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Subject: DITA learning content - to nest or not to nest?
- From: john_hunt@us.ibm.com
- To: dita-learningspec@lists.oasis-open.org
- Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2007 11:56:40 -0400
This is also posted to our learning
SC wiki - http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/LearningContent/LearningContentTopicSamples.
All of the samples are available with
the updated learningsc plugin posted with our OASIS DITA learning SC Documents
- http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-learningspec/download.php/24552/learningsc_plugin.zip
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello all OASIS DITA learning content
sub-committee members and observers -
Building from our discussion this week
about the learning content topic type, I've put together several alternative
samples with the Managing mail topic set we looked at during the meeting.
The key questions about learning content
for me are the following:
* Can we enable and support *direct*
use of the DITA core topic-concept-task-reference topic types as learning
content, without requiring learning-specific specializations of the DITA
content types?
* By extension, if we can support
direct use of the core DITA content types, then we can support direct use
of *any* desired DITA content type.
* What, if any, learning-specific
content is essential to provide with DITA content types, to integrate them
into a learning context?
Our current design
for learningContent includes section-level specializations for lcIntro
(optional), lcDuration (optional), lcChallenge (optional), and lcInstruction
(optional).
* How can we provide a "starter
set" for learning content and make it as easy as possible to author,
manage, process, and deliver DITA content as learning?
Please review the samples below, consider
my comments about advantages and disadvantages, and respond back to this
list with your comments. Let's plan to discuss in detail at our regular
meeting next Thursday, July 12 at the new 4-5 PM EDT time.
Come prepared next Thursday to reach
agreement on how which of these design options to use.
Thanks.
John
___________________________________
John Hunt
Lotus Education Development
Chair, OASIS DITA learning and training content sub-committee
IBM Software Group/Lotus Software
john_hunt@us.ibm.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
The samples
------------------------------------------------------------------
All of the samples are available with
the updated learningsc plugin posted in our SC Documents - xxxxx.
Unzip the plugin to the demo folder
in the DITA OT root folder (for example, c:\DITA-OT1.3.1), and sample htmlhelp
output are available in demo\learningsc\mail_topics\out. More info about
this is in the mail_sample_readme.
The plugin zip includes htmlhelp results
for 4 sample sets of content.
------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Sample 1 - learning_mail_map1.chm
------------------------------------------------------------------
The first sample makes no use of learningContent
topics at all, but uses the following learning map to describe a learningObject
and topicrefs directly to DITA concept and task topics, with a learningOverview
and learningSummary as bookend topics.
------------------------------------------------------------------
<!-- All core task-concept-reference
content topics with topicrefs -->
<!-- Objectives in the learningOverview
-->
<!-- No learningContent topics used
at all -->
<learningObject href=""understanding_mail_basics_top.dita""
collection-type="sequence" type="learningOverview">
<learningOverviewRef href=""understanding_mail_basics_overview.dita""
type="learningOverview"/>
<topicref navtitle="Your
Mail Inbox" id="mail_inbox" href=""mail_c_inbox.dita""
type="concept"/>
<topicref navtitle="Displaying
the inbox" id="display_inbox" href=""mail_Displaying_the_inbox.dita""
type="task"/>
<topicref navtitle="Opening
a message" id="open_message" href=""mail_Opening_a_message.dita""
type="task"/>
<topicref navtitle="Moving
messages to folder" id="move_messages" href=""mail_Moving_messages_to_a_folder.dita""
type="task"/>
<learningSummaryRef href=""understanding_mail_basics_summary.dita""
type="learningSummary"/>
</learningObject>
------------------------------------------------------------------
Advantages of this approach:
* Simple, direct use of existing
DITA content.
* No additional assumptions for
creating learning content.
* Can package any content as learning
by providing learningOverview, learningSummary, learningAssessment topics
in a learningObject map.
Disadvantages:
* Cannot associate specific objectives
with specific learning content.
* Cannot add other learning-specific
information to the learning content topics.
------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Sample 2 - learning_mail_map2.chm
------------------------------------------------------------------
[This is follows the current design
for learningContent; see http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/LearningContent/LearningContentTopicType.]
