Re: Welcome to the W3C EOCred-schema WG

Hello. I’m Bob Dolan, Principal of Diverse Learners Consulting. My backgrounds are in cognitive neuroscience and software engineering, and I’ve been in education technology research and innovation for 17 years. Before beginning my consulting practice in 2013, I spent several years each at CAST (where I was part of the NIMAS team) and Pearson. At both places I designed, implemented, and evaluated technology-based learning and assessment solutions with emphases on cognition, accessibility, and usability—all within the K-16 realm. Since consulting, I’ve also become active in lifelong-learning and assessment for job placement, including I/O psychology. I’m also on the adjunct faculty at Landmark College and teach as part of their professional certification program in education.

I look forward to being part of this team.

Bob Dolan, Ph.D. | Principal
bob@diverselearnersconsulting.com <mailto:bob@diverselearnersconsulting.com>
www.diverselearnersconsulting.com <http://www.diverselearnersconsulting.com/>
413.367.6199



> On Nov 9, 2017, at 5:50 AM, Phil Barker <phil.barker@pjjk.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Hello, and welcome to the W3C Educational and Occupational Credentials in schema.org working group. This message concerns: chairing the group, introductions, getting started with the work, and spam.
> chairing the group.
> My name is Phil Barker, I proposed this working group, and I see someone has nominated me as chair. Thank you for that, I am very happy to take this role. This is an open group, so if at any time anyone else wants a different/additional chair there is a process for that. Just let your wishes be known to the group and we can come to a consensus or have a vote.
> 
> introductions
> We don't all know each other, so it might be a good idea to send a short introduction about yourself and your interest in educational and occupational credentials.
> After spending the last 20yrs in educational technology and standards based in Higher Ed, I am an now an independent consultant in technology for learning and information systems for education. I have worked in metadata for many years, I am part of the DCMI LRMI <http://lrmi.dublincore.net/> task group which added educational terms to schema.org, and I chaired W3C schema course extend <https://www.w3.org/community/schema-course-extend/> community group that added terms to describe Courses. I am on the technical advisory group for the Credential Engine <http://credentialengine.org/> and, as point of disclosure, while I don't represent the Credential Engine in the community group, I am receiving funding from them in order to facilitate linking their work to schema.org.
> 
> getting started with the work
> 
> I suggest that we progress this work in much the same way as the W3C schema course extension community group worked. That is, to: 
> - gather some outline use cases in order to scope what it is that we want to cover (just a few words will do, we're not building a system so we don't need a great deal of detail).
> 
> - gather examples of sites that convey information relevant to these use cases. These will act as sanity checks on the type of information that is published on the web about educational and occupational credentials.
> 
> - distil requirements from the use cases, checking that the examples show that what require can be provided.
> 
> - discuss and come to a consensus on how these requirements can best be met with existing schema.org properties or, failing that, propose new properties to meet the requirements.
> 
> At the end I hope the use cases and requirements, with a record of how the requirements can be met, will serve as a sort of how-to documentation for describing Ed & Oc credentials in schema.org.
> 
> I think we can do much of this work using the W3C tools: this mail list and a wiki.
> 
> You can see the initial discussions we've had at the Credential Engine and their outcomes on Github <https://github.com/CredentialEngine/CTDL2schema.org/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Aissue%20> and Google docs <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nDHfk5WMGoxcsHi7ujjFwHecXjb_lTlE8va1At71_Zo/edit>.
> 
> I think it would be useful to supplement the online working with a conference call when necessary, starting with one to discuss what I have outlined so far in this message. I will send a poll round to find a suitable time soon.
> 
> Spam
> 
> Some of you may have seem some spam that was posted to the community group blog. The person who sent it has been removed from the group, and so cannot post again. I have asked the W3C community group support team whether there is anything that can be done to stop it happening again.
> 
> With best regards, Phil
> 
> 
> LRMI http://lrmi.dublincore.net/ <http://lrmi.dublincore.net/>
> schema course extension https://www.w3.org/community/schema-course-extend/ <https://www.w3.org/community/schema-course-extend/>
> Credential Engine http://credentialengine.org/ <http://credentialengine.org/>
> -- 
> Phil Barker <http://people.pjjk.net/phil>. http://people.pjjk.net/phil <http://people.pjjk.net/phil>
> PJJK Limited: technology to enhance learning; information systems for education.
> 
> PJJK Limited <https://www.pjjk.co.uk/> is registered in Scotland as a private limited company, number SC569282.
>