Relationship between Courses and EducationalOccupationalPrograms

[philbarker]

A EducationalOccupationalProgram is defined as something that "would define a discrete set of opportunities (e.g., job, courses) that together constitute a program"

Credential Engine would like to provide information on Programs that lead to qualifications/educational occupational credentials, including information about a Program's constuent Courses.

A simple approach would be to extend the domain of hasPart to EducationalOccupationalPrograms. Perhaps a more thorough approach would be distinguish between optionalCourses and requiredCourses, as in HE at least there is often a core set of courses that must be taken, and a variety of options to either offer a broader base or more specialized finish to a Program.

Any thoughts? @vholland ?

[vholland]

If hasPart satisfies Credential Engine's use case, I think we should go with that and tackle more complicated use cases as they arise.

Every conversation I have had about modeling required vs optional courses has become overly complicated as every university (let alone different university systems or countries) seems to have a different way to track this.

[WeaverStever]

Some example broad Types for programCredentials that might suit this purpose

• Enrichment
• Certificate
• VendorCertificate
• Licensure
• AssociateDegree
• AssociateDegreeForTransfer
• BachelorDegree
• MastersDegree
• PhDDegree
• ProfessionalDegree

Then the constituent courses could be added to each of the relevant Types under an external ontology such as the CIP or other.
https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/Default.aspx?y=56

The list of constituent courses could be further be broken down by type of Elective and Required.

[siuc-nate]

After a brief discussion with @philbarker on this today, it seems like a "hasCourse" property would be more appropriate, as:

• It would avoid any complications with hasPart (either now or down the road)
• It keeps the scope and usage of the property tight
• It harmonizes with the existing "hasCourseInstance" property (e.g. EducationalOccupationalProgram.hasCourse > Course.hasCourseInstance > CourseInstance)

[philbarker]

PR #2559 adds hasCourse property with caveats about not implying it is mandatory, or even that it is availble to all
hasCourse: A course or class that is one of the learning opportunities that constitute an educational/occupational program. No information is implied about whether the course is mandatory or optional; no guarantee is implied about whether the course will be available to everyone on the program.
@WeaverStever not sure how your suggestions relate to what we intend; I think they are covered by educationalCredentialAwarded with various values of credentialCategory on EOCred referred to. Apologies for any misunderstanding.

[github-actions]

Stale issue message

[philbarker]

@danbri I'm happy to redraft PR #2559 in turtle if there was no other reason for not accepting it than attention being elsewhere.

[philbarker]

@danbri I think the bot closed this prematurely as there was a solution submitted but not committed. PR #2679 is the same solution now in ttl.