Abstract:

After having presented an educational modeling methodology based on the IMS Learning Design standard, this paper intends now to promote the application of this methodology by introducing a prototype of Learning Units Repository which strictly follows the aforementioned standard. It also includes a preliminary work on the conception of a domain specific language for educational modeling, which will serve to train the teaching staff in the design of their didactic plans; as well as to generate said Units of Learning (UoL) in a formal, systematic and simpler way than the applications that currently exist. By producing the UoL in a generic and well-founded way, the teaching staff will have improved their teaching work at the same time that they will be able to feed the repository and thus share their learning designs globally.

A UoL is the smallest unit that provides educational events to students, satisfying one or more interrelated educational objectives, where this unit of study is the result of an instructional design process and that must consider characteristics such as: roles, learning objectives, prerequisites, content of UoL, teaching and learning activities, environments, among others.

An Educational Modeling Language (EML) is defined as: Model of semantic and binding information, which describes the content and process within a UoL from a pedagogical perspective to allow its reuse and interoperability. In other words, an EML is a model of pedagogical models used to formalize teaching-learning processes.

IMS-Learning Design is a formal specification that aims to standardize the learning processes in order to be reused, which involves the different actors, activities, environments, methods and contents, which requires formally structuring the learning processes generating UoL. Technically IMS-LD involves a formal specification in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

A domain specific language (DSL) is a programming language designed for a particular application domain that allows raising the level of abstraction of a more complicated language. The characteristics of an effective DSL are: the ability to develop complete application programs quickly and effectively. Common examples of DSLs include LEXX and YACC to generate lexical and syntactic parsers, TEX and LATEX manipulation for document preparation, HTML and SGML to specify document labeling rules. The aim is to create a DSL based on IMS-LD and thus obtain a DSL language for educational modeling (DSLEM).

The repository has a database table with the necessary attributes to identify the UoL. Four views were also created in its development to manage the application: a welcome view to the repository, another to upload the UoL generated together with the necessary information, the third to search for the UoL that have been uploaded in the repository and a fourth view where we can navigate through the information of the selected UoL to be reproduced. The repository is publicly available on the Internet.

With the initial work of the development of the DSLEM, the problems and the actions to be followed to complete the project have been determined. The drawbacks that are delaying this part of the project are well identified, which will focus the necessary resources to overcome this problem. Finally, having the three tools: the educational modeling methodology, the DSLEM and the UoL repository; the objective of training the teaching staff in the subject of learning design can be met.

Keywords:

Educational Modeling Language, IMS Learning Design, units of learning, repository of learning units.