TLCentre: Help

The Teaching and Learning Centre (TLCentre) is one of the main outcomes of the eLene-TLC project. It is based on the TT-Centre which was developed during the eLene-TT project but aims to a wider range of target groups.

All the resources in the TLCentre are parameterised according to the LOM design. All these materials are there for you as a source of inspiration and motivation and are free to use in your own teaching and learning process.

Be inspired!

Access to the eLene TLCentre is freely available to everyone. Any internet user can search the database and view all the information available on any of the existing resources.

In order to keep a high standard for the resources that are entered in the eLene TLCentre, users will require to register in order to be allowed to add new resources or update information on resources in the TLCentre database. A request will have to be made by filling the TLCentre registration form. The user making the request will then receive a username and a password.

The registered users also have a status which determines their rights. The stati available for the registered users are:
Editor
This user can insert new resources to the database, update the resources he/she has entered or delete the resources he/she has entered.
Board
The board user can insert new resources to the database, update any resources in the database and delete any of the resources in the database (not just their own).
Administrator
The administrator users have all the rights of board users plus the ability to administer the TLCentre users and user status.

Registered users can also rate resources and make comments on a resource, and add resources to their favourites to have easy and fast access to them.

The LOM parameters used in the TLCentre can be divided into seven categories. These are:

General
General parameters hold information describing the learning object as a whole. These parameters are:
  • Title of the resource: a mandatory parameter with a maximum length of 250 characters.
  • Description of the resource. Like the title it is compulsory in English, but further languages for the description can be used after that. The description can be up to 2000 characters long.
  • Language(s) in which the resource is available.
  • Keyword description of the resource. Keywords can exist in several languages but for each language the number of keyword items is limited to five (5).
  • Catalogue Entry: shows the name or designator of the identification or cataloguing scheme for this resource. This is not used in the TLCentre.
  • Aggregation Level is the functional size of the resource. and can take one of the pre-selected values:
    • Raw data
    • Lecture
    • Module
    • Course
    • Set of courses
  • Type of the resource which must be one of the four (4) available types: guideline, tool, publication and TT-material.
Educational
The parameters under this category describe the educational or pedagogic features of the resource. The parameters used are:
  • Pedagogical Use: shows how the resource can be used in a pedagogical way. This parameter is compulsory for every resource in the TT-Centre.
  • Type of Interactivity: shows the way the user interacts with the resource. The following predefined values are used to describe the type of interactivity supported by the resource:
    • Active
    • Expositive
    • Mixed
    • Undefined
    Only one of the above values can be selected.
  • Level of Interactivity: shows how interactive a resource is. The following predefined values are used to describe the level of interactivity supported by the resource:
    • Very low
    • Low
    • Medium
    • High
    • Very high
    Only one of the above values can be selected to show the level of interactivity between an end user and the resource.
  • Semantic Density: gives the usefulness of the resource compared to its size or duration. The following predefined values are used to describe the level of interactivity supported by the resource:
    • Very low
    • Low
    • Medium
    • High
    • Very high
    Only one of the above values can be selected.
  • Difficulty level: shows how easy/difficult it is for the typical target end user to work through the resource. The following predefined values are used:
    • Very low
    • Low
    • Medium
    • High
    • Very high
    Only one of the above values can be selected.
  • Typical Learning Time: is the typical time, in minutes, that would be required for the average end user to work through the resource.
  • End User: shows the normal user for whom the resource is intended. There can be more than one type of end users and all the values that match should be selected from the predefined list. The list includes the values:
    • Teacher
    • Author
    • Learner
    • Manager
    • Teacher Trainer
    • Institution
    • Instructional Designer
  • Context: informs about the principal environment within which the learning and use of resource is intended to take place. The following predefined values are used and each resource can have more than one of these values:
    • Primary Education
    • Secondary Education
    • Higher Education
    • University
    • Adult Education
    • Professional Education
  • Competency framework: this is not a LOM parameter but has been identified as an important characteristic from the work carried in the eLene-TLC project. The following predefined values are used and each resource can take more than one of these values:
    • Design/planning role
    • Social role
    • Pedagogical role
    • Technological domain
    • Management domain
Technical
The technical features of the resource can be found here. The parameters supported currently are:
  • URL: gives the internet location of the resource when this exists.
  • Format: shows technical data type(s) of (all the components of) the resource. A predefined list is given and each resource can have more than one format definitions from the list (asf, avi, doc, dvi, exe, html, jpg, mov, movie, mpeg, pdf, png, ppt, ps, rtf, tar, text, tiff, wav, wmv, zip).
  • Size: shows the size of the resource in bytes.
  • Duration: shows the duration of the resource. It is applicable only to multimedia files and has the format HH:MM:SS.
  • Requirements: informs about the technical requirements of the resource.
  • Installation Remarks informs about any points which have to be taken in to consideration when installing the resource.
Lifecycle
Here the history and current state of resource are described. The parameters contained in the Lifecycle are:
  • Version: shows the edition of the resource.
  • Status: describes the editorial condition of the resource. The value of the status can be one of the following pre-selected values:
    • Draft
    • Final
    • Revised
    • Unavailable
  • Author: contains the name(s) of the author(s) of the resource.
  • Publisher/Producer shows the name, address and any other contact information of the publisher/producer.
  • Funding Body: shows the name of the funding body of the resource.
Rights
This group holds the conditions of use for the resource.
  • Costs: indicates whether the resource is free or not.
  • Copyright: indicates whether the resource is copyrighted or not.
  • Description: shows comments on the conditions of use of the resource.
Relation
This group holds the features of the resource in relationship to other resources. Kind Only one kind of relation can exist between the source resource and the target resource. The kind of relations are predefined and based on Dublin Core:
  • is part of
  • has part
  • is version of
  • has version
  • is format of
  • has format
  • references
  • is referenced by
  • is based on
  • is basis for
  • requires
  • is required by
Two more relations are added by the eLene-TLC pertners, as they seemed to be necessary for the resources in the TLCentre:
  • applies
  • is applied by
Meta-metadata
This holds features of the resource description rather than the resource itself.
  • Metadata Scheme: shows the name and version of the authoritative specification used to create this metadata instance. Currently for all the resources of the TLCentre this is LOM v. 1.0.
  • Language: is the language of this metadata instance. This is English but other languages may be added at a later stage.

