February 20-22, 2004

The first NSDL Reusability Workshop was held February 20-22, 2004 at the Embassy Suites Orlando Airport in Orlando, Florida: Agenda, Logistics, Handouts and Webboard.

Workshop Takeaways

The workshop will focus on the following six topic areas.

  1. Framework for Reusability

    The starting point for this workshop will be a framework for reusability of digital learning resources. The framework combines educational, technical and other perspectives from the reusability literature. It identifies four factors that affect reusability:

    • Granularity: Granularity captures the size, decomposability and the extent to which a resource is intended to be used as part of a larger resource. Granularity plays an important role in determining expectations for reuse.
    • Interoperability. Interoperability measures the extent to which a digital resource will “plug and play” on different platforms, or can be modified using different tools.
    • Layers. Learning resources have multiple layers: content, presentation, structure, context and pedagogy. Reusability is enhanced by understanding the role of each and by keeping them separate to the greatest extent possible.
    • Rights. Intellectual property rights, attribution and the ability to access and modify source code all impact reusability.

  2. Reusability Profiles

    The Reusable Learning Project has developed a method for profiling the reusability of digital learning resources that can be used to categorize the reusability characteristics of a given digital learning resource to create “reusability profiles” (metadata about reusability) for digital learning resources. The profiling criteria are based on the reusability framework but are meant to be intelligible without a thorough knowledge of the framework. You will have a chance to profile some learning resources from NSDL collections.

    MERLOT, ENC and other partners in the Reusable Learning Project will be piloting this profiling system. As of yet it has not been field tested. Feedback is welcomed!

  3. Reusability Guidelines

    This workshop will introduce you to a set of guidelines for designing and creating reusable content. These are targeted at educators and development teams who contribute content to NSDL collections. As part of the workshop, you will start to tailor these guidelines to your own needs.

  4. Collection Policies

    Many NSDL collections (or services to collections) aggregate, maintain and disseminate content without developing it themselves. This workshop will discuss collection policies and actions that can help make such content more reusable. These include policies for review and outreach as well as maintaining appropriate metadata.

  5. Introduction to Interoperability

    Interoperability is a technical subject that touches on standards and tools. This workshop will include an overview of interoperability standards and the how they are used in authoring and delivery platforms. A lab will give you the chance to see some of the standards in action.

  6. Reusable Learning Project Resources

    The Reusable Learning Project is developing and will maintain the following resources and reference sets. Much of this material appears in this binder but you should rely on the Reusable Learning Web site as the more permanent source.