1. Structure of LO’s Modeling for eLearning
Miguel Rodríguez Artacho
LSI Dept. -- UNED University

2. What is ‘educational content’?
Educational material developed to be consumed in computer based learning using on-line web environments
Educational material has embedded pedagogical & instructional information
Complex specifications and a variety of description standards
Complex authoring process and difficult to maintain
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

3. Educational Content: Desired properties
Interoperability  Combine different specification in different contexts
Maintainability  Contents must be maintainable and upgradeable
Reusability  Allow ‘Cut & Paste’ for building new content
Durability  Independence of the delivery technology
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

4. Educational Content: Current problems
Interoperability  It is not possible to re-assemble content
Maintainability  Difficulty to update content, authoring not independent from VLE
Reusability  Content embedded in VLE and nor searchable or retrievable
Durability  Do not recover from a deep change in the delivery format or content format
Lack of an abstraction level
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

5. Educational Content: Abstraction Level
Technical issues
HTML tree, *.asp, form, GET/POST, ... 
Pedagógical/Instructional
Module, Task, Sequence, Prerequisite, Assignment, Exercise, Simulation, ...
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

6. Learning Content Specification
Lack of an appropriate abstraction level 
Provide specifications with associated operational semantic. Not related with delivery formats
Provide pedagogical design elements
Authoring tools should not be in VLE’s but as standalone applications
Make LO’s interoperable and reusable
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

7. Learning Objects Interoperable educative content components
Labeled with Metadata
Context independent  reusable
Organized in repositories (distributed) or in conceptual maps (ontology)
Los LO son ladrillos o elementos bñasicos de la construcción de un escenario educativo.
La creación de estos contenidos se hace mediante la asociación de metainformación a los objetos educativos y la búsqueda y recuperación de los mismos para reusarlos de acuerdo a su nivel de granularidad
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

8. Uses of LO’s Metadata allow search and retrieval
Aggregation of LO’s according to its aggregation level
Repositories of LO’s
ARIADNE (1997)  Development of LOM
Other projects: OASIS, CELEBRATE (IST E.U.)
Authoring process based on selection and aggregation
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

9. Drawbacks De-contextualized learning Lack of personalization
Reusability vs. Aggregation level
Context vs. Interchangeability
Lack of personalization
No adaptability to students
Complex business model
Copyright restrictions
Known problems of distribution (KaZaA, ...)
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

10. Expressivity of contents
Need of semantics associated to specifications
Grouping of elements in semantic layers
Meaningful elements for rest of layers
Different specifications in different levels
Classification of specifications depending on the covered levels
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

11. Educational Content Management Pedagogical/Instructional Activity/Task
Interoperability parameters with LMS
Pedagogical/Instructional
Pedagogical Information
Activity/Task
Educative processes y activities. Collaborative tasks and activities
Secuencing
Sequencing, prerrequisites, deadlines, dependencies
Structure
Navigational model
Content
Small LO’s, assets and formatted content
Description levels of an educational material
IMS -LD
EML
PALO …
IMS -QTI
SCORM 1.3
IMS SS
IMS CP
IMS -DR
SCORM 1.2
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

12. Content Packaging: XML
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

13. IMS Content Package (Ex.)
TOC 1
Lesson 1 lesson1.html
Introduction intro1.html
Content content1.htm
Summary summary1.htm
Lesson 2 …
Introduction
Content
Summary
IMS Manifest (XML)
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

14. Educational Content Management Pedagogical/Instructional Activity/Task
Interoperability parameters with LMS
Pedagogical/Instructional
Pedagogical Information
Activity/Task
Educative processes y activities. Collaborative tasks and activities
Secuencing
Sequencing, prerrequisites, deadlines, dependencies
Structure
Navigational model
Content
Small LO’s, assets and formatted content
Description levels of an educational material
IMS -LD
EML
PALO …
IMS -QTI
SCORM 1.3
IMS SS
IMS CP
IMS -DR
SCORM 1.2
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

15. Sequencing Model (IMS)
Figure I.1 above shows the various steps in the sequencing process. The control process is shown on the left. In normal
operation, the overall sequencing process flows from navigation behavior to termination behavior to sequencing
behavior to delivery behavior, followed by a wait while the learner interacts with the content resource, as described in
steps 4-12 above.
The right side of Figure I.1 shows the learner’s view of the learning experience. A content resource is delivered to the
learner.
The learner interacts with the content resource and results may be returned to the tracking model. The learner
triggers an event that maps to a navigation request. The navigation request triggers the various steps in the sequencing
process.
Throughout all sequencing processes, a collection of state and tracking model data is maintained. Content resources
may directly set values in the tracking model through a runtime communications interface to tracking model; this
interface is not part of the specification and is not required. All of the other sequencing processes access and update
elements of the tracking models.
Changes to the state of an activity occur because of learner interaction with a content resource delivered for the activity
or one of its descendents. If an external event affects the tracking, such as an instructor changing a grade, the model
assumes processes are invoked as required to update the activity state model.
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

16. Map SS and CP
XML
(Extensions)
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

17. IMS Specifications
Describe separately different aspects of learning material
Identify complexity of learning content authoring
No RTE available for the whole mode (CP+SS+(LD|QTI))
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

18. Current Authoring model using LO’s
Source: Carnegie Mellon
Current Authoring model using LO’s
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

19. Celebrate Demo Portal
Celebrate created a Demo Portal to illustrate Search, retrieval and use of LO’s
More than LO’s currently available
Mainly focused on schools, not for higher education
Currently launching LIFE initiative to continue Celebrate (European School net, EUN)
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

20. Celebrate Demo Portal
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

21. LO Examples Components of inner ear Process of destillation
Change of State – Water
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

