Tech note: A distribution model for AI Digital Textbook curriculum standards
In 2023, Wicked Storm carried out the design and pilot operation of a distribution model for AI Digital Textbook curriculum standards for the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS). In 2024, it took on building a learning data utilization system linked to the introduction of AI Digital Textbooks, building the learning data hub, national-level learning analytics indicators, and curriculum standards and learning maps. This tech note outlines the principles of standards-based data design that we developed through these two projects.
Connecting many kinds of content to one standard
AI Digital Textbooks bring together items, subject learning maps, and video content created by many publishers and developers. Content built on each organization’s own framework can easily fall out of alignment or become disconnected, even when it covers the same curriculum. In the AI Digital Textbook project, Wicked Storm established curriculum standards based on 1EdTech CASE as a common reference, so that the curriculum frameworks and learning maps of publishers and developers connect to the national curriculum. The standards distribution model is our design for distributing this reference so that many publishers and institutions can use it together.
CASE (Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange) is 1EdTech’s global standard for implementing curriculum standards; it lets curricula, achievement standards, and competencies be exchanged digitally. The curriculum standards use the CASE information model to help connect developers’ curriculum frameworks and learning maps to the national curriculum. Based on the framework held in the curriculum standards repository, publishers set up standard learning map frameworks, receive support for designing learning maps suited to each subject, and can link and cross-reference content by learning objectives and competencies. The approach also lays a foundation for exchange and collaboration between publishers and institutions.
From curriculum standards to a learning data utilization system
The 2024 project moved on to storing and analyzing learning data on top of the curriculum standards. The learning data hub collects learning data generated by many institutions and developers in real time using global standards, with an environment that carries it through management, storage, analysis, and visualization. We created the national-level learning analytics indicators in sequence: we reviewed prior references and policy directions to set the direction of analysis, established analysis areas and indicators at the national, regional, and school levels, and then designed a structure that connects the indicators to the data. The indicator areas include metacognition, achievement level, collaboration, emotional development, and interest in subjects.
Principles we followed in design
Our experience from the two projects comes down to three design principles. First, set the curriculum reference first and design the data to come in according to it. Second, build indicators as a structure connected to data from the start, so that AI can analyze them. Third, design a framework that can extend to other education settings, such as universities, the public sector, and enterprises, rather than one fitted to a single project. Lecognizer follows the same principles when it stores learning activity data together with its context in curriculum frameworks based on 1EdTech CASE.
Wicked Storm co-authored the curriculum standards section of the AI Digital Textbook development guidelines, and as a member of the founding board of 1EdTech Korea it now takes part in discussions on applying global standards in Korea. We will cover the detailed design of the distribution model and the utilization system in upcoming tech notes.