Authoring Model Descriptions

Place to post your "model descriptions" as discussed at the Authoring Summit:

Portfolio

PLEASE NOTE: This is an early draft to rough in the concepts within the portfolio models. The model and naming are subject to extensive change.


Portfolio: A collection of pages, owned by a learner and shared with mentors or reviewers.

Portfolio Template: A prototypical portfolio meant to be copied as a portfolio for a user. May include configuration to offer suggested content or enforce requirements for a given type of portfolio. This configuration might include a specific navigational structure, a selection of three themes, and a compulsory contact information section, for example.

SiteMap: A navigation scheme for a portfolio. This defines how pages will be linked together in a presentation automatically. There are two primary types of navigation support: linear (List) and hierarchical (Hierarchy). There is also the notion of a general collection (Bag) of pages that will be linked manually.

Page: The atomic unit within a portfolio. Corresponds to one screenful of content, laid out according to the selected page or portfolio theme. Can include content of various types.

Content: Abstract notion of content that can be included within a page. This may be as simple as an HTML fragment or more complex, such as a reference to an assignment submission or a dynamic widget.

Placeholder: A page that has no external content but represents a place where a page could or must exist.

NullPage (needs proper name): A pseudo page strictly for navigational (containment) purposes. Has a title but no content.

Theme: A definition of visual styling that may be applied to a portfolio. Not all themes may be appropriate or compatible with all portfolio types.

Page Theme: A definition of visual styling that may be applied to a given page within a portfolio. As with portfolio themes, page themes may only apply to certain page types.

Navigation Rule: Constrains or allows the selection of navigation styles for a portfolio type. Particularly suited to definition during the creation of a Template to provide required structure for a portfolio type.

Page Rule: Constrains or allows addition/removal/replacement of a page in a specific location within the SiteMap for a portfolio. Especially helpful when configuring a portfolio template where there is compulsory structure.

Content Rule: Describes the requirement or optionality of a specific type or piece of content within a page. Especially suited to highly structured portfolio templates with specific compulsory content.

SRG

A Subject Research Guide (SRG) is an HTML document that provides access to search tools and other resources helpful in locating resources related to topics of interest to information seekers. The Sakaibrary Project is particularly interested in helping academic libraries develop SRG's for use by college-level students and instructors in support of learning to use library resources for research, but SRG's within Sakai have potential far beyond that.

The basic kinds of resources and other elements that might be included in an SRG are described in the SRG Data Object Table.

The first work on SRG's in Sakai uses a flat document structure in which a hierarchy is simulated by insertion of headings and subheadings between other elements. We may need to switch to a hierarchical structure if we find this to be inadequate.

A smart copy-and-paste feature will be important for end users. Students and other users will want to copy some elements within an SRG (such as Citations) to other documents they are composing within Sakai. Also, when users initiate searches of external sources (such as metasearch engines) from an SRG, they will want to copy and paste results into Sakai. The ability to author SRG's within Sakai is really an ability to create new tools that support authoring.

OpenSyllabus

A main feature of the OpenSyllabus Authoring tool is in the nature of the manipulated data, data are models and not HTML pages.

No wonder, since open XML standard and model-based syllabus are at the root of the project (see OpenSyllabus : Model-based Electronic Syllabi, or How to Share Electronic Course Syllabi).

Toward Model-based Authoring Tools (draft OSYL Team Notes)

Simple Page