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Welcome to the SylliXml wiki

SylliXml is a proposed XML schema for syllabus information.

Why SylliXml

Syllabi contain data that would be useful if aggregated:

. Educators could use it to learn how other teachers are constructing similar courses and what readings they are assigning

. Researchers could mine this data to discover trends in education and patterns in disciplines

. Libraries could use the lists of readings attached to courses and class sessions to guide researchers to useful and influential works

. Students could this information to make decisions about course selections and schools

Who is working on SylliXml

This is an open project, initiated by Joseph Cohen and David Weinberger in August, 2010.

Here is a list of contributors. Feel free to add yourself

Where is the spec?

Here is where the spec will happen. At the moment, it's merely an informal list of metadata fields.

What is the current status?

We are totally at the beginning. Help!!

Open questions

There are many open questions, including:

. Since syllabi are unstructured documents, isn't it a walk off the metadata plank to think we can come up with a single schema for them?

. Aren't syllabi copyrighted, so how are you ever going to aggregate them without getting sued by the academic version of the RIAA?

So, let's discuss these [questions]

Contacts

Feel free to contact any of the contributors who have listed their contact information. More generally, contact Joseph Cohen or David Weinberger (self@evident.com)