D7.1.2

=Metadata is provided for all e-learning resources. =

Evidence
Finding resources using the internet should be made easy. This can be aided by developing metadata standards for discovery across domains, by defining frameworks for interoperability, and by facilitating the development of community specific metadata sets that are consistent with this (Bianco et al. 2004, Klemke et al. 2010).

The reuse and sharing of learning objects relies on the ability to store and retrieve them effectively. To achieve this, the object’s description – learning object metadata (LOM) – and content packaging (CP) specifications must be accurately documented. Although this information is extensive and agreement on its formulation is still to be reached, it will provide capability for learning objects to be not only stored and retrieved with ease but also manipulated by software such as authoring systems.

Resources
Evidence of capability in this practice is seen through the creation and use of metadata standards and templates along with repositories for storing and accessing course resources for reuse.

There are different approaches to metadata. Given that most reuse is going to be intra-institutional then simple metadata and a simple database can be used. This reduces time taken to develop learning resources while still recording sufficient metadata for within institution reuse (Wright et al. 2009).

There is also a large metadata initiative: Dublin Core dedicated to promoting the adoption of interoperable metadata standards. Dublin Core Metadata defines 15 optional elements to describe digital materials on the web: Title, creator, subject, description, publisher, contributor, date, type, format, identifier, source, language, relation, coverage, rights. http://dublincore.org/schemas/