Open Data for Education: Linked, Shared, and Reusable Data for Teaching and Learning

191 Pages·2016·24.442 MB·English

by  Dmitry Mouromtsev, Mathieu d’Aquin (eds.)

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Linked, Shared, and Reusable Data
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Lecture Notes in Computer Science 9500
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Dmitry Mouromtsev Mathieu d Aquin (Eds.)
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Open Data
for Education
Linked, Shared, and Reusable Data
for Teaching and Learning
123
Editors
Dmitry Mouromtsev Mathieu d’Aquin
ITMO University KnowledgeMedia Institute
St.Petersburg MiltonKeynes
Russia UK
ISSN 0302-9743 ISSN 1611-3349 (electronic)
Lecture Notesin Computer Science
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Preface
The amount of open data, including especially linked open data, is constantly
increasinginmanydomains,especiallyinthepublicsector.Agreatnumberofprivate
andpublicorganizations,institutions,andcompaniesopentheirdataandareinterested
inefficientsolutionsforsharingandreuseofpublisheddatasets.Obviousbenefitscome
with opening data for end-users, organizations, and developers, by making it easier to
find, obtain, and use data independently of their origin, the systems used to produce
them, or the applications for which they are intended. This directly connects with the
waytheareasoflearning,teaching,andeducationareevolving.Indeed,theactivityof
learning is changing very rapidly, especially through the Web, data, and open tech-
nologies. Distance learning is becoming more common, based on openly available
educational resources on the Web and the recently appeared massive open online
courses (MOOC) both in public higher education institutions and private training
centers and organizations.
The primary goal of open data in education is therefore to support these changes
through new methodologies and technologies that support the sharing and distribution
of information about teaching and the subjects of learning. On the practical side, it
servesvariouspurposessuchastohelpteacherstofindandcreatereusableeducational
materials,toassiststudentsandfamiliesintheireducationaldecisionsthroughouttheir
life, to improve management systems and many others. For this reason the section of
educational open data on the Web has expanded with information about courses and
educational materials that can be accessed by tools and applications as well as, social
andcollaborativeresources,thusshapingnewarchitecturesofopeneducation.Thepast
fewyearshavedemonstratedthegrowinginterestinthetopicofeducationalopendata
andthegrowthofthecommunity.DuringfivesuccessfuleditionsoftheLILE(Linked
Learning)workshops,keynotes,papersessions,andpaneldiscussionshaveshownthe
stateoftheartandprogressinpracticalworkwithopendataineducation.Anumberof
initiatives were started including community platforms (such as LinkedUniversities.
org), the W3C Open Linked Education Community Group1, and activities within the
Open Knowledge2 and the VIVO platform3, to name just a few.
The goal of this book is therefore to act as a snapshot of current activities, and to
share and disseminate the growing collective experience on open and linked data in
education. In this volume we bring together research results, studies, and practical
endeavors from initiatives spread across several countries around the world. These
initiatives are laying the foundations of open and linked data in the education move-
ment, and they are leading the way through innovative applications.
1 https://www.w3.org/community/opened/
2 https://okfn.org/
3 http://www.vivoweb.org
VI Preface
The chapters are selected from extended versions of papers presented at an Open
DatainEducationSeminar4andtheLILEworkshopsduring2014–20155,6.Theyhave
been chosen to represent the diversity of practices and experiences that exist in the
domain, from the researchers, developers, and community leaders who are pioneering
the use of open and linked data in education.
In the first part of this book, two chapters provide different perspectives on the
current state of the use of linked and open data in education, including the use of
technology and the topics that are being covered.
Thesecondpartistobeconsideredthecoreofthisbookasitfocusesonthespecific,
practical applications that are being put in place to exploit open and linked data in
educationtoday.Inthesefourchapters,applicationsarepresentedrangingfromtheset-
up of open data platforms in educational institutions, to supporting specific learning
activities through the use of online, open data.
Finally,akeyelementoftheevolvingworldofopendataistoensuretheskillsand
ability to use such data are there. We therefore focus in the three last chapters of this
bookontheothersideofopenandlinkeddataineducation:onteachingthetechnology
and practices so they can be widely applied, and on the community of practitioners
pushing these practices forward.
Weassumethereadersofthisbookarereasonablyfamiliarwithmoderneducational
technologiesandWebstandards(includingbasicsoftheSemanticWeb).Thechapters
will be of interest, to varying extents, to academic heads and managers; educators,
teachers,andtutors,andstart-upsineducation;librarystaff;postgraduates;technology
researchers and professionals; as well as students and learners who are keen to better
understandhowthetechnologiesoftheWebandlinkeddatacanbeappliedtosupport
progress in learning and education.
