What is Learning Application Readiness (LAR)?

Posted Fri, 09/09/2011 - 12:52pm by eileen

Learning Application Readiness (LAR) is an initiative of NSDL, designed to develop criteria and guidelines for improving the quality of resources and metadata in the National Science Digital Library. 

Definition

LAR refers to how closely educational resources, collections, and their related metadata are aligned to educational goals, curriculum, or professional development needs of users, and how readily those resources and collections can be embedded in tools and services that educators and students use (examples include: Science Literacy Maps, Curriculum Customization Service, content management or learning management systems), where the application uses a frameworks that characterizes resources by: subject, education level, resource type, audience, and educational standards (educational metadata).

Guiding Principles for Resources

Guiding Principles for Metadata

  • Complete: title, description, URL, educational level, resource type, audience, language, rights, access rights, creation date, contributors/creators, language, mime type and, if appropriate, educational standards
  • Concise: free of self-promotion; describes purpose and content of resource for comprehension
  • Accurate: the metadata is correct content for the field


Key Issues

  • Use of educational fields that have controlled vocabularies and consistency in completing the educational metadata fields in NSDL_DC would be a substantial improvement. If metadata description field alone included reference to the desired learning outcome, that would be a big help. Collections assessment process revealed inconsistent use of educational metadata (25% of collections have no educational metadata).

  • For higher education - is there a comparable alternative to K12 standards, any work being done on this? Technology standards and geography standards can be helpful at the higher ed level. It is also worth exploring developments in the Advanced Placement arena - there may be new recommendations from AP that could be helpful, transitioning from high school to undergraduate education. 
  • The best way to enhance existing metadata from other contributors will be through use of NSDL's annotations framework. Contact NSDL for more information.
  • NSDL has loosened prior constraints on metadata formats, making it able to accommodate more native metadata formats - this gives NSDL more flexibility to deal with legitimate variation.
  • Partnerships like STEM Exchange, Learning Registry, and the development of Common Core standards-related collections are all exchanges that rely heavily on the use of well-defined educational metadata. 
  • NSDL can differentiate itself from other collection provider efforts and search engines by providing careful, purposeful selection of materials, with carefully crafted and consistent metadata, in support of improved and effective user experience. 

 

February 2012: 

With the help of the LAR working group and NSDL partners, a new LAR metadata framework is currently under active development, including LAR controlled vocabularies, definitions, and best practices. These are anticipated to be fully complete on or about March 10, 2012.  Please email nsdlsupport@nsdl.ucar.edu if you would like to know how to access current schemas.  

In late 2011, the LAR working group and other NSDL partners contributed to the development of new policies and guidelines for NSDL collection building: 

 

NSDL Collection Policy

NSDL Collection Development Blueprint (Jan 1 2012) 

NSDL Resource Quality Checklist (Jan 1 2012)  (replaces the prior NSDL Resource Quality Guidelines of February 2010) 

NSDL Resource Metadata Rubric (Jan 1 2012) 

NSDL Annotation Metadata Rubric (Jan 1 2012) 

NSDL Paradata Metadata Rubric (Jan 1 2012) 

 

September 2011:

The second LAR workshop took place September 13-15 in Boulder, Colorado, to further define LAR metadata framework. This working group is continuing to define LAR metadata fields, developing guidelines and best practices, recommendations for modifications to NSDL Collection Policy and Resource Quality Guidelines, and recommendations for a revised collection development blueprint. Participants included Marcia Mardis (chair) (iCPALMS Pathway), Ed Almasy (AMSER/Internet Scout Projects), Peter Pinch (Teachers' Domain), Kim Lightle (Middle School Portal Math & Science Pathways), Brian Ausland (Butte County CA Dept. of Ed/CADRE); and Joe Hobson (NavigationNorth/Butte County Dept of Ed), as well as NSDL participants including Kaye Howe, Susan Van Gundy, Eileen McIlvain, Laura Moin, Karon Kelly, Katy Ginger, John Weatherley, Holly Devaul. 


May 11-12, 2011: 

The first LAR workshop took place in Boulder, Colorado. Agenda and workshop materials are available on the LAR Workshop page. The workshop explored the issues of resource quality, metadata quality, and the development of a metadata framework applicable to Learning Application Readiness. 



Feb 9, 2011:

A presentation to NSDL Pathways projects PIs in February 2011 by Letha Goger and Katy Ginger (NSDL Technical Network Services)explained the collections assessment process undertaken in 2010 and the deaccessioning effort of 2009, which greatly reduced library records and refocused the library contents on resources suitable for STEM teaching and learning. The next step was to determine exactly what the collections in NSDL consisted of, and what metadata fields are in use. The process also yielded results on collection longevity, aging of resources and collections, and general collection growth.

 



Contact:

Collection developers may contact NSDL for access to their own collection's assessment report. 



Presentations (2011)