From Xcri

Contents 1 About 1.1 Status 1.2 Patents 1.3 Copyright and License 1.4 Inspiration and acknowledgements 2 Introduction 2.1 Design Goals and Requirements 2.2 Implementation Patterns 3 Conformance 4 XCRI Documents 4.1 Namespace 4.2 Core Elements 4.2.1 the catalog element 4.2.2 the provider element 4.2.3 the course element 4.2.4 the presentation element 4.3 Common Elements 4.3.1 the description element 4.3.2 the identifier element 4.3.3 the title element 4.3.4 the subject element 4.3.5 the url element 4.3.6 the image element 4.4 Elements used in the provider element 4.4.1 the location element 4.5 Elements used in the course element 4.5.1 the level element 4.5.2 the qualification element 4.5.3 the credit element 4.6 Elements used in the presentation element 4.6.1 the start element 4.6.2 the end element 4.6.3 the startUntil element 4.6.4 the endFrom element 4.6.5 the duration element 4.6.6 the applyFrom element 4.6.7 the applyUntil element 4.6.8 the engagement element 4.6.9 the languageOfInstruction element 4.6.10 the languageOfAssessment element 4.6.11 the places element 4.6.12 the cost element 4.6.13 the entryRequirements element 4.6.14 the entryProfile element 4.6.15 the venue element 5 XML Binding 6 Extensions 7 Vocabularies 8 Overview of the specification 9 Conformance to CEN Metadata for Learning Opportunities standard (CWA 15903) 10 Changes from V1.1

[edit] About

Editors:

• Mark Stubbs (m.stubbs@mmu.ac.uk)
• Scott Wilson (scott.bradley.wilson@gmail.com)
• Alan Paull (alan@alanpaull.co.uk)

Authors:

• Simon Grant
• Alan Paull (alan@alanpaull.co.uk)
• Ben Ryan (mail@benryan.co.uk)
• Mark Stubbs (m.stubbs@mmu.ac.uk)
• Scott Wilson (scott.bradley.wilson@gmail.com)

[edit] Status

This is currently a working draft of version 1.2.

[edit] Patents

This specification is subject to a royalty free patent policy.

There are no known patents covering any of this work. If you think that part of this work may be subject to an existing or pending patent, please email the editors.

[edit] Copyright and License

This work is (c) 2005-2010 XCRI.org, and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence. All contributions MUST be licensed under the same conditions. This is to ensure that the specification work can be transferred to an appropriate standardisation body.

[edit] Inspiration and acknowledgements

The development of this specification has benefited from close co-operation with the CEN Workshop on Learning Technologies and the Rome Student Systems and Standards Group (RS3G). We would also like to thank the many UK institutions and lifelong learning networks that have contributed to its development through their work on implementation. We also thank JISC for supporting the development of this specification.

[edit] Introduction

The XCRI Course Advertising Profile (XCRI-CAP) is a specification to enable the interoperability of descriptions of courses, or any other kind of learning opportunity, between the course provider and any number of aggregators and brokers, by supplying an XML description.

XCRI-CAP 1.2 provides an XML format based on the CEN Metadata for Learning Opportunities standard (see CWA 15903), which means documents that conform to this specification have the same underlying semantics as those produced to other bindings of the same standard.

There are two implementation patterns for XCRI-CAP, one following the general model of simple XML syndication (rather like RSS or Atom) called the simple aggregation pattern, and another following the model of metadata harvesting by checking for differences between the current catalog and a previously harvested copy (the delta update pattern). Whichever pattern is used, the XML format used for the course description is largely identical.

An XCRI-CAP document typically consists of a top-level catalog element, encapsulating a single provider, and a collection of course descriptions for the courses offered by the provider. Each course has various descriptive information available such as syllabus, the qualification you can obtain, career options and so on. The course is also divided into any number of presentations, which are the 'instances' or 'offerings' of the course that a prospective student will apply for, and which have specific start and end dates, locations and so on, and can vary in aspects such as the location and mode of study (e.g. a full-time and part-time presentation, with different duration and start date).

[edit] Design Goals and Requirements

This section is non-normative

The design goals and requirements for this specification are documented in the XCRI 1.2 Requirements document.

The specification meets the following requirements as identified in XCRI 1.2 Requirements:

R1: Conform to the European Norm for Metadata for Learning Opportunities

[edit] Implementation Patterns

This section is non-normative

The basic mode of operation for XCRI is for organisations to create a feed of course information, consisting of an XML document that contains their provider details, including the courses they offer.

An aggregator or a broker can then download a number of feeds and collate them to enable cross-searching or other capabilities.

XCRI-CAP supports two main implementation patterns:

• In the simple aggregation pattern, each provider offers its feed as an XML file that can be periodically downloaded by an aggregator. The aggregator replaces any previous information about the provider and their courses with the latest data.
• the delta update pattern follows the same pattern as the Open Archives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). In this pattern, each provider offers an API where aggregators can obtain an XML catalog file containing information about changes since a specified date.

