Content Assessment
Create a method for (creating && pulling) assessment of content, in addition to the content.
Functionality / design requirements : Browse Recent Ideas
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This idea is active.Functionality / design requirements »Add your comment for Idea: Content Assessment
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This idea is active.Functionality / design requirements »
Create an API
5 comments for Idea: Create an APICreate an API to allow developers to search and access resources. The Sunlight Foundation helps government agencies open up their data and create APIs so developers can use the data in applications. They could be a great partner in your work.
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This idea is active.Functionality / design requirements »
Make learning content crawl-able
I don't see this issue as a search engine problem so much as it is a content format problem. The biggest problem with accessing "learning content" right now is that most of what we call learning content (SCORM packages) is closer to being a mini-application than it is to being a pure provider of content. How can a search engine be expected to crawl a site that has its navigation locked away in a proprietary format....especially ...more »
Add your comment for Idea: Make learning content crawl-ableI don't see this issue as a search engine problem so much as it is a content format problem. The biggest problem with accessing "learning content" right now is that most of what we call learning content (SCORM packages) is closer to being a mini-application than it is to being a pure provider of content.
How can a search engine be expected to crawl a site that has its navigation locked away in a proprietary format....especially one that intentionally restricts the learner (and thus crawler) from proceeding until mastery is demonstrated. Most SCORM packages right now are monolithic SCOs that have their own proprietary navigation. How can a search engine be expected to crawl what is essentially a proprietary application. We don't expect a search engine to crawl the contents of a video (yet), we only expect it to index the public metadata that is associated with that video. While this model presents problems for search engine discovery, it has merit and utility derived from the educational experience it delivers.
"Crawl-ability" is related to a similar problem of "link-ability". Right now, there typically isn't a way to link to and deliver just a small, but relevant, part of content.
Obvious solutions to these problems include structured content formats or small SCOs tied together with Sequencing and Navigation. Both of these solutions have merit, but impose strict requirements and limitations that discourage broad use.
Increased use of metadata is another option that should be encouraged and explored...again though without imposing undue burden on content creators.
Is the best alternative to continue to allow for black box, "application-like" content, but also let such content provide alternative versions / navigation paths that expose the actual learning content in a crawl-able/link-able manner?
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This idea is active.Functionality / design requirements »
Make learning content crawl-able
I don't see this issue as a search engine problem so much as it is a content format problem. The biggest problem with accessing "learning content" right now is that most of what we call learning content (SCORM packages) is closer to being a mini-application than it is to being a pure provider of content. How can a search engine be expected to crawl a site that has its navigation locked away in a proprietary format....especially ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Make learning content crawl-ableI don't see this issue as a search engine problem so much as it is a content format problem. The biggest problem with accessing "learning content" right now is that most of what we call learning content (SCORM packages) is closer to being a mini-application than it is to being a pure provider of content.
How can a search engine be expected to crawl a site that has its navigation locked away in a proprietary format....especially one that intentionally restricts the learner (and thus crawler) from proceeding until mastery is demonstrated. Most SCORM packages right now are monolithic SCOs that have their own proprietary navigation. How can a search engine be expected to crawl what is essentially a proprietary application. We don't expect a search engine to crawl the contents of a video (yet), we only expect it to index the public metadata that is associated with that video. While this model presents problems for search engine discovery, it has merit and utility derived from the educational experience it delivers.
"Crawl-ability" is related to a similar problem of "link-ability". Right now, there typically isn't a way to link to and deliver just a small, but relevant, part of content.
Obvious solutions to these problems include structured content formats or small SCOs tied together with Sequencing and Navigation. Both of these solutions have merit, but impose strict requirements and limitations that discourage broad use.
Increased use of metadata is another option that should be encouraged and explored...again though without imposing undue burden on content creators.
Is the best alternative to continue to allow for black box, "application-like" content, but also let such content provide alternative versions / navigation paths that expose the actual learning content in a crawl-able/link-able manner?
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This idea is active.Functionality / design requirements »
search phrase code
1 comment for Idea: search phrase codeyou could have a phrase you put in front of your search (e.g. have "learn:" just as you have "define:" and "recipe:", as a complement to the additional information needed on the content tagging side
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This idea is active.Functionality / design requirements »
Solution Design
From my perspective the four problems areas that were partly elaborated on the blog and also fed into the discussion topics below are all interrelated. I don't believe you can arrive at independent solutions and expect them to work as a whole (not suggesting that is what you are actually trying to do but has an impact on the discussion). Normally in solution design there needs to be clarification of the "business" requirements, ...more »
2 comments for Idea: Solution DesignFrom my perspective the four problems areas that were partly elaborated on the blog and also fed into the discussion topics below are all interrelated. I don't believe you can arrive at independent solutions and expect them to work as a whole (not suggesting that is what you are actually trying to do but has an impact on the discussion). Normally in solution design there needs to be clarification of the "business" requirements, objectives, related activities, end-user requirements etc to clarify the role of the project and the interrelationships between the parts before you can get into the detail, flexibility requirements and technical requirements. I am worried to see an early suggestion of any technology, standard or specification in advance of clarifying the sorts of requirements that should drive the design and then the development. Perhaps that is just my solution architecture bent, but I often see problems arise when the technology drives the agenda instead of serving the agenda.
The clarification of the end-user requirements and project scope and responsibilities, etc will tell you a lot about scale, community of practice engagement, "plugins" to the NLR, augmentation practices of target communities (and therefore crosswalking/harmonization requirements) etc.
You are all smart people, there is no doubt about that or the kinds of issues raised here would not have been raised already, so I am sure that you will be thinking a lot about the issues I've mentioned. It would certainly help if we had some further insight because it will help us to provide more focused information into your activities.
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Crosswalking / integrating diverse metadata
1 comment for Idea: Crosswalking / integrating diverse metadataWhat technologies exist to permit crosswalking diverse metadata into searchable / discoverable interfaces?
We've run across Fedora, DSpace, xtf and I'm sure there are many more out there. Anyone have experience with products that solve this problem efficiently?
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This idea is active.Functionality / design requirements »
Paradata formats and storage
Are there any good/popular formats for structuring "paradata?" Also, how should paradata be stored? Is the publishing agent responsible for storing and sending it to anyone who asks for a period of time? Could we use a bittorrent concept to help make paradata available to all but without having to be stored by everyone? (Share the storage?) Paradata is any kind of usage data (whether raw weblogs, ratings, reviews, ...more »
1 comment for Idea: Paradata formats and storageAre there any good/popular formats for structuring "paradata?" Also, how should paradata be stored? Is the publishing agent responsible for storing and sending it to anyone who asks for a period of time?
Could we use a bittorrent concept to help make paradata available to all but without having to be stored by everyone? (Share the storage?)
Paradata is any kind of usage data (whether raw weblogs, ratings, reviews, comments, etc)
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This idea is active.Functionality / design requirements »
Metadata augmentation and performance
How can we get metadata augmentation from many different sources in a way that doesn’t create gatekeepers but also permits high performance searches? Metadata augmentation would permit classification or other information about a resource to be searchable from any node on a network, regardless of who publishes the resource. In traditional metadata models, only the publisher of a resource can provide metadata and search ...more »
3 comments for Idea: Metadata augmentation and performanceHow can we get metadata augmentation from many different sources in a way that doesn’t create gatekeepers but also permits high performance searches?
Metadata augmentation would permit classification or other information about a resource to be searchable from any node on a network, regardless of who publishes the resource. In traditional metadata models, only the publisher of a resource can provide metadata and search capability about the resource.
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