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Dublin Core Elements

Run the Dublin Core Elements MicroSim Fullscreen

About This MicroSim

This interactive infographic visualizes the 15 Dublin Core metadata elements, the international standard for describing digital resources. The elements are organized into three official categories:

  1. Content (blue) - Elements describing what the resource is about: Title, Subject, Description, Type, Source, Relation, Coverage

  2. Intellectual Property (green) - Elements describing who created and owns the resource: Creator, Publisher, Contributor, Rights

  3. Instantiation (orange) - Elements describing how the resource exists in the world: Date, Format, Identifier, Language

Interactive Features

  • Hover over any element card to see its definition, a MicroSim-specific example, and usage frequency
  • Click on an element to expand the info panel with extended description
  • Color intensity indicates how commonly each element is used in MicroSim metadata (brighter = more common)
  • Required badges highlight the essential elements for MicroSim discovery

Embed This MicroSim

Place the following line in your website to include this MicroSim:

1
<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/microsim-search/sims/dublin-core-elements/main.html" height="482px" width="100%" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

  1. Classify Dublin Core elements into their three categories (Content, Intellectual Property, Instantiation)
  2. Explain the purpose and definition of each Dublin Core element
  3. Apply Dublin Core elements to describe MicroSim metadata
  4. Distinguish between required and optional metadata elements

Suggested Activities

Activity 1: Category Sorting (5 minutes) Before viewing the MicroSim, have students guess which category each element belongs to. Then use the visualization to check their answers.

Activity 2: Metadata Scavenger Hunt (10 minutes) Give students a sample MicroSim and have them identify values for each Dublin Core element. Which elements are easy to determine? Which require research or decisions?

Activity 3: Required vs. Optional Discussion (5 minutes) Why are Title, Creator, Subject, Description, Rights, Date, and Identifier marked as required? What happens if these are missing from MicroSim metadata?

Activity 4: Create Your Own Metadata (15 minutes) Have students create complete Dublin Core metadata for a MicroSim they've developed or one they would like to create.

Assessment Questions

  1. What are the three Dublin Core element categories?
  2. Which elements are required for MicroSim discovery?
  3. Why is the Identifier element important for educational resources?
  4. How does the Rights element affect resource sharing and reuse?

References