Metadata Moodle

Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
Number of replies: 53
As Helen Foster told me in Metadata discussion, I'm going to start this thread to know the preferences of the community in metadata question. We are developing a metadata tool based in LOM standar and XML. We are attaching the metadata to courses in the firsts steps, but in future development, we want to adapt it to all activities and resources.

There are a few things that we must discuss with the community. For instance, we need to know the minimum set of LOM that Moodle need, what we call MoodleCore. Our proposition is the next:

1 General

1.2 Title.
1.3 CatalogEntry
1.4 Language
1.5 Description

2 LifeCycle

2.1 Version
2.5 Contribute (at least one author)

3 MetaMetaData

3.4 MetadataSchema
3.5 Language

4 Technical

4.1 Format
4.3 Location (URL)


5 Educational

5.6 LearningContext
5.7 TypicalAgeRange
5.8 Difficulty

6 Rights

6.1 Cost
6.2 Copyright and Other Restriction
6.3 Description

9 Classification
9.1 Purpose
9.2 Taxon Path


Another thing we need to know is if there is any paralel development in course, we don't want to duplicate the community efforts. In a few weeks, we are going to open our tool to let people test it. The features we consider are:

  • Metadata profiles
  • Search by metadata
  • XML - LOM metadata file
  • Insertion and edition of metadata
  • Licenses with metadata (not in the next version)

Please, if someone is developing some similar, please tell us.

Thanks

P.S: sorry for my awful english, my spanish is a little bit better smile


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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Vitor Gonçalves -

Hi Filipe,

I expect everyone understand my English

As you know and as I said in my last message in the thread http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=46329 , I'm interesting in apply metadata to Moodle. Thus, I will have all the interest in testing your tool.

While yours tool will not be available and if I will have the time, I will try to finish a simple generator of metadata for activities PHP module for insert/edit metadata with a simple class MySQL2XML (The set of records of the activities metadata can be use to generate the metadata for the course (but Im not sure) or complement the metadata of the course).

Beyond LOM, Im using also Dublin Core metadata. I think its better let the teacher choice the standard and the number of elements (Simple DC, Qualified DC, DC in RDF, DC with some IMS-LOM (http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/dcassist/) or IMS-LOM(IEEE) or Simple IMS-LOM) But this certainly implies more complexity for the tool.

However, its good idea define the minimum set of LOM that Moodle need (like in DC metadata, I call it Simple IMS-LOM for beginners smile). In my Simple IMS-LOM I gave more importance to the Educational category. Therefore, I added all the elements of the Educational category, except Language. I also added: installationRemarks(requirement) in Technical category; Kind and catalogEntry in Relation category (at least one: isPartOf catalogEntry -> URI of course) and keyword in Classification Category. Its only my opinion.

Good Work I go to wait anxious for yours tool wink

Best regards

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In reply to Vitor Gonçalves

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Vitor Gonçalves -

Another thing:

I assume that the set of LOM elements that you refer is based on Working Draft v6.1, isn't it? It is not better use the sequency and elements of the Final Draft LOMv1.0?

Thanks

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In reply to Vitor Gonçalves

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Vitor Gonçalves -

Hi!
Sorry the confusion...
The LOM elements that you refer is based on IMS-LRM v1.2.2 (that is based on IEEE-LOM Draft v6.1)... Correct?
But, I think it's better add also the changes described in IMS-LRM v1.3 ( where the IMS LRM Information Model v1.2.2 Public Draft is realigned with the IEEE 1484.12.1 - 2002 Learning Object Metadata).

I'm correct, now?

Best Regards

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In reply to Vitor Gonçalves

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
Hi again

We are using LOM  IEEE 1484.12.1 - 2002, but there are few diferences with the previous draft. The XML binding that we are following is IEEE P1484.12.3/D2. Our motivation to propose that fields are quite simple: There must be a small set of metadata that should be filled in every installation of moodle. One course with this metadata is quite well described, although more metadata can give us more information for this course.

Of course you can add the metadata you want, we have metadata profile tool where you, as administrator of an installation of moodle, can set the group of fields that will be shown to the teachers of the platform, to fill them.

Our question is oriented to why one field has to form part of the minimum set of fields of moodle (moodlecore) and which one.

Sorry again for my English :) and thanks for your interest Vitor
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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Olivier CATTEAU -

Hi Felipe,

So you want to define the LOM application profile for Moodle courses (MoodleCore).

Im interested with your work. We will be able to search courses by metadata. Maybe we will export courses with metadata, so we will reuse the courses between moodle platforms.
And why not dreaming: the birth of a Learning Object Repository (LOR) such as MERLOT with Moodle courses exported.
But I wonder for the interoperability with other platforms. In this case, a Learning Object reFeratory (LOF) is more interesting than a LOR.

Lets come back to your work.

Some data elements can be extracted from the moodle database. Other elements are implicit.

Here are some comments for each data element of the LOM.

1.1.1 General.Idetifier.Catalog
1.1.2 General.Identifier.Entry
These data elements are implicit if you use an URI

1.2 General.Title
The value of this data element can be found in the moodle database.

1.3 General.Language
This data element is necessary but Im afraid you have to ask the author for it.

1.4 General.Description
The value of this data element can be found in the moodle database. But be careful the value in the database can be HTML-coded

1.5 General.Keyword
This element is important. Why do you ignore it?

1.6 General.Coverage
I think you can ignore it.

1.7 General.Structure
This element is implicit. I think that networked best suits a moodle course.

1.8 General.AggregationLevel
This element is implicit. We can use the value 3.

2.1 LifeCycle.Version
This data element is necessary but Im afraid you have to ask the author for it.

2.2 LifeCycle.Status
Why do you ignore this element?
I think it would be useful for a student searching for a course to know if the status of this course is draft, final, revised or unavailable.

