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Executable platform for managing customizable metadata of educational resources

Amel Abdyssalam Alhaag (University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Department of Computing and Control Engineering, Novi Sad, Serbia)
Goran Savic (University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Department of Computing and Control Engineering, Novi Sad, Serbia)
Gordana Milosavljevic (University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Department of Computing and Control Engineering, Novi Sad, Serbia)
Milan Tima Segedinac (University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Department of Computing and Control Engineering, Novi Sad, Serbia)
Milorad Filipovic (University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Department of Computing and Control Engineering, Novi Sad, Serbia)

The Electronic Library

ISSN: 0264-0473

Article publication date: 31 October 2018

Issue publication date: 12 November 2018

446

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to enable dynamic customization of metadata that describes educational resources in digital repositories.

Design/methodology/approach

Users need to describe educational resources in digital repositories according to a user-specific metadata set. As users generally do not have the skills to customize the software application manually, this approach relies on the techniques of model-driven software engineering, which should allow customization of the software application programmatically with no need to develop or order a new software application. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the proposed solution.

Findings

A software platform for managing educational resources described by dynamically extendable metadata is proposed. The platform enables the creation of data models that are programmatically transformed to a Web application for the management of educational resources. In this way, users can create their own models of metadata that are relevant in a particular domain.

Research limitations/implications

The solution has been verified by users with technical knowledge. The appropriateness of the model should still be explored for domain experts with little technical knowledge who desire to define new metadata in their domain.

Practical implications

The solution can be used for digital repositories that store diverse educational resources. Each resource could be described using metadata that relates to the domain the resource belongs to.

Originality/value

Digital repositories standardly describe educational resources using some general metadata, which are more focused on the physical characteristics of resources rather than their semantics. The proposed solution introduces custom domain-specific semantics into the description of the resources, which improves their retrieval.

Keywords

Citation

Abdyssalam Alhaag, A., Savic, G., Milosavljevic, G., Tima Segedinac, M. and Filipovic, M. (2018), "Executable platform for managing customizable metadata of educational resources", The Electronic Library, Vol. 36 No. 6, pp. 962-978. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-04-2017-0079

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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