A study on the MFO-based model of the learning material system

Yang Qing, Cheng Xinpeng and Deng Kangqiao
Dongbei University of Finance and Economics
Dalian, China
Yang Yang
Tongji University
Dongbei University of Finance and Economics
Dalian, China

This paper discusses how to build an efficient knowledge base to reduce the time taken to develop courses and solve the difficulties of restructuring them, in a way which meets the benchmarks of CELTS-3 and helps in the standardization and large-scale production of courseware.

The author's knowledge base can be divided into four levels -- basic resources, combined resources, knowledge points and courseware. The basic resources include, for example, text, streaming media (wmv, avi, mp3, etc.), photos (jpg, gif, etc.) and PPT; while the combined resources, which comprise a structured combination of basic resources, have even more formats. A knowledge point consists of a virtual set of basic and combined resources; and courseware, which extracts the relevant knowledge points according to the model and metadata of courseware publishing, is a set of knowledge points. The courseware's metadata include information on the relevant subjects, audience, duration and resources, with even the resource metadata being produced dynamically.

Using an XML model for recording the data requires considerable time as they are stored as character strings; and although an XML model provides accessibility, there are also some potential security risks. Therefore, in implementing the XML database model, the authors used SQL, which defines the attributes of a resource only once but can be invoked repeatedly. Also, the resources attributes can be defined at any time and edited.

Since the virtual set of knowledge points has been set up, the process of courseware development/adaptation has been streamlined, the deficiencies in the basic and combined resources detected, and the problems of poor consistency of resources resolved. Overall, the implementation of the system has increased efficiency in the use of resources, standardized resource publishing and 'industrialized' courseware production.