Additional Course Properties Needed

[jeannekitchens]

Commonly, course descriptions inlcude the following information that is currently not supported by CTDL:

1. Lecture hours minimum - This is a numeric value.
2. Lecture hours maximum - This is a numeric value.
3. Lab hours minimum - This is a numeric value.
4. Lab hours maximimum - This is a numeric value.
5. Date of last revision - this is not necessarily a calendar date rather it's based on semesters, quarters, and other measures of progression through an academice year. E.g., Fall 2022. This information is critical to registrars and thereby to schools that have to keep course information current
6. Course Addendum - URL

See the Ivy Tech Community College course catalog https://catalog.ivytech.edu/content.php?catoid=7&navoid=771

[siuc-nate]

Is there active demand for this data? Do we have a lot of publishers who are capable and willing to provide this level and type of information? Does this overlap with credit hours?

[jeff-grann]

Chaffey's courses include details about grading options, such as Letter Grade, Non-Credit (Pass/No Pass), Pass/No Pass, and Letter Grade with Pass/No Pass. Representing these details could enhance student planning and decision-making, especially if incorporated into course-based credential pathways.
Example URL: https://chaffey.curriqunet.com/catalog/iq/13951/courseindex/esl

[siuc-nate]

I'm curious what the scenario/use case would be for deciding to take (or not take) a course based on how it's graded, as opposed to based on the things you'd learn, what it's required for, what its availability is, etc.

[philbarker]

@siuc-nate I don't think that's where the use case is. It's more likely that someone presents a potential employer with a credential saying they got "grade 2" in some subject and the employer needs to know whether the subject is graded with 1 high or 1 low.
Appendix F of the PESC College Transcript Implementation Guide lists nearly 100 grading schemes. It probably needs updating. I bet they would be delighted if, by the time the new transcript standard came out, they could just point to a way people could put the grading scheme in the Credential Register and point to it there.

[siuc-nate]

@philbarker @jeff-grann That all seems(?) like rubric-related information. Do we need a separate issue for that?

@jeannekitchens
Re: items 1-4:
Lecture and Lab are just two of the Learning Methods we have in CTDL. Perhaps we need some kind of subclass of Duration Profile that captures:

• Learning Method Type
• Minimum Duration
• Maximum Duration
• Credit? (not sure if this is relevant here)

See also #922 as it could be related here, if the hours are tied to specific sections/chapters/etc. rather than for the Course as a whole.

Something like this:

{
  "@type": "ceterms:Course",
  "ceterms:hasLearningDuration": [
    {
      "@type": "ceterms:LearningDuration",
      "ceterms:description": { "en": "10-30 hours of self-paced laboratory work" },
      "ceterms:learningMethodType": [
        "learnMethod:Laboratory",
        "learnMethod:SelfPaced"
      ],
      "ceterms:minimumDuration": "PT10H",
      "ceterms:maximumDuration": "PT30H"
    },
    {
      "@type": "ceterms:LearningDuration",
      "ceterms:description": { "en": "10 hours of pre-recorded lectures" },
      "ceterms:learningMethodType": [
        "learnMethod:Lecture",
        "learnMethod:Prerecorded"
      ],
      "ceterms:minimumDuration": "PT10H",
      "ceterms:maximumDuration": "PT10H"
    },
    {
      "@type": "ceterms:LearningDuration",
      "ceterms:description": { "en": "6-7 months of medical residency, applying your skills in real-world situations" },
      "ceterms:learningMethodType": [
        "learnMethod:MedicalResidency",
        "learnMethod:Applied"
      ],
      "ceterms:minimumDuration": "PT6M",
      "ceterms:maximumDuration": "PT7M"
    }
  ]
}

Calling it "Learning Duration" may be too restrictive if the above notions could be applied to other things, like assessments.

