This documentation describes the basic organization and terminology for the Ed-Fi training program. 

Taxonomy

The following is a conceptual taxonomy for the training material, building on what exists today.

Ed-Fi Training

The general and overarching term for any Ed-Fi learning material, labs, courses, programs, and the resources contained.

The term “Ed-Fi training” is defined here to include the universe of concepts and things that includes the online courses in the Ed-Fi Academy, Ed-Fi Quick Start documentation and resources, the Ed-Fi Quick Launch training, videos produced for the Customer Success Team, and future adjacent efforts to expand on this existing material. The term "Ed-Fi Training" is primarily for internal use, but may be used externally.^[1]

…the Ed-Fi Training effort contains the Ed-Fi Academy.

Ed-Fi Academy

The proper-noun name for training material delivered under the Ed-Fi Academy brand.

Most courses are delivered online at academy.ed-fi.org, and are part of a holistic, interrelated catalog of courses. However, any material, training, or resource published with the Ed-Fi Academy mark will be considered part of the Academy, and will be fit (or shoehorned, if necessary) into the Academy taxonomy herein.

…the Ed-Fi Training contains multiple series.

Series

An indicator of the course level. Generally:

• Series 000. Technology Basics. Foundational information and technical skills. (As of Q3-2022, no Series 000 Courses are in the development pipeline. We'll remove this in Q2-2023 if that's still true.)
• Series 100. Fundamentals of the Ed-Fi Solution. (Where all existing material would be placed today.) The material forms the foundation of general knowledge about Ed-Fi, plus the programmatic and technical basics. Some material is presented to all students, while some is separated into Technical and Program Tracks.
• Series 200. Advanced Ed-Fi Topics. Introduces advanced topics. Courses in this Series assume that students have all the knowledge from the 100 Series for their particular Tracks. While there may be some introductory material suitable for a combination Technical and Program Tracks, it is assumed that much of the material will be Track-specific.
• Series 300. Specialized Ed-Fi Topics. Assumes knowledge of advanced topics. Not necessarily more difficult than 200-series topics, the differentiator is that the topics are deeper dives into specific technologