Forum .LRN Q&A: Word lists / vocabs

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Posted by Alfred Werner on
Is there any concept of tying a vocabulary/wordlist to the curriculum? To explain my meaning:

A curriculum has a series of 'classes' or whatever the atomic level of a curriculum is called.

I'm wondering if there's a way to store and present a list of terms that should be associated with a particular class, with an underlying scheme (I'm thinking like WordNet) of terms that represents the entire curriculum ?

The reason I say WordNet is they have the concept of senses and relations to other terms built-in - a custom schema would suffice - that one just happens to be well-known.

I would see it being useful for younger learners for review type exercises - an adaptive crossword puzzle and word search come to mind as fun interface widgets that could tie to the underlying scheme.

I'm interested in this from a learning theory perspective - where you would actually use the results to map what a person, in theory, knows based on the curricula they have traversed - and whether repeat exposures actually reinforce the learning.

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2: Re: Word lists / vocabs (response to 1)
Posted by Staffan Hansson on
Alfred, the short answer to your question is no, there has been no concept of tying a vocabulary to the curriculum. We haven't envisioned that sort of functionality and it is not part of our plan for Curriculum, consequently. But this is just a manifestation of our lack of imagination. It is quite possible that you could adapt some version of Curriculum to handle semantic association, or whatever the concept may be labeled.

Your user story is a bit too abstract for me to be able to determine whether or not this is a job for Curriculum. Maybe you could do some private investigation into the Curriculum package and determine for yourself how close it is to realizing your vision. Would your infotainment tools need simple sequencing or mastery testing, for instance? You'll soon be able to study the first Curriculum version in detail, but reading this post might be a good way to get the big picture.

Don't get me wrong, we're naturally interested in any sort of Curriculum application, and I'm personally interested in learning theory and semantics, so don't be discouraged. Normally I would help you out with the research - we're just a bit swamped at the moment.

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3: Re: Word lists / vocabs (response to 2)
Posted by Alfred Werner on
Thanks - I'll read what you recommended and try a test instance. Sorry for the story being abstract - I'll gather my thoughts in a more coherent fashion and post once I more fully understand the curriculum module and its SCORM implications.