This paper was presented at ELAG 2013, in Ghent. It gives an overview of the JISC-funded STELLAR project which is led by The Open University's Library Services. The project is investigating the sustainability of enhancing non-current learning materials with semantic technologies

1. Improving the discoverability of
learning materials with Linked Data
ELAG May 2013
Sarah Brown

2. • The Open University is a world leader in modern
distance learning, the pioneer of teaching and
learning methods which enable people to achieve
their career and life goals studying at times and in
places to suit them
• The OU’s mission is to be open to people, places,
methods and ideas
• The OU has developed its own style of distance
learning called 'supported open learning‘
• Based in Milton Keynes with regional and national
centres across the UK
The Open University (OU)

3. • The Open University was the world's first successful distance teaching
university, founded on the belief that communications technology could
bring high quality degree-level learning to people who had not had the
opportunity to attend traditional campus universities
• The OU opened to its first students – 25,000 of them - in January 1971
• The OU has been faithful to its mission of
openness to methods. Over three decades
the university was quick to harness the
potential of new media for teaching and
learning and from the mid-1990s began the
massive exploitation of the internet that has
made the OU the world's leading e-university
History of the OU

4. • The OU is the largest academic institution in the UK, in terms of student
numbers. It has:
– more than 240,000 students
– close to 7,000 tutors
– more than 1,100 full-time academic staff
– more than 3,500 support staff
• Open University students are not just in the UK.
• Our students come from the widest possible range of backgrounds
• Teaching and learning has been transformed
• With the advent of MOOCs, the OU launched Futurelearn in 2012. A
partnership of a number of institutions, Futurelearn will bring together a
range of free, open, online courses
• Therefore the OU has a rich heritage of archived learning
materials in many formats. An increasing number of these
materials are being preserved in a digital format
And today…

5. The OU Digital Library (OUDL)
history of distance education
history of the OU
papers of OU VIPs
OU research projects
What is the Open University Digital Library?
Preserving selected OU historical, learning, teaching and research material.
OU and VLE websites
re-usable content
high-quality course showcases
institutional memory
SELECT COLLECT PRESERVE
The OUDL is currently in development and will be launched publicly soon

6. The OU Digital Library (OUDL)
Flexible
Extensible
Digital
Object
Repository
Architecture
Open source, created by and
supported by the digital preservation
community
purpose-designed to meet our needs
OUDL and the Fedora digital library
Supports international metadata
standards
PREMIS – METS – MODS – EAD – DC -
OAI

7. • Semantic Technologies Enhancing the Lifecycle of Learning Resources
• An eighteen month JISC-funded project being run by OU Library Services
• Working with semantic web experts in the OU’s Knowledge Media Institute
• STELLAR is part of the JISC Digital Infrastructure Programme – Enhancing the
Sustainability of Digital Collections
• Other projects in this strand are working on:
• The UK Web Archive
• The digital library for the Linnean Society
• STELLAR runs until July 2013
The STELLAR project

8. Taking collections preserved in the OUDL, the STELLAR project was
established to:
• Develop a detailed understanding of the value of legacy learning materials
as perceived by academic staff and other key stakeholders
• Experiment with the use of semantic technologies in a digital library
environment to ascertain the extent to which the perceived value of these
materials might be enhanced and to consider the sustainability
implications of using semantic technologies.
• Inform the development of digital libraries of learning resources by
contributing to the evidence base for their effectiveness
• Increase the return on investment of learning materials by
developing an evidence based model for lifecycle
management
STELLAR project aims

9. 1. Capturing perceptions
Personal and professional perspectives of value
I would be disappointed if the OU learning
materials that I helped to produce were not kept
I keep my own copies of the OU learning
materials that I am involved in producing
I would be pleased if others chose to reuse of
reversion the OU learning materials that I have
helped to produce
Financial / bottom line perspectives of value
I think that there is a monetary value to non-current
OU learning materials
The OU could make savings if more learning material
were reused
Value to HE and academic communities
Maintaining an archive of non-current OU learning
materials is important to the reputation of the OU
I think the non-current OU learning materials are
important in the context of the history of higher
education
I think the non-current OU learning materials are
important in showing how the OU taught at
particular times in history
Value to internal processes and cultures
I keep my own copies of the OU learning
materials that I am involved in producing
When producing new OU learning material, I am
likely to look to previous material, whether for
inspiration or for potential reuse
I would be more likely to explore existing non-
current learning materials if there were a better
way of finding them.
Using a balanced scorecard approach we conducted a benchmarking survey of academic
staff and stakeholders to investigate the value they place on non-current learning materials