22. Instructional Design & LO’s
Research explores definition of activities as part of LO’s
David Merrill (Utah Univ) proposes 4 types of LO’s
Entities (objects)
Properties (attributes of entities)
Activities (Actions on objects)
Processes (Change attributes triggered by activities)
 Need to incorporate learning processes
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

23. Concept of educational modeling language
Content representation in a variety of levels
Description of learning tasks: Modelization of activities and instructional processes
Compatible with LO model
Stored in repositories as another LO’s
Use of ontology and conceptual maps to retrieve “low granularity” LO’s
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

24. Educational Content Management Pedagogical/Instructional Activity/Task
Interoperability parameters with LMS
Pedagogical/Instructional
Pedagogical Information
Activity/Task
Educative processes y activities. Collaborative tasks and activities
Secuencing
Sequencing, prerrequisites, deadlines, dependencies
Structure
Navigational model
Content
Small LO’s, assets and formatted content
Description levels of an educational material
IMS -LD
EML
PALO …
IMS -QTI
SCORM 1.3
IMS SS
IMS CP
IMS -DR
SCORM 1.2
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

25. Evolution of Educational Modeling Languages
CEN/ISSS Meeting in Torino (Oct 2001)
 Introduction of:
EML (UONL)
PALO (UNED)
Targeteam (German Mil. Forces Lab)
Others
See “Europe Focuses on EML” S. Wilson (CETIS) in
 Survey of Educational Modeling Languages
 Development of IMS-LD based on EML (OU of the Nederlands)
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

26. IMS-LD Based on EML OUNL started 1997, research into pedagogies in use
no description per pedagogy, but
one meta-language to describe them all: Educational Modelling Language (EML), published in December 2000
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

27. EML: simple yet powerful
People engage in Activities, for which they use Resources
People: one or many, learner or staff roles
Activities: description, structured
Resources: learning objects & services (chat, etc.)
Many roles, activities and resources need co-ordination in a workflow: learning flow
An instructional design/pedagogy/learning design essentially is a learning flow.
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

28. method play components Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 Act 4 Act 5 Role-part 1
Activity
A play, as in a theatrical play, consists of acts, although there can be one-act plays.
As in a theatrical play, acts run in sequence, with one starting when the previous act has finished. The transition from one act to another serves a synchronisation point for the multiple participants in a learning design.
As in a theatrical play, an act includes one or more role-parts, which are ‘on stage’ at the same time.
A role-part references both the role and the activity it is to perform in the act. Effectively it assigns an activity to a role, analogous to the script that the role has to perform in the act.
An activity includes an activity-description and typically a pointer to an ‘environment’. The activity description says what the role should do with the things included in the environment, although it may have no environment, e.g. when it simply describes an offline activity.
An environment may include both learning objects (content, content packages, SCOs, RIOs etc.), and/or services such as and conference facilities which are to be used in the activity.
The horizontal line dividing the diagram indicates the elements that are included in the method, which are above the line, and those included in the components, which are below the line. Thus the role-part acts as the link between these the method and the components.
Environment
Learning objects
Learning services
Activity-
Description
components
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

29. LD: XML - top level
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

30. LD: XML - method
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

31. LD: XML - components
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

32. Example: Course creation in EML
Roles: Definition of roles (ex. Student, staff member) and definition of the workspaces of each one of the roles, and also types of outcome
Activities: Definition of content by mean of ona or more activities
Methods: Definition of sequences of activities defining
Activity structure
Play per role
Conditions
Components: tools
XML File (Example)
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

33. Activity structure AS-boeing-simplified AS-introduction
LA-fuel-valve-lesson-intro
LA-fuel-valve-theory
AS-lessons-and-procedure + E-interactive-electronic-training-manual
AS-fuel-valve-lessons
LA-lesson-hazards OR
LA-lesson-components
AS-fuel-valve-removal-procedure
AS-tests + E-interactive-electronic-training-manual
LA-knowledge-test-hazards
LA-knowledge-test-components
LA-performance-test
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

34. Authoring process and use
Requires a RTE to play the course (Edubox, Coppercore, etc.)
Manage activities independently from LO’s and other static resources
Manage static resources independently from activities defined in the course
Reuse ALL: Resources, Activities, Course templates  !!This is it!!
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

35. More approaches to LO creation
PALO Educational Modeling Language
Developed at UNED University
Presented in CEN/ISSS EML Workshop in Torino (2001)
Features
Uses of domain ontologies rather than metadata labeled LO’s
Simple tasks (no roles) and sequencing
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

36. Cognitive Design Process
Conceptualisation Phase
Creation of a generic domain to describe content matter = ONTOLOGY
Instantiation Phase
Creation of one or more instances for a particular domain matter
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

37. An example: Models and Meta-Models
Concept
Involve
Problem
Is Solution
Solution
Involve
Con 031
Prob001
Prob002
Prob003
Prob004
Is Solution
Instance
Sol 023
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

38. Use of ontologies of LO’s
Example
Concept
has
illustrates
Explanation
prerequisite
XML Example …
Here you can find more <relation Name="Illustrates" Domain="Conceptual" Subject="invariant" Category="Example">examples</relation>
of the concept invariant.
Compound
Functional group
has
belongs to
IR spectrum
Molecular Formulae
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

39. PALO production cycle PARSER Domain Knowledge Base PALO Template (DTD)
PALO File (XML)
PARSER
Domain
Knowledge
Base
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

40. Editing Process Student Scenario Tutor Scenario PALO Document
Compiler
Tutor Scenario
Domain Model
CBUC -- Barcelona, Junio 2004

41. Structure of LO’s Modeling for eLearning
Thanks!
Structure of LO’s Modeling for eLearning
Miguel Rodríguez Artacho
UNED University