Michael Currie, EdNA Higher Education Project Manager, Dept of Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia m.currie@dis.unimelb.edu.au
Nicholas Moss, Principal Consultant, CRC for Enterprise Distributed Systems Technology (DSTC) nickm@dstc.com
Albert Ip, EdNA Technical Specialist, Dept of Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia albert@dls.au.com
Prof. Iain Morrison, Dept of Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia i.morrison@dis.unimelb.edu.au
metadata tools, EdNA, Education Network Australia, Dublin Core, DSTC, higher education, metadata standards, online resources, thesaurus
In 1999 the EdNA Higher Education project team was funded by DETYA to produce a suite of metadata tools for educational sectors and institutions in Australia. These tools were aimed at simplifying and partially automating the creation and maintenance of metadata for web resources intended to be added to EdNA Online. They also aimed to improve search effectiveness through linking an educational thesaurus to keywords obtained from the resource.
This paper describes each of the projects and the metadata tools that have been produced. These include a Metadata Manager, a Metadata Editor and a linked Educational Thesaurus. The tools provide a range of benefits to resource managers and creators in indexing and enabling access to their resources.
Commencing as three separate projects, the paper describes the process that resulted in a single integrated set of tools being produced. This process provided a learning experience for the project team and for the software developers, DSTC. In attempting to provide best practice in a cutting edge environment, the project became an evolutionary process that aimed to match perceived and surveyed needs to possibilities.
Having successfully produced the tools, the challenge of distribution and promotion to a highly diversified and widely spread clientele had to be met. This involved developing efficient methods of distribution and effective training programs.
The paper discusses some of the lessons that were learnt including the development and testing of cooperative frameworks involving different educational sectors and contract developers, management of resources and vision discernment.Implications and possibilities for future developments are discussed and an analysis of the process and outcomes of the projects is provided.
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