2.3 LifeCycle.Contribute
at least one author -> Yes youre right!
In this case, 2.3.1 LifeCycle.Contribute.Role is implicit = author.
But you have to ask for 2.3.2 LifeCycle.Contribute.Entity element because the author can be different from the teacher stored in the moodle database.
Do you plan to use 2.3.3 LifeCycle.Date?

3.1 Meta-metadata.Identifier is implicit if you use an URI.

3.2 Meta-metadata.Contribute.
Most of application profiles use this element. You can easily know the user filling in the metadata.

3.3 Meta-metadata.MetadataSchema
Its implicit -> MoodleCore v1.0

3.4 Meta-metadata.Language
Same as 1.3

4.1 Technical.Format
What MIME type do you expect for a moodle course? grand sourire

4.2 Technical.Size
Maybe this element can be calculated.

4.3 Technical.Location
Ok for the URL

4.4 Technical.Requirement
4.5 Technical.InstallationRemarks
4.6 Technical.OtherPlatformRequirements
As Moodle can be used with most of Internet browsers, you can ignore these elements.

4.7 Technical.Duration
A moodle course is not a sound or a movie. You can ignore this element.

5.1 Educational.InteractivityType
A moodle course has a mixed interactivity type.

5.2 Educational.LearningResourceType
This element can be ignored. It doesnt fit with a moodle course.

5.3 Educational.Interactivity Level
With the social constructionist epistemology of teaching and learning, Im afraid we must use very high smile

5.4 Educational.SemanticDensity
Ok to ignore it.

5.5 Educational.IntendedEndUserRole
learner of course!

5.6 Educational.Context
The LOM value space is really poor for this element. We will have to define other vocabulary elements.

5.7 Educational.TypicalAgeRange
Ask the author

5.8 Educational.Difficulty
Is it useful in a social constructionist context?

5.9 Educational.TypicalLearningTime
5.10 Educational.Description
5.11 Educational.Language
Ok to ignore these elements.

6 Rigths category
Ok to ask the user to fill in these elements.

Why do you ignore the category 7. Relation?
It can be useful to tell the student that another course is required by the course he wants to study.

Ok to ignore the 8 Annotation category.

How will you use the 9 Classification category?

Best regards.

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In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
Hi Olivier.

First of all thank you very much for your post. It is very useful for us. It seems to be that you have a lot of knowledge about moodle and LOM. It's great, because we need to know examples of use of LOM, and sometimes we have  not a clear idea of how LOM it's used.

One of our ideas is to create a repository of moodle courses, but this is a little far from now. I coment you somethings about your post:

"1.1.1 General.Idetifier.Catalog
1.1.2 General.Identifier.Entry
These data elements are implicit if you use an URI"

In our propose, we consider it. What we didn't know was that we could use uri as catalog. This is going to be very useful, thank you again. We try to fill the fields automatically from moodle database as much as possible, and your post is quite interesting at this level.

The fields we consider as  MOODLECORE are only a few of LOM. We shouldn't add all  mainly because the user or the teacher that have to fill them may reject after seen the 58 fields more or less that compose LOM. Of course all this fields are important, but is not important to the moodle core profile. I mean that the administrator of the installation of moodle can add more fields than moodle core, there is a tool for this. The maximum you can add now is the complete LOM, so we didn't ignore any cathegory at all. Only we have to know which are the fields more importans of LOM for a course in moodle, to stablish a minimum set of metadata shared by all moodles smile

We wish that to the end of this week, or the begining of the next, we will open our tool to test it by the users and to receive feed back from the community to improve the metadata module in moodle.

Thank you again and we hope you help us as we hope the help of the moodle community

smile


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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Olivier CATTEAU -

Hi Felipe,

It’s sure you don’t have to ask the user to fill in all the MoodleCore data elements.
Most of them are already stored in the moodle database or are implicit.
I think that you have to ask the user to fill in those elements:
1.3 General.Language
1.5 General.Keyword
2.1 LifeCycle.Version
2.2 LifeCycle.Status
2.3.2 LifeCycle.Contribute.Entity for the author
5.6 Educational.Context
5.7 Educational.TypicalAgeRange
Elements of the 6 Rigths category

Why do you ignore the category 7. Relation?
It can be useful to tell the student that another course is required by the course he wants to study.

How will you use the 9 Classification category?

Cheers

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In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
"Its sure you dont have to ask the user to fill in all the MoodleCore data elements.
Most of them are already stored in the moodle database or are implicit.
I think that you have to ask the user to fill in those elements:
1.3 General.Language
1.5 General.Keyword
2.1 LifeCycle.Version
2.2 LifeCycle.Status
2.3.2 LifeCycle.Contribute.Entity for the author
5.6 Educational.Context
5.7 Educational.TypicalAgeRange
Elements of the 6 Rigths category"

I know that most of this data are stored in database, but that I mean is what metadata should are part of MoodleCore Profile. This is what I want to discuss with the community.

"Why do you ignore the category 7. Relation?
It can be useful to tell the student that another course is required by the course he wants to study."

That's because in MoodleCore profile we should add only the most important fields of LOM. I'm not saying that relation cathegory or Annotation are not important, but if we have to choose only a few metadata for the MoodleCore profile (and we have to), this are less important than other in our opinion. This is what we want to discuss.

"How will you use the 9 Classification category?"

