Simplifying LRMI in schema.org
Phil Barker
Hello all
On behalf of the DCMI-LRMI
task group I would like to let you know about some
developments relating to LRMI (Learning Resource Metadata
Initiative) properties in schema.org.
As you know it is possible to use the educationalAlignment
property and an AlignmentObject to
show how a learning resource relates to shared educational
frameworks as an indirect way of expressing information about
important educational characteristics (the AlignmentObect's alignmentType).
All the feedback that we have to date indicates that this is
overly complex and under used.
We have been considering this problem and over the last few
months have developed a suggestion to address it by adding simple
properties for some of the most common / most important
relationships. This proposal will add the properties teaches
and assesses to reference the competencies the
resource is intended to help someone learn or assesses, and educationalLevel
to reference the level of the resource in terms of progression
through through an educational or training context. These
properties are suggested for addition to CreativeWorks
and EducationEvents. We acknowledge that there may be
other properties that can be expressed directly, for example
relating to prerequisites. The educationalAlignment
property and AlignmentObject will be retained to catch
the long tail of other types of alignment, but its use where there
are direct properties should be discouraged in the future.
Today I submitted this proposal to schema.org as an issue and pull request that makes the necessary changes to schema.org. Perhaps the easiest way to view these is on our test-instance of the schema.org website: see
You can comment on these suggestions either here or on the issue I raised on github.
When pending any suggestions arising from the proposal to
schema.org, these properties will proposed as additions to the DCMI LRMI
Terms
Phil Barker, Chair DCMI-LRMI task group
Notes:
This email is sent to the lrmi Google
group, which is used for general announcements and
discussion of the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative.
The DCMI
LRMI task group is charged with defining and executing DCMI
work on the LRMI family of metadata specifications and the related
activities necessary to their stewardship and adoption.
Phil Barker.
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Hugh Paterson III
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Stuart Sutton
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Phil Barker
Thanks Hugh. These proposals include statements that the
educationalAlignment property and AlignmentObject "Should not
be used where the nature of the alignment can be described using
a simple property, for example to express that a resource
teaches or assesses a competency." Does that cover what you
have in mind?
Phil
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Phil Barker
Hello all.
I am somewhat late in writing this, but back in May the new properties we discussed in December last year were added to schema.org. These properties simplify and expand how schema.org can be used to describe learning resources and educational events.
The new properties are:
teaches: The item being described is intended to help a person learn the competency or learning outcome defined by the referenced term.
assesses: The item being described is intended to assess the competency or learning outcome defined by the referenced term.
These are added as properties of CreativeWork and EducationEvent, and can both be used with either a DefinedTerm or text as the value (or URL, which is an allowed value for any schema.org property).
In a related change, the domain of educationalLevel, (“the level in terms of progression through an educational or training context”), which was added last year for EducationalOccupationalCredentials was expanded so that it can also be used with CreativeWork and EducationEvent. It also can have DefinedTerms, text or URL as a value.
As well as providing a way of describing the educational characteristics of EducationEvents, which was previously not possible, these represent a simplification of how learning resources can be described. Previously in order to describe these characteristice one had to use the educationalAlignment property and an AlignmentObject with alignmentType property of “teaches”, “assesses” or “educationalLevel”. As well as being a somewhat complex indirect way of saying something simple, the use the AlignmentObject had the effect of hiding the availability of these important properties.
Having DefinedTerm as a value means that one can still describe the value as being from an educational framework, modeled as a DefinedTermSet, as one could when using various properties of the AlignmantObject. In fact there the improvement that you can provide a URL for the framework being used, not just the name of the target term and the name of the framework. There are some examples provided on the schema.org pages to show how to do this, here are a couple:
The educationalAlignment and AlignmentObject are still valid, and indeed are still the only means of describing some other educational characteristics of learning resources. However, going forward, we suggest you use the new teaches, assesses, educationalLevel properties where appropriate.
We will add these new terms to the DCMI LRMI namespace shortly, I hope, giving them a stable existence independent of schema.org.
Best regards, Phil
Phil Barker, Chair DCMI-LRMI task group
Notes:
This email is sent to the lrmi Google
group, which is used for general announcements and
discussion of the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative.
The DCMI LRMI task group is charged with defining and executing DCMI work on the LRMI family of metadata specifications and the related activities necessary for their stewardship and adoption.