Results from a study of the implementation of metadata application profiles in Agricultural Learning Repositories

Abstract

In technology-enhanced learning, metadata interoperability has been identified as an important issue. It allows not only the exchange and preservation of crucial learning and teaching information (such as competency profiles, learning activities, and descriptions of learning resources), but also its future re-use among a large number of different systems and repositories. In the field of agricultural education and training, learning technologies’ specifications and standards have not yet been widely adopted. Few initiatives have reported implementing them, and in most cases only to describe learning resources by using IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM), Dublin Core (DC) or a combination of the two. This results in introduction of dispersed efforts and systems with significant differences between them. In this paper, we present results of a study aiming at the review and assessment of implementations of metadata standards in agricultural learning repositories. More specifically, it assesses the current status of development and implementation of metadata application profiles based on standards such as IEEE LOM and DC.