EdReNe – Current state of educational repositories – national overview

The principles were developed in consultation with a wide range of partners and organisations, including academic researchers, industry developers, educational practitioners and managers.

Becta intends to use the Quality Principles as a basis for the development of supporting materials for different audiences and purposes. Becta is currently repurposing the Quality Principles for use by repository owners and those responsible for teacher training and professional development.

There are 16 quality principles divided into two groups: core pedagogic principles and core design principles. The former address the processes and conditions under which successful learning can take place. The latter cover issues such as resource design, accessibility and interoperability.

• Quality of resources
• IPR and Copyright
• Metadata
• Exposing repositories to other systems
• User interface
• Marketing to users
• Sharing mechanisms
• Accessibility
• E-safety

• Technical – These involve content providers supplying a product to be checked against a set of technical criteria to ensure that the product works as specified.
• Content – The product is then checked to ensure that the content is aimed at the current curriculum for schools in England and is digital in nature.
• Financial– Content Providers and Retailers must supply financial information to ensure they can meet demands for the product.

• Developing a risk management strategy
• Administration and staffing implications
• Adopting a simple approach to rights management premised upon the licenses developed and advocated by the Creative Commons project
• Developing a site license
• Developing a user interface for applying and managing licensing conditions that is simple to use and understand
• Providing guidelines to licensors
• Monitoring IPR and Copyright infringements
• Developing a policy framework

• Check the conditions of use set by the originator, owner or publisher of the material before use. Repurposing or sharing with others
• If in doubt about the conditions, seek advice
• When creating resources, clearly state the terms of use. Creative commons provides useful templates for doing this
• Materials created as part of normal teaching work is usually owned by your employer

• Learning Technologists - to provide a sound information model, with clear rationale for why certain elements are required, and clear semantic meanings for the values
• Technology experts - to provide a working binding for the information model, describe how it is used, and provide some guidelines for checking conformance.

Becta’s aim is to have a simple, meaningful, and manageable Application Profile for the UK education sector.

• Bank – This is an open-access web service and online vocabulary repository.
  http://www.becta.org.uk/vocab/about.cfm
• Studio – this is an online tool for vocabulary managers and editors who subscribe to the VMS service.

Persistent identifiers
The principle of having a persistent identity revolves around a locally unique identifier for a piece of content, combined with a resolution service – to determine the location. This is an area of great importance in a dispersed information environment.

Becta has touched upon this subject during the past few years. A reasonably detailed study of the Handle technology was undertaken by the DfES (now the Department for Children and Families or DCSF) and latterly extended by Becta. It failed to gain any major support for a number of reasons but the financial implications were too great at the time. More about Handle can be found here:

www.handle.net/

JISC have also previously commissioned work on Persistent Identifiers, a piece of work completed in 2004, which was dominated by the review of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). DOIs are an extension of the Handle technology and, for similar reasons as the Handle study, the project failed to gain any major support. More about DOIs can be found here:

www.doi.org/

Research has continued this financial year but on a more pragmatic level. The general consensus among key stakeholders in the sector seems to point to there being a requirement for more advice and guidance on ensuring content owners understand the importance of resolution management. This is focussed upon ensuring that any URLs given to a content objects are maintained over a lifetime so as to ensure that the published location always resolves correctly. The suggestion is, therefore, that services to manage identifiers and resolution are not necessarily a necessity but are a consideration that might be made, depending upon the circumstance.

In summary the key technical message is that, as standard, a content object should be identified and resolved through the use of a URI. The URI may or may not be resolved via a Handle, DOI or other similar type of mechanism. In all cases, though, the content should have a locally unique identity (URN), which when combined with a locator (URL), will become a globally unique identity and resolvable URI. More about URIs can be found here:

tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986

It is not currently clear where this work may go from here, though the production of advice and guidance will occur before the end of this financial year.

Metadata syndication
This topic area is concerned with the syndication of metadata describing a digital learning resource from a repository/collection or other system, such as a blog or wiki, with an external ‘consumer’. This would normally be through the consumer using a robot to harvest the metadata and then use it within the delivery of an independent service.

Enabling a repository/collection to be harvested can be a very useful option for digital learning resource suppliers whom either don’t have ambitions or would rather not have to worry about providing their own search interface. It also enables a supplier to concentrate on what they do best – creating and supplying digital learning resources.

Becta’s Learning Platform Framework has stipulated three different standards and specifications for content syndication, being:

• Open Archives Initiative – Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH)
  www.openarchives.org/OAI/openarchivesprotocol.html
• ATOM syndication format
  tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4287
• Really Simple Syndication (RSS – also known as RDF Site Summary and Rich Site Summary)
  www.rssboard.org/rss-specification

It is currently recommended that each Learning Platform Framework Supplier supports these syndication standards.

