Colin Knight, Dragan Gašević, and Griff RichardsLaboratory for Ontological Research
School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University Surrey
Canada{cjk2, dgasevic, griff}@sfu.ca
Ontologies to integrate learning design and learning content
Presentation for the UNFOLD/PROLEARN Workshop, September 22-23, 2005
Outline• Contexts• Reusing learning content• Repurposing learning designs• Using ontologies• LOCO and LOCO-Cite ontologies overview• Use cases and examples• Future work
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
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
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
ALOCoM Ontology represented graphically
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
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 Objects Learning Designs
Learning Object Context
Instructional Contexts Domain
LO1
LOM Metadata
SCORM Metadata
LO2
LOM Metadata
SCORM Metadata
LO3
LOM Metadata
SCORM Metadata
Learning Design
Method1
Play1
Act1
Activity1Activity2
RolePart1RolePart2
Environment1Environment2
Role1Role2
LOC2
Competency1
Competency2
LOC4
Competency5
competency6
LOC5
Competency3
competency4
Created by instructional
designers and educators
using Reload, CopperAuthor,
etc
Created automatically
by a loco-compliant
learning design editor
Created by educators and
multimedia content
authors using a variety of tools
for digital content creation
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
Graphical representation of LOCO-ontology
An example learning object for content disaggregation
Disaggregated content
Disaggregated content integrated into a learning design
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)
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
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
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