MAGICAL demonstration: System for automated metadata generation for instructional content

Abstract

The "Tools for Automatic Generation of Learning Object Metadata" project addresses the requirement of developing advanced distributed learning delivery architecture and services for a large US government agency. We have developed a Webbased system called MAGIC (Metadata Automated Generation for Instructional Content) to assist content authors and course developers in generating metadata for learning objects and information assets to enable wider reuse of these objects across departments and organizations. Using the MAGIC system, content authors review and edit automatically-generated metadata sufficient to register and describe their assets for use and discovery in current and future distributed learning applications complying with the ADL SCORM standard. Course developers can use the system to assist in the conversion of existing courses to SCORM format or in developing new SCORM courses. The MAGIC system includes software tools to analyze and extract descriptive metadata from instructional videos, training documents, and other information assets. The tools generate some of the most critical SCORM metadata completely automatically. Benefits of MAGIC include easier reuse and repurposing, improved interoperability, and more timely registration of content for use by course developers. In this paper, we describe the system architecture, analysis tools developed, and services supported. A live demonstration of the system illustrating several use cases of the system will be presented at the conference, with a discussion of results from user studies and evaluation of the system. Copyright 2006 ACM.