There are several methods of searching for resources in the TLCentre database.

The Resources page
This page is displayed when the user clicks on the 'resources' item of the menu. The page displays diagrams showing different LOM criteria and the occurance of each of the different values in the resources defined in the TLCentre. Clicking on one of the values will display the resources that meet this value. The different LOM criteria for which the available values are displayed are:

  • Type
  • Context
  • Language
  • Cost
  • Copyright
The Resource List
The list shows all the resources in the TLCentre. The resources are grouped according to their type and listed alphabetically on the resource title. The keywords of each resource are displayed nex to the title.

Simple Search
This basic search allows users to make a search based on the most frequently used parameters. The parameters are:
  • Title: the complete title or just part of the title can be entered. Capital and smallcase letters are irrelevant.
  • Type: one or more resource type can be selected in order to restrict the outcome
  • Context: the resulting resources must meet the selected context
  • End user: the resulting resources must aim to the selected end user
  • Language: restricts the resulting resources to be in the selected language
  • Keywords: must be seperated by comma. The resulting resources must match all the keywords entered
  • Submission Date: allows the selection of resources depending on the date they were submitted in the TLCentre
LOM Search
LOM search allows users to make a more detailed search depending on extended LOM parameters. These parameters are:
  • Title: the complete title or just part of the title can be entered. Capital and smallcase letters are irrelevant.
  • Language: restricts the resulting resources to be in the selected language
  • Aggregation: restricts the resulting resources to be in the selected aggregation value
  • Keywords: must be seperated by comma. The resulting resources must match all the keywords entered
  • Type: one or more resource type can be selected in order to restrict the outcome
  • Version status: restricts the resulting resources in having the selected version status value
  • Interactivity type: restricts the resulting resources to have the selected interactivity type
  • Interactivity level: restricts the resulting resources to have the selected interactivity level
  • Semantic density: restricts the resulting resources to be in the selected semantic density value
  • Difficulty level: restricts the resulting resources to have the selected difficulty level
  • Context: the resulting resources must meet the selected context. Using the 'Control' key more than one context values can be selected
  • Cost: restricts the resulting resources in having or not having any costs
  • Copyright: restricts the resulting resources in having or not having any copyright
The LOM search can be though of as a kind of resource comparison as the results are presented in a table. This kind of search gives the user the ability to select which fields will be displayed display in the results. The main fields are pre-selected but the users can make their own selection.

Finally the LOM search allows for some display options. These are:
  • Outcome Limitation of resources: the number of resources that should be displayed on each page. The default value is 10.
  • Border: whether the outcome table should have borders or not.
  • Colour: whether the resources in the outcome table should have different background colour (for separation) or not.

This action is available only to registered users.
Once a user has logged in, the resource inserting page can be found under the menu option 'My TLC' -> 'new resource'.

The form for inserting a new resource consists of the main parameters of the general, educational, technical, lifecycle and rights LOM categories.

The title, the description and the resource type under the general category must be filled. The title and the description must be filled in English. The title and the description could be also entered in other languages but once the resource has been submitted (see updating a resource).

The type of the resource must be selected. Each resource can have only one type and the default type is tool. The pedagogical use, under the educational category, must be inserted in English as well. The rest of the parameters are optional.

Other parameters can be defined later when a resource is being updated. This is also the case for providing attachments to a resource or defining a relation between two resources.