Here you can see an example, but I'm not sure what your asking for :S :

9. Clasification

9.2 taxon path


9.2.1 Source

(es-ES, ARIADNE)(1)
(en-GB, UNESCO)(2)

9.2.2 Taxon


9.2.2.1 Identifier



9.2.2.2 Entry



BF1234A (1)

423-323-443Y (2)
123-22F-112X (2)


(es-ES, Veterinaria)(1)

(en-GB, Biology)(2)
(en-GB, Microbiology)(2)


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In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Vitor Gonçalves -

Hi Filipe and Olivier,

I have read your interesting posts... In the last few days I made an effort for correcting the biggest problems of a very simple application (Metadata Generator) that could suport some topics in our discussion... but this simple tool it is very far from an integration with Moodle...

Im a bad programmer, so dont expect great results :-|

The tool is available at http://www.vgportal.ipb.pt/metagen/

In the first page > In combo box select one of the types of specification (or click button Ir para (go to)).
If you want, you can add a new resource, but not in the form that appear For add a new register click Novo Recurso button in the bottom of the form.
After: you can see the xml (simple conversion mysqldata to xml)
If you add a register, click the Gerar metadados button to generate metadata.
And finally you can see the file: click in the Ver metadados button to see the dc metadata in XML. I expect that the metadata files are conforms to the specification that you select.

I think the the features implemented are corrected, but Im not sure for instance: Are incorrect appearing empty fields in the metadata file (</element>)?

I tried that the generation of metadata was conform to the specifications, but in this simple version I cannot guarantee that...
- Some tags maybe aren't correctly or in the right sequence (especially in Qualified DC in RDF/XML);
- Some features are not totally implemented (e.g. maximum number of tags was not defined);
- I have limited unconsciously the production of metadata;
- The metadata files generated have more than one resource, but it is intentional.
I think for some resources and activities for moodle, I have to investigate the better solution for more than one resource for metadata file...

I hope you have time to see if this application can be improved or if is useful for anything... smile

Regards

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In reply to Vitor Gonçalves

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
We have seen your tool, and just want to give you some of our points of view.

First, at least in LOM IEEE, you can validate your XML through the XSD of LOM (follow this link), so you can proof your xml code smile

Second, you have to see that in standar of LOM has aggregate elements and multivalued cathecories, and in your implementation only have one field for element/cathegory. We have not consider it in first station of developement, but is something to keep in mind.

The type of data is also something important and i think that you forgot it. Maybe in this early tool didn't think on it, but there is some types of data, CharacterString, LangString, Duration,... and seems to be that all are CharacterString in your tool. smile

This tool is quite well, and maybe we can use it to proof our developements

Regards
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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Vitor Gonçalves -

First of all, thanks for your rapid reply...

1-  For this test, I thought that it was enough to have a namespace link of the XML (I will see carefully the link that you sent me, because I didn't undertand this very well).

2- Yes, I only have one field... But, it is possible have more than one element by typing "; " (;+space). Sorry, I forgot to say this... (I think it works fine for every field/element, but...).

3- Some important features have not been implemented yet because I'm confused with some aspects of specification... And for some types of data I used values predefined (e.g. IMS-LRM uses langstring and IMS-LOM uses string language) smile

4- I forgot change localhost to the name of the server... But now is ok... you can add registers smile

5- This is far from what I want, so the addition of some characters maybe generate invalid LOM :-|

I will try to improve it wink

Best regards

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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Mauricio Munera -

 Hi,

I'm very interested on this topic, I'm working adding language teaching  metadata to questions in the quiz module, now I finish with the customization of the quiz module, and you can add metadata to questions and make queries based on this metadata  the edit quiz page.

If you are interested about this just reply and I can send to you more information.

Mauro.

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In reply to Mauricio Munera

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
Really interesting, Mauricio. In our road map we want to expand this metadata to all activities, so it will be great if we could test the funcionality of your tool. We have now the basic support for courses, but maybe in other activities the metadata should be treated in diferent way.

We hope to open our metadata moodle to community to test it this week, so we'll need all the help and feedback you can give us.

Thanks
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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Mauricio Munera -

Hola Felipe,

From before we were thinking about use the IEEE LOM for the questios metadata, but at last we decided to use our usefull metadata for language teaching, so now, we have something working, maybe it's not something super wuao, but i hope that you like that. In fact we modified the quiz module to add some other funcionality.

here you can try the funcionaloty:

http://interaktivspansk.uib.no
username:profesor
paswd:profesor

Go to the TEST course, and then go to "ingresar preguntas con metadatos" and then go to "edit quiz" tab. the you can see close to each question in the questions list a new icon that looks like a 'M' if you click there you can see more or less, also, you can see the searching feature in th end of the edit quiz page.

The next imagen can help you a bit.

I hope your feed back.

I have some other documents in spanish that explain this work better but i can't share those documents now couse in part of my tesis and they are not finish. But we can talk about that.

Can I see your work?

Grettings!

Attachment metadataprocessmoodle.JPG
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In reply to Mauricio Munera

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
Hola Mauricio!

This is a really nice job, I have test it and It seems to be quite useful for your use case. We want to do something like that, but for all activities and resources. This means that all metadata have to use the same schema, and this is the reason for using LOM. I'm quite sure that your tool could be written following LOM schema, and with the same information stored in the database.
We want to treat all the resources more or less the same way, so we want to extend this tool to all other activities. If we can do that, we will be able to build a repository of learning objects, and we will search on it by the metadata of LOM. But this is a far away future, the tool we are working on insert only the courses metadata.

If you want we can discuss about the documents of your tesis if you are interested on it, the spanish is my language smile (I think it's clear when someone read the posts I wrote)

The alpha version of our tool will be available this week, so if you follow this thread, you are going to be one of the firsts that test it.

Of course, the user interface is not as pretty as yours, but the yours gives us ideas to get a good UI to our tool. I am writting too an user manual for our tool, quite simple and in Spanish, so when we make available the tool, you can take advantage of this to test the metadata system.

