Abstract :
Recent developments in the standardisation of learning technology have
resulted in models of learning activities and resources including descriptive
metadata and definitions of conditional flows for multirole activities.
Nonetheless, such
learning designs
are actually representations of the
results
of
the design process and do not provide information about the
rationale
of the
design, ie, about the theoretical standpoints, assumptions or guidelines applied
to come up with the concrete arrangement of activities. These latter elements
are critical not only for informative reasons, but as a medium towards the end
of connecting theories and hypotheses to actual practice and analysing the
resulting empirical data as a form of inquiry on the validity of theoretical
assumptions. This paper delineates the main aspects of a schema for the
recording of such design rationales using an ontological approach. The method
for the engineering of the schema was based on connecting the definitions
provided with an existing large ontological base, thus reusing a large amount
of common sense knowledge. Two paradigmatic example positions of the range
of aspects that could be covered by the representation language are described
as an illustration. The resulting ontological definitions can be used as a
foundation for the refinement of theoretical positions and for their comparative
assessment.
