METADATA IN E-LEARNING SYSTEMS: FOCUS ON ITS VALUE FOR THE USER

It is widely agreed upon that ‘good ’ metadata are a key factor for efficient use of e-learning systems. Generally, two fundamentally different types of metadata exist: Metadata generated by the system when content is created or added, and metadata generated by humans for humans. The latter takes one of two forms: (I) A number of fields in a form that have to be filled in by the creator of a piece of learning content; and (II) A list of pre-defined, standardised descriptors from which the applying ones have to be selected (ontology). Either approach aims at overcoming potentially differing valuations of metadata descriptors due to individual interpretations. Both approaches heavily depend on the e-learning application’s underlying knowledge domain, and are often driven by the requirements imposed by the services defined for the data repository in use. E-learning systems per definition incorporate at least two roles: the teacher’s and the student’s. The teacher produces and codifies, students and other teachers search and retrieve learning content. Each of these tasks relies eventually on a set of metadata descriptors. As a consequence, a considerable number of efforts have been undertaken in order to improve metadata applications for elearning systems. Unfortunately however, most of these efforts have been directed towards more automated systems, that devalue the teacher and student by assigning them merely the roles of information source and sink. We think that it has been overseen, that it is eventually the teachers and their students that need to work with and hence access resources within an e-learning system. The crucial question is: What are the relevant metadata descriptors in order to suitably support the users ’- the teacher’s an