Updating resources is only allowed to registered users. Users with 'editor' rights can only update the resources they have entered while users with 'board' rights can update any on the resources in the TLCentre. Updating a resource can be reached by selecting 'My TLC -> update resource' or by clicking at the update icon from the ID Card of a resource (the icon is only available when the user has the rights to update the resource).

The update page has three (3) subpages allowing different apsects of a resource to be updated:

The Metadata subpage
The page shows all the LOM values of the resource for the General, Educational, Technical, Lifecycle and Rights categories. It allows the user to change any of the given values. Once the user has made the required updates in the form, pressing 'UPDATE' will save the changes in the TLCentre database.

This page also allows the user to add information to a resource in languages other than english. The small form at the top of the page allows the user to select a language from a drop down menu. Pressing on the 'Add Language' button will reload the update form to allow users to enter data in the selected language. The information in different languages can be given for the following fields:

  • Title
  • Description
  • Keywords
  • Pedagogical use
  • Technical Requirements
  • Instalation Remarks
  • Rights Description
Note that the information in the different languages in not yet accessible to TLCentre users but is planned to be used in future releases.

The Relation subpage
This page allows the user to see and update the relations of a resource to other resources. It shows all the relations of the resource to other resources allowing the user to delete any unwanted relations. Furthermore it allows users to create new relations between two (2) resources. The relation types are predefined and based on Dublin Core:
  • is part of
  • has part
  • is version of
  • has version
  • is format of
  • has format
  • references
  • is referenced by
  • is based on
  • is basis for
  • requires
  • is required by
  • applies
  • is applied by
The last two types are added by the eLene partners ss they seemed to be necessary for the resources in the TLCentre. The relation types are in pairs so if for example resource A 'is part' of resource B then resource B 'has part' resource A. Only one relation has to be defined and the its pair will be created automatically. Between two resources only one type of relation is allowed so resource A can not be 'part of' resource B and 'requires' resource B simultaneously.

The Attachment subpage
This subpage shows any attachments that have been uploaded for the resource allowing users to delete any of the existing attachments. Furthermore it allows users to upload new attachments for the selected resource. The uploaded attachments can be one of the following types:
  • thumbnail: A thumbnail of the resource with maximum size of 100 x 100 pixels
  • screenshot: A resource screenshot with maximum width of 700 pixels and height of 600 pixels
  • resource: The resource itself when it is for example a document or a video
  • other: Other supporting documents of files related to the resource
It is important that screenshots and thumbnails of a resource showing the same picture have the same name.

Clicking on a resource title in the search results will display the id card of the selected resource. At the top of the id card, a thumbnail of the the resource (if exists) is shown, the title of the resource and the user rating if it exists.

Below, all the available information for the resource, can be found in four (4) separate tabs. These are:

Description
The LOM data for the categories General, Educational, Technical, Lifecycle, Rights and Relation of the resource is displayed here.

Attachments
This tab contains all the attachments of type 'resource' or 'other' (see Attachment uploading) that have been uploaded to this resource. Users can download or open any of the attachments.

Screenshots
This tab page shows the screenshots of the resource that have been uploaded. When more than one screenshot has been uploaded these can be seen as a thumbnail at the bottom of the screen. Moving with the mouse over the thumbnail will display the relevant screenshot on the page.

Reviews
This tab shows the ratings and comments registered users have given for this resource.

There are some actions that users can perform from the ID card of a resource and these are:

  • Print the resource: this selection opens a new page with all the resource information to be printed. This action is available to all users.
  • Comment on a resource: this action is available only to registered users and allows them to rate the resource and give a comment.
  • Update the resource: only available to the user who has submitted the resource or to users with board priviledges.
  • Add resource to favourites: Only available to registered users who have less than ten (10) favourite resources selected.

Registered users can give comments on any of the resources in the TLCentre. At the ID card of the resource users must click on the comment icon on the right of the resource title. Once clicked the feedback form appears. The user then can rate the resource on a scale from 1 (not at all satisfied) to 5 (totally satisfied) and make a comment on the resource giving his/her experience with it. Each user can rate a resource only once and give only one comment. This rate and comment can be updated at anytime by selecting to comment on the resource again.

Registered users can add a resource to their favourites by clicking on the 'Add to favourites' icon on the top right of the ID card. Each user can have up to 10 favourite resources which are easily accessible from the 'My TLC' -> 'my favourites' page. If a resource is already in the user favourites then the icon 'Remove from favourites' is displayed in the ID card instead allowing the user to remove this resource from the list of favourites. This action can also take place at the 'My TLC' -> 'my favourites' page.

Registered users who consider themselves being an expert on a resource can indicate this to other users by clicking on the 'Add to expert list' icon at the top of the ID card of the resource. The resources which are in the expert list of a user can be easily accessed from the 'My TLC' -> 'my expert list' page. Removing a resource from the expert list can be done either from the 'my expert list' page or from the ID card of the resource, when the resource is already in the user's expert list the 'Remove from expert list' icon is displayed.