Re: schema-course-extend: credential or award offered through course.

On 16/06/2016 11:35, Stuart Sutton wrote:
>
> Richard, as for the property name grantsCredential, I'd rather go for 
> something a little "softer" like relatedCredential partially for the 
> reasons you state--i.e. that an instance of Course does not "grant", 
> some authoritative agent does that.

Yes, I take this point

> Second, while it is not impossible for a single instance of Course to 
> lead to Credential, that is most frequently not the case in formal 
> educational contexts. _However_, if we interpret the current 
> definition of Course to include a set/sequence of Courses ("...a 
> sequence of one or more educational events and/or creative works...") 
> then it can be akin to "course of study/degree/trainingl program" 
> where the result of successful completion is an instance of a 
> (yet-to-be-defined) Credential.

This seems problematic to me. Some of our first year courses are common 
between several programmes, say Computer Science, Computer Systems, 
Information Systems, Software Engineering.  Also, while the target award 
will normally be a BSc (Hons) or BEng, if the student leaves the 
programme early they will still get an award of CertHE, DipHE or BSc 
(ord). So, in this case there may be 20 'relatedCredential's (and that 
is quite a conservative analysis)

In fact, no credential is awarded for our first year courses; what we do 
award is 'credit' which can be accumulated through a program of studies 
to count towards the awards mentioned above. Clearly, this program of 
studies meets our definition of a Course, and it hasParts which also 
meet our definition of a Course. Of course it is the award-bearing 
program that we advertise externally, with links to the modules it 
comprises, and that is what we would want students looking to qualify 
for a BSc in Computer Science to find.

In short, I would rather address the issue that Stuart raises through 
modelling composite courses (aka programs, tracks) than muddy the answer 
to a simple question of "how can I study for a BSc in Computer Science".

Phil

-- 
Phil Barker           @philbarker
LRMI, Cetis, ICBL     http://people.pjjk.net/phil
Heriot-Watt University

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