Greetings
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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Mauricio Munera -

Hi felipe,

Wuao, It's increible, the thing that you are planing is something that i was thinking to start to develop but I was looking for some project or something how support me a bit in this questions, I have some ideas about it, Now I'm working in a project in Bergen - Norway to teaching spanish, but in 1 july i will come back home in Colombia to finish some course and get my degree, What are you doing or where you work, cos I think that this can be the start of a great team to buil the Metadata repository for moodle.

What you think?

my msn is: mauricio.munera@gmail.com or my skype user is: mmunera

Greetings!

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In reply to Mauricio Munera

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
Sure we can work together! I hope I can write some documentation in english before we open the metadata tool (although it's quite simple). We had liked very much the UI of your metadata for quizzes, so we will be happy if you help us with our user interface.

I guest that tomorrow I will finish the english manual and publish the web of our testing tool.

Although I'm writting here, do not forget that i'm not the only one working in this project. In fact, Moisés Carretero and Roberto Rodríguez are working on the project too.

We can't use msn or skype in our job, so it will be better if we use the e-mail. felipepl@unex.es is mine smile

thanks for your interest
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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Mauricio Munera -

Ok, that's great,

Ok Felipe, I think that the forum posting is very good tool, but it will be perfect if we can make a real time chat or audio conference, betwen all the people that are interested in work on this topic, the we can be in the same page, and we can thinking wich is the way to follow, or for example just to be update with the project.

I propouse to use sKype, gmail or msn, but you told me that you can use msn, so maybe Skype or gmail talk, in gmail talk you don't need to install nothing just going to the inbox of gmail you can open a chat in the web page.

I can help with the interface, My is not than good but if you consider that I can help of course I will, just tell me where could to see the aplication.

Greetings!!

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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Olivier CATTEAU -

Hi everybody,

Ive finished the definition of MoodleCore Base Schema.
Please have a look at
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Metadata:MoodleCore
and send me feedbacks about the choices I made
in the column "Use in MoodleCore".

At this time, the base schema only concerns Moodle courses.

Regards.

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In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Vitor Gonçalves -

Hi Olivier,

A few days ago I did make something similar for resources and activities… and I had commented the idea's Filipe for the course metadata core… Your work is more complete and we can interchange impressions and collaborate… Great job!

Comparing with my draft, but thinking in courses, my doubts are:

General:
Structure
Is necessary to ask the user (teacher) which the structure of the course? This element can be added by default

Aggregation Level
- I think this can be optional
- For a course, in the perspective of the end user the Aggregation Level may be “2”, can’t it?

LifeCycle and Meta-Metadata
Contribute – Role
Contribute – Entity
Is necessary to ask the user (teacher) his information? This element can be added by default, when the teacher will be associated with the course

Technical
Size (maybe optional)

Educational
I think all the elements may be present (even if optional), except “Learning Resource Type”

Relation
Kind and resource (In case of courses, I think this can be optional… Because of this you put Relation category as optional. Correct?)

Classification
I have a doubt in this category! The classification can be a very good category of index course (like indexing books)… Perhaps if this category will be required, is not bad idea! What you think?

Finally, this is only my opinion smile

Kind Regards

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In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
Nice job, Olivier. So the discussion is on the table. we are considering the opinion of Vitor and we are studying this profile moodlecore and wich metatada is going to be part of it. We did a proposition, but we can change it if we are all agree smile

It's great work together.

Regards!
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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Olivier CATTEAU -

Hi Felipe and Vitor,

We need the advice of everybody to define the MoodleCore.
So thanks for your feedbacks.

Here are some comments about Vitor post.

General:
Structure
Is necessary to ask the user (teacher) which the structure of the course? This element can be added by default

Yes, many data elements can be filled in by default. Here, I suggest “collection” for Topics format and Weekly format, “hierarchical” for Social format


Aggregation Level
- I think this can be optional
- For a course, in the perspective of the end user the Aggregation Level may be 2, can’t it?

If you look at the IEEE final draft, you will see that for a course the aggregation level is 3. This element can be filled in by default.
When the aggregation level is 2, it matches with a lesson.

LifeCycle and Meta-Metadata
Contribute  Role
Contribute  Entity
Is necessary to ask the user (teacher) his information? This element can be added by default, when the teacher will be associated with the course

No, you can be the author of a course and ask somebody else to be the teacher.
It should be useful that the author would be a Moodle user ;)

Technical
Size (maybe optional)

Why? It’s a calculated element.

Educational
I think all the elements may be present (even if optional), except Learning Resource Type

OK but semantic density is hard to understand I think


Relation
Kind and resource (In case of courses, I think this can be optional Because of this you put Relation category as optional. Correct?)

The relation category is optional. But when you want to add a relation you have to fill in the data elements. That’s why they are mandatory.

Classification
I have a doubt in this category! The classification can be a very good category of index course (like indexing books) Perhaps if this category will be required, is not bad idea! What you think?

Do you think that all the teachers (or authors) will fill in this element when they want to create a new course? I’m not sure…
I suggest “optional but recommended”

I will modify the documentation page
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Metadata:MoodleCore
but at this time I can’t log in and I don’t know why…


Thanks again for your help.
The discussion is still open.

Cheers

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In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Olivier CATTEAU -
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Metadata:MoodleCore has been modified.
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In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos - 
Moved for the happyness of the begining of the Spanish football team in 
the FIFA world championship, we want to notify to everybody that we have
opened for testing our moodle metadata tool. This tool is available in:

http://sntrv-des.unex.es/metamoodleuex

Login htacces: invitado
Password htacces: invitado

login as moodle administrator: admin
pasword of moodle administrador: everybody

So you can probe it and please give us feedback!  ;-) 
We are finishing a brief user manual to guide the proofs. It will be
ready in english soon (spanish version now available).