Becta is very aware, in the wider sense of the education environment, that JISC have been promoting the use of OAI-PMH for some time in the Higher Education sector and thus it is well known. On the contrary, this is very new within the schools sector and little if any activity, apart from the Learning Platform Framework, has occurred to embrace it for a number of reasons. It is anticipated that, with the introduction of the Learning Platforms, an appetite for standards based approaches to areas such as harvesting of metadata will increase over time.

Becta is currently trying to gather a consensus of opinion amongst government agencies and their partners to adopt the syndication standards and specifications listed, for the good of education of a whole. When this consensus of opinion is reached it is anticipated that a far greater continuity of purpose will lead to a more interoperable environment.

Research undertaken for Becta by external consultants has provided rich insight into rollout issues that have occurred within the UK and other countries around the world. The information is planned to be used in the future to create Application Profiles for each standard, bindings and perhaps test material to tighten control and enhance interoperability between Learning Platforms, the services incorporated within them and external services, such as repositories.

It should be noted that the metadata format returned via OAI-PMH is subject to the metadata and vocabularies work that has been described above.

Resource discovery
Becta completed a research project on resource discovery at the end of the last financial year 2007. This project looked at how different models of resource discovery architecture could benefit the education sector. Various different models were defined including an aggregation, federation and ‘hybrid’, which used a bit of both the first two models.

The aggregation model detailed how metadata would be harvested from various dispersed repositories/collections and stored in a central location. This metadata would be indexed and a search service would then be deployed to allow search queries to be sent in a standardised way such as Search/Retrieve via HTTP SOAP (SRW) based approach or Search/Retrieve via URL (SRU) REST based approach:

• Search/Retrieve via HTTP SOAP
  www.loc.gov/standards/sru/specs/transport.html#soap
• Search/Retrieve via URL
  www.loc.gov/standards/sru/

The federated model deals with farming out search queries to various dispersed repositories/collections that support a query interface such as SRW or SRU. The results returned from these services would then be returned to the user via a centralised search service, which may or may not perform some kind of harmonisation or aggregation process to format the results. The centralised service would also support SRW and/or SRU.

A ‘hybrid’ model service would support an amalgamation of both of the above approaches – in that it can harvest from those repositories that do not support a search interface, whilst also searching those that do. This service model would receive search queries to a centralised service, farm out the query in the federated model, search the locally indexed metadata (from harvesting model) and return results to the user. As with the federated model – the service may or may not perform some kind of harmonisation or aggregation process to format the results. The centralised service would also support SRW and/or SRU.

The research undertaken provided clear insight to issues and further considerations that will need to be taken into account moving forward. There are concerns over the query language used, the results format amongst other things. Again – it looks like future work needs to be completed in regards to producing appropriate Application profiles of these standards for education.

Further to the above research project the Learning Platform Framework has a mandatory technical element, where all accredited suppliers must support SOAP based Web Services (incorporating WSDL and UDDI). Added to this it states that either SRW (SOAP) or SRU (REST) based approach shall be supported.

Becta may have further work planned in the next financial year that hopefully, should it go ahead, lead towards obtaining a consensus on this topic amongst the agencies and partners, along the same lines as the syndication work mentioned above.

Service registries
The concept of a service registry is based upon their being a machine and human readable registry of services available to an environment. In this case the environment is the UK education system and quite possibly the wider education environment in Europe and Worldwide.

The registry system, which would most likely work in some kind of federated manner, would enable all service providers to describe their service in a number of ways such as free text description, tag according to a fixed vocabulary, categorise, detail the standards adhered to and how to access the service. All these details would be stored via a metadata schema designed to record such service information.

The JISC have been trialling a registry system and accompanying metadata schema. This is known as the Information Environment Service Registry (IESR) and found here: iesr.ac.uk/

This system is currently used for the HE sector. Becta have been working with JISC to commission a review of this system based upon its application to date, suitability for purpose, reception/adoption and whether it would be an effective solution for all education phases. In addition to this the review will also cover other known alternatives, with an objective evaluation of whether the IESR is the best way forward.

Accessibility
Becta published guidance on accessibility of educational content in mid 2007.

• www.becta.org.uk/Schools/inclusion
• www.becta.org.uk/industry/content/accessibility

This clarifies, for Schools, their responsibilities in respect of choosing resources that are flexible in meeting the needs of their staff and learners.

