28 march 2003e-mapscholar: content management system the e-mapscholar content management system...
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28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
The e-MapScholar Content Management
System (CMS)
David Medyckyj-ScottProject Director
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Requirements
• a set of quality controlled resources covering core areas
• interactive modularised learning materials• customisation/localisation of those materials
by lecturers– but hiding complexity– provision of discipline and place specific examples
• available over the web• access to metadata
– e.g. details of the origin of learning resources, to gauge ‘fitness for purpose’
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
The e-MapScholar Content Management System (CMS)
• CMS developed specifically to meet project requirements
• it’s an example of a Learning Content Management System (LCMS)– a LCMS is an environment where developers can
create, store, assemble, reuse, manage and deliver learning content from a central object repository
• but currently offers a subset of typical LCMS functions– e.g. it lacks an authoring engine to create new
learning units
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Overview• web-based
– user-friendly mechanisms for accessing and modifying materials
• based on a learning object model– learning developers can create, store, reuse,
manage and deliver personalised content
• separation of content from presentation– uses combination of XML, XSLT, CSS, Java– use XML DTDs to describe the required form of e-
Mapscholar learning resources and units– offers potential to publish to a wide range of
formats, platforms, or devices e.g. PDAs all from the same source material
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Components of a learning resource
A learning resource contains
Learning units contain:
Metadata
Learning objectives
Learning objects
Metadata
Learning objectives
Learning units
and can be made up of different combinations of units.
Learning objects include
Plain text
Interactive tools
Web mapping
and are customisable in content and spatial extent where appropriate.
Assessmenttools
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Resources - Creation and Editing
Use as is
Copy & edit metadata
Copy & change units
Copy & customise units
Tutor publishes a resource Another Tutor can...
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Resources - States
• only an author can see a resource when in draft
• a resource that is restricted is password protected
• a resource that has a state of review can only be seen by author & tutors through CMS
• a resource that has a state of restricted publish can only be seen by students to whom tutor has provided password
! a published resource CANNOT be edited or DELETED
• to ‘edit’, tutor creates a new version
Draft (closed)
Review (restricted)
Review (open)
Publish (restricted)
Publish (open)
Lif
e-c
ycle
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Resources - Rights management• two issues of concern
– Does an author want their name to continue to be attached to a unit or resource?
– Does a resource/unit have to display the name or names of tutors who have customised the original
• legal advice was– to maintain an author history in the metadata– include a disclaimer: “The material in this unit/resource is
based on material originally authored by [author(s) name(s)]. The author(s) do not bear any responsibility for the secondary use or any interpretations of that material.”
– provide a facility whereby if an author wishes to have their name removed from the metadata, we can do this
• the original author and current author are recorded as part of the metadata– but a list of previous authors can be generated
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Units• contain text, media, self assessments and
interactivity via tools• made up of three ‘components’
– shared information* seen by students* e.g. title, author, institution, learning objectives
– instructional metadata– content
* organised into pages* each page comprises text, plus a tool or images,
etc, self assessment* text style, table layout, tool parameters* certain pages special e.g. opening page
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Metadata
• the metadata is based upon the IMS Model – maps reasonably well to UK Common Metadata
Framework (UKCMF)
• found in both shared and instructional metadata
• instructional metadata includes– indexing, life cycle, contributors, technical, legal– e.g. subject terms, geographic coverage, area type,
version, access and copyright
• tutors can modify the metadata – for example, the learning objectives of the new
resource, intended audience
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
More on XML
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Customisation of content
• by project end, tutors will be able to– change the meta-data – change text of learning units– customise geographic area of maps*– customise self-assessment– customise reference material
• tutors cannot yet– alter parameters of the tools – change type of tool that appears in a page– delete pages– create new pages– change order of pages
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Example 1
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Example 2
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Searching
• still to be fully implemented• keyword searches based on: author, title,
keywords, description, geographic coverage, subject area
• should support filtering of results• when resource descriptions are displayed,
should show title, author, publisher (institution), description,
resource type (unit or resource), keywords
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Additional features/ Potential improvements
• export resource ‘stub’ for inclusion in VLE or repository
• alter parameters of the tools• authoring• provide additional tools• wizards to enable easy customisation of tools
in the CMS• links to other databases• tutor annotation• but extended evaluation of CMS required
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Summary
• CMS still under development– functional, performance and user testing required
• challenges we have attempted to solve– common description language (DTD) of resource and unit
internals – life cycle of learning object– lineage of learning units– customisation/localisation process– embedding information objects served live from databases– tool portability– commissioning process– IPR and copyright of learning material
28 March 2003 e-MapScholar: content management system
Any questions?