This sample puts the learning content
into learningContent topics, with learning-specific section specializations
in the learningContent topic and the actual content as nested DITA concept
and task topics in the learningContent topic.
The map uses learningContentRef to include
the learningContent topics.
------------------------------------------------------------------
<learningObject href=""understanding_mail_basics_top.dita""
collection-type="sequence" type="learningOverview">
<learningOverviewRef href=""understanding_mail_basics_overview.dita""
type="learningOverview"/>
<learningContentRef href=""learningContent_mail_c_inbox.dita.dita""
type="learningContent"/>
<learningContentRef href=""learningContent_mail_inbox_and_open.dita""
type="learningContent"/>
<learningContentRef href=""learningContent_mail_Moving_messages.dita.dita""
type="learningContent"/>
<learningSummaryRef href=""understanding_mail_basics_summary.dita""
type="learningSummary"/>
</learningObject>
------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a sample topic, with lcDuration
and lcObjectives in the learningContentBody, and the nested "Your
mail inbox" concept topic.
------------------------------------------------------------------
<learningContent id="learningcontent">
<title>Your
Mail Inbox</title>
<learningContentbody>
<lcDuration>
<title>Duration</title>
<lcTime
value="00:02">2 minutes</lcTime>
</lcDuration>
<lcObjectives>
<lcObjectivesStem>When
you complete this topic, you'll know how the following
about mail basics:</lcObjectivesStem>
<lcObjectivesList>
<lcObjective>The purpose of the mail
inbox</lcObjective>
</lcObjectivesList>
</lcObjectives><?Pub Caret?>
</learningContentbody>
<concept
id="mail_inbox_concept" xml:lang="en-us">
<title>Your Mail Inbox</title>
<shortdesc>Use your mail inbox to track
and manage incoming messages.</shortdesc>
<conbody>
<p>Knowing
which messages you have not yet read and which ones are urgent
can help you decide how to best review a long
list of messages. Unread messages
are indicated by bold text and a variety of
icons identifies a characteristic
of the message, such as a high priority message
or an invitation.</p>
</conbody>
</concept>
</learningContent>
------------------------------------------------------------------
Advantages of the Sample 2 approach:
* Each learningContent topic includes
the specific objective for that specific content.
* The learningContent topics may
include additional learning-specific information about the content, namely,
lcIntro (optional), lcDuration (optional), lcChallenge (optional), and
lcInstruction (optional).
* The learningContent topic can
incorporate existing DITA content by specifying the location with a conref.
* The learningContent topic can
also include an optional nested-topic content for learningAssessment or
learningSummary.
Disadvantages of the Sample 2 approach
* Titles may get repeated, especially
if there is a single learningContent topic for a single nested task-concept-reference
topic.
* However, the title of the nested
topic can be kept out of the processed result by specializing the output
transform, which is what I've done for the results you see in learning_mail_map2.chm.
------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Sample 3 - learning_mail_map3.chm
------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample 3 avoids nesting DITA concept-task-reference
topics in learningContent, but uses learningContent topics to provide objectives
and other learning-specific information about the content in the concept-task-reference
topics.
It does this by providing a learningContent
topic for each concept-task-reference topic, and pairing them with topic
references in the learning map, as shown below.
------------------------------------------------------------------
<learningObject href=""understanding_mail_basics_top.dita""
collection-type="sequence" type="learningOverview">
<learningOverviewRef href=""understanding_mail_basics_overview.dita""
type="learningOverview"/>
<learningContentRef href=""learningContent_lcObj_mail_c_inbox.dita.dita""
type="learningContent"/>
<topicref navtitle="Your
Mail Inbox" id="mail_inbox" href=""mail_c_inbox.dita""
type="concept"/>
<learningContentRef href=""learningContent_lcObj_mail_Displaying_the_inbox.dita""
type="learningContent"/>
<topicref navtitle="Displaying
the inbox" id="display_inbox" href=""mail_Displaying_the_inbox.dita""
type="task"/>
<learningContentRef href=""learningContent_lcObj_mail_Opening_a_message.dita""
type="learningContent"/>
<topicref navtitle="Opening
a message" id="open_message" href=""mail_Opening_a_message.dita""
type="task"/>
<learningContentRef href=""learningContent_lcObj_mail_Moving_messages_to_a_folder.dita""
type="learningContent"/>
<topicref navtitle="Moving
messages to folder" id="move_messages" href=""mail_Moving_messages_to_a_folder.dita""
type="task"/>
<learningSummaryRef href=""understanding_mail_basics_summary.dita""
type="learningSummary"/>
</learningObject>
------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample topic content consists of two
separate DITA topic files.