At the core is a cross referencing of Standards, specifications and guidelines that culminate in a list of 20 ‘essential accessibility functions’ which points to the appropriate references depending on the platform in question.

For commissioning of browser delivered resource Becta advocates use of BSI PAS78.

For static content (such as a department or School Website) delivered through a browser Becta follows UK Cabinet Office guidance and recommends the use of W3C, WAI, WCAG1.0 level AA. However pragmatism in their application is suggested.

Currently in our learning platforms service procurement framework we test to WCAG1.0 level single A only.

WCAG1.0 is not terribly fit for purpose for anything other than flat content-centric applications so Becta is currently undertaking an application profile of WCAG2 for learning platform technologies and depending on the success of this may undertake a profiling for educational content.

For content creation Becta uses W3C, WAI, and ATAG1.0 although it is very difficult to apply as (similar to WCAG1.0) it is old and not terribly fit for purpose. ATAG2 is not yet mature enough to pilot but Becta will look at it in due course possibly with an application profile if necessary.

Becta keeps a watching brief on metadata schemas which support accessibility elements but currently uptake of these is minimal – none in the UK – so Becta is not currently actively doing anything in the area at this time.

The National Digital Resource Bank is an initiative of the North West Learning Grid. The North West Learning Grid is one of 10 English Regional Bodies (RBCs) that together with the RBCs of the devolved administrations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales make up the National Education Network.

The role of the RBCs and the National Education Network as a whole is to provide aggregated services to support national strategy and targets for communications technology in Education.

They do this in different ways

• Internet transit
• Content creation
• Content procurement
• Supporting cross regional collaboration
• Video conferencing

The National Digital Resource Bank (NDRB) has evolved out of issues arising from the Government target for all schools in England to have a Learning Platform by the summer of 2008. It is currently estimated that more than 15 different learning platforms are deployed across England some at school level, some deployed across local authorities and others managed region wide. A common problem across deployments is the inability of teachers to access and share digital learning resources via the learning platforms.

The role of the NDRB is to provide a resource discovery and repository service across the National Education Network that will allow easy access to content

1. shared under creative commons licensing
2. packaged using common standards for interoperability, and
3. downloadable into learning platforms

There are currently over 100 of the 149 English local authorities committed to joining the NDRB and the majority of RBCs have made a commitment to deliver the support services necessary to implement the programme nationally.

Content creation activity has been patchy so far across England with many teachers creating and sharing resources via local networks and subject specific websites. Investment at local authority level in the creation of content varies, as does the quality of the resources produced. Interoperability has not been a target and local authorities are faced with what for many is a daunting task, that of tagging and making suitable resources for learning platforms when many have little experience of metadata, packaging standards or Learning Platforms.

The NDRB will 1) provide a framework to support local authorities to identify content that has been created within their schools and local networks, support coordinators with the process of quality checking, metadata creation and packaging, deployment and implementation. 2) Provide a national repository to house this content and a resource discovery service to promote easy access to the content via Learning Platforms.

Following on from a pilot programme which involved the harvesting, packaging and deployment of fifty digital learning objects from a range of sources and in a range of formats a number of issues presented themselves and a clear strategy has emerged for implementation and sustainability.

After careful consideration, it has been decided that the NDRB will be delivered using open source software. It is anticipated that the solution that will be used will be the Agrega platform developed by Spain under the Plan Avanza programme http://www.proyectoagrega.es/ The Agrega platform has been chosen for a number of reasons but primarily

• Ease of use
• Excellent preview facilities
• Ability to package consistently and download in multiple formats

Use of the Agrega platform will allow for standardisation of aspects of the packaging process which will enable the NDRB to pull together and support much of the work done by Becta on metadata, vocabularies, persistent identifiers and resource discovery.

The repository will be established using regional funding; local authorities from outside the founding region (NW) will share in the costs of the project as and when they become active members. Costs will be divided into two parts. Part one will be to cover the cost of infrastructure and management and Part two will be for the provision of NDRB services. It is through these services that NDRB will harvest the vast resource that is the NEN. The NEN is in a unique position to deliver standardised support services and training to local authorities, which can then be cascaded down to school level and onto teacher level. Via the existing capacity and networks of participating RBCs the NDRB will provide support services including

• Identification of suitable resources for contribution to the Bank
• Supported IPR and Copyright checking
• Supported technical quality checking
• Supported metadata creation and application
• Upload of resources into the Bank
• Deployment of downloaded resources into learning platforms

Over the next three years the NDRB hopes to bring in a wide range of contributors including federated external repositories and commercial suppliers and to further the objective of making resource discovery as transparent and effective as possible for the end user. The following outlines anticipated major milestones.

Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition
http://school.eb.co.uk
Encyclopædia Britannica is a commercial organisation and so differs in some ways from the state or ministry developed repositories, although it does have deep rooted educational values that bring many similarities. The repository gives teachers and students instant access to four complete encyclopaedias.

The content and resources within the Britannica repository is generated mostly by external contributors who generally are accepted as experts in their particular field. This is complemented by external licensed content and in house developed content. All submitted content is then put through the editorial process.

Having good quality content in a repository is no use if teachers and students find it difficult to access, search and find the information they require. The organisation and construction of the Britannica repositories differs in a fundamental way in that the repository does not have widespread use metadata to identify content.

Content is searched by the use of keywords against the text based article and the repository then attaches additional related content, typically in the form of images, video, etc. Using this method also makes the process of putting content into the repository easier than tagging with metadata as the contributor does not have to remember the taxonomy of the metadata used and also searching is not hampered by misspelling (by search string or metadata) or incorrect or inappropriate tagging. Britannica’s online repositories are built using A9 open search that allows federated searching of the repository by other applications such as learning platforms with the results retuned back to the search source.

This ease of access to the repository by technologies and applications has proved critical in addressing the stated issue of usage by users.

Glow is a digital network (national schools intranet), connecting every person involved in Scottish education, in a safe and secure online environment.

The Curriculum for Excellence is consolidating 3 to 18 (previously the curriculum covered pre 5, 5-14, and national qualifications). The goal is to enable all young people to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. In Scotland "glow is the vehicle for delivering curriculum for excellence", says Fiona Hyslop Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning.

Glow facilitates learning (customized/personalised learning spaces), teaching, communication, collaboration, planning, development, assessment and sharing nationally.

On the technical side: glow is a cross platform solution (MacOs, Linux and Windows), a requirement in Scotland. The platform is based on SharePoint Portal, Shibboleth, SRW/SRU, etc.

In Scotland the best online learning resources can be found in a repository maintained by Learning and Teaching Scotland.

www.intute.ac.uk
Intute is a free online service for higher and further education providing access to resources for educational research. All material is evaluated and selected by a network of subject specialists to create the Intute database.

www.fenc.org.uk
FENC is a charitable organisation supplying online materials and applications designed to help colleges, schools, universities and training organisations provide better results in a virtual learning environment and the wider blended learning space. It is also an online community of educational professionals encouraging sharing of resources for others to build on and tailor to their specific requirements.

www.open.ac.uk
The Open University is a distance learning university founded to bring higher education to people who are unable to study at a conventional university. The OU is for people who want to choose when and where they study.

OpenLearn LearningSpace http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/index.php. The OpenLearn website gives free access to course materials from The Open University, now offering a full range of Open University subject areas from access to postgraduate. The LearningSpace is open to learners anywhere in the world. In April 2008 OpenLearn reached 5,400 learning hours of content in the LearningSpace and 8100 hours in the LabSpace.

www.jorum.ac.uk
Jorum is a free online repository service for teaching and support staff in UK Further and Higher Education Institutions, helping to build a community for the sharing, reuse and repurposing of learning and teaching materials.

www.tes.co.uk/resources/home.aspx
The TES resource bank allows teachers to share resources with other teachers, recommend their favourites and rate and review other teachers' contributions and recommendations. They can upload and download files, or simply point people to web pages they’ve found useful.
There are 10 regional broadband consortia (RBCs) originally established to provide cost effective and co-ordinated broadband connectivity for schools in England. RBCs now play a role in promoting the development of digital learning resources. Some RBCs have content development programmes and sometimes facilitate collaboration and partnerships between industry and education. Each RBC provides teaching and learning resources aimed at schools on their websites. All 10 websites are linked to from the NEN site described below.

www.nen.gov.uk
The collective RBCs have formed the National Educational Network website, an educationally focused resource for teaching and learning. Optimised for data-intensive applications (including video conferencing), the National Education Network offers a number of advantages for schools, offering a secure and safe environment where issues such as copyright are managed and where teachers, pupils and parents can work collaboratively together.

www.tre.ngfl.gov.uk
The Teacher Resource Exchange (TRE) is a moderated repository of resources and activities created by teachers for teachers. All resources on the TRE are checked for quality and copyright compliance by subject specialists. Resources are free to use and teachers you can also add their own resources to share with others.

They are designed to provide quick and easy starting points for those educators looking for digital learning resources to support the use of ICT in secondary school subjects. Whether for professional development or practical classroom ideas, websites are highlighted in each booklet.

