usingditalearningtopicsforinformationmodelingand.docVIP

Using DITA learning topics for information modeling and learning content development for disaster risk preparedness in the agricultural sector Thomas Zschocke1, Jan Beniest2, and Juan Carlos Villagrán de León1 1United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security, Bonn, Germany 2 World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya Different kinds of technical and learning content are created for training and education on agricultural topics as global public goods by various international agencies, such as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) or the United Nations University (UNU). The provision of research-based knowledge through technical and policy communications, training and education is critical to develop the capacity of researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and other actors involved with international agricultural research and development. In this proof-of-concept study, we examine the feasibility of using the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) for learning content development on disaster risk preparedness in the agricultural sector to enhance the reuse of existing content components for different audiences, purposes and formats. DITA is a modular, structured, XML framework for authoring topic-oriented, information-typed content that can be reused and single-sourced in a variety of ways. DITA is also an architecture for creating new information types and describing new information domains based on existing types and domains through a process called specialization. Just recently, a specialization for learning and training content has been proposed as a general top-level design for structured, intent-based authoring of learning content with good learning architecture. Index Terms—Documentation, educational technology, knowledge representation, learning systems Introduction T he Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)