Designing and Implementing a Learning Object Repository: Issues of Complexity, Granularity, and User Sense-Making

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : DSpace User Group PresentationsDate: 2009-05-20 03:30 PM – 05:00 PMThe Texas Center for Digital Knowledge at the University of North Texas is designing and implementing a DSpace/Manakin learning object repository (LOR) for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to store and provide access to redesigned undergraduate courses being created through the Board's Texas Course Redesign Project (TCRP). The content for the THECB LOR differs in significant ways from content stored in other well-known and evolving LORs, since the content is in the form of complete or partial courses. While this content can be represented as a single learning object (i.e., a complete course as one learning object), the THECB LOR is making the complete courses available as learning objects and it is providing access to components of the courses' content as discrete learning objects for reuse and repurposing. A number of challenges and issues have emerged in the design, development, and implementation the LOR, and this paper focuses on three key aspects and the solutions we are pursuing: 1) complexity of the course content and granularity; 2) submission of complex objects and metadata; and 3) user interface design to assist users in making sense of this repository and its contents.Texas Higher Education Coordinating Boar

Submission Tool for the DSpace-Based Learning Object Repository

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : Conference PostersThe poster briefly reports our experience with building Learning Object Repository based on DSpace and analyzes some problems we encountered with the submission system. The poster describes custom submission tool that can be used as an alternative to the DSpace submission system and provides useful extensions that allow connecting to the automatic keyword extraction services and generating of IMS and SCORM packages

Extraction and parsing of herbarium specimen data: Exploring the use of the Dublin core application profile framework

Herbaria around the world house millions of plant specimens; botanists and other researchers value these resources as ingredients in biodiversity research. Even when the specimen sheets are digitized and made available online, the critical information about the specimen stored on the sheet are not in a usable (i.e., machine-processible) form. This paper describes a current research and development project that is designing and testing high-throughput workflows that combine machine- and human-processes to extract and parse the specimen label data. The primary focus of the paper is the metadata needs for the workflow and the creation of the structured metadata records describing the plant specimen. In the project, we are exploring the use of the new Dublin Core Metadata Initiative framework for application profiles. First articulated as the Singapore Framework for Dublin Core Application Profiles in 2007, the use of this framework is in its infancy. The promises of this framework for maximum interoperability and for documenting the use of metadata for maximum reusability, and for supporting metadata applications that are in conformance with Web architectural principles provide the incentive to explore and add implementation experience regarding this new framework

The Metadata Education and Research Information Commons (MERIC): A Collaborative Teaching and Research Initiative

The networked environment forced a sea change in Library and Information Science (LIS) education. Most LIS programs offer a mixed-mode of instruction that integrates online learning materials with more traditional classroom pedagogical methods and faculty are now responsible for developing content and digital learning objects. The teaching commons in a networked environment is one way to share, modify and repurpose learning objects while reducing the costs to educational institutions of developing course materials totally inhouse. It also provides a venue for sharing ideas, practices, and expertise in order to provide the best learning experience for students. Because metadata education has been impacted by rapid changes and metadata research is interdisciplinary and diffuse, the Metadata Education and Research Information Commons (MERIC) initiative aims to provide a virtual environment for sharing and collaboration within the extensive metadata community. This paper describes the development of MERIC from its origin as a simple clearinghouse proof-of-concept project to a service-oriented teaching and research commons prototype. The problems of enablers and barriers to participation and collaboration are discussed and the need for specific community building research is cited as critical for the success of MERIC within a broad metadata community

Customizing DSpace Manakin for Educational Video Collections to Enhance User Experience

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : Conference PostersThe poster reports our experience of using DSpace Manakin for Starlink Video Repository. The project is a cooperation between STARLINK (Richardson, TX) and TxCDK of University of North Texas, under the supervision of Dr. William Moen. The project uses DSpace v.1.5 Manakin to create a dynamic digital repository system to store, manage and present STARLINK's various video collections. STARLINK has recently successfully launched its Ideas Collection with the new depository with much improved user interface and seamless integration with STARLINK's existing web site. More collection will be added to the depository for more streamlined operation. The project showcases DSpace as a low-cost and flexible platform appropriate for educational institution like STARLINK to run a web-based depository system for better resource sharing and user interaction. The poster will also discuss the challenges the project faced in customizing DSpace to provide different types of access for subscription and non-subscription users, and DSpace Manakinâ s better interface design functionalities.STARLIN

MARC Content Designation and Utilization

This presentation discusses the MARC Content Designation Utilization (MCDU) Project. It presents information about the goals and scope of the project, the methodology and information about the process, and the implications of this project

The 21st Century Library: Collaborative Services, Standards, and Interoperability

Presentation for the 2002 Netspeed Annual Conference. This presentation discusses the collaborative services, standards and interoperability of libraries in the 21st century

Assessing Interoperability in the Networked Environment: Standards, Evaluation, and Testbeds in the Context of Z39.50

This book chapter discusses interoperability in the networked environment

Resource Discovery Using Z39.50: Promise and Reality

This paper discusses the Z39.50 protocol. The ANSI/NISO Z39.50 protocol for information retrieval addresses the complex challenges of intersystem communication. Original uses envisioned for the protocol look very little like current implementations and uses. In the 1980s, users on one library catalog system would search and retrieve bibliographic records on a remote system. By the late 1990s, there was a need for discovering networked resources and integrating access to them. Yet, the Z39.50 protocol has addressed both these scenarios. This paper provides a portrayal of Z39.50 that explains its flexibility in response to a variety of information retrieval requirements in the networked environment

CIMI's Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed: Search and Retrieval of Distributed Cultural Heritage Information

This paper discusses the Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI)'s international effort to provide distributed search and retrieval of cultural heritage information. A primary aspect of CIMI's work utilizes ANSI/NISO Z39.50-1995, and American National Standard protocol for information retrieval. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently approved Z39.50 as ISO 23950. CIMI chose Z39.50 to enable uniform access to existing and emerging digital collections and the vast repositories of cultural heritage information resources. These resources include a variety of physical and digital objects--physical artifacts and digital derivatives of those artifacts, descriptive records designed for collection management, bibliographic records, full-text documents, online tools such as thesauri and authoritative lists of artists' names, and more. CIMI's application Z39.50 in the networked cultural heritage information environment is breaking new ground in distributed and integrated access to textual and non-textual digital collections