For aggregators, there are also patterns for discovering XCRI feeds:

• the feed autodiscovery pattern uses the Link tag in HTML pages on the provider's site
• the reliable feed location pattern uses a convention for deploying XCRI feeds in consistent ways

See also Category:Implementation patterns for more patterns.

[edit] Conformance

There are two classes of application that can conform to this specification:

• A producer is a class of application that produces XCRI-CAP documents
• An aggregator is a class of application that aggregates XCRI-CAP documents

A product MAY belong to both classes.

A strictly conforming instance is a set of structured information constituted only of elements and attributes defined by this standard and fully qualified refinements of the elements defined in this standard.

A fully qualified refinement is defined for the purpose of conformance as an element that explicitly extends an element defined by this standard. A fully qualified refinement must be capable of being processed according to the semantics of the element it extends.

A conforming instance MAY contain additional elements and attributes not defined by this standard.

A conforming producer MUST be capable of generating and sharing strictly conforming instances.

A conforming aggregator MUST be capable of processing strictly conforming instances.

[edit] XCRI Documents

A producer MUST create XCRI-CAP documents that are valid XML documents.

A producer MUST create XCRI-CAP documents with one of the following elements as its top-level element:

• catalog
• provider
• course

An aggregator MUST be able to process a valid XCRI-CAP document.

[edit] Namespace

XCRI-CAP elements and attributes are identified using the namespace: http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog

[edit] Core Elements

[edit] the catalog element

URI: http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/catalog

The default top-level element for an XCRI feed

Attributes:

• @generated (required) The date and time at which the catalog was generated, in ISO format. Both date and time should be used.

Elements:

• all Common Elements
• provider (optional, multiple) The providers whose courses are included in the catalog.

[edit] the provider element

URI: http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/provider

Providers are organisations that offer one or more courses.

Elements:

• all Common Elements
• location (optional)
• course (optional, multiple)

[edit] the course element

URI: http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/course

A course provides details of a course of study offered by a learning provider.

Elements:

• all Common Elements
• level (optional)
• qualification (optional, multiple)
• presentation (optional, multiple)
• credit (optional, multiple)

[edit] the presentation element

URI: http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/presentation

A presentation is a particular instance of the course offered at a specific time and place or through specified media. It is the entity to which learners apply. Alternative names for this type of structure include course offering and course instance.

Elements:

• all Common Elements
• start(optional)
• end (optional)
• startUntil (optional)
• endFrom (optional)
• duration (optional)
• applyFrom (optional)
• applyUntil (optional)
• engagement (optional, multiple)
• languageOfInstruction (optional, multiple)
• languageOfAssessment (optional, multiple)
• places (optional)
• cost (optional)
• entryRequirements (optional) details of formal and informal requirements for entry to the course offering
• entryProfile (optional) information that would help applicants match themselves to the course offering.
• venue (optional, multiple)

[edit] Common Elements

Each of the core elements of XCRI use the following set of common elements:

• has_part (optional, multiple)
• contributor (optional, multiple)
• date (optional, multiple)
• description (optional, multiple)
• identifier (optional, multiple)
• image (optional)
• subject (optional, multiple)
• title (optional, multiple)
• type (optional, multiple)
• url (optional)

An aggregator MUST be able to process the description, identifier, image, subject, title and url elements.

[edit] the description element

URI:http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description

An account of the resource. See CWA 15903 and Dublin Core.

This specification additionally defines the following optional attributes for a description element:

• @lang (optional) The language used for the description
• @href (optional) A link to supporting information

The content of a description element MUST be one of either:

• Empty
• Plain unescaped text content
• Valid XHTML 1.0 content

If a description element has an @href attribute, the description element MUST NOT contain any text content

If a description element has any content, the description element MUST NOT have an @href attribute

Example

    <dc:description xsi:type="xcriTerms:Syllabus">
        <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
            <p>This module shows how to take an existing presentation and modify it and how to create 
             your own presentations. No knowledge of PowerPoint is assumed.</p>
            <p>The topics covered are:
                <ul>
                    <li>Using and modifying an existing PowerPoint presentation</li> 
                    <li>Creating a simple presentation</li> 
                    <li>Making use of themes and schemes supplied with PowerPoint</li> 
                    <li>The PowerPoint views</li> 
                    <li>Printing and saving your presentation</li>
                </ul>
            </p> 
        </div>		
    </dc:description>

[edit] the identifier element

URI:http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/identifier

An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context. See CWA 15903 and Dublin Core.

Structures MUST NOT contain more than one identifier without an explicitly-defined encoding scheme, and this MUST be A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) conforming to the URL scheme as specified by IETF RFC 3986.