10. A total of 561 completed responses
• 89.2% of respondents (501) agreed or strongly agreed
with the statement that maintaining an archive of
non-current OU learning materials is important to the
reputation of the OU.
• 75.9% of respondents thought that this should be
maintained in perpetuity.
• 90.16% of respondents (504) agreed or strongly
agreed that non-current learning materials are
important to the context of the history of higher
education.
• 91.75% of those respondents who were involved in
module production (356) agreed or strongly agreed
that when producing new OU learning material, I am
likely to look to previous material, whether for
inspiration or for potential reuse.
“We are the world leaders in distance learning, so our curriculum designs
are much admired and so are our materials. It would be remiss of us not to
treat them as potential objects of scholarship themselves”.

11. 2. Enhancement
• Based on feedback from
the survey three legacy OU
modules were selected for
enhancement
• All materials for the
modules were included:
print, A/V and
supplementary items
• Digital versions of the
materials were stored in
the OUDL
• Metadata was created or
improved for all the
content
• The materials were
enhanced using semantic
technologies

12. The modules selected comprised a wide range of materials
Range of learning resource types

13. STELLAR allowed us to link the metadata for all this
module content, making it more discoverable & reusable
A metadata module
record was created
which connects the
complicated web of
content and
metadata
associated with
each module
Module Information

14. A relationship model has also been defined showing all the
possible relationships between the elements of the module

15. Fedora record
course

16. Fedora record

17. Basic linked data model
(for data.open.ac.uk and to comply with current module descriptions)
doau:a103
“An Introduction to
the Humanities”
dc:title | rdfs:label | courseware:has-title
courseware:is-
taught-present
dc:subject
courseware:Course |
mlo:LearningOpportu
nitySpecification |
aiiso:Module |
xcri:course
rdf:type
“false”
aiiso#code
“A103”
jacs:V900 |
doau-topic:arts-
and-humanities
doau:a102
dc:isVersionOf
doau:a101
daou-library:339347
dc:isVersionOf
“An introduction to the humanities
: resource book 2”
dc:title
courseware:has-
courseware

18. Application of Linked Data
• A tool has been developed by our Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) to search
the linked data representations of the digital library
• Text entered into the tool is passed through a semantic meaning engine and
concepts are matched against the concepts contained within the digital library
dataset.
• A selection of the closest matches are then displayed. These link through to
the object in the Fedora digital library
• The semantic web tool analyses the meaning of those words and finds related
material
• As well as retrieving material from the digital library the tool can
also show related material from other datasets

19. Changing the
“sliders” gives a
new selection
of material
Text entered
or pasted in
by user
A selection of the
closest matches
are then
displayed.
These link
through to the
object in the
Fedora digital
library.

20. The user can directly access
digitised content stored in the
OUDL and use as required.
Materials include those
originally in print, audio and
video formats
It is also possible to access the extensive
metadata about the course or element of the
course, held on a data.open.ac.uk page

21. data.open.ac.uk

22. 3. Evaluation
• We have recently commenced the evaluation phase
of the project
• Through workshops and surveys we are asking people
how they find the tool, how they might use it and
what’s its value would be
• Early indications are positive…

23. Initial evaluation responses

24. Provisional conclusions from
evaluation
• Stakeholders place a high value on legacy learning
materials and believe these should be preserved
• If materials are easily discoverable and accessible they
will be used in future course production
• Applying semantic technologies to materials in a digital
library provides users with a broader range of materials
• Enhancing old materials with semantic technologies
makes them more likely to be referred to or reused
• There could be financial benefits to
transforming content in this way

25. Learnings so far…
• We found significant effort was required to improve the metadata for
these materials
• To make best use of the Linked Data, it was beneficial to digitise and
preserve all course materials (including those not previously considered).
There is a trade-off between the value of getting extra detailed content
digitised and added to the
system and the
cost of cataloguing.
• However, what we have
developed for the
STELLAR project is
already being used to
enhance the OUDL –
e.g. linking from course
materials to related
iTunesU material

26. Our thanks to JISC for funding the STELLAR project
Contact details
Project blog: www.open.ac.uk/blogs/stellar
Email: stellar@open.ac.uk
Twitter: #oustellar