Before starting the proofs, keep in mind that it is not a final version
at all!!!. There are some issues currently in development and to be
released in a short period of time. These are the main features:

*Metadata Search: You can find courses by its metadata. By now, we are
only using four fields in the searching: keyword, title, author and
language. But the admin will be able to choose the fields for the search
in the future. The logic operator used by the search is OR (customizable
soon).

*Profile Management: A metadata profile is a subset of LOM. They can
help users to manage their metadata. We have defined a minimun subset
called moodlecore profile. That profile is always present and can not be
removed. Administrators can create new profiles as extensions of
moodlecore. The first step to create a profile is to fill the name of
the profile 
(required). The profile name must be unique and "moodlecore" is
reserved. 

*XML: The XML generated is 100% LOM compliant. In future versions we
will use this XML for restoring the course metadata. We also consider
the posibility of serializing to RDF.


*Metadata creation: When you create a new course you can also specify
its metadata. A subset of metadata will be filled automatically from
moodle database.

The user interface needs a lot of work. Sorry for the
inconveniences.  :-) 

Following the LOM specification, some fields can be multivalued and the
langString type can have various values in diferent languages. In this
first version we only allow to insert three 
values for each multivalued metadata element, and three values for the
LangString type. These restrictions will disappeared soon.

*Metadata Edition: You can also modify the metadata values of your
courses. The process is similar to creation but, in this case, there is
no autofilled fields. 

An overview of our roadmap would be:

  0. Cutomizable fields for metadata search. Import/export metadata
profiles.
  1. Extend the support of metadata to other resources and activities. 
Now it's only available for courses
  2. Forms validation
  3. Metadata Import.
  4. Use a taxonomy.
  5. Give to moodle the funcionality of learning object repository

We want to thank Eloy Lafuente (stronk7) for his time and his witty
opinions.

Thanks for your feedback! B-)

The metadata team of the University of Extremadura (Moisés Carretero, 
Roberto Rodríguez and me)
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Metadata:MoodleCore has been modified. I have added a default value column to indicate which of the values could be auto-filled.

thoughtful
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Olivier CATTEAU -

Hi Felipe,

You’ve made a great job. I will test your application when I will have time smile

I’ve just modified few things in the MoodleCore documentation (Column default value)
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Metadata:MoodleCore

1.7 the default value matches with course format chosen by the teacher.
1.8 the default value is 3
2.3.2 and 3.2.2 You can use teacher’s profile (not only the name)
3.1.2 it’s the URI of metadata, not the resource.
3.3 The metadata schema is a LOM application profile: MoodleCore v1.0
4.3  The URI of the resource
5.1 mixed
5.3 very high
5.5 learner
5.11 user default language
6.1 no
6.2 no
8.1 User’s profile
8.2 current date

I also think that the learning management system administrator should define default values for some data elements.
For example, 5.6 -> (“LOMv1.0”, “higher education”).
What do you think of that?

Regards.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Mauricio Munera -

Hi Oliver.

 

I have a propouse, sometimes to consider a Course like a Learning object is not the best Idea, cos a course is a Agregation in itself, Learning Object should be reffer to object with a one specific deal, but a course can have many objectives at the same time.

This is some metadata for agregations that I took from Scorm Best practices guide for content developers.

Greetings!!

Attachment agragationMetadata.JPG
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In reply to Mauricio Munera

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
Hi all

Just imagine that we want to have a repository of courses, for example, indexed by learning area. We need this metadata for this course to make that index. But it's true that a course is an aggregation in itself. At the moment, LOM doesn't support "Child Information", only has the cathegory relation (quite general in my opinion), so from my point of view,  the repository must have two levels:

*Full courses
*Activities and resources.

In this case, you can download one course with the full functionality, just for restore it in your moodle, or you can build one using the resources of the repository. Scorm considers a course just like an aggregation (I guest) but here we can't have a course inside another course.

It's not difficult to  dream on an repository like "courseforge.moodle.org" where you can download a free course (GFDL or CC licensed course) or even, cualify courses of the repository as "High Education Compliant", and the same for resources and activities...

Well, at the moment, this are our goals, but the firsts steps are extends a "moodlecore standar" metadata to all the learning objects of moodle.

Bye wink

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Mauricio Munera -

Hi Felipe,

Actually the education has become somewhat comercial, I'm tired of looking for tutorials or courses about something that I really need urgently and I almost always finish somewhere which is asking for my credit card number or asking for me to send an SMS in Spain to be able to access to a simple web page with the worst quality.

In fact I think that the Metadata information has to be short so that you don't get tired of filling all the fields of the form, it has to be only the most relevant information for searching, but definitivelythe metadata information has to be a standard like LOM v1.0 from IEEE, for example, or something similar that can establish standard protocols to share the resouces or agregations of resoucers(courses).

This could be the first step to start with a repository of courses with quality contents and I would like to join this team.

 

Greetings!!!

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mauricio Munera

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Mauricio Munera -

By the way I'm sorry for my english is really bad, I wrote late at night and I made many mistakes, Please forgive my english.   

Greetings!

 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mauricio Munera

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Olivier CATTEAU -

Hi Felipe and Mauricio,

LOM has a data element for aggregation level (1.8).
“1: the smallest level of aggregation, e.g., raw media data or fragments.
2: a collection of level 1 learning objects, e.g., a lesson.
3: a collection of level 2 learning objects, e.g., a course.
4: the largest level of granularity, e.g., a set of courses that lead to a certificate.
NOTE 1:--Level 4 objects can contain level 3 objects, or can recursively contain other level 4 objects.”