Example:

 <dc:identifier>http://www.bolton.ac.uk</dc:identifier>
 <dc:identifier xsi:type="ukrlp:ukprn">23424341414</dc:identifier>

[edit] the title element

URI:http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title

The title of the resource. See CWA 15903 and Dublin Core.

Examples:

<dc:title>Physics For Dogs</dc:title>

<dc:title xml:lang="en">The Stars Of The Night Sky</dc:title>
<dc:title xml:lang="es">Las Estrellas del Cielo de la Noche</dc:title>

[edit] the subject element

URI:http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/subject

The topic of the resource. See CWA 15903 and Dublin Core.

Each subject element MUST contain one and only one keyword, phrase, or classification.

Examples:

<dc:subject xsi:type="dct:LDCS">PH.4</dc:subject> 
<dc:subject>mental health</dc:subject>
<dc:subject>addiction nursing</dc:subject>
<dc:subject xml:lang="en">development</dc:subject>
<dc:subject xml:lang="de">bildung</dc:subject>

[edit] the url element

URI:mlo:url

A link to a web resource that provides an alternate representation of the resource. See CWA 15903.

Example:

 <course>
   <dc:identifier>http://www.example.org/courses/1</dc:identifier>
   ...
   <mlo:url>http://www.example.org/prospectus.jsp?course=1</mlo:url>
   ...
 </course>

[edit] the image element

URI: http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/image

An image element is used within the XCRI Course Advertising Profile to enable images to be displayed by an aggregator.

A provider MUST NOT create image elements that contain any text content or child elements.

An aggregator MUST ignore any content or child elements of the image element.

Attributes:

• @src (required) A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) conforming to the URL scheme as specified by IETF RFC 3986. This is used for the image location.
• @title (optional) a title for the image, such as could be used as a caption.
• @alt (optional) alternative text that should be displayed if the image cannot be rendered.

Example:

  <image src="http://xcri.org/courses/c1/logo.png" title="Study XCRI" alt="Logo for the XCRI course"/>

[edit] Elements used in the provider element

[edit] the location element

URI:mlo:location

The spatial location of the provider

Elements:

• street (optional) Street address
• town (optional) Postal town
• postcode (optional) PostCode for the address
• address (optional, multiple) Additional address information. May occur zero or more times to hold address line information that benefits from being broken down for display purposes.
• phone (optional) A phone number as it would be dialled from the UK
• fax (optional) A fax number as it would be dialled from the UK
• email (optional) An email address

Producers MUST NOT use a POBox or other 'virtual' address, as aggregators SHOULD be able to use this for geocoding. Use an address element for POBox information.

The email element MUST contain content that conforms either to the "addr-spec" production in RFC2822

Example:

 <provider>
       <mlo:location>
	   <name>The College of Art, Bolton</name>
           <street>Deane Road</street>
           <town>Bolton</town>
	   <postcode>BL3 1EX</postcode>
           <address xsi:type="geo:lat">-123.7</address>
           <address xsi:type="geo:long">54</address>
      </mlo:location>
  </provider>
  

[edit] Elements used in the course element

[edit] the level element

URI:mlo:level An account of the education level of the course.

[edit] the qualification element

URI: mlo:qualification

A qualification that can be obtained from completion of a course. See CWA 15903

Elements

• identifier (optional, multiple) the identifier of the qualification
• title (required, multiple) the title of the qualification
• description (required, multiple) a description of the qualification
• educationLevel (optional) the level of award. See DCMI Metadata Terms
• hasPart (optional, multiple) a reference to a component part of the qualification. See DCMI Metadata Terms
• isPartOf (optional, multiple) a reference to a qualification this is a component part of. See DCMI Metadata Terms
• type (optional) the type of qualification
• awardedBy (optional) the organisation that awards the qualification.
• accreditedBy (optional) the organisation that accredits the qualification.

[edit] the credit element

URI: mlo:credit

An account of the credits that can be obtained from completion of a course. See CWA 15903

The CEN CWA on Educational Credit Information Model MUST be used to represent credit associated with a course. See TODO: URL

Elements:

• scheme (optional) The scheme under which credits are obtained. See TODO: URL
• level (required) The level at which credits are obtained. See TODO: URL
• value (required) The number of credits that can be obtained. See TODO: URL

[edit] Elements used in the presentation element

[edit] the start element

URI:mlo:start

The date at which a presentation begins. See CWA 15903.

This element MUST contain a date or time formatted in accordance with ISO 8601, as used in the definition of the W3C XML Schema "DateTime" type OR "Date" type.

[edit] the end element

URI:http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/end

The date or time at which the presentation of a course finishes.

This element MUST contain a date or time formatted in accordance with ISO 8601, as used in the definition of the W3C XML Schema "DateTime" type OR "Date" type.

