Metadata quality in learning object repositories: a case study

Abstract

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:198285 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This paper aims to address the issue of poor quality of metadata records describing educational content in Learning Object Repositories (LORs). Through this, it aims to improve the discoverability of learning objects in such LORs through a structured process that supports metadata creation. Design/methodology/approach -This paper presents a proposed metadata quality assessment certification process for LORs. The process was designed as a generic approach that may be customized to fit various application domains. Findings -Initial results from the application of the process in the context of a specific LOR report an improvement of the quality of about 11,000 metadata records. More specifically, metadata completeness for all metadata elements used in the repository under examination was significantly improved from 30 percent to 85 percent.Research limitations/implications -The main limitation of the findings is that they come from the application of the proposed process on a relatively small repository, which does not allow safe generalizations without further experimental study in bigger ones where resources and requirements scale up. Practical implications -This paper addresses implications for the development of a repository in the educational domain, identifying issues related to the metadata application profile, the support to domain experts and the mechanisms that may be put in place to support metadata creation. Originality/value -The value and also the originality of the approach presented lies within the fact the proposed approach quantifies issues related to metadata creation and management by studying actions and perceptions of stakeholders who are involved in the repository lifecycle.

Open educational resources repositories literature review – Towards a comprehensive quality approaches framework

“…Unfortunately, these repositories are not used up to their full potential (Ochoa & Duval, 2009;Mitchell & Lutters, 2006;Dichev & Dicheva, 2012). Thousands of digital resources are created collaboratively and published online every day, and their quality control, assurance and evaluation are of paramount importance for potential users (Downes, 2007;Palavitsinis et al, 2013). OER enable forms of collaborative learning (Dillenbourg, 1999) and LORs of today can be considered as computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments as they provide users tools for posting knowledge productions into a shared working space and providing tools for progressive discourse interaction between the users (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994).…”

“…Therefore, it is vital to study LORs quality approaches (Clements et al, 2014) in a systematic way. Previous literature reviews on LOR quality approaches have focused on metadata quality only (Palavitsinis et al, 2013) and in the case of Atenas and Havemann (2014) have defined quality approaches quite simply as any approach which might attract users' to re-use content. However, this is the first systematic LOR quality approaches literature review which looks at quality management as a holistic approach around the repository, not only focusing on the quality instruments but also policies, standardization and pre-publication related quality approaches.…”

The Role of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in Primary Education in Developing Nations: A Case Study of India

“…Several studies indicate that quality plays a major role in the sustainability of an OER project (Clements & Pawlowski, 2012;Cechinel et al, Tate & Hoshek, 2009). Knowing that users greatly value quality assurance, evaluation and quality control (Palavitsinis et al, 2013;Downes, 2007), the case study organizations of this research have shown evidence of their quality reviewing and filtering processes. Apart from quality, the research participants also associated cost with the sustainability of their business models.…”

“…Greatly valued by end-users, quality control starts at the creation stage of resources (Palavitsinis, Manouselis & Sánchez-Alonso, 2013;Downes, 2007). Learning object repositories (LORs) or OER platforms however face significant obstacles in ensuring resource quality (Pawlowski & Zimmermann, 2007;Pérez-Mateo, Maina, Guitert & Romero, 2011).…”

“…Measuring the quality of resources is one part of the creation story, while the other is the ability to sustain the quality of the resources created. Everyday, digital resources are collaboratively created and published in thousands on the Internet (Palavitsinis, Manouselis & Sánchez-Alonso, 2013). In such an environment, evaluation, quality control and assurance are increasingly valued by users (Downes, 2007).…”