I suppose that Mauricio’s reaction is due to the reusability of learning objects.
The learning object reusability increases as the aggregation level decreases.
The MoodleCore specification we've made is only for Moodle courses. It's only a first step...

If you look at the value space of the data element 7.1 (Relation.Kind), you will see that you are able to define child information between learning objects.
Suppose that A is a course learning object; B1 and B2 are course activities.
You can say:
B1 “ispartof” A
B2 “ispartof” A
A “haspart” B1
A “haspart” B2


Regards.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
Thanks, now i see what you are talking about. Sure this will help us to auto fill the relation cathegory in the future, with metadata created by the activities and resources.

Thanks a lot
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Mauricio Munera -

Hi Oliver and Felipe,

Oliver, I have some questions in order to understand your point, Could you help me with this questions?

Why do you say this:
"The learning object reusability increases as the aggregation level decreases"

I try to follow the Scorms's suggestions such as: the context's independence of the learning Object, When you say this: "If you look at the value space of the data element 7.1 (Relation.Kind), you will see that you are able to define child information between learning objects" maybe, I don't understand fine (In that case please forgive me) but it affects the learning object's independence because the definition of the learning object will depend of the aggregation that contains this specific LO.

Or maybe I wrong, What do you think?

I really want to know Why do you say this: "The learning object reusability increases as the aggregation level decreases" because I think that it is a interesting point of view.

Greetings!

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mauricio Munera

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Ger Tielemans -
How does your work relate to that of Ariadne, the federated repository with metadata and webservices. It is the project of the "father of LOM": Erik Duval. http://www.ariadne-eu.org/ You even find a plugin for Moodle. Did you study the Metadata part of that plugin and the Moodle specific part. (included an old document from that project as a teaser.)
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mauricio Munera

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Ger Tielemans -

Mauricio wrote: "I have a proposal: sometimes to consider a Course like a Learning object is not the best Idea, cos a course is a Agregation in itself..."

 

If you take the academic approach, you are right and the only problem that is left, is defining the levels of aggregation across domains, good for another academic conference...

In real life you need something more practical. So from a simple Moodle-user perspectiv, guided by KISS:

  1. I create a course, so it makes sense to classify that course "on top level" with metadata for the catalogue of our educational institute: the more fields that are already automatically filled, the better it is.
  2. objects in a course can have lots of automatically classifying information, borrowed from he top description AND based on logic from their place in a Moodle course, but..
    1. objects I borrow from external repositories are already classified there, why should I do that again. why not just mention their URI?
    2. objects created in the course get their meaning from their context, why add metadata there? for if I change it?...
    3. If I break a course in pieces, the pieces will borrow from the top and I have to tune their classifying information as a whole, I will never feel the intention to describe the pieces separately, i will always describe the new, smaller container on top level: only standalone movies, applets or flashes make here an exception
  3. classifying a single question doesn't make sense: a set of questions does, a set of questions with a context description makes even more sense and that's why IMS/QTI is now growing into a standard for a complete assessment centre.. so stay with your choice for metadata on top level, good choice.  

Metadata is NOT for explaining the (often complex) structure of a course:

  1. IMS/CP is made for that, if you want to keep it simple
  2. Scorm can only add descriptions for individual exercises and resource parts for individual learning lines
  3. What if you want to describe Soc. Constr. Learning?
    1. people who cannot wait switch to LAMS
    2. in the future Moodle with IMS/LD will fill this gap, thanks to Martin Dougiamus, realising the level C of IMS/LD as first VLE: i bet in a webservices solution.

Another problem is to describe how our set of courses cover the goals (Competencies etc..), set by our curriculum:

extending the modul teacherplan fits better for that purpose, using metadata for that purpose is overkill: it only has meaning in our local, complete context. 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Mauricio Munera -

Hello Ger,

Your moodle Place is amazing, I want to know, How do you put those controls in your site?

Your point of view has so much sense, it is more practical, that is true, and I'm not against to your point in fact I'm working in my thesis trying to compare many points of view to see about metadata in learning environment using new technologies of informations and communication like mediator. Your thesis is practical, yes it is, but, It is useful in a lot of virtual learning context but not in all of them.

What happen if you need the learning object's reusability? Taking your point, every time when you take a learning object from some context to another one(for example from a vocabulary presentation web page to a quiz) if this object depends of another one you have to take the other one too, and if this other one depends of another one.... etc... finally you have to take a lot of learning objects from original learning object's context for the learning object that you want to reuse has sense in the new context.

This is difficult to explain for me because my english is so bad, but I hope that you get my point.

I reiterate that I am not trying to broke your point of view, I want to compare some arguments to take the best ones for my activities.

I'm in Norway and I will travel to my country the first of july, but I will stop one day in Netherlands, I'll be close to Amsterdam, it will be great if we can fix an appointment to talk about yours experiences using moodle, I am student and I can see that your are an expert, but I am working in a nice project in norway And it will be great to get good suggestions and ideas.

Greetings!

Mauricio.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Mauricio Munera

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Ger Tielemans -

I am a heavy user, not an expert, I think. And no, this is not working on my site, we are studying it: we are considering withother parties to combine Moodle and Harvest Road for this purpose.

Will you be in Holland on Friday 30 june? close to Amsterdam, does that mean Amsterdam Airport or.. (hour?)

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In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Mauricio Munera -
I'll arrive to Amsterdam on 1 of July (Saturday) at 9:35, then I'll come to my Hotell, that is close to the airport 15 o 20 minutes I think.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Olivier CATTEAU -

Hi all,

I’ve studied the ARIADNE application profile and I’ve compared it to the actual MoodleCore.

