Integrating Dublin Core and Learning Object Metadata for Describing Learning Objects for Enhanced Reusability

A repository of learning objects (LOs) is being built to investigate the usability aspects of LOs as part of a doctoral dissertation project. Enhanced description of LOs is considered an important step in this effort. Among other things, use of metadata and taxonomies are being explored for enhancing the description to promote use and reuse of LOs. Our initial review indicated that the various metadata schemes currently in use do not adequately support description of special features of LOs, e.g., granularity and reusability. However, features from different schemes can be combined to develop a profile that can effectively support the peculiarities of LOs. Leveraging on the flexibility in the design of Dublin Core and its provisions of refinement and extension of elements, we decided to extend certain DCMI-EDS elements by integrating some elements from IEEE-LOM to cover requirements of LOs. This paper describes the elements from the two schemes and discusses the issues that need to be addressed to make this work. We also suggest the addition of new metadata terms that describe granularity and reusability. We hope that this example may be useful for developing an application profile for describing learning objects in various repositories.