Building content repositories with the Content Repository Tool

Educational content is uploaded into the Content Repository tool as e-learning courses in the form of SCORM packages. The major characteristics of the Repository are that the courses uploaded to the Repository and then downloaded from it are not necessarily the same, as they can be modified, expanded, and transformed. The system also makes it possible to extract individual content components from existing e-learning courses and to reuse them in other content structures.

Users can upload content in SCORM (version 1.2 and 2004) into the Repository and download it as SCORM packages or web presentations. It is possible to download any content component if Download Permission has been granted to it. The system makes it possible to download the course as a whole or as a set of independent SCORM packages corresponding to parts of the course that are annotated as Processable Units.

Content Repository tool applies an important feature of SCORM which is the opportunity to describe content using IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM). Metadata can be used to describe any logical content component such as SCO, as well as any single asset (files, graphical elements) composing the content. Metadata, when completed with information, can make searching the Repository far more efficient.

Attributing tags is a functionality that enables the author to describe the subject matter of the content with freely chosen words and phrases. Exhaustive description of content subject matter using tags improves the retrieval effectiveness of search engines in large-scale multi-topic repositories.

SCORM does not specify any taxonomy of didactic interpretations of content components which could be used to describe the role of components from the point of view of their position in the training process. However, the TaxonPath metadata available in Learning Object Metadata (LOM) can be used to denote this information if an appropriate taxonomy is applied. The Content Repository tool is able to simultaneously operate with multiple taxonomies including UCTS-derived nomenclature. If UCTS (Universal Curricular Taxonomy System) nomenclature is used to describe the character of Basic Processable Units, a SCORM package owner may attribute one of the following values to a content component – Curriculum, Module or Unit – in order to inform future users of the component about its complexity and suggested position in the training process.

The Content Repository provides a way to view components published by other users. This content can be browsed by and filtered for main following features:

• complexity and didactical usefulness of the content by choosing the taxonomy nomenclature terms such as UCTS Curriculum, UCTS Module or UCTS Unit,
• the type of SCORM components such as Course, Activity, Asset, Resource, or File.

These filters allow the user to determine the level of content granularity whereby it is possible to search for the largest (Curriculum) or the smallest (Unit) structures.

In addition to the basic filters the user can also use a multi-criteria search which allows:

• word search,
• tag search,
• LOM metadata search.

The Content Repository tool facilitates the creation of new training materials on the basis of content which is already available in the Repository. This can be compared to the work of an editor, who uses the material stored in the Repository to build their own training materials. A user can construct a new content component by creating an empty System Processable Unit and then filling it with content components retrieved from the Repository by using the drag-and-drop utility.

The Repository user can download content in the form of SCORM packages. They can download any didactic component that has Download Permission granted to it. The system makes it possible to download only those components marked as Processable Units. It means that the complexity of ready-to-download content is determined by the taxonomy of didactic interpretations of content components applied in the Repository, by the trainer who attributed this interpretation. If UCTS-derived nomenclature is used it is only possible to download content structures as Curricula, Modules or Units.