[edit] the startUntil element

URI:http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/startUntil

The latest date or time at which the presentation of a course starts.

This element MUST contain a date or time formatted in accordance with ISO 8601, as used in the definition of the W3C XML Schema "DateTime" type OR "Date" type.

[edit] the endFrom element

URI:http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/endFrom

The earliest date or time at which the presentation of a course finishes.

This element MUST contain a date or time formatted in accordance with ISO 8601, as used in the definition of the W3C XML Schema "DateTime" type OR "Date" type.

[edit] the duration element

URI:mlo:duration

A duration of a presentation. See CWA 15903.

[edit] the applyFrom element

URI:http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/applyFrom

The date from which applications can be accepted for the presentation of a course.

This element MUST contain a date or time formatted in accordance with ISO 8601, as used in the definition of the W3C XML Schema "DateTime" type OR "Date" type.

[edit] the applyUntil element

URI:http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/applyUntil

The date after which applications cannot be accepted for the presentation of a course.

This element MUST contain a date or time formatted in accordance with ISO 8601, as used in the definition of the W3C XML Schema "DateTime" type OR "Date" type.

[edit] the engagement element

URI:mlo:engagement

The logistical means by which individuals engage in a Learning Opportunity Instance, encompassing temporal, modal and spatial patterns of engagement and attendance. See CWA 15903.

[edit] the languageOfInstruction element

URI:mlo:languageOfInstruction

A language in which the presentation is available to be taught. See CWA 15903.

The content of this element MUST be a valid BCP-47 language tag.

[edit] the languageOfAssessment element

URI:http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/languageOfAssessment

A language in which a presentation of a course can be assessed.

The content of this element MUST be a valid BCP-47 language tag.

[edit] the places element

URI:mlo:places

Number of places available for participants in the presentation . See CWA 15903.

[edit] the cost element

URI:mlo:cost

A cost associated with obtaining access to the. See CWA 15903.

Example:

 <cost>The course fees are £800 per semester, payable either in advance or monthly by direct debit.</cost>

[edit] the entryRequirements element

URI:mlo:prerequisite

A prerequisite or entry requirement for accessing the presentation. See CWA 15903.

[edit] the entryProfile element

[edit] the venue element

URI: http://xcri.org/profiles/catalog/1.2/venue

A location where a course is presented.

Elements:

• provider (required)

[edit] XML Binding

Draft schemas are available from our subversion repository

[edit] Extensions

You can extend XCRI-CAP in a number of ways; check out the Extending XCRI-CAP guidelines.

[edit] Vocabularies

This section is non-normative

Use of the XCRI_Terms_1.2 vocabulary encoding scheme is recommended.

[edit] Overview of the specification

This section is non-normative

The following UML diagram illustrates the elements of the specification.

[edit] Conformance to CEN Metadata for Learning Opportunities standard (CWA 15903)

This section is non-normative

Mapping MLO classes to XCRI elements

MLO class	XCRI element
Learning Opportunity Specification	Course
Learning Opportunity Instance	Presentation
Learning Opportunity Provider	Provider

Mapping MLO Learning Opportunity properties to XCRI common elements

MLO property	XCRI element
contributor	contributor
date	date
description	description
identifier	identifier
subject	subject
title	title
type	type
url	url
hasPart	hasPart

MLO Learning Opportunity Provider properties to Mapping XCRI provider elements

MLO property	XCRI element
location	location
offers	course (elided by containment rather than explicit association)

MLO Learning Opportunity Specification properties to Mapping XCRI course elements

MLO property	XCRI element
qualification	qualification
credit	credit
level	level

MLO Learning Opportunity Instance properties to Mapping XCRI presentation elements

MLO property	XCRI element
location	venue
offeredAt	venue
start	start
duration	duration
cost	cost
language of instruction	languageOfInstruction
prerequisite	description (refined to prerequisite using XCRI Terms 1.2)
places	places
engagement	engagement (refined to studyMode, attendanceMode and attendancePattern using XCRI Terms 1.2)
objective	description (refined to objective using XCRI Terms 1.2)
assessment	description (refined to assessmentStrategy using XCRI Terms 1.2)

[edit] Changes from V1.1

This section is non-normative

The following changes have been made in v1.2 of XCRI-CAP

1. Added Contributor, Date, and Type properties to Catalog, Provider, Course and Presentation
2. Replaced Relation with HasPart
3. RelationDType redefined as supporting association both by reference and inclusion
4. Modified Venue property of a Presentation to contain a Provider instance for the venue Location
5. Added Location property to Provider, containing the information previously supplied in OrganisationDType
6. Replaced Credit with a very similar model taken from CEN
7. Added Objective to XCRI Terms
8. Added level to course
9. Added engagement to replace studyMode etc

The changes are summarised in the following information model: