Mace CourseID Conference Call August 2, 2004
[AI] Keith: will solicit feedback from Mark Wilcox regarding their experience implementing the IMS format.
[AI] Tom: will include explanatory text regarding the use of sub-roles.
[AI] Tom: will get clarification from the IMS regarding how sub-roles are implemented.
[AI] Tom: will forward the eduCourse schema start message to the DirT list.

*Attendees*
Mike Kruckenberg, Tufts
Keith Hazelton, U Wisconsin
Tom Barton, U Chicago
Scott Cantor, OSU
Jeanette Fielden, Internet2
Renee Frost, Internet2/Michigan
Steve Olshansky, Internet2

*Discussion*
Tom’s latest draft of the courseID object structure can be viewed at: http://middleware.internet2.edu/courseid/docs/draft-barton-courseID-object-structure-03.html. The purpose of the draft is to describe object types and the relationships between them. This model is tolerant of cross listing. The term object class is somewhat ambiguous, and will be changed to course object.

Based on the draft eduCourse object structure, three terms are being offered: eduCourseOffering, eduCourse (identifier for a course offering), and eduCourseRoleType (relationship for a course offering). Note that these terms are not listed in the draft object structure. The model is intentionally ambiguous of what class member is associated with to be accommodating of a wide range of campus practices. The terms account for the ambiguity and attributes for them would reflect the courseID object structure.

1. eduCourse is the prefix or qualifier for names of course-related things such as attributes of person-oriented schema, names of object classes, and names of related UML packages. Items named with the prefix or qualified by "eduCourse" should have a corresponding appearance in the evolving "eduCourse Object Structure" UML model.

2. eduCourseOffering is an attribute whose values are identifiers of eduCourse offering or section objects. Values are URIs. When eduCourseOffering appears as an attribute of a person object, it is multivalued and represents a set of eduCourse offerings or sections associated with eduCourse member objects in which the person is identified by the personID attribute of the eduCourse member objects.

3. eduCourseRoleType is an attribute whose values represent the roleTypes of eduCourse member objects associated with eduCourse offering or section objects. The value syntax is <roleType>@<eduCourseOffering value>, where <roleType> is the value of the roleType attribute of an eduCourse member object that is associated with either an eduCourse offering or an eduCourse section object identified by <eduCourseOffering value>. When eduCourseRoleType appears as an attribute of a person object, it is multivalued and represents a set of associations between eduCourse offerings or sections and eduCourse member objects in which the person is identified by the personID.

The format of the terms is based on the IMS format, though the IMS specification defines groups it does not indicate what groups are for. Feedback from someone who has implemented the IMS format would be extremely helpful. Case sensitivity needs to be addressed as well.

It is not clear who determines whether members are associated with the section or the offering. The role type can be specified. The solution could be to offer two alternatives and indicate that one of the two should be used without mandating a specific approach. Recommended practices can be outlined in a separate document to accompany the data model.

The recommendations should be a peer of IMS. If the IMS is not dictating the value then they are not unique and CourseID trying to make them unique may not be effective. This could be mitigated by use of sub-roles. It is not clear how IMS implements sub-roles, if it is a 32-character string or a numerical value. If URI’s are permitted that would be the preferred approach.