The series currently comprises six subject areas:

• English
• Mathematics
• Science
• RE
• Design & Technology
• History

These are available from the National Education Network website - www.nen.gov.uk - and are being made available to the Becta approved Learning Platform providers.

Public Funded

www.teachers.tv
Teachers TV is a free digital TV channel aimed at education professionals. The programmes cover every subject in the curriculum, all key stages and every professional role. Some are designed for professional development where others are intended for use in the classroom. Over 1500 videos are available to watch for free online, and can be downloaded. Some videos include lesson plans, worksheets etc. In addition, teachers can use the website to rate videos, comment on their content, bookmark their favourite programmes, edit videos for use in the classroom and discuss the latest education issues with their peers.

www.bgfl.org/bgfl/
The Birmingham Grid for Learning is owned and managed by Birmingham council and whilst it aims to provide a gateway to resources to support educational needs in Birmingham, it is open to and relevant to all schools. BGfL provides access to high quality, locally relevant resources that puts learning into context. It holds resources for learners of all ages and includes games, activities, quizzes, an online ‘ask the expert’, web links and useful information added on a daily basis. BGfL accesses top resources from across the City by allowing a centralised search of Birmingham Museums and Art Galleries and other key local sites. It provides dynamic content that’s available as news feeds to enable a personalised experience and links to popular polling and public debating activities.

The BBC, a public broadcasting corporation has a number of sites where free educational resources can be accessed.

• www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/onyourstreet/dholplayer.shtml
  Music education
• www.bbc.co.uk/schools
  Learning materials across subjects
• www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize
  Exam revision materials
• news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/teachers/default.stm
  Global news based lesson plans for teachers

Curriculum Experts

There are a number of niche curriculum sites focused on particular subjects and developed by experts for non commercial reasons.

• www.schoolhistory.co.uk
  Developed by a secondary history teacher, the School History site was created with the intention to provide a safe and convenient place for history teachers and pupils to find information, download worksheets and utilise IT in their lessons.

Professional Associations

Professional associations are generally non profit organisations concerned with supporting teachers in particular curriculum areas.

• www.atm.org.uk
  The Association of Teachers of Mathematics
• www.geography.org.uk
  The Geographical Society
• www.nsead.org./home/index.aspx
  The National Society for Education in Art and Design

The Commercial Sector

Many businesses in the UK across all sectors have developed websites with educational resources. Inevitably some businesses have taken this route to support and promote their brand but others have invested large amount of resources in developing sophisticated learning materials. Industry bodies with a public service remit tend to focus on issues of particular concern to the public and have increasingly developed online education learning material to communicate their messages with young audiences.

• www.bteducation.org
  Part of the British Telecom education programme this site provides schools with a range of free educational resources supporting the teaching of speaking and listening skills.
• www.historystudyshop.co.uk
  An integral part of the television station ‘The History Channel’, this website provides access to a wide range of interesting programmes and related learning materials.

The Cultural Sector

www.24hourmuseum.org.uk soon to become www.culture24.org.uk
Culture 24 is funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and draws together a wide range of resources offered by the UKs museums and galleries. It is a virtual museum including a section of approved interactive resources and a search engine which draws on resources that are continually updated by museums and galleries themselves. Teachers have access to museum resources including teachers' packs, web pages, workshops, fact sheets, gallery tours etc.

Other cultural organisations have developed their own digital learning resources often of high quality, related to their exhibits and tied into the national curriculum. The main purpose is to promote events and exhibitions and encourage visitors to the museum or gallery. This is understandable as this is generally how cultural organisations are funded and has been a blocker for some organisations putting their collections online who have concerns that this might negate the need for users to visit the physical museum or gallery.

www.21citizen.co.uk/learning/index.html
The British Library

www.empiremuseum.co.uk
The Empire Museum

www.english-heritage.org.uk
English Heritage

www.learningcurve.gov.uk
The National Archives

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
National Museums and Galleries in Liverpool

www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Learning/Learningonline/
The Museum of London

www.nhm.ac.uk
The National History Museum

www.nmm.ac.uk
The National Maritime Museum

www.vam.ac.uk/schools_stdnts/index.html
The Victoria and Albert Museum

Overview of the history behind the UK Learning Object Metadata application profile and the educational metadata initiatives that have followed since in the UK (a timeline ranging from April 2002 to November 2007):

Moving from a situation where the successful implementation of a LOM application profile came from satisfying a need not by mandating to a new situation where the recognition of LOM insufficiencies in some areas means that the future is likely to bring application profiles based on multiple schemas (illustrated through the Learning Materials Application Profile: Scoping study for application profile extending beyond IEEE LOM).

Relevant link: Learning Materials Application Profile Scoping Study