@jeannekitchens
Re: Date of last revision:
This is probably relevant to #945 given the need to have partial/textual dates as opposed to traditional ones. Perhaps some kind of text/descriptive companion property for ceasn:dateModified would work, e.g. ceasn:dateModifiedDescription

{
  "@type": "ceterms:Course",
  "ceasn:dateModified": "2025-03-01",
  "ceasn:dateModifiedDescription": { "en": "Spring 2025" }
}

@jeannekitchens
Re: Course addendum
I followed a few of those links at random for different Courses and they all went to the same page: https://catalog.ivytech.edu/content.php?catoid=7&navoid=768
Is this property intended generically for any additional information relevant to a Course but not necessarily specific to that Course or part of that Course's subjectWebpage? Or is it meant for something else? Maybe a property like ceterms:additionalInformation or ceterms:additionalWebpage or something to that effect would be useful here (not just for Courses, but potentially for anything with a subjectWebpage).

{
  "@type": "ceterms:Course",
  "ceterms:subjectWebpage": "https://webpage-for-this-course",
  "ceterms:additionalWebpage": [
    "https://webpage-relevant-to-this-course",
    "https://another-webpage-relevant-to-this-course"
  ]
}

[siuc-nate]

If we do move something forward with #922 then a solution might look like this:

{
  "@type": "ceterms:Course",
  "ceterms:hasLearningChunk": [
    {
      "@type": "ceterms:LearningChunk",
      "ceterms:description": { "en": "10-30 hours of self-paced laboratory work" },
      "ceterms:chunkType": [
        "chunk:Module"
      ],
      "ceterms:learningMethodType": [
        "learnMethod:Laboratory",
        "learnMethod:SelfPaced"
      ],
      "ceterms:estimatedDuration": [
        {
          "@type": "ceterms:DurationProfile",
          "ceterms:minimumDuration": "PT10H",
          "ceterms:maximumDuration": "PT30H"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "@type": "ceterms:LearningChunk",
      "ceterms:description": { "en": "10 hours of pre-recorded lectures" },
      "ceterms:chunkType": [
        "chunk:Module"
      ],
      "ceterms:learningMethodType": [
        "learnMethod:Lecture",
        "learnMethod:Prerecorded"
      ],
      "ceterms:estimatedDuration": [
        {
          "@type": "ceterms:DurationProfile",
          "ceterms:minimumDuration": "PT10H",
          "ceterms:maximumDuration": "PT10H"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "@type": "ceterms:LearningChunk",
      "ceterms:description": { "en": "6-7 months of medical residency, applying your skills in real-world situations" },
      "ceterms:chunkType": [
        "chunk:Module"
      ],
      "ceterms:learningMethodType": [
        "learnMethod:MedicalResidency",
        "learnMethod:Applied"
      ],
      "ceterms:estimatedDuration": [
        {
          "@type": "ceterms:DurationProfile",
          "ceterms:minimumDuration": "P6M",
          "ceterms:maximumDuration": "P7M"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

[jeannekitchens]

@siuc-nate looks like we have good information here to work with and where course catalogs include this information, we're going to want to expand the data that CTDL xTRA (AI extraction and transformation web application) transforms to include the details about the types of credits courses earn or require.

[philbarker]

@siuc-nate you're code shows:

"ceterms:hasLearningChunk": [
    {
      "@type": "ceterms:LearningChunk",
# snip #
    },
    {
      "@type": "ceterms:LearningDuration",
#..etc

Are the second and third objects mis-typed?

[philbarker]

I like Nate's solution, but I think that trying to come up with names for the types of "chunk" is unnecessary and will just lead to problems. No term that you choose will have a widely agreed meaning, and any defined term that you scope within CTDL will just lead to objections. For example, in some places Module is a part of a course, as used above, in other places Module is a group of courses, and in others still Module is used as a synonym for course. Is anything los, in terms of meeting the use case, if we drop from the example above:

      "ceterms:chunkType": [
        "chunk:Module"
      ],

[siuc-nate]

Are the second and third objects mis-typed?

Good catch, was a copy and paste error. I fixed it.

Re: chunk types
Those came from #922 and related discussion. The list there looks something like:

• Module
• Unit
• Section
• Chapter
• Activity
• Cartridge
• etc