According to SILO (Search and Index Learning Object) and the mapping between ARIADNE and LOM, the following data elements are mandatory in the ARIADNE application profile:
General:
1.2: General.Title
1.3: General.Language
For at least 1 author, 2.3.2:LifeCycle.Contribute.Entity, 2.3.3:LifeCycle.Contribute.Date, with 2.3.1:LifeCycle.Contribute.Role='author’
1.4:General.Description
Access: 6.2:Rights.CopyrightAndOtherRestrictions and 6.3:Rights.Description
Semantics:
Science type:
9.2.2.2:Classification.TaxonPath.Taxon[1].Entry, with
9.1:Classification.Purpose='discipline', and
9.2.1:Classification.TaxonPath.Source='ARIADNE'
Main discipline:
9.2.2.2:Classification.TaxonPath.Taxon[2].Entry, with
9.1:Classification.Purpose='discipline' and
9.2.1:Classification.TaxonPath.Source='ARIADNE' and
9.2.2.2:Classification.TaxonPath.Taxon[1]=2.1 science type
Sub Discipline:
9.2.2.2:Classification.TaxonPath.Taxon[3].Entry, with
9.1:Classification.Purpose='discipline' and
9.2.1:Classification.TaxonPath.Source='ARIADNE' and
9.2.2.2:Classification.TaxonPath.Taxon[1]=2.1 Science type and
9.2.2.2:Classification.TaxonPath.Taxon[2]=2.2 main discipline
Main Concept:
9.2.2.2:Classification.TaxonPath.Taxon[4].Entry, with
9.1:Classification.Purpose='discipline' and
9.2.1:Classification.TaxonPath.Source='ARIADNE' and
9.2.2.2:Classification.TaxonPath.Taxon[1]=2.1 science type and
9.2.2.2:Classification.TaxonPath.Taxon[2]=2.2 main discipline and
9.2.2.2:Classification.TaxonPath.Taxon[3]=2.3 sub discipline
Educational:
5.5:Educational.IntendedEndUserRole
5.1:Educational.InteractivityType
5.2:Educational.LearningResourceType
5.9:Educational.TypicalLearningTime
Technical:
4.1:Technical.Format
Operating system: 4.4.1.2:Technical.Requirement.orComposite.Name, with
4.4.1.1:Technical.Requirement.orComposite.Type='operating
system’
Required disk space: 4.2:Technical.Size

This study implies the following questions about MoodleCore:
- shall we define the 1.4 General.Description data element as mandatory instead of optional?
- shall we define the 2.3.3 LifeCycle.Contribute.Date data element as mandatory instead of optional?
- is there a MIME type for a Moodle Course? So we can define the 4.1 Technical.Format date element as mandatory.
- I also wonder about technical requirements. (4.4 Technical.Requirement and deeper data elements). Actually those elements are not present in the MoodleCore, but It could be useful, for example, to tell the user you need to install dfwiki to use the Moodle course.
- What about the 5.2 Educational.LearningResourceType data element? Actually, it’s not present in the MoodleCore. Shall we define a specific vocabulary to fit with the Moodle context?
- shall we define the 5.9 Educational.TypicalLearningTime data element as mandatory instead of optional?
- shall we define the 6.3 Rights.Description data element as mandatory instead of optional?
- the main problem concerns the classification category. Shall we use the same process as ARIADNE (Science Type / Main Discipline / Sub Discipline / Main Concept) and map those elements to the MoodleCore?

Thanks in advance for your feedbacks.

Mauricio asked me about this concept: “The learning object reusability increases as the aggregation level decreases”. Just have a look to the attached picture.

I will join the 6th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, at Kerkrade (The Netherlands), July 5-7, 2006.
Tell me if we can meet over there.

Regards.

Attachment reusabilityVsAggregation.jpg
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In reply to Olivier CATTEAU

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Michael Meire -
Dear all,

first of all, thanks to Olivier Catteau for drawing our attention to this most interesting discussion. I am one of the developers in the ARIADNE team, and maybe can provide some useful input to this topic.

I've read through the discussion thread a bit and would like to add or react on some of the things you said. Therefore my post might be a bit unstructured... sorry about that...

First of all, as a general comment, I would like to react on the idea that "we should not add all LOM fields because users don't want to fill in 58 fields", which reoccurs a few times in the discussion. It is important to make a distinction between 2 fundamentally different things: the metadata that you maintain internally VERSUS the metadata that you show to the end user. We totally agree that you should not burden the end user with the tedious, annoying and difficult task of filling in metadata (that's why we work on automatic metadata generation, http://ariadne.cs.kuleuven.be/amg/). However, this does not mean that those metadata fields should not be maintained internally in the system.

Therefore I think it is important to, in the first step, determine what metadata fields that you want or need. In a second step you can then determine how those fields can be filled in.
Now if you go to http://www.ariadne-eu.org/(and click on For Users --> Tools) you'll also see that we have been doing efforts for integrating our software/ARIADNE-repository with existing LMS's. And this is of course where it gets interesting for you, I guess!
You'll notice on that page that we already have a moodle-plugin, that allows to integrate Moodle and our Ariadne repository. More exactly: from within Moodle, you can already search within the ARIADNE repository and use that material into a Moodle course. At the moment inserting something in ARIADNE from within Moodle is not finalized, although we have done first efforts in this. We have realized this for another LMS (Blackboard), and still plan to achieve this for Moodle too. Of course, if that would be one of the requirements for you people, this would get a higher priority on our to-do list (ie: if there would be a real need for this from your community, we estimate to make this feasible within 1 to 7 weeks).

