WebSchemas/LearningResources

This is an archived WebSchemas proposal Learning Resources (LRMI) schema for schema.org. See Proposals listing for more. Note: active schema.org development is now based at github

Overview

The Learning Resources Metadata Initiative has drafted a set of terms to improve schema.org's use with educational materials. This Learning Resources schema is the product of that LRMI initiative. See the LRMI site for detailed design discussions, related work and supporting materials.

LRMI 0.7 was submitted here In Feb 2012.
LRMI 1.0 was submitted here in May 2012 - please review.

Vocabulary

This schema add two new types:

1) AlignmentObject, inherited from Intangible.

Definition: "An intangible item that describes an alignment between a learning resource and a node in an educational framework."

Properties from AlignmentObject
alignmentType	Text	A category of alignment between the learning resource and the framework node. Recommended values include: 'assesses', 'teaches', 'requires', 'textComplexity', 'readingLevel', 'educationalSubject', and 'educationLevel'.
educationalFramework	Text	The framework to which the resource being described is aligned.
targetDescription	Text	The description of a node in an established educational framework.
targetName	Text	The name of a node in an established educational framework.
targetUrl	URL	The URL of a node in an established educational framework.

2. EducationalAudience, inherited from Audience

Properties from EducationalAudience
educationalRole	Text	The role that describes the target audience of the content.

The schema mainly adds new properties (typically but not necc. on CreativeWork):

Property	Expected Type	Description
educationalAlignment	schema.org/AlignmentObject	An alignment to an established educational framework.
educationalUse	schema.org/Text	The purpose of the work in the context of education. Ex: "assignment" Ex: “group work”
interactivityType	schema.org/Text	The predominant mode of learning supported by the learning resource. Acceptable values are active, expositive, or mixed. Ex: "active" Ex: "mixed"
isBasedOnUrl	schema.org/URL	A resource that was used in the creation of this resource. This term can be repeated for multiple sources. Ex: "http://example.com/great-multiplication-intro.html"
learningResourceType	schema.org/Text	The predominant type or kind characterizing the learning resource. Ex: "presentation" Ex: "handout"
timeRequired	schema.org/Duration (ISO 8601)	Approximate or typical time it takes to work with or through this learning resource for the typical intended target audience. Ex: "P30M" Ex: "P1H25M"
typicalAgeRange	schema.org/Text	The typical range of ages the content's intended end user. Ex: "7-9" Ex: "18-"

Example Markup

This example is based on a resource available at Connexions. Highlighted lines are those corresponding to LRMI-only terms.

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Book">
Inside Collection (<span itemprop="learningResourceType">Textbook</span>): 
<span itemprop="name">Collaborative Statistics</span>
<link itemprop="url" href="http://cnx.org/content/m16838/latest/?collection=col10522/latest" />
Textbook by: 
<a itemprop="author" href="http://cnx.org/member_profile/billowsky">Barbara Illowsky, Ph.D.</a>, 
<a itemprop="author" href="http://cnx.org/member_profile/sdean">Susan Dean</a>.

Based on parts of <a href="http://example.com/Probability-and-Statistics-book.html" 
itemprop="isBasedOnUrl">Probability And Statistics</a> and 
<a href="http://example.com/Statistics-book.html" itemprop="isBasedOnUrl">Statistics 101</a>  

Summary: <span itemprop="description">This module introduces the concept of Probability, 
the chance of an event occurring.</span>

<h3 itemprop="audience" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/EducationalAudience">
<span itemprop="educationalRole">Student</span> Learning Objectives</h3>
By the end of this chapter, the student should be able to:
<ul>
 <li>Understand and use the terminology of probability.</li>
 <li itemprop="educationalAlignment" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/AlignmentObject">
  <meta itemprop="alignmentType" content="teaches"/>
  <span itemprop="targetName"><a itemprop="targetUrl" href="http://asn.jesandco.org/resources/S11435AF">
    Determine whether two events are mutually exclusive and whether two events are independent.</a></span>
 </li>

 <li itemprop="educationalAlignment" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/AlignmentObject">
  <meta itemprop="alignmentType" content="teaches"/>
  <span itemprop="targetName"><a itemprop="targetUrl" href="http://example.com/competency502041">
    Calculate probabilities using the Addition Rules and Multiplication Rules.</span>
 </li>
</ul>
</div>

Discussion and related work

See the discussion list.
There is also a proposed W3C community group on Open Linked Education, using related technology.