Designing a course module in Metadata and Electronic Data Management - Part 3

Having the general direction for the course module on Metadata and Electronic Data Management, what should the students be able to do at the end of the IT in e-Commerce course? The numerous seminars on how to design courses I have attended over the last year have emphasised the importance of learning objectives and of assessment as part of the learning process. This is not just about setting a test at the end to see the students can remember things.

In order to prepare some Learning Outcomes, I did a web search for other courses on metadata and document management to see what they had. The first found was the University of Manchester's "COMP30352: Information Retrieval, Hypermedia and the Web", however this seems more of a web course. The second found was "IT in E Commerce COMP6341" at the ANU. It took me some moments to realise this was the course I was teaching. Someone had already written the learning outcomes:

Learning Outcomes:

The focus of this course is on document representation, knowledge discovery, storage and retrieval, and electronic trading. The areas covered include XML, XSL, DTD, metadata, data management and different forms of trading such as deliberative, spontaneous and auctions. Other topics will be included to match recent developments and maturation of the area, such as web application frameworks, web services and the semantic web Rationale Electronic Commerce is an area that is growing in leaps and bounds. The use of information technology is at the heart of electronic commerce. It is important that students doing a degree in Information Systems have a sound understanding of the role that information technology plays in electronic commerce. This course, along with the course on Internet, Intranet and Document Systems, is meant to do just that. It looks at some of the current and potential uses of information technology in electronic commerce. The topics covered include document representation in the form of XML, XSL, DTD's; knowledge discovery using metadata and data mining; data management as in the case of Digital Libraries and Electronic Document Management; trading, including deliberative, spontaneous and auctions; and security (public keys, PKI, digital signatures, etc). Other topics would be included as the area matures. It is anticipated that this course will be of interest to people in the industry as well.

This course is responsible for:

• current trends in representation of data and documents on the web
• knowledge discovery in the form of metadata and data mining
• database management in electronic commerce
• electronic trading
• security in electronic commerce.

The following topics will be addressed:

• knowledge representation - XML, XSL, DTD, CSS
• knowledge discovery - metadata and data mining.
• data management - digital libraries and electronic document management
• trading - deliberative, spontaneous and auctions
• security - public keys, symmetric keys, PKI, authentication, digital signatures, etc.

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to do the following:

1. Describe the XML language, write simple DTD's, write CSS style sheets for documents, and explain where XML can be applied to advantage and why.
   
2. Describe the use of metadata, and describe the current trends in data mining.
   
3. Describe how digital libraries and electronic document management work.
   
4. Describe the different kinds of trading that an individual, or an organisation, can do electronically. Explain the advantages and limitations of electronic trading, and the risks involved.
   
5. Explain why security is such a big issue in electronic commerce and how it is being addressed. Describe key concepts like public keys, symmetric keys, PKI, authentication and digital signatures. Given a system specification, come up with a design that allows secure transmission of information.

From: "IT in E Commerce COMP6341", Course Details, ANU, 2009

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The last part which is of interest, saying what the student should be able to do on completion of the course:

Describe the XML language, write simple DTD's, write CSS style sheets for documents, and explain where XML can be applied to advantage and why.


Describe the use of metadata, and describe the current trends in data mining.


Describe how digital libraries and electronic document management work.


Describe the different kinds of trading that an individual, or an organisation, can do electronically. Explain the advantages and limitations of electronic trading, and the risks involved.


Explain why security is such a big issue in electronic commerce and how it is being addressed. Describe key concepts like public keys, symmetric keys, PKI, authentication and digital signatures. Given a system specification, come up with a design that allows secure transmission of information.

1. 
   

The wording of this is curiously loose, for example "...why security is such a big issue ...". Also use of the term "describe" seems too passive for a IT course, which should be about being able to do things, not just describe them.

Describe the XML language, write simple DTD's, write CSS style sheets for documents, and explain where XML can be applied to advantage and why.

Describe the use of metadata, and describe the current trends in data mining.

Describe how digital libraries and electronic document management work.

Describe the different kinds of trading that an individual, or an organisation, can do electronically. Explain the advantages and limitations of electronic trading, and the risks involved.

Explain why security is such a big issue in electronic commerce and how it is being addressed. Describe key concepts like public keys, symmetric keys, PKI, authentication and digital signatures. Given a system specification, come up with a design that allows secure transmission of information.

Extracting the items relating to metadata and electronic document management:

Describe the use of metadata ...

Describe how digital libraries and electronic document management work.

A better way to put this may be:

1. Use the XML language to define document strutures
2. Use XSLT to transform documents and CSS to present them
3. Use metadata to describe documents for use in digital libraries and electronic document management

In the course I previously spent a lot of time describing how e-publishing systems worked in general, and the history of publishing, to provide a context for XML based publishing. This is of little interest to current day students of IT, to whom paper publishing and library card catalogues are not part of their experience, having been born after e-publishing and computer catalogues had become the norm.

Also I spent a lot of time saying what was wrong with PDF. While there is still much wrong with PDF, there seems little point in spending time on that, when instead alternatives could be presented. Otherwise this is much like presenting what is wrong with private cars and roads to transport engineers.

Some other parts of the course can be emphasised. As an example the IFIP Digital Library which was speculated about last year has now become a reality, with the ANU providing the system for users around the globe. It is unlikely that students will have much interest or understanding of the idea that the material in the digital library was once available primarily on paper. They may also have difficulty making the connection between the digital library and the buildings on campus which are still called a library. The lower floors of these buildings have been cleared of most paper, to provide space for computer access, with perhaps a few serials and new books on display as historical curiosities.