better definitions

[philbarker]

Some of the terms that seem self explanatory aren't, especially to someone not familiar with US Higher Ed. For example:

• ClassStanding and currentStanding aren't use in UK HE, I don't know what they mean
• as far as I can tell, program is used to mean something different in the US to how it is used in the UK
• it's not clear what the relationships specified by institution and department properties are: do they offer the Course? do they validate it? are they where the author is based? do they own it?
• what is a Topic? is it the overall subject of the program of study, which would be something like what we have hidden in LRMI's educationalAlignment as educationalSubject.

[kat-wehr]

Here's my crack at these - @michael-collins this might help get the conversation going.

ClassStanding and currentStanding aren't use in UK HE, I don't know what they mean

It's been so long, but I believe these are in reference to how advanced a student is. Here where we're at, we use semester designations and credit amounts to determine how far along a student is. Some courses are not for first year students, whereas some course are not for students about to graduate. ClassStanding would have been used to indicate what level (in a US system, this would have looked like first year, sophomore, junior or senior, or graduate/professional, or perhaps introductory, intermediate, advanced, mastery) the content was intended for.

as far as I can tell, program is used to mean something different in the US to how it is used in the UK

My explanation is going to be rough because I don't know how this would be defined in a culture outside the US, but here goes... the program would refer here to what field of study a graduate student is enrolled in. It's the graduate equivalent of major for undergraduates, if that helps at all. In conversation it would be common to hear, "I am in the chemistry doctoral program" or "I am in the engineering master's program."

it's not clear what the relationships specified by institution and department properties are: do they offer the Course? do they validate it? are they where the author is based? do they own it?

Yeah, where we're at, our university (and many peer institutions) is divided into disciplinary colleges who are responsible for offering courses and the administrative tasks associated.

[philbarker]

Thank you again @kat-wehr
ClassStanding currentStanding OK, I think I understand you. I think in the UK/EU that's a mixture of the requirements of the credential awarded at the end of study and the educational level of the course. I think this is a case where the approach to HE is so different between countries that they cannot even be described in the same language.
The same seems true of program. You could model programmes in the UK as organizations (e.g. you may have programme director, a programme board), but it's more natural to see them as out-sized courses (they are mostly called courses). So in the UK a student would apply for undergraduate courses in physics. The Organization is the department/school which runs them.
I think I understand the instution/department properties.

[philbarker]

Adding Topic to the list things I don't understand at the head of this issue. Some concrete examples might help me here. Here's a list of subjects that can be studied in UK Universities. Is this a list of oerschema:Topics of various Courses / Programs?