A Meta-Data Driven Approach to Searching for Educational Resources in a Global Context.

This paper presents the design of an Internet-enabled search service that supports educational resource discovery within an educational brokerage service. More specifically, it presents the design and implementation of a metadata-driven approach to implementing the distributed search and retrieval of Internet-based educational resources and compares its performance with current search services, e.g., Internet search engines. The paper first presents a business model, identifying the possible different actors (customer, access network provider, broker, educational service provider, value added service provider, and content provider) in the context of a global educational open market. The major components of education metadata as defined by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers) are summarized, including general, lifecycle, meta-metadata, technical, educational, rights management, relation, and annotation components). An architecture that reflects this model is then outlined. In focusing on the role of the educational broker, the current state of the art with respect to a metadata driven approach to educational content description is examined. More specifically, the paper concentrates on the metadata-driven search and retrieval issues when designing, implementing and trailing such a brokerage search manager, including the metadata cache and mapping XML to the relational model. The paper concludes with experiences of operating such services in a pan-European trial as part of the GESTALT research project. (Contains 10 references.) (MES)