the dutch framework of educational semantics

THE DUTCH FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL SEMANTICSServing Education Through Semantic Cooperation

EdReNe Conference, The Hague, December 11th, 2012

Introduction• Jacob Molenaar• NL based independent consultant in educational

technology and educational publishing• Chair of the Working Committee of the Dutch Framework

For Educational Semantics (OnderwijsBegrippenKader)

But I’m not going to do this alone…

Tryptich Of Presentations1. Jacob: The Strategic Background Of The Dutch

Framework Of Educational Semantics2. Jos van der Arend: The Information Design Of The

Dutch Framework Of Educational Semantics3. Jacob: An Experimental Application Of The Dutch

Framework Of Educational Semantics

Topics / Themes• A little bit about the nature of Educational Content for a

start• A little bit more about the Semantic Web and Linked Open

Data• Much about the Dutch Framework For Educational

Semantics (OnderwijsBegrippenKader)• Much more about the Dutch Framework For Educational

Semantics by Jos!• A demo and discussion of the Linked Data Trial Prototype

Actual Content

Textbook paragraphs, tables, YouTube clips,

quizzes, exercises, etc.

Educational Design

Which learning goals, which subjects, what

type of students, which learning activities, how

much learning time, etc. Educational Content

70%

30%Is normally associated with

Is mainly determined bymetadata

data

The Nature Of Educational Content

Educational InformationAll information that is generated in the process of designing, planning and delivering (formal) education to learners:

• Formal curriculum (learning goals, teaching subjects)• Rationale of this curriculum

• Additional achievement standards• Rationale of these standards

• Exam Standards (in NL we have national exam standards)• Body of Knowledge (concepts, terms, theories, etc.)• Educational Designs:

• Learning trajectories• Textbook structures

• ‘Lore of teaching’ (didactics, pedagogy)• Learner Data (profiles, tracking & tracing)

Educational Information• Comes from many sources• Is expressed by a variety of experts using a variety of idioms• Is structured in many different ways• Is difficult to find and access; it lives in many different

websites, databases and documents• Is ‘narrative’ (complex and often verbose)

Connecting all these information sources is very hard for a teacher, a curriculum designer, a textbook writer, etc.

What we therefore need is a shared framework of meaning, a common semantics.

Sharing semanticsWe don’t want to create a top-down generic framework• Too much 18th/19th century style (Diderot,

Encyclopédistes)• Too much Soviet style• Too complex and costly to develop and maintain

We need a loosely coupled but reliable network of semantic connections between different and distributed conceptual frameworks.

This is where the Semantic Web comes into play.

Semantic Web“A set of standards and best practices for sharing data and the semantics of that data over the web for use by applications.”

Bob DuCharme, Learning SPARQL, 2011

Semantic Web In Education“A set of standards and best practices for sharing educational data and the semantics of that data over the web for use by educational applications.”

Jacob Molenaar, EdReNe Conference, The Hague, 2012 ☺

The Five Stars Of Linked Open DataMake your information available on the web (whatever format)Make it available as structured data (e.g. Excel instead of scan of table or even PDF)Make it easy to access (e.g. use open, standard data formats, provide an API)Use persistent unique identifiers so that people can point at your stuffLink your data to other data you have or to other people’s data to provide context

Linked Open DataMake your information available on the web (whatever format)Make it available as structured data (e.g. Excel instead of scan of table or even PDF)Make it easy to access (e.g. use open, standard data formats, provide an API)Use persistent unique identifiers so that people can point at your stuffLink your data to other data you have or to other people’s data to provide context

Linked Open DataMake your information available on the web (whatever format)Make it available as structured data (e.g. Excel instead of scan of table or even PDF)Make it easy to access (e.g. use open, standard data formats, provide an API)Use persistent unique identifiers so that people can point at your stuffLink your data to other data you have or to other people’s data to provide context

Linked Open Data Level Of Educational Information…

Make your information available on the web (whatever format)Make it available as structured data (e.g. Excel instead of scan of table or even PDF)Make it easy to access (e.g. use open, standard data formats, provide an API)Use persistent unique identifiers so that people can point at your stuffLink your data to other data you have or to other people’s data to provide context

Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics

• OnderwijsBegrippenKader (www.onderwijsbegrippenkader.nl)

• Outcome of the Educatieve Contentketen Programme (www.educatievecontentketen.nl)

• Service of EduStandaard (www.edustandaard.nl): Dutch Body For Standardization In Educational Technology

• Started in Spring 2012• “The aim of this service is to gather all distinct formal and

informal conceptual frameworks or classifications used in Dutch education into one referatory, link all the information entities together and give it back to the educators as a comprehensive semantic landscape of linked open data.”

Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics

• It houses all the formal and informal concepts of the Dutch educational system (learning goals, school type classifications, grades, levels, competencies, subjects, etc. etc.)

• And all of their relations• It publishes these information entities in RDF form• Using unique, persistent identifiers• It is accessible through:

• An online user interface (for humans!)• Offline controlled vocabularies (using VDEX)• Online application programming interface (API): SPARQL Endpoint

Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics

Initial contents (2012-2013):• National curriculum for secundary education (learning goals

and detailed drilldown, subjects and detailed drilldown)

Soon followed by (2013):• National curriculum for primary education• National curriculum for vocational education• National Achievement Standards for Language and Math

Skills• Common European Framework of Reference for Lanuages

(EU)• Common Core State Standards (US)?

But why?Why invest all these efforts, all this time and (public) money on ‘just another database’?

(cliffhanger)

But why?Why invest all these efforts, all this time and (public) money on ‘just another database’?

Well… maybe because the Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics supports…

Cooperation!

Semantic Interoperability*Semantic Interoperability supports:1. Retrieval (e.g. of learning objects)2. Compliancy (e.g. of a textbook to a national

curriculum)3. Cooperation (e.g. a mashup of a publisher’s textbook

and an examination body’s guidelines or examples of exam questions – or cooperation between a textbook publisher and a public institution for audiovisual heritage)

* Thank you Stuart!

Linked Data Trial Project• An example of user centred cooperation enabled by the Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics: the Linked Data Trial Project

• A prototype / proof of concept• Part of www.educatievecontentketen.nl• Developed in the spring and summer of 2012

Information DomainsThe prototype combines and presents the expert knowledge of:

1. Textbooks (developed by experts of both profit and non-profit developers)

2. Formal Curriculum (NL government ordered, developed by SLO curriculum experts)

3. National Achievement Standards for Language and Math Skills (NL government ordered, developed by experts of the NL expertise centers for language and math)

4. Edurep (Dutch national learning object metadata repository)

Linked Data Trial ProjectThe prototype offers:1. An automatically generated ‘curriculum

compliancy statement’ for a) textbooks and b) teacher tailored sets of learning objects from the NL educational repository Edurep

2. Automatically generated metadata for additional online resources accompanying textbooks

http://linked-data.kennisnet.nl

Semantic Network

Textbook(Sections)

Formal Curriculum

(Intermediate Learning

goals)

National Achievement Standards for

Language and Math

Skills

Learning Objects in

Edurep

New Learning Object

Connected byteachers

Connected by textbook developers

Connected by learning object developers

Connected by experts

The Linked Data Trial Prototype

OutputCurriculum

Compliancy Statement

InputList of Learning

Objects or a Textbook

NL Repository for Learning

Object Metadata

Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics

The Linked Data Trial Prototype

OutputNL-LOM Metadata

Record

InputNew Learning Object

NL Repository for Learning Object Metadata

Dutch Framework For Educational Semantics

Textbook Metadata

Conclusions• If you want to collaborate in creating, distributing and

using online content you need a shared semantics• First proofs of concept show that it is perfectly possible to

use Semantic Web technologies for creating such a shared semantic framework

• First proofs of concepts show that the end user can benefit from this framework through practical applications that offer him added value in everyday classroom work

• However, it takes a determined effort from all parties involved to establish such a framework (and its standards and best practices). The semantic network will not grow out of itself…

Questions?jacob@jacobmolenaar.nl