* learningContent_lcObj_mail_c_inbox.dita.dita
provides lcIntro and lcObjectives in a learningContent topic.
* mail_c_inbox.dita provides
the concept topic about the mail inbox.
These are the same topics used in Sample
2, except here they're kept in separate DITA files.
------------------------------------------------------------------
<!-- lcObj_mail_c_inbox.dita learningContent
topic -->
<learningContent id="learningcontent">
<title>Your
Mail Inbox - learningContent<?Pub Caret?></title>
<shortdesc>(learningContent;
no nested content)</shortdesc>
<learningContentbody>
<lcDuration>
<title>Duration</title>
<lcTime
value="00:02">2 minutes</lcTime>
</lcDuration>
<lcObjectives>
<lcObjectivesStem>When
you complete this topic, you'll know how the following
about mail basics:</lcObjectivesStem>
<lcObjectivesList>
<lcObjective>The purpose of the mail
inbox</lcObjective>
</lcObjectivesList>
</lcObjectives>
</learningContentbody>
</learningContent>
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------
<!-- mail_c_inbox.dita concept topic
-->
<concept id="mail_inbox_concept"
xml:lang="en-us">
<title>Your
Mail Inbox</title>
<shortdesc>Use
your mail inbox to track and manage incoming messages.</shortdesc>
<conbody>
<p>Knowing which messages you have not
yet read and which ones are urgent
can help
you decide how to best review a long list of messages. Unread messages
are indicated
by bold text and a variety of icons identifies a characteristic
of the
message, such as a high priority message or an invitation.</p>
</conbody>
</concept>
------------------------------------------------------------------
The resulting output has one topic with
the learning specifics for the content, such as duration and objectives,
followed by the content topic.
Advantages of the Sample 3 approach
* Keeps the learningContent separate
from the core content.
Disadvantages of the Sample 3 approach
* Keeps the learningContent separate
from the core content, making it difficult for authoring and delivery.
------------------------------------------------------------------
4) Sample 4 - learning_mail_map4.chm
------------------------------------------------------------------
You might call this final sample the
"all-in-one" content sample.
A single learningContent topics nests
the four DITA concept-task content topics, and provides an aggregate objectives
list, duration, and other learning-specific information.
This results in a simple map shown below,
with an overview reference, content reference, and summary.
------------------------------------------------------------------
<learningObject href=""understanding_mail_basics_top.dita""
collection-type="sequence" type="learningOverview">
<learningOverviewRef href=""understanding_mail_basics_overview.dita""
type="learningOverview"/>
<learningContentRef href=""learningContent_allinone.dita.dita""
type="learningContent"/>
<learningSummaryRef href=""understanding_mail_basics_summary.dita""
type="learningSummary"/>
</learningObject>
------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's what the all-in-one learningContent
topic looks like, with lcDuration and lcObjectives and four nested concept
and task topics in a single learningContent topic.
