

new version of our questionnaire; one of the

objectives is to establish real values for the weights.

WEBIST 2006 - E-LEARNING

336

Element

Description Value Type Mult Weight SCORM

Cat/El

basicQuality The quality of the resource

with respect to the following

categories: Basic

Specification, Didactics,

Evaluation, Functionality,

Usability, Environment,

Formal Requirements,

Reusability.

{very good, good,

sufficient,

insufficient}

0 or 1 1 none

searchSupport The support to find

information on the resource

with the help of the resource’s

key words and classification

(the metadata describing the

resource’s keywords and

classification are part of the

Basic Specification category).

{very good, good,

sufficient,

insufficient}

0 or 1 1 none

userSatisfaction The average satisfaction level

of the previous users of the

resource.

{very satisfied,

satisfied,

dissatisfied, very

dissatisfied}

0 or 1 1 none

expertAppraisal The information on the expert

appraisal of the resource by

independent experts and/or

authorizing bodies.

ExpertAppraisal

Data Type *)

0 or

1 none

patternConformance The conformance degree of

the resource to the pattern

resource, that is, to the

resource where the quality of

the resource with respect to

our eight categories (from

Basic Specification to

Reusability) is considered to

be optimal. This element is a

derived one.

{very high, high,

low, very low}

0 or 1 1 none

*) Our data type; to be defined.

3 THE OTHER METADATA