[seul-edu] EduML Questions

[Eric Sandeen <sandeen@jump.net>]

Perhaps this is a bit late, as EduML has been around in its near-final
form for a while, but I've been looking at it from the perspective of
using it for a data format for a gradebook application.  I wound up with
some questions and suggestions...

First off, what is the rationale for deciding whether to use an
attribute, or an element, for a piece of data?  In some places, this is
duplicated - in the <PERSON> tag, for example, much of the data is
present as both an attribute, and as an element:

  <PERSON login="login-id" 
           password="for-access-to-database" 
	   family="full name"
	   given="given name"
	   middle="middle name"
	   birthday="YYYY-MM-DD"
**SNIP**
    <NAME>  
     <ICON> image url </ICON>
     <ORG> Name of Organisation if this is an institution </ORG>
     <FAMILY> Group Name or Family Name </FAMILY>
     <GIVEN> Formal Given Name </GIVEN>
**SNIP**

Is there a reason for having the name data in both places?

In other places, it seems a bit arbitrary, as in 

<EMAIL email="student@email" />
rather than
<EMAIL>student@email</EMAIL>

(One rationale I've seen for choosing between attributes and elements,
is that attributes should be "metadata" and elements should be "data" -
i.e. attributes are for internal housekeeping type data, whereas
elements are for the application's true chunks of data - stuff that the
user really cares about.  However, it seems that the attribute vs.
element data debate has provoked a lot of discussion, and I'm not sure
anyone is clear on the distinction...)

Anyway, not trying to throw a wrench in the works, just wondering what
the scheme is in this respect.

Another question - while looking at the way my wife used to organize and
calculate grades, I realized that some more elements might be helpful in
describing the tasks which are assigned to students.  She would organize
them into categories, each of which was some percentage of the final
grade (i.e. "Tests" were worth 40%, "Quizzes" were worth 20%, etc). 
Also, she had a table which related percentage grades to grade symbols -
"A" is 90% and above, for example.

I've seen different teachers use different grading schemes - some simply
gave each task some point value, then computed (earned points)/(possible
points) for the final grade.  Some gave percentages for each task (each
task essentially worth 100pts), with a possible multiplier ("this test
is worth double").  Some teachers just gave symbol grades (A, B, C...)
and some used the category weight scheme described above.

I had brought up the Session/Course/Class hierarchy before, and I think
it would be helpful to implement this in EduML...

Also, it seems a little bit odd to have the <TASKS> outside of a <CLASS>
section - while some tasks may be duplicated across different classes,
there are likely to be many differences, as well - perhaps the <TASKS>
should belong to a specific class...

Ok, well - that's a lot of questions.  I've put together a mock-up of an
XML file at http://lager.dyndns.org/xml/demo.xml that implements some of
this if you're interested.  I'm not an XML guru, and some of it might be
plain wrong, and I might be reinventing the wheel.  Some of it might be
worth adding to EduML, though - let me know what you think!

-Eric