------------------------------------------------------------------
<!-- learningContent_allinone.dita.dita
learningContent topic -->
<learningContent id="learningcontent">
<title>Mail
Basics<?Pub Caret?></title>
<learningContentbody>
<lcDuration>
<title>Duration</title>
<lcTime
value="00:18">18 minutes</lcTime>
</lcDuration>
<lcObjectives>
<lcObjectivesStem>When
you complete this lesson, you'll know how to perform
the following mail basics:</lcObjectivesStem>
<lcObjectivesList>
<lcObjective>Viewing the inbox</lcObjective>
<lcObjective>Opening a message</lcObjective>
<lcObjective>Moving messages to a folder</lcObjective>
</lcObjectivesList>
</lcObjectives>
</learningContentbody>
<concept
id="mail_inbox_concept" xml:lang="en-us">
<title>Your Mail Inbox</title>
<shortdesc>Use your mail inbox to track
and manage incoming messages.</shortdesc>
<conbody>
<p>Knowing
which messages you have not yet read and which ones are urgent
can help you decide how to best review a long
list of messages. Unread messages
are indicated by bold text and a variety of
icons identifies a characteristic
of the message, such as a high priority message
or an invitation.</p>
</conbody>
</concept>
<task
id="mail_1" xml:lang="en-us">
<title>Displaying the inbox</title>
<shortdesc>The Inbox view shows a list
of messages you've received.</shortdesc>
<taskbody>
<steps>
<step>
<cmd>Click
the Mail icon in the Bookmark bar.</cmd>
<info><p><image
href=""images\icons\mail_icon.gif"" alt="Mail icon"></image></p></info>
</step>
</steps>
</taskbody>
</task>
<task
id="mail_2" xml:lang="en-us">
<title>Opening a message</title>
<shortdesc>Whenever new mail is found
you will see the <msgph>You have new
mail</msgph> status message.</shortdesc>
<taskbody>
<steps>
<step>
<cmd>You
can display a message in the preview pane or open a message on a
tabbed page. </cmd>
<choices>
<choice>To display a message in the
preview pane, click the subject of a message.
If necessary,
click <menucascade><uicontrol>View</uicontrol><uicontrol>Show</uicontrol>
<uicontrol>Preview</uicontrol></menucascade>
and then click <uicontrol>Expand</uicontrol> or
<uicontrol>Collapse</uicontrol>
to expand or collapse the preview pane. </choice>
<choice>To open a message and display
it on a tabbed page, double-click the
message.</choice>
</choices>
<info><note>The
preview pane displays only one message at a time. To open
and view
multiple messages, open the messages on tabbed pages.</note></info>
</step>
</steps>
</taskbody>
</task>
<task
id="mail_3.1" xml:lang="en-us">
<title>Moving messages to a folder</title>
<shortdesc>To store a message in a different
folder, move the message.</shortdesc>
<taskbody>
<steps>
<step>
<cmd>In
the message list, select one or more messages to move.</cmd>
</step>
<step>
<cmd>Above
the message list, click the arrow beside Folder, and then click
Move to Folder.</cmd>
</step>
<step>
<cmd>Select
a folder.</cmd>
</step>
<step>
<cmd>Click
OK.</cmd>
</step>
</steps>
</taskbody>
</task>
</learningContent>
------------------------------------------------------------------
Advantages of the Sample 4 approach
* Collects closely-related learning
content into a single DITA topic.
* In this case, the processing
issue with title repeats is not as problematic, since each of the content
topics has its own title.
* Could have several sets of learning
content like this in a single learning object collection.
Disadvantages of the Sample 4 approach
* Cannot easily associate objectives
with specific content.
* Cannot easily disaggregate the
content for different sequencing, and so forth.
------------------------------------------------------------------
5) Sample 5 - Not implemented in
this set
------------------------------------------------------------------
A fifth option is to go the route of
developing learning-specific specializations for the DITA content types,
starting with the core topic, concept, task, and reference types. This
is the route that we saw in Robin's PTC demo.
So, we would specialize DITA task as
lcTask, for example, and add to lcTask the section-level specializations
for lcIntro (optional), lcObjectives (optional) , lcDuration (optional),
lcChallenge (optional), and lcInstruction (optional) that we have in learningContent.
Advantages of a Sample 5 approach
* You get to create a task with
learning-specific information.
Disadvantages of a Sample 5 approach
(and I see these as show-stoppers)
* You can't directly use existing
DITA content topics, without specializing them for learning-specific content.
* So, if I have 2000 existing
task-concept-reference topics about Aircraft XYZ engine maintenance, I
can't use them as is - I need to re-do that content within the context
of lcTask, lcConcept, and lcReference topics.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Bottom line: If the double <title>
is the only issue getting in the way of using learningContent, then that's
an easy one to overcome by relatively simple processing specialization.
And we will need to do processing specialization
for learning content, anyway.
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