A guide to metadata by
the Metadata Advisory Group of the MIT Libraries
IMS
Learning Resource Meta-data Information Model
Definition and or short description:
Digital learning materials are produced by a wide variety
of software vendors and educational institutions. At a 1997
meeting of the EDUCOM consortium (now EDUCAUSE), a group of
higher education institutions and their vendor partners established
an effort to develop open, maket-based standards for online
learning, including specifications for learning content meta-data.
This resulted in the formation of the Instructional Management
Systems (IMS) Cooperative. The IMS Learning Resource Meta-data
Information Model, a metadata standard, is one of the first
products of this group.
Constituency:
"At stake are the interests of organizations that sponsor
and deliver instruction and/or certify its outcomes, educational
policy and standards bodies, instructors, developers of instructional
resources, commercial and noncommercial providers of instructional
resources and other suppliers to the education and training
"industry," learners, and the commercial and societal
groups that expect some form of quality assurance in the education
and training marketplace." (The Instructional
Management Systems Cooperative: Converting Random Acts of
Progress into Global Progress by William H. Graves,
Educom Review, vol. 34, no. 6, 1999. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/erm9966.html)
History of use:
At the same time as the the IMS Cooperative was formed, the
National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and
the IEEE P.1484 study group were also investigating the development
of a metadata standard for learning materials. The NIST effort
merged with the IMS effort, and the IMS began collaborating
with the ARIADNE Project. In 1998 IMS and ARIADNE submitted
a joint proposal and specification to IEEE, which formed the
basis for the IEEE Learning Object Meta-data (LOM) base document.
LOM - defines a set of elements that can be used to describe
learning resources. However, the number of items defined was
very large - many organizations within IMS community recommended
a subset of core elements. These core elements have become
the Final Specification of the IMS Learning Resource
Meta-data Information Model <http://www.imsglobal.org/metadata/index.cfm#top>.
Despite the large number of elements in the LOM, there are
still groups within the IMS constituency that have expressed
a need for other elements that are not defined by the LOM.
The IMS best practices guide therefore allows "extensions"
to the LOM standard for "proprietary" purposes.
Prerequisites:
There don't seem to be any prerequisites, other than a familiarity
with different types of "learning objects".
Two toolkits are recommended for creating IMS metadata:
• Sun Microsystems - Developers Toolkit for Creating IMS
Learning Resource-Compatible Meta-data
• Microsoft Corporation - Learning Resource Interchange
(LRN) Toolkit for creating IMS compatible online learning
content
For exchange of metadata, a knowledge of XML is necessary
As for vocabularies, IMS wants to make its constituent communities
aware of standardized (or at least popular and useful) taxonomies
that might suit their needs; and to try to minimize the creation
of new "home-grown" taxonomies by communities, when
existing ones are adequate for their purposes. No one taxonomy
is recommended, but a table of "common practice taxonomies"
is offered in the IMS Learning Resource Meta-data
Best Practices and Implementation Guide <http://www.imsproject.org/profiles/lipbest01.html>.
Progress towards standardization:
Final 1.0 August 20, 1999 - The version 1.0 of the IMS Meta-Data
Best Practice and Implementation Guide.
Final 1.1 May 5, 2000 - All element names changed to lower
case only. Comments on namespace use changed.
Final 1.2.2 - Sept. 28, 2001 - Errata update
Final 1.2.2.- not yet posted - Errata update
Content:
Hierarchical model
The LOM and IMS schemas are based upon a hierarchical model
that groups elements into categories of information. The top
level of the hierarchy is the root element, which is actually
at the record level. A root can have sub-elements that are
either "branches" or "leaves". A branch
is a sub-element that has further sub-elements. A leaf is
a sub-element that has no further sub-elements.
• Root -> Branch -> Leaf
• Root -> Branch -> Branch -> Leaf
Categories of metadata
The IMS Best Practice Core specifies 9 top "branches"
which each contain several branches and leaves. These categories
are: general, lifecycle, metametadata, technical, educational,
rights, relation, annotation, and classification. See the
model at http://www.imsproject.org/metadata/imsmdv1p2p1/imsmd_infov1p2p1.html
for the complete "core" specification.
Dublin Core Compatibility
Several of the LOM elements are similar to Dublin Core elements.
A table of DC elements with corresponding LOM elements is
available in the best practices... guide <http://www.imsproject.org/metadata/mdbestv1p1.html#Dublin2>.
Encoding:
XML available
http://www.imsglobal.org/xsd/ims_xml.xsd
RDF in progress
Implementation:
Vendors: Giunti, Blackboard, WebCT, Centra Software, Saba
Software
Educational Institutions: Cancore, Merlot
Examples:
Discussion Lists:
General news about IMS projects can be found at on its Press
site
http://www.imsproject.org/press.html.
To participate in IMS discussion lists you must be a member
of a working group. There is a "meta-data Team"
working group listed on the IMS working groups web page http://www.imsproject.org/workinggroups.html
Meetings and Conferences:
The best place to find out about IMS meetings and conferences
is the IMS working group web page http://www.imsproject.org/workinggroups.html.
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