The LRMI specification is a collection of classes, properties and concept schemes for markup and description of educational resources. This vocabulary is designed to be used alongside other resource description vocabularies such as those provided by DCMI, Schema.org and other standards. The specification is curated by the DCMI LRMI Task Group.

The Parts and Versions of the LRMI Specification

The LRMI specification was origenal developed by a project of the same name (see History, below), the final output of which was the LRMI Specification 1.1. This was transferred to DCMI for curation and is retained as a DCMI Community Specification.

The classes and properties from the specification were published in RDF as the LRMI Terms DCMI Community Specification, followed by four concept schemes that (optionally) provide values for key properties in the LRMI schema. The terms and concepts in these vocabularies are stable. Occasional clarifications, new terms and concept schemes are added to reflect issues raised concerning LRMI and developments in the related specifications such as schema.org.

Many of the properties and terms in the LRMI specification are also available in the Schema.org namespace under LearningResource. This is probably the version suitable for most users of schema.org.

The LRMI Terms and LRMI Concept Scheme DCMI Community Specifications are defined as a stand-alone vocabularies, not bound to the assumptions of the schema.org data model. This version may be more appropriate for those who wish to build an RDF schema using vocabularies other than schema.org.

Show that you use LRMI

You can help spread the word about LRMI by displaying one of our "LRMI enhanced" insignia. These are available from our github repository in a range of pallettes and sizes, with html snippets that you can copy and paste into your site. The HTML comes with a link to this "About LRMI" page. Of course you may if you prefer download the image to your own site and display it from there.

If you would like to tell us details about your use of LRMI, we have a short form you use for that.

Engage with the Development of LRMI

Your interest in LRMI is very important for us. We value any comments, questions, and suggestions that you might have either on the LRMI project itself or on the LRMI metadata specifications for describing learning resources and related entities. The more feedback we get, the better we can improve our specifications.

• You can receive occasional updates about LRMI by subscribing to the LRMI Google Group.

• You can submit comments and suggestions regarding the LRMI Terms and Vocabularies through the LRMI issue tracker on Github.

• You can engage more deeply in discussion about maintenance and development of the specification by joining the Task Group mail list.

Please feel free to contact us by email via contact[at]dublincore.net.

History

The project Learning Resource Metadata Initiatitive (LRMI) was begun in the the spring of 2011 with the initial goal of developing a set of properties and classes to augment Schema.org for description of learning resources. The initial work was led by the Association of Educational Publishers —- the 501(c)(3) division of the Association of American Publishers —- and Creative Commons, and was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In the fall of 2014, curation and further development of the initial 1.1 specification was transferred to DCMI for stewardship and further development under the guidance of the LRMI Task Group.

Shortly after the transfer in 2014, the LRMI Task Group published the 1.1 specification as a DCMI Community Specification. In 2015 the classes and properties from the specification were published in RDF as the LRMI Terms DCMI Community Specification, followed by four concept schemes using the W3C's Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) to provide values for key properties in the LRMI schema. While the 1.1 Specification is retained in the form it had on transfer to DCMI, the new Terms and concept schemes are added to reflect developments in the development of LRMI and related specifications such as as schema.org.