Quality assurance for digital learning object repositories: issues for the metadata creation process

Metadata enables users to find the resources they require, therefore it is an important component of any digital learning object repository. Much work has already been done within the learning technology community to assure metadata quality, focused on the development of metadata standards, specifications and vocabularies and their implementation within repositories. The metadata creation process has thus far been largely overlooked. There has been an assumption that metadata creation will be straightforward and that where machines cannot generate metadata effectively, authors of learning materials will be the most appropriate metadata creators. However, repositories are reporting difficulties in obtaining good quality metadata from their contributors, and it is becoming apparent that the issue of metadata creation warrants attention. This paper surveys the growing body of evidence, including three UK-based case studies, scopes the issues surrounding human-generated metadata creation and identifies questions for further investigation. Collaborative creation of metadata by resource authors and metadata specialists, and the design of tools and processes, are emerging as key areas for deeper research. Research is also needed into how end users will search learning object repositories

Europe in crisis seminar

It is perhaps the nature of a crisis that any attempt to see the future is clouded by a degree of, if not despair, then at least a profound pessimism. Certainly, in the midst of the ongoing crisis in Europe it is easier to see problems within the European project than it is to see clear means by which such problems might be resolved. It was little surprise, therefore, that the Changing Europe Debate held at LSE IDEAS on Tuesday and consisting of over 20 European experts was, by the near universal admission of its participants, marked by a significant degree of pessimism. The cautious diagnosis of the majority seemed to be that the Euro would survive, but that the crisis had thrown into sharp relief many of the problems, both political and economic, that have to be resolved in the future

Faith in a better migration policy: what we can learn from Christianity

What can Britain learn from Christian thinking as it draws up a post-Brexit immigration policy? In his introduction to Fortress Britain, Ben Ryan (Theos) points out that migrants themselves are disproportionately Christian, as are the charities working in the field. Migration also informs a great deal of political theology

It is vital that EU climate policy protects the interests of Europe’s poorest citizens

As part of our series on the Dahrendorf Symposium, which was held in Berlin on 14-15 November, Ben Ryan assesses the importance of the social and legal aspects of climate change, including the human victims of the process. He argues that Europe’s poor must also be recognised as potential victims of climate change, particularly through the spread of fuel poverty in European countries

Europe’s early vision: how Christian Democratic morality shaped the EU

In the first of two extracts from Theos’ new report on the EU, A Soul for the Union, Ben Ryan examines the origins of the three concepts that propelled the early dream of European unity – solidarity, subsidiarity and moral and religious vision – and how they were expressed by Europe’s founders

The EU’s existential aim was to create Europeans. In this, it has failed

In the second of two extracts from a new Theos report, A Soul for the Union, Ben Ryan asks how the EU can become a less elite project – one in which citizens share a common identity that transcends economic performance and the inevitable national loyalties

Down On 33rd And 3rd (Thoity-Thoid And Thoid)

Sheet music contains sexist and/or misogynistic language, concepts, and/or imagry promoting rape culture. With Ukulele arrangement. Contains advertisements and/or short musical examples of pieces being sold by publisher.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/7177/thumbnail.jp

(The Gang That Sang) Heart Of My Heart

Contains advertisements and/or short musical examples of pieces being sold by publisher.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/7149/thumbnail.jp

Realization of an all-optical zero to π cross-phase modulation jump

We report on the experimental demonstration of an all-optical π cross-phase modulation jump. By performing a preselection, an optically induced unitary transformation, and then a postselection on the polarization degree of freedom, the phase of the output beam acquires either a zero or π phase shift (with no other possible values). The postselection results in optical loss in the output beam. An input state may be chosen near the resulting phase singularity, yielding a pi phase shift even for weak interaction strengths. The scheme is experimentally demonstrated using a coherently prepared dark state in a warm atomic cesium vapor