Abstract:

The ever-increasing presence of e-learning tools in education at different levels has brought about a wealth of electronic teaching material, often convertible into Learning Objects (henceforth LOs). This has in turn created a necessity for virtual storage spaces where those materials can be not only safely kept for future use but also duly classified to facilitate their retrieval. These spaces are the so-called LO repositories, e.g. Merlot and ARIADNE, as well as the Spanish Agrega. Among the recognized advantages of successful LO models, the following stand out: reusability, interoperability and accessibility.
There are a number of standard technical norms to represent the content and description of the LOs so as to facilitate the sharing and reusing of the resources. Both the LOs and the descriptions thereof are managed by repositories, where the LOs are documented and described by means of metadata, in which an attribute is assigned to a value. These allow users to search those resources that best meet their needs. Additionally, metadata are useful for the incorporation of further LOs, the online evaluation of the stored resources, the creation of user profiles based on previously searched LOs, etc.
In spite of the advantages of the existing LO models and the technology thereof, there is a gap between the IT skills of many users and the potential offered by the technology. This gap is reflected on the following problems: 1) Metadata standard models are too rigid and complex, and therefore difficult to adapt to the descriptive needs of the LOs added by different users; 2) Quality assessment models operate on a a posteriori basis by external evaluators, which is often confusing and discouraging at the time of entering new LOs; 3) LO repository indexes cannot be customized to create classifications and access indexes adapted to the different LO collections. Also, current repositories are difficult to install and maintain for end users, so their use is limited to those institutions with the necessary IT staff and resources.
These limitations constrain the intended widespread use of LOs. Some efforts, however, have been made in the last few years to address the problems listed above. For instance, the OdA repository at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Spain, is a flexible tool aimed to facilitate the adaptation of the LOM metadata scheme (IEE) and LO content to the needs of different users.
Following the line started by OdA, in this paper we present work carried out at UCM whose main goal is to offer instructors a solution to the above-mentioned problems, based on our research on e-learning technology. We are building a LO repository for Higher Education adapted to the different needs of instructors in humanities, and which aims to make e-learning resources accessible to users with little technological prowess by placing the user in control of metadata management and of LO quality assessment procedures.
We thus present a novel methodology for a) inductively adapting metadata standards; b) adapting LO quality assessment to the needs of instructors; and c) building a customized repository to satisfy the needs of those instructors. By so doing, our model intends to be a good example of academic R&D put to the service of Education.

Keywords:

Learning Objects, metadata standards, repository customization, Learning Object quality.