DITA (DARWIN INFORMATION TYPING ARCHITECTURE)

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1 XML IN ELEARNING Claudiu CHIRU Raluca PACURARU Eliza ISBASOIU Abstract: XML (EXtensible Markup Language) is an open standard that describes data from the Web. XML uses tag structure like HTML but, whereas HTML defines how elements are displayed, XML defines what those elements contain. In this paper we investigate the use of XML in elearning starting with DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) and continuing with elml (elesson Markup Language), an open source XML framework for creating structured elessons using XML. We propose finally an elml implementation of a computer course. Keywords: XML, elml, elearning, DITA I. DITA (DARWIN INFORMATION TYPING ARCHITECTURE) The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) [1][2] was developed by IBM in 2001 as an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. The complexity of Web information, increased demand for multiformat documentation, shorter documentation development cycles were some of the challenges that IBM DITA developers have to overcome. DITA basic element is a topic. A topic is a piece of information that has the following characteristics: specific to a single subject; it has a heading; it can stand alone; it makes sense in any context. From topic basic element are derived three specialized topics: task, concept and reference A Task topic describes how to accomplish a task. It displays a list of steps that the users must follow to produce a specified result. A Concept describes something. It contains definitions, rules and guidelines. A Reference topic offers details. It describes command syntax, programming instructions, reference material. Specialization Specialization is a DITA feature that allows authors to create new information types with structure and semantics specific to a particular audience. Considering draft specifications issued by OASIS, a learning specialization is available to create topics for educational purposes. DITA specialization for elearning OASIS DITA project for elearning infrastructure development has the following objectives[4]: 1. Provides a top-level design for learning content using DITA structure 2. Promotes best practices for applying DITA principles:

2 a. separation of presentation and content; b. separation of content and context; c. single sourcing, reuse, repurposing. 3. Provides support for delivering contents in multiple formats for training and learning for different audience DITA specialization elements for elearning uses as defined by OASIS [4]: LearningPlan topic The LearningPlan topic contains goals and learning necessary information. LearningPlanBody The LearningPlanBody is the main element of the LearningPlan topic. The The LearningPlanBody has the following optional elements: <lcproject>, <lcneedsanalysis>, <lcgapanalysis>, <lcintervention>, <lctechnical>, <section>. lcproject - The <lcproject> provides project plan description information. lcplandescrip: The <lcplandescrip> provides a plan description. lcplanprereqs: <lcplanprereqs> provides the necessary activities that the learners had to accomplish to follow the course. lcplansubject: The <lcplansubject> provides a complete description of the subject of the learning activity. lcplantitle: The <lcplantitle> provides a title for this plan.... LearningOverview topic- This topic enumerates the learning objectives and includes important information for learners concerning duration, audience, prerequisite. LearningContent topic - This topic describes the content of the learning activity and provides a container for DITA concept, task, and reference topics. LearningSummary topic type - The learningsummary topic type offers a short decription of the learning content and provides some guidelines to memorize the main ideas of the lessons. It also provides some questions for verification of the learning content. Learning Assessment topic type - A Learning Assessment provides a list of questions or interactive activities that measure the level of knowledge aquisition and stimulate reinforcement of the learning content. LearningBase topic type - The learningbase topic type offers a structure and a set of elements that can be used in other learning content types: learningoverview, learningcontent, learningsummary, learningassessment, and learningplan. It is not used to author or deliver any actual learning content. Figure 1. DITA topic types for elearning [3]

3 Conclusion DITA is becoming a very important standard in designing education systems. Creating lesson plans and scenarios, flexible document production, developing DITA extensions to help elearners with writing structured texts are only a few of the DITA uses in education. II. ELML ELEARNING MARKUP LANGUAGE ELML started from the GITTA [6][7](Geographic Information Technology Training Alliance) project, a swiss elearning project about GIS. GITTA was designed using XML to store content and open source software for servers. Using a pedagogical concept, a DTD file that later became XML schema was designed. The XML schema describes the elements that the lesson should contain and the order of the elements. After some time, the XML schema, the corresponding XSL files to create HTML and PDF were made freely available. Elml is based on a pedagogical concept named ECLASS developed by Gerson[8]. The model was adapted by the elml developers and has six elements: Entry Entry element contains introductory topics that are to be accesed before the lecture unit Clarify Clarify is the main part of the lesson. Is the place where things are explained. Look Look containes examples, samples illustrations, videos and other elements that will detail some important aspects of the lesson. Act Act is about practice the things that the student have been taught. It engages the student in a practical activity. Self-assesment Self-assesment containes questions, quiz and exercises. Summary Summary is used to point out the most important ideas in the lesson. It is a new element added to the Garson ECLASS structure. 2.1 The structure of the elml XML Schema The most important files of the elml XML schema [5][6][7] are the following: elml.xsd, validate.xsd, config.xsd. elml.xsd is the core of the elml structure. All main elements are defined in this file. validate.xsd is the file that lesson designers use for adapting the structure of elml.xsd to the project needs. This file is located in _config folder. The things that may be changed are: the levels of the lessons the module names (shortcuts) the icons used for the layout and their format the institutions and departments the lesson labels the language shortcuts available the copyright statement etc.

