Definitions

This document contains a list of Education and Training related terms and their definitions in the context of Grid computing and the ET-WG. These definitions will be used in all documents produced by the ET-WG.

A

Accreditation: The recognition that a course or curriculum and its planned presentation meets some external requirement, e.g. is suitable to produce a Certified Grid Engineer.Process of accrediting an institution, a programme of study or a service, showing it has been approved by the relevant educational and professional authorities by having met predetermined standards.**

Assessment: Quantification/appraisal of progress towards a learning goal.

Author: Creator of content of the educational material

Awarding Body: A body issuing qualifications formally recognising the achievements of an individual, following a standard assessment procedure.** NOTES: This might be needed if we look at the idea of providing a Grid Engineer exam/certification.

B

C

Case Study: A learning technique in which a real or fictional situation or series of events is presented to the learners for their analysis and determination of possible solutions to the problems identified.*

Certification: The process of formally validating knowledge, know-how, and/or skills and competences acquired by an individual, following a standard assessment procedure.**

Classification: A way to identify the level of difficulty, aims, etc. of an educational activity. Based on the parameters of the course/module/activity.

Comparability of Qualifications: The extent to which it is possible to establish equivalence between the level and content of formal qualifications.**

Competence: Ability to apply knowledge, know-how and skills in an habitual or changing situation, to an expected standard.*

Core Modules: Those modules which are a mandatory part of a course.

Course: A structured collection of modules which meets a stated set of educational goals. The structure helps the student to reach the goals of the course. Should contain a practical element. (length, student type, certification, prerequisites, outcome, assessment, credits, course type {online/in person...}) best practice - should contain assessment should have validated courses - we publish what your course needs to do in order to be a validated course, you can follow it or not. May be necessary to scope these terms - indicate to some degree the granularity so that course cannot mean both a four year degree course and a summer school.

Course Certification: An approval given to the course/module if it fulfills the expected standards/guidelines NOTES: this should be made more similar to the wording for student and teacher certification

Course Type: To be defined according to classification

Credits: A way to measure the educational value of a course/module. Attainment of credit is often based on an aggregation of marks/grades amd ised om a credit transfer system.

Credit Transfer System: A system which provides a way of measuring and comparing learning achievements resulting from a course and transferring them from one institution to another, using credits validated in traning programmes.**

Curriculum: Set of courses preparing a student/learner for a recognised certification

D

Discipline: A field of study or knowledge, such as physics, geology, biology and Informatics.

Distance Learning/Study: Education imparted at a distance through communication media: radio, TV, telephone, correspondence, computer or video.**

E

Education:

Eduroam: Education Roaming, or eduroam, is an infrastructure that allows staff and students to access wireless networks at cooperating universities across the EU (and elsewhere) using their home institution username and password (so they do not have to set up new accounts at institutions they visit). Access is secure and mobile.

e-Infrastructure:

e-Learning / eLearning: Learning supported by information and communication technologies.**

Elective Modules: Those modules of a course from which the student has a choice, usually choosing n out of m possibilities.

e-Science:

European Grid Initiative (EGI): European level infrastructure based on NGIs, currently in its design phase. The EGI will coordinate NGI interaction and integration in order to improve access to resources and research across the EU. Once developed, it would be considered a key element of the ERA.

Evaluation: A procedure to identify the quality of the course, lectures, presentation, etc. via standard procedures and existing guidelines. The evaluation could be performed by students (e.g. based on responses to questionaires and surveys) and/or directly by the ET-CG.

Examination: A formal assessment leading to certification recognised by academia and/or industry? often run by external body, students expected to work individually, generally supervised

F

G

Grade: A representation of the result of the assessment of learning success of a student.

Grid Computing:

Grid in a Box: a local grid infrastructure with easy installation and portability that can be used in universities and other institutions that do not already have developed (or appropriate) grid computing infrastructures.

H

I

Instruction: The delivery of information or directions to enable the transfer of knowledge and skills to learners.*

J

K

Know-how: Practical knowledge or expertise.**

L

Learning Activity: An activity with the aim of helping the student to learn a particular item of know-how, knowledge, skill or competence. This is an umbrella term for lecture, presentation, practical, tutorial, etc.

Learning Goal: A statement of what the learners will be expected to know, do or be able to do when they have completed a specific course of instruction.*

Learning Objective: See Learning Goal.

Learning Outcomes: The set of knowledge, skills and/or competences an individual acquired and/or is able to demonstrate after completion of a learning process.**

Lecture: An instance of a presentation including the aspects of its delivery, generally oral. Passively consumed by the student.

M

Marks: See Grade.

Module: A defined self-contained set of teaching materials which meets a single goal relating to a topic - a single assessment target. Allowing a course to be updated by adapting or replacing component modules. (topic, length, constituent materials, most of the course parameters too).

N

National Grid Initiatives (NGIs): National initiatives to connect and expand grid infrastructures in Member States in order to integrate resources for research and allow for coordination, coherence and interoperation for users of grid computing and its applications across disciplines.

O

P

Practical: A content unit of a module which requires interaction from the student with a computer system running relevant distributed software and courseware.

Prerequisite: Pre-existing level of skill or knowledge that students can demonstrate which enables them to effectively engage with a course or module.

Presentation: Materials, a content unit of a module. May be part of a module or free-standing.

Prior-learning: The knowledge, know-how and/or competences acquired through previously unrecognised training or experience.**

Q

R

S

Self-paced Learning: Learning initiated and directed by the learner. Traditionally this applies to any learning where the timing, speed and location of the learning is entirely at the learner's discretion. The term is also often used to include eLearning.*

Skill: The knowledge and experience needed to perform a specific task or job.**

Student certificate: Documentary evidence of passing an exam or attaining a certain level of educational achievement from a course. NOTES: this should be made more similar to the wording for teacher and course certifications

T

Teacher certification: Mechanism for the teacher to prove his/her competence to teach the course/module NOTES: this should be made more similar to the wording for student and course certifications

Test: An informal assessment which can take place during the course (embedded in the course/module)

t-Infrastructure:

Training:

Transparency (of qualifications): The degree to which the value of qualifications can be identified and compared.**

Tutorial: Dialogue with students to increase understanding of the materials and to understand the student's progress. Requires interaction of teacher with student.

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Will add parameters which further define types of each of the definitions above e.g. length of course, whether it leads to a qualification, prerequisites, whether it's part of a curriculum, etc. It is necessary to clarify our vocabulary for describing different types of courses where the duration, focus, depth or other features of a course may differ. This is required in order to ensure that we can compare courses, modules, etc. in a meaningful way, perhaps as part of a procedure for handling course credits or cross-certification. It should be possible to achieve this level of detail through the parameters attached to each term, but further work must be done to define these parameters.

For other grid definitions it was suggested that we would use the OGSA thesaurus http://www.ggf.org/documents/GFD.81.pdf or its successors as our source. Unless we have a particular requirement for a customised term.

* Adapted from A Glossary of UK Training and Occupational Learning Terms

** Adapted from Terminology of Vocational Training Policy: a multi-lingual glossary for an enlarged Europe