Making Sense of ISO/IEC 19788

Discussion on Part 1: Framework

ISO/IEC 19788

• Multi-part standard prepared by subcommittee SC36 of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC1, Information Technology for Learning, Education and Training

– Committee created to deal with the overlapping of standardization done by ISO and IEC

– The standard is intended to provide compatibility with DC and LOM and also support multilingual and cultural adaptability requirements from a global perspective

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_19788

Purpose

• facilitate the identification and specification of the metadata elements required to describe a learning resource by providing metadata elements and their attributes

• support search, discovery, acquisition, evaluation, and use of learning resources by learners, instructors or automated software processes

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_19788

Concept Maps

Created to help with the comprehension of some terms

Concept Map 1

• The following concept map contains the main aspects of ISO/IEC 19788

• Starting from the upper left, follow the nodes down to the lower right to get a first glimpse of the standard

• In the next concept maps, additional information for each aspect is provided

Entity

ISO/IEC 19788 describes an…

…that when referenced by an identifier is considered a…

Resource

…which in turn can be described using a…

Data Element

…that belongs to a… Resource Class

…that contains all the resources that have properties & behavior

following the same rule or rule set.

…that when used to describe a learning resource is called a…

Learning Resource

…that when used for learning, education and training, is called a…

Metadata Element

…that is defined through a… Data Element Specification

Metadata Record

…that is part of a…

Application Profile

Data Element Group Specifications

…that when combined with others creates an…

Application Profile Record

…that is described by an…

Application Profile Specification

Content Value

Concept Map 2

• An "Entity" can be any concrete or abstract thing that exists. This can be a person, an object, an idea, an event or a process

• Each entity has "Attributes" that characterize it and it also has "Attribute Values“, the value that each attribute takes

• Each Entity that is referenced by a stable identifier (like a URI), is a "Resource"

• A group of resources whose properties and behaviour, follow the same rule or rule set, are referred to as "Resource Class"

• Resources & Resource Class are described with "Data Elements" that have their own Attributes & Attribute Values

Class

Entity

Person, object, idea, event, process

attribute

value

value

value

attribute value

value

Resource Entity referenced by a stable identifier

can be

Resource Class

belongs to

resources that follow

rule

rule set

OR

Learning Resource

domain

Resource used for learning, education or training

Data Element

described by

content value

has

attribute

value

value

value

attribute value

value

type of

content value content value

range

Concept Map 3

• A Data Element, a unit of data that is, is described in a "Data Element Specification"

• When the Data Element conforms to a specific rule or rule set, it is called a "Conformant Data Element“

• An aggregation of Data Elements, is called a "Data Element Group"

• Their description using specific attributes and values, is called a "Data Element Group Specification“

• Each Data Element that describes a Learning Resource (resource used for learning, education and training), is called a "Metadata Element"

attribute

value

value

value

attribute value

value

Data Element

Unit of data attribute

value

value

value

attribute value

value

Data Element Specification

Data Element

Data element group

attribute

value

value

value

attribute value

value

Data Element Group Specification

rule

rule set

OR

Metadata Element

Concept Map 4

• When an Application Profile is used to describe a Learning Resource, following a specific rule set, then an "Application Profile Record" is created. If all the Data Elements used within the Application Profile are conformant, then the result is a "Conforming Application Profile Record".

Application Profile

Learning Resource

applied to

creates

Application Profile Record

Learning Resource

rule

rule set

AND

following

If all data elements are conformant to rules, we have

a conforming AP record

Example of a Data Element Specification

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_19788

Resource Description Framework (RDF)

• Assertions for a learning resource can be made using triples of subject, predicate and object – Subject: Identifier of a learning resource (URI)

– Predicate: Identifier of the data element spec

– Object: Information like a book title or a value from a pre-defined vocabulary

• Resource X is described using data element Y and takes value Z

Parts of ISO/IEC 19788

• Part 1: Framework

• Part 2: Dublin Core elements

• Part 3: Basic application profile

• Part 4: Technical elements

• Part 5: Educational elements

• Part 7: Bindings

• Part 8: Data elements for MLR records

• Part 9: Data elements for persons

• Part 11: Migration from LOM to MLR

Making Sense of ISO/IEC 19788

Discussion on Part 1: Framework

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