We acknowledge all the contributors and those who spent time on reviewing
chaptersandmakingcriticalcommentsandfruitfuldiscussions.Firstofallwewantto
thank the members of numerous projects that have supported the development of the
works presented in this book, including in particular the LUCERO project, the Lin-
kedUp support action, the VIVO project, and some others. We also thank the funders
of these projects, as well as our universities and organizations, especially the Open
University and ITMO University that provided the environment for such projects to
develop.Wealsowanttothankallthemembersofthevariouscommunitiesdedicated
to making open data in education a reality, including the W3C Open and Linked
Education community group, the Open Knowledge Open Education Group,
LinkedUniversities.org, and LinkedEducation.org. Finally, we thank our families,
friends, and colleagues for their support and positive encouragement.
January 2016 Dmitry Mouromtsev
Mathieu d’Aquin
4 https://linkededucation.wordpress.com/events/open-data-in-education-seminar-st-petersburg/
5 https://linkededucation.wordpress.com/events/lile2014/
6 https://lile2015.wordpress.com/
Contents
State of Open and Linked Data for Education
On the Use of Linked Open Data in Education: Current
and Future Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Mathieu d’Aquin
Educational Linked Data on the Web - Exploring and Analysing
the Scope and Coverage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Davide Taibi, Giovanni Fulantelli, Stefan Dietze, and Besnik Fetahu
Applications of Open and Linked Data in Education
ECOLE: An Ontology-Based Open Online Course Platform. . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Vladimir Vasiliev, Fedor Kozlov, Dmitry Mouromtsev, Sergey Stafeev,
and Olga Parkhimovich
Use of Semantic Web Technologies in the Architecture of the BBC
Education Online Pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Eleni Mikroyannidi, Dong Liu, and Robert Lee
Towards a Linked and Reusable Conceptual Layer Around Higher
Education Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Fouad Zablith
Collaborative Authoring of OpenCourseWare: The Best Practices
and Complex Solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Darya Tarasowa and Sören Auer
Teaching (with) Open and Linked Data
Teaching Linked Open Data Using Open Educational Resources. . . . . . . . . . 135
Alexander Mikroyannidis, John Domingue, Maria Maleshkova,
Barry Norton, and Elena Simperl
On Some Russian Educational Projects in Open Data and Data Journalism. . . 153
Irina Radchenko and Anna Sakoyan
The Open Education Working Group: Bringing People, Projects
and Data Together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Marieke Guy
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
State of Open and Linked
Data for Education
On the Use of Linked Open Data in Education:
Current and Future Practices
B
Mathieu d’Aquin( )
Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University,
Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, UK
[email protected]
Abstract. Education has often been a keen adopter of new informa-
tion and communication technologies. This is not surprising given that
educationisallaboutinformingandcommunicating.Traditionally,edu-
cational institutions produce large volumes of data, much of which is
publicly available, either because it is useful to communicate (e.g. the
coursecatalogue)orbecauseofexternalpolicies(e.g.reportstofunding
bodies). Considering the distribution and variety of providers (universi-
ties, schools, governments), topics (disciplines and types of educational
data)andusers(students,teachers,parents),educationthereforerepre-
sents a perfect use case for Linked Open Data. In this chapter, we look
at the growing practices in using Linked Open Data in education, and
how this trend is opening up opportunities for new services and new
scenarios.
· · ·
Keywords: Linked data Semantic web Education Learning
1 Why Using Linked Data in Education
Traditionally, educational institutions produce large volumes of data, much of
which is publicly available, either because it is useful to communicate (e.g.,
the course catalogue) or because of external policies (e.g., reports to funding
bodies). In this context, open data has an important role to play. Implementing
open data through Linked Data technologies can be summarized as using the
web both as a channel to access data (through URIs supporting the delivery of
structuredinformation)andasaplatformfortherepresentationandintegration
ofdata(throughcreatingagraphoflinksbetweenthesedataURIs).Considering
the distribution and variety of providers (universities, schools, governments),
topics (disciplines and types of educational data) and users (students, teachers,
parents), education also represents a perfect use case for Linked Open Data [7].
Indeed,thebasicideaofLinkedData[9]istousethearchitectureoftheWeb
to share, distribute and interconnect data from various origins into a common,
online environment. It is based on the basic principle that raw data objects are
identified and accessible, similarly to webpages, through Web addresses (URIs),
that deliver the information in a structured, processable and linkable way.
(cid:2)c SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2016
D.MouromtsevandM.d’Aquin(Eds.):OpenDataforEducation,LNCS9500,pp.3–15,2016.
DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-30493-91