Metadata support in open standard-based learning management systems. A use case in higher education

Abstract. Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) is a long term issue focused on providing a student-centred approach to learning. Realising an inclusive TEL approach, which considers adaptation issues to support preferences and accessibility needs, is a very demanding task in many respects. The design process is very time consuming and tedious, with a wide range of features related to contents, devices, user preferences and interaction modes. That impacts directly on the characterisation supported by the learning object metadata repository to be considered. Moreover, to provide personalisation features the learner behaviour should be tracked and specially, their interactions with the learning objects. All these issues are being considered in the EU4ALL European project, which is intended to provide services and technical infrastructure that enable teaching, technical and administrative staff of educational institutions to offer their teaching and services in a way that is accessible to disabled learners. In particular, at this stage of the project, a metadata repository (LOMR) to support personalisation in LLL is being implemented. LOMR should provide support for locating resources in terms of collection of user preferences and needs, as well as collection of information on the physical devices belonging to these users. In this paper we present some of the main problems we are addressing, the current EU4ALL approach to LOMR, which uses RDF as a plain data-binding of the metadata specification, and the integration with an open standard-based LMS that supports accessible and adaptive services that follow educational standards and specifications. To present the relevance of this approach, a possible application at a higher education institution is discussed. 1