2nd Annual DLESE Meeting (2001): Metadata

Creating resources for discovery and re-use

Friday, August 3, 10:30-12:00

Session description

This session will bring together creators and users of electronic resources to address the design of resources for discovery (both within DLESE and in general) and for subsequent re-use in the classroom. In a small group activity, participants will identify the essential elements needed to adequately describe an electronic learning object for these multiple purposes and experiment with the effective design and placement of this information in the resource. Options for representing the desired information in a resource, both technically and in conjunction with instructional design principles will be discussed, including guidelines for DLESE metatags. Our discussions will result in a document that summarizes the interwoven information needs for re-use, discovery, and cataloging, with suggestions for accomplishing this multi-faceted task.

Goals and objectives

• Engage both creators and users of electronic resources in a discussion of the importance of the presence of descriptive information in a resource for discovery, cataloging, and re-use in the classroom.
• Resource creators will gain insight into the information needs of the users of their resources, and will explore options for representing the information in a resource, both technically and in conjunction with good instructional design principles.
• Users of electronic resources will provide input regarding their information needs for comprehension and re-use, which is critical to crafting effective library cataloging protocol as well as of concern to resource creators with re-use as a goal.

Activity

Three small groups will form, with each given a sample learning object as a print-out. Each group will be composed of both users and resource creators. Each group will generate a list of the types of information that they think should be present in their resource to support its discovery and comprehension of the resource by the others (the various user constituents). The participants will then be provided a large sheet of paper on which to layout their items. The task is not to create educational content for the item but to provide supporting documentation in the context of layout. Once complete, groups will share and compare their work to the other groups'.

Discussion

When we reconvene as a whole group we will compile a comprehensive list of the necessary elements and features of a resource, noting for each the way in which it supports discovery, comprehension or cataloging. A discussion of good instructional design principles and how they align (or don't) with the needs of the users as just laid out will follow, led by professional instructional designers. Guidelines for using metatags will be discussed and distributed.

Resources

Sumner, T., Dawe, M. and Devaul, H. ( in review). Creating Reusable Educational Components: Lessons from DLESE. Submitted to the Journal of Geoscience Education

Sumner, T. and Dawe, M. (in press). Looking at Digital Library Usability from a Reuse Perspective. ACM/IEEE JCDL 2001 (Joint Conference on Digital Libraries), Roanoke, Virginia.

For more information about this session, contact Holly Devaul

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Annual Meeting 2001 General Information

Last updated: 7-10-01
Maintained by: Katy Ginger (support@dlese.org), DLESE Metadata

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