Re: schema course extension: tweaking the definition of Course, AggregateCourses

CourseAggregation > DegreeProgram

from
https://github.com/schemaorg/schemaorg/issues/195#issuecomment-220776363

> (DegreeProgram will/would require conditionals)

(because OR)

On Friday, June 17, 2016, Phil Barker <phil.barker@hw.ac.uk> wrote:

> Talking with some people yesterday it was pointed out to me that there is
> room for uncertainty as to whether Course as we have defined it for Schema
> Course Extend would include something like a  collection of courses that
> taken together lead to a degree. The definition we have is
>
> A description of an educational course which may be offered as distinct
>> instances at different times and places, or through different media or
>> modes of study. An educational course is a sequence of one or more
>> educational events and/or creative works which aims to build knowledge,
>> competence or ability of learners.
>>
> http://course.schema-course-extend.appspot.com/Course
>
>
> There is nothing in this definition that rules out a two/three/four-year
> course of study or programme that leads to a degree (indeed Courses are
> CreativeWorks and so Course may be a sequence of Courses). Part of the
> ambiguity is that in the US this would not be called a course, whereas in
> the UK it would.
>
> I propose that we unambiguously state that such aggregations of courses
> are included in the definition of Course:
>
> Course definition:
> A description of an educational course which may be offered as distinct
> instances at different times and places, or through different media or
> modes of study. An educational course is a sequence of one or more
> educational events and/or creative works which aims to build knowledge,
> competence or ability of learners. A course may include other courses.
>
>
> We also have a use case where a student want to find a set of courses that
> build on each other, see http://bit.ly/sce-us8 This requires us to be
> able to identify aggregations of Courses, and to identify the two-way
> relationship between a Course aggregation and component courses. I propose
> a new subtype of Course to deal with this
>
> CourseAggregation, subtype of Course
> A group of Courses that may be taken together, e.g. a University or
> college course or program of study leading to a single qualification or
> award; an educational track, concentration or specialization.
>
> The isPartOf/hasPart properties of CreativeWork can indicate the
> relationship between Courses and CourseAggregations. (It may be useful to
> create optionalCourse and mandatoryCourse subtypes of hasPart?)
>
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Phil
>
> --
> Phil Barker           @philbarker
> LRMI, Cetis, ICBL     http://people.pjjk.net/phil
> Heriot-Watt University
>
> Workflow: http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/~philb/workflow/
>
>
>