Eumedianet designed a metadata model for universities that is a combination of excisting metadatamodels, like
- IEEE-LOM (the Dutch variant = NL-LOM)
- Dublin Core (mapped to IEEE-LOM)
- DMS-01 / MXF (as a supplement)
- Exif metadata (in addition)
- university-specific metadata (project metadata)
The metadata is divided into different types:
- Metadata for media (video, audio and images)
- Metadata for “learning objectives”
- Project metadata
The assets are placed in a hierarchical model. The Project is the umbrella, although assets can also be stored that cannot be directly related to a project, such as stock material, bumpers and leaders, etc.The project receives specific university metadata in order to support the workflow. A Project also consists of sessions. The session also receives specific metadata, just as with the Project not media-related.
A session also consists of scripts, planning and many media components, such as Powerpoints, images, audio and video, the media files. The media files, being the final product, must not only be easily searchable, but must also be archived for possible later research or reuse.
To do this, metadata must be added to the media. These metadata are composed in such a way that they are media specific, for images different metadata than for video, but also that sorting can be made on specific metadata fields, such as a search result of all 4K images in the database, or all video that teacher. X has made in a certain period of time.
The metadam model is set up from a hierarchical model, that is, there are main categories, subcategories and element (fields).
It looks like this schematically:
Where “Technical” is the main category, “Requirement” is the subcategory and “Type” is the metadata field. This model provides an order in the metadata model, so that the metadata importer can only choose the relevant parts and not get all metadata fields for his or her choice because they are collapsed and therefore not visible.
NL-LOM metadata model
The need for a standard for metadata is not new, and over the years various (international) standards have been developed, including IEEE LOM (Learning Object Metadata). IEEE LOM contains the definition (name, type, allowed values, etc.) of a number of metadata elements. The educational field in the Netherlands – educational institutions, educational organizations, (sector) publishers, Kennisnet and SURF – has therefore taken the initiative to make a selection of the 57 IEEE LOM elements specially tailored to the Netherlands mandatory and to record specific vocabularies for some of them. This is called an application profile. The application profile for the Dutch educational situation is called the content search profile.
The scope of this model is to be able to create an exchange format of Learning Object metadata, which must be used when two or more organizations in the public domain want to exchange metadata about learning objects for public purposes. This concerns the education sector in the broadest sense. When organizations want to exchange metadata about learning objects internally or among themselves in a closed setting, use of this model is optional. However, from an efficiency point of view, advice is to adopt the model as much as possible. This is not a recommendation as referred to in this agreement, but a recommendation in the more free sense of the word, which is why the word advice has been chosen.
Examples include publishers who want to exchange additional information about the learning object among themselves or internally, or a Ministry of Defense that deliberately does not want to include certain learning object metadata. In these cases, the organization is therefore free to make additional or restrictive agreements about the exchange format of the learning object metadata, as long as it is not intended for public use in a public domain.
The biggest advantage of NL-LOM is that the agreement was developed for and by Dutch education. Using this collection of metadata, educational content can be easily collected, organized and made accessible to the learner. In addition, it is important that NL-LOM is based on international standards; After all, digital networks do not stop at national borders. As a result, content can easily be made available internationally, also because users are free to use the other metadata elements from the IEEE LOM in addition to the mandatory elements from NL-LOM. On the other hand, it is therefore quite possible to include content that is not specifically intended for the Netherlands (for example, English-language documents or websites) in a Dutch electronic learning environment. In addition, you are not bound to one specific application for working with metadata of educational content, but you can use any application that meets this agreement.
Dublin Core
Dublin Core is a minimal metadata model that is seen worldwide as a standard for describing multimedia content. However, DC also has a down side, which is the limited number of fields. In an environment where many different search arguments, sometimes very complex searches, are performed, the model sometimes falls short.
Dublin Core in the Beats university metadata model is mapped to elements of the IEEE-LOM model and as such is not implemented. In the Beats model, the mapped DC is supplemented with educational metadata (IEEE-LOM), media specific metadata (DMS-01 SPMTE) and EXIF image metadata.
DMS-01 SMPTE
This metadata model is the basis of the NL metadata model, developed as a standard in the Netherlands at the time. Various elements of this model are used, including the technical elements, but also, for example, the rights section of DMS-01.
EXIF
Exchangeable image file format (Exif) is a metadata specification for image files from digital cameras, among others. It is used in file formats such as JPG and TIFF. It is designed by the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association.
Interoperability
Via so-called mapping mechanisms, imports and exports can be made in the native metadata formats. So if there’s IEEE-LOM export required, an IEEE-LOM mapping can be made, according to the standards defined for this. The same applies to an EXIF export or an export of DMS-01 metadata to MXF.
Project metadata can also be added to media metadata during an export, so that, for example, a relationship can be established between a video file and the project of which this file is part.
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