RDN/LTSN resource type vocabulary

Version 1.0

Phil Barker, Phil Cross, Ale Fernandez, Suzanne Hardy, Nik Jewell, Martin Poulter, Andy Powell

1. Introduction

This document defines a vocaulary for use by RDN/LTSN partnerships in the description of resources that support the activities of the UK higher and further education learning and teaching community.

2. Definitions

For the purposes of this document, the following definitions apply:

Item: A physical or digital entity.
Collection: An aggregation of one or more items.
Service: The provision of, or system of supplying, one or more functions of interest to an end-user or software application. 'Informational' services provide access to, or metadata about, items and/or collections. 'Transactional' services are those that do not primarily concern the supply of information, for example photocopying, printing or banking services. Services may be physical or on-line (digital).
Resource: An item, collection or service of interest to a person or organisation.
Learning Resource: A resource designed with educational intent.
Educator: A person or organisation with responsibility for developing, managing or delivering learning resources. This includes staff roles such as instructional designers, managers in educational institutions, learning technologist, teaching and learning support staff, and staff developers, as well as teachers.
Educator Resource: A resource primarily intended to assist an educator in the development, management or delivery of learning resources.

3. RDN/LTSN resource type vocabulary

This vocaulary can be used to specify the type of a resource. It is expected to be used with the 5.2 learningResourceType LOM element or the dc:type (with scheme='RDNLTSNType') DCMES element, as defined by the RDN/LTSN LOM application profile. Note that this list is intended to supplement the RDN Resource Types list. Note also that this list covers both learning resources and educator resources (as defined above).

Values should be encoded as follows in LOM metadata records, using the name rather than the label:

  ...
  <educational>
    <learningResourceType>
      <source>RDNLTSNType</source>
      <value>CaseStudy</value>
    </learningResourceType>
  </educational>
  ...

Name	Label	Definition
CourseModuleUnitProgramme	Course/Module/Unit/Programme	A sequence of instructional activities designed by an educator (or a faculty or other group of educators) to advance significantly student skills, knowledge, and habits of mind significantly in a particular discipline and to help students meet specified requirements (as set forth in curricula or government policy).
ResourcePack	Resource Pack	A complete package for a course, module or unit, including learning resources of several types, and possibly including suporting documentation such as tutors' instructions and learning objectives specified.
CaseStudy	Case Study	A learning resource which is a detailed account of a process or activity.
ActivityExerciseFieldwork	Activity/Exercise/Fieldwork	A task that students are asked to do to help them develop particular skills, knowledge, or habits of mind.
ActivityExerciseFieldworkNotes	Activity/Exercise/Fieldwork Notes	A set of notes or instructions associated with an activity, exercise or piece of fieldwork.
ProjectOutline	Project Outline	A description of a set of activities organized around a particular academic topic.
SimulationModel	Simulation/Model	A representation of a process, activity, organisation or object.
StudyGuide	Study Guide	A guide created to provide students with hints, techniques, or management ideas in a particular area.
ExaminationTest	Examination/Test	Materials, typically made up of several assessment items, that are designed to measure student learning (exams, questionnaires, quizzes) or to support educator design or development of such materials (rubrics).
QuestionBank	Question Bank	A collection of assessment items.
AssessmentItem	Assessment Item	An item (e.g. a question/answer pair) that is designed to measure student learning.
LecturePresentation	Lecture/Presentation	A video or audio recording or a transcript of a lecture, presentation, speech or classroom session.
Glossary	Glossary	A collection of specialized terms and their meanings.
CourseLecturePresentationNotes	Course/Lecture/Presentation Notes	A set of notes or overhead slides that accompany a course, lecture, presentation, speech or classroom session.
WorkedExample	Worked Example	A written problem or exercise designed to illustrate a rule.
Textbook	Textbook	A book with an explicit goal of explaining a field of inquiry to students.
Demonstration	Demonstration	A video or audio recording or a transcript of a practical exhibition of a process, activity or object.
Computer-basedTutorial	Computer-based Tutorial	A computer-based resource that provides guided, practical information about a specific subject.
ReadingList	Reading List	A list of resources that accompany a course, module, unit or other activity.
TeachingTip	Teaching Tip	A piece of practical advice primarily intended for an educator.
CurriculumSyllabus	Curriculum/Syllabus	Outlines of courses and modules and their contents. General material describing a course or unit of study.
EducatorGuide	Educator Guide	A guide intended for use by educators.
EvaluationForm	Evaluation Form	A form (computer-based or hardcopy) designed to solicit feedback with the intention of evaluating an activity or process.
EducationalPolicy	Educational Policy	A document containing statements or series of steps for particular way of accomplishing an activity related to education.
EducationalReport	Educational Report	Detailed account or statement, often outlining the results or events of a meeting, endeavor, activity or study (e.g. review, evaluation) related to education.
LessonPlan	Lesson Plan	A plan for helping students learn a particular set of skills, knowledge, or habits of mind. Often includes student activities as well as teaching ideas, instructional materials, and other resources. Is shorter (in duration) than, and often part of, a unit of instruction. Goals and outcomes are focused.

4. Supplementing this list

If you need a term for a resource type which is not listed here, you are free to create local extensions. Such extensions may refine existing types or they may extend the scope of the list.

Extensions have limited value for interoperability (that's what 'local' means in this context). In order to inform later updates of this list we shall keep a record of possible extensions. If you do need a local extension, please choose one from this list, and inform Phil Barker <philb@icbl.hw.ac.uk> and Andy Powell <a.powell@ukoln.ac.uk>. If you need an extension which is not covered by this list, please let us know what it is and we will add it.

If the local extension you use is a refinement of an existing term in the list above, then it would maximise interoperability if you exported records which included both the broader term above and the local term as resource types.

References

Last modified: 10-Jul-2009
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