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