Concerning the issue of what LOM fields you can put into our ARIADNE repository, it basically comes down to the following. In the beginning we worked with the ARIADNE application profile of LOM. However, the last year we have been working with people that have their own LOM application profile. For this purpose, we have extended our software, making it usable for (more or less) full LOM. This means that even though at this very moment we maybe don't support full LOM, it is possible to extend our software for dealing with additional fields.
More concretely, once you would have the Moodle LOM Application Profile, we could see if it fits within our current ARIADNE repository, or how we can extend it so it does.

To conclude, I think that lots of the pieces that you need have been worked out already by us, at least partially. As this all sounds very interesting, and relevant stuff, we will of course be glad to help and participate in your effort!

To conclude, I will try to follow up the discussion a bit. But if you have any directly ARIADNE-related questions, it might be a good idea to also send them to ariadne@cs.kuleuven.be. That way, our whole ARIADNE-team gets the message, so you'll have the best possible answers and feedback...


best,
Michael Meire.
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In reply to Michael Meire

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Michael Penney -
Hi Michael, so the current workflow is to add an object to Ariadne and then it can be loaded into Moodle? Does this work with 1.6 or with 1.5 (or both)? Even that would be a great step.

It would be ideal to add functionality to go from Moodle back to Ariadne, but if at  least the first part works it would worth publicizing to get more buy-in, and hopefully then some support for Moodle->Ariadne.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Michael Penney

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Michael Meire -
As a quick reply, I can just confirm that indeed at this moment the workflow would be to add an object to Ariadne, which can then be searched for, and used from within Moodle.
I think that it was developed for Moodle 1.5, but I'm not sure of 1.6 compatibility.

As I myself am not actually involved in this work, I asked my colleague (who developed this plugin) to reply on this. Right now I think he is on his way to some conference, so it might take a bit of time before he has the opportunity to reply...

best,
Michael...
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In reply to Michael Meire

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Julien Broisin -
Thanks to Michael to introduce myself into this discussion!

The plugin I developed offers two functionalities from within Moodle:
1. To search for existing learning objects (LO) that are already stored into the ARIADNE repository in order to import these LO into a Moodle course.
2. To insert a new learning object into the ARIADNE repository (and of course into a Moodle course) so that all Moodle systems integrating the plugin benefit from new LOs.

The plugin has been developed for Moodle 1.4 and 1.5. I didn't install 1.6 yet on my laptop but it will be done during this summer...

Thanks to all for your interest in this work!

Best,
Julien
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In reply to Michael Meire

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Ger Tielemans -
Michael, will you update the plugin for Moodle 1.6 soon?
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Ger Tielemans

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Julien Broisin -
Hi Ger,

I work with Michael on ARIADNE tools. For sure the plugin will be updated for Moodle 1.6 during this summer! I'll post a message as soon as it will be done.

Best,
Julien
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Julien Broisin

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Ger Tielemans -

I have it working in 1.6, but not with your auto-install as in 1.5.3.

As user I see only an extra button for finding a resource. Looking at the code I have the feeling that much more finetuning is possible, like filling a sheet with LOM specific search info as checkboxes, drop-down-menu's or so? 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Felipe Pablos -
Hi all!

we are still developing the moodle's metadata and we have a new version in which you can add the license of the course. Now you can test it in metamoodleuex as we explained in one message on this thread: 

http://sntrv-des.unex.es/metamoodleuex

Login htacces: invitado
Password htacces: invitado

login as moodle administrator: admin
pasword of moodle administrador: everybody

To use the licences tool, just log as admin and go to configuration-> Licenses Management.
Then as teacher, when insert course's metadata, the last option at the bottom of the page is
License, where you can select one of them.

There is also a block where the license of the course is showed to the user and to the searching bots.
We are waiting for feedback

Thanks
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle (Search Resources/Activities based on metadata)

by Vitor Gonçalves -
Hi!

In the scope of my research and to solve a requirement of some teachers and pupils in my school I developed:

- two simple modules (Metadata LOM and Metadata DCMES) for the addition of metadata to the resources and activities

- one block (Search LOs-metadata) for search resources/activities (LOs - Learning Objects) through the metadata previously added by the teacher.

Without modifying Core Moodle this was the solution that seemed me more viable, however has some limitations.

To evaluate and to test the functionality and utility of these 2 modules and block are available for the Moodle community one discipline in http://www.vgportal.ipb.pt/vgportal/moodle/course/view.php?id=46
This discipline and metadata modules help is only available in Portuguese, but the labels of fields in modules and block are in English…

This discipline accepts visitor’s access. However, to test the half-automatic addition of metadados you can use the following account:

username: formador
password: formador2006

Thank you in advance all the commentaries and suggestions…

Ahhh…

1) The server only have 260Mb of RAM, be patience please…
2) These are my first modules and block for Moodle, therefore do not wait great results… I hope you can help me improve this…

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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Leo Dil -

Hallo Felipe,

I've been busy with finding a moodle's metadata. Are you finished with this project. If "YES" how can I test and used it?

But before I go further and develope myself why not take a look at your work.

the links above don't work.

Thank you.

Leon

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In reply to Felipe Pablos

Re: Metadata Moodle

by Miquel Centelles Velilla -

Hi Felipe,

I am interested in metamoodleuex, but I don't know if its is still avaliable.

Thank you very much!

Miquel Centelles

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In reply to Miquel Centelles Velilla

ตอบ: Re: Metadata Moodle

by tony bhuk -

hi all i'm studying about LOM and i would like to develop LOM module for module but i'm newbie about this. would anyone help?

thank you

tony

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In reply to tony bhuk

Re: ตอบ: Re: Metadata Moodle

by Fadi samara -

i want to ask any body if he built a module for Metadata generation in moodle2, please can any body help??

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