RE: [Proposal] schema:OnlineCourse

Hello.  This looks interesting. We have discussed how to treat courses occasionally within the LRMI (Learning Resource Metadata Initiative, [1]). I would like to encourage you to send a message to that list to see what people there think of it.

Some thoughts of my own:
- it might be worth distinguishing between the generic "work" from particular instances of a course. For example: MIT's "Physics 1, Classical Mechanics" which runs every year with slight variations and of which there is a version on MITOCW. Or an example closer to my home, Heriot-Watt's  BSc programme in Information Systems, which is what Heriot-Watt University advertises each year and what students apply for enrollment in is different from the course that any specific student takes (it varies from year to year, students take options). It might be worth thinking about this, I doubt it would be worth getting too wrapped up in it--I can provide examples of what would happen if you did get too wrapped up in it. (Niklas, if you were suggesting this as the distinction between course as CreativeWork and course as Event, I don't think that quite captures it: a distance learning course / correspondence course isn't really an Event i.e. something "happening at a certain time and location", and also see next point.) Some of the current specifications for course advertising capture this, e.g. XCRI-CAP [2], MLO-AD [3]

- a course is essentially a collection of things (events and creative works, mostly; in the case of a programme, other courses).  Maybe your event property could be replaced with or modeled on something similar to the hasPart property of CreativeWorks. Required reading, individual units of online material could be specified, videos, activities, assignments, exams etc for online and face-to-face course could all be parts that a course has.

- syllabus. Probably better to aloow this to be a CreativeWork. They often live as separate documents and have life cycles all of their own.

- requirements. educationalAlignment can be used with alignmentType of "requires"

Hope this helps, I'll send a message to the LRMI list to make them aware of this work, you would be welcome to discuss this work there.

Best regards, Phil

1. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/lrmi
2. http://www.xcri.co.uk/index.php
3. http://www.cen-wslt.din.de/sixcms_upload/media/3378/CWA16132.pdf

________________________________
From: GUANGYUAN PIAO [parklize@gmail.com]
Sent: 23 October 2014 00:06
To: Wallis,Richard
Cc: Niklas Lindström; Aaron Bradley; <public-vocabs@w3.org>
Subject: Re: [Proposal] schema:OnlineCourse

Hi,

Updated the current proposal to the Brainstorming session on WebSchemas Wiki page.<https://www.w3.org/wiki/WebSchemas/SchemaDotOrgProposals>

CreativeWork->Course->OnlineCourse
OnlineCourse-> event -> EducationEvent

The revised version and example are available:
Course: https://sites.google.com/site/moocontology/home
Example for Coursera's course: https://sites.google.com/site/moocontology/examples

All feedback will be appreciated!!


On Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 1:07 AM, GUANGYUAN PIAO <parklize@gmail.com<mailto:parklize@gmail.com>> wrote:
Thanks for information, it's been a big help.

I totally agree with the generalized "Course" type and the "Event" approach.

After catching up the preliminary discussion<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-vocabs/2014Feb/0131.html> that Aaron mentions, I think reusing EducationEvent like you did in Edumine website is good approach.

I revised type to CreativeWork > Course > OnlineCourse, and reuse the event property which is already exist in schema.org<http://schema.org> to EducationEvent.

OnlineCourse-> event -> EducationEvent

The revised version and example are available:
Course: https://sites.google.com/site/moocontology/home
Example for Coursera's course: https://sites.google.com/site/moocontology/examples

Any feedback is welcome!



On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 12:03 AM, Wallis,Richard <Richard.Wallis@oclc.org<mailto:Richard.Wallis@oclc.org>> wrote:
On 14 Oct 2014, at 19:43, Niklas Lindström <lindstream@gmail.com<mailto:lindstream@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hi,

Just a note (of what I've encountered when working with educational data): there usually are two things: Course < CreativeWork, and CourseEvent < Event; the former being the structure and body of material, the latter one of possibly many enactments in time of this structure and material.

+1

If we are going to be looking at Course, which is an obvious gap at the moment, we should ensure we cover the full spectrum from brick & mortar degree courses, through courses of driving lessons, to MOOCs and other online education and self-improvement courses.

At the bricks & motor end of the spectrum, some established work would be worth looking at, for its simplicity and integration with the organisational structure of the educational organisation (university) that is responsible for it.  I am referring to AIISO <http://vocab.org/aiiso/schema>:

Course: A Course is a KnowledgeGrouping that represents a cohesive collection of educational material referred to by the owning organization as a course.

KnowledgeGrouping : A KnowledgeGrouping represents a collection of resources, learning objectives, timetables, and other materials. The more specific subclasses of Subject, Programme, Course and Module are preferred.

~Richard



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To be Sharer^^

A man is not old as long as he is seeking something.
A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.

Email: parklize@gmail.com<mailto:parklize@gmail.com>
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be Sharer^^

A man is not old as long as he is seeking something.
A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.

Email: parklize@gmail.com<mailto:parklize@gmail.com>
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