4 config.xsd describes the structure of the config.xml file from the _config folder of the project. 2.2 elml folder structure The core folder structure In elml there is a core folder [5][6][7] that contains XML Schema and XSLT transformation files for obtaining output in different format, there is a project folder which contains the lessons in XML format, templates for data output, project specific configuration. In the elml "core" folder there are the following subfolders: structure: The elml XML Schema XSD files; presentation: XSL files to generate different output formats of the lesson; manual: reference for all elml elements and attributes; tools: Contains binary and/or sources of all the tools available from elml. Project folder structure The project folder [7] is at the same level as the core folder. The project folder has the following structure: 1. folder _config. The folder _config has two files: config.xml Config.xml is the file where the user specifies some general information regarding the author, the layout, etc. There is a possibility to define a translation for general terms. validate.xsd. This file is used for validating the lesson. It may be changed according to specific needs. 2. folder _templates. This folder contains the templates for the data layout. This folder must contain at least one template. online.xsl. This file contains templates to create a unique layout elml.css and elml_print.css. These two CSS files are used for the XHTML versions of the lesson. The user may customize these files according to his/her needs. elml.js. This file contains JavaScripts used by elml 3. lessons. This folder is on the same level as the above. Each lesson has it s own folder. 2.3 Creating a computer course in elml The easiest way to work with elml is by using the Eclipse platform. The necessary steps to download and installing elml in Eclipse are defined in []. To create a lesson in elml first the user has to recreate the folder structure: _config, _templates and the lesson folder. The user may adapt the MyLesson structure from elml documentation. The next step is to populate the lesson with information using the elml structure. The information has to be structured according the topics defined by elml: entry, clarify, look, act, selfassesment, summary.

5 Figure 2. The screenshoot of Oxigen XML editor in Eclipse for MyLesson.xml Next, the user will adapt the above structure to his/her needs. Adding more paragraphs, more learning objects is an easy task, just right click the mouse, select the option and write the contents of the element. Transforming the lesson The most important transformation is from xml to xhtml. There are several ways to obtain the xhtml version of the course. The first and the easiest transformation is without a layout template. The steps are: 1. Open the lesson in Oxigen XML Editor 2. Configure the transformation scenario 3. Choose the input XSLT file 4. Apply the transformation scenario Figure 3. A computer lesson

6 Using a template builder Using a template builder was our option too. The template buider creates templates for elml using a plugin for This new tool creates elml layout templates using a webbased WYSIWYG frontend. All that is need is the template builder package, YAML (Yet Another Multicolumn Layout) and a browser. The tool was tested on windows platforms with Firefox. Creating your own CSS files All the definitions of CSS elements are described in elml.css file which is part of the templates folder. The elements defined in elml.css can be overriden by attribute of these elements. The list atribute values is described in _config/validate.xsd file. This file must not be changed by the author of the course. Transform the elml course into a SCORM or IMS Content format The resulting file is an archive with all the xml files, images, videos and a file called called imsmanifest.xml at the root level. This file contains both the metadata about the lesson (according to the IMS Metadata standard) and references to the different files. Create a PDF version of your lesson using XSL-FO ELML offers two possibilities for PDF versions of a lesson: using XSL-FO or LaTeX. For PDF version using XSL-FO in the configuration of transformation scenario the author has the Perform FO processing option to check and enter an output path. Figure 4. HTML version of the course

7 2.4 Computer course project in elml We have designed a computer course using elml. The most difficult part of this project was to adapt the course to the structure provided by elml. The authors had to carefully choose the titles, the units, the entry points and all the elements of the elml structure, they had to express the course s ideas in short, meaningfull sentences, for a easier comprehension of the course s outlines. The XML editing part might be challenging for a novice in computers but using the author tab in Oxigen xml editor can ease this process of editing the lesson. One of the most important issues about this markup language is that it provides a template for elearning. The structure helps the author to create good elearning material. Actually, it is possible to design elearning material for many different scenarios using this structure. Apart from Learning Management Systems, in elml you can create a source file and multiple outputs, you may change the layout of the lesson just by changing the xsl files. 2.5 Conclusion XML has become the language for information interchange and describing relationships. There is XML for biology, XML for chemistry, XML for rights management, XML for finance, XML for business rules, XML for publishing, etc. In this paper we have presented some of the most important standards in xml elearning designing: DITA and elml. DITA is a universal standard for creating structured documentation while elml is an XML standard for designing elearning systems. Both languages help the authors to create good elearning material based on a flexible structure.

8 BIBLIOGRAPHY [1] Darwin Information Typing Architecture(DITA) Specification 1.1 [2] Don Ray (2005), Introduction to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, IBM corporation [3] John Hunt, An XML-based information architecture for learning content, Part 1 A DITA specialization design, IBM corporation 2005 [4] OASIS Design and Language Specification for DITA Learning and Training Content, Subcommittee draft, February 28, 2008 [5] Fisler, Joël, Creating Educational Content with elml. In: Hoffmann, Frank, ed. GI2008-Symposium - 8. Sächsisches GIS-Forum, 15./16. Mai 2008, Dresden. Dresden, Germany: IGN - Innovation. Grenzüberschreitendes Netzwerk, 54. [6] Fisler, Joël, Bleisch, Susanne, elml, the elesson Markup Language: Developing sustainable e-learning Content Using an Open Source XML Framework. In: WEBIST International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, April 11th-13th Setubal, Portugal. [7] elml documentation [8] Gerson, Steven M. (2000). E-CLASS: Creating a Guide to Online Course Development For Distance Learning Faculty. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration [online], Volume 3, Issue 4. [9] Fisler, Joël, Weibel, Robert, GITTA: Open Content Material for GIS Education. In: EUGISES 2006 Conference, September 7th-10th 2006, Krakow. Krakow, Poland: Faculty of Forestry, Agricultural University Associate Professor/Phd, Spiru Haret University Lecturer/Phd candidate, Spiru Haret University Assistant/Phd candidate, Spiru Haret University