EDUML Markbook Elements

[Bruno Vernier <vernier@vc.bc.ca>]

Here is a simplified yet complete EDUML excerpt proposal regarding

                       Gradebook Data

notes:

1. Each EDUML database starts with <edu> and ends with </edu>
   and can include:
    <people> database,
    <outcome> database,
    <courses> database,
    <acts> database for each <course>
    <functions> database for all possible known calculation algorithms


2. The section on <people> is mostly contact information ... this is to 
   reduce/eliminate data-redundancy.

3. The section on <courses> is the current place to store gradebook info
   arranged as individual <act> elements.  I follow here the recommended
   technique for relational database <-> xml which is to put things in
   as attributes when they would be a collumn in a spreadsheet.

4. <act> has an outcome attribute: a learning outcome (i.e. that which 
   is being assessed or marked) referring to another part of EDUML which
   stores all the possible outcomes that can potentially be marked. This is
   also to avoid data-redundancy when comes report card time for example.

5. The key to handling the various calculation algorithm is to store them
   in the <functions> database ... everyone can contribute code snippets

6. You are invited to comment on this free source proposal (and if you
   now know XML you are almost obliged to comment :-) <grin>

Bruno

<edu>
 <school>
  ...
------------------------------------------------ people
  <people>
   <person>
      contact info for students, teachers and other stakeholders
      details at http://cran.seul.org/~vernier/eduml
    </person>
    ...
   </people>

------------------------------------------------- courses

  <courses>
   <course>
    <acts>
      <act  student="unique id from people database above"
            outcome="outcome id from outcome database below"
            type="register | withdraw | complete | test | assign etc.."
            function="marking algorithm function id"
            teacher="id for teacher, marker, registrar, parent etc..."
            timestart="HH:MM:SS" timestop="HH:MM:SS"
            date="YYYY/MM/DD">

        elements needed for marking algorithm to work
        also known as performance code(s) (to be used as arguments to
        the function called by the function attribute)

        <comment author="id from people"> anecdotal comment </comment>

       </act>
       ...
     </acts>
      ...
    </course>
   </courses>

------------------------------------------------------ outcomes

 <outcomes>
  <outcome id="id">
  ... see website for details
  </outcome>
 <outcomes>

------------------------------------------------------ functions

 <functions>
  <function id="id" class="type"
            title="title"
            status="idea | alpha | beta | stable"
            by="author" last"date last modified">

   <perl args="command line parameters">
       perl version of marking algorithm
    </perl>
   <java args="command line parameters">
       java version of marking algorithm
    </java>

   ...  (see the vn tool for more on the use of <functions> on website)

  </function>
 </functions>

</edu>


p.s. I'll be updating EDUML to reflect these changes after a few days 
reflection