EDUCATIONAL ASSET DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20110010210A1
• Filed: 07/10/2009
• Published: 01/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Blackboard Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Blackboard Incorporated
• Inventors: Chambers, Ramsey R., ALCORN, Robert L., Everhart, Deborah
• Application Number:
  US12/500,844
• Publication Number:
  US 20110010210A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/205 Education administration or guidance

Abstract

An educational asset distribution system including an asset registration module which obtains information about a plurality of educational assets, said information including fixed metadata descriptive of an educational asset, and information for accessing the educational asset; a learning management system interface which receives context data descriptive of a user of a learning management system; a dynamic metadata storage which stores a portion of the context data in association with the fixed metadata; and an educational assets management module for managing the plurality of educational assets based on the context data, the information about the plurality of educational assets, and data stored in the dynamic metadata storage.

Claims

1. An educational asset distribution system, comprising:

an asset registration module which obtains information about a plurality of educational assets, said information including fixed metadata descriptive of an educational asset, and information for accessing the educational asset;

a learning management system interface which receives context data descriptive of a user of a learning management system;

a dynamic metadata storage which stores a portion of the context data in association with the fixed metadata; and

an educational assets management module for managing the plurality of educational assets based on the context data, the information about the plurality of educational assets, and data stored in the dynamic metadata storage.

2. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the educational assets management module comprises a recommender module which selects a plurality of recommended assets based on the context data, the information about the plurality of educational assets, and data stored in the dynamic metadata storage.

3. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the educational assets management module comprises a licensing module which determines purchasing options for assets based on the context data, the information about the plurality of educational assets, and data stored in the dynamic metadata storage.

4. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the educational assets management module comprises an access control module which controls the availability of educational assets to the user based on the context data, the information about the plurality of educational assets, and data stored in the dynamic metadata storage

5. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the context data describes a course associated with the user.

6. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the management performed by the educational assets management module is further based on outcomes of the user'"'"'s use of educational materials on the learning management system.

7. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, further comprising

an asset store for storing educational assets for which information has been obtained by the asset registration module;

and

a provider interface module which receives from a remote system a submitted educational asset for storage by the asset store, and metadata descriptive of the submitted education asset for the asset registration module.

8. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, further comprising

a provider interface module which receives a submitted educational asset for storage by the asset store, metadata descriptive of the submitted education asset for the asset registration module, and information for accessing the educational asset from a remote system, wherein

the learning management system interface provide information to the learning management system for accessing the submitted educational asset from the remote system.

9. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the learning management system interface receives a plurality of context data for a plurality of users of a plurality of learning management systems,

the dynamic metadata storage stores a portion of each of the plurality of context data, and

the educational assets management module manages the plurality of educational assets based on the plurality of context data.

10. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

authentication of the user is performed by the learning management system and received via the learning management system interface.

11. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

authorization of the user is performed by the learning management system and received via the learning management system interface.

12. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the context data includes role data indicating if the user is an instructor or a student in a context;

and

in response to the role data indicating the user is a student, the educational assets management module does not operate on an instructor-oriented asset.

13. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

a request for additional context data is initiated by the educational assets management module and submitted to the learning management system via the learning management system interface.

14. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the dynamic metadata storage stores search data for searches performed via the educational asset distribution system, and

the educational assets management module manages the plurality of educational assets based on the search data.

15. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the dynamic metadata storage stores purchase data regarding purchases made by users via the educational asset distribution system, and

the educational assets management module manages the plurality of educational assets based on the purchase data.

16. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the dynamic metadata storage stores user ratings of assets and tagging/categorization metadata, each submitted via the learning management system interface, and

the educational assets management module manages the plurality of educational assets based on the user ratings of assets and tagging/categorization metadata.

17. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the educational assets management module is responsive to membership of the user within a particular group of users.

18. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the educational assets management module is responsive to role data indicating a role the user serves a context.

19. The educational asset distribution system of claim 15, wherein

the access control module is responsive to role data indicating multiple roles the user serves in a plurality of groups.

20. The educational asset distribution system of claim 2, further comprising

a financial transaction module which processes a purchase of a desired educational asset by the user;

and

an access control module which controls availability of the desired educational asset to the user in response to the financial transaction module.

21. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the context data includes a course plan and assets selected for the course plan, and the educational assets management module manages additional assets in response to objectives or standards included in the course plan.

22. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the context data includes a course plan and assets selected for the course plan, and the educational assets management module manages additional assets in response to the assets selected for the course plan.

23. The educational asset distribution system of claim 16, wherein

user ratings of assets are associated with role data indicating if a user is an instructor or a student in a context;

and

user ratings information is provided to a user of the leaning management system in response to role data for the user of the leaning management system.

24. The educational asset distribution system of claim 1, wherein

the dynamic metadata storage stores outcomes of the use of the plurality of users of an educational asset;

and

the educational assets management module manages the plurality of educational assets based on the outcomes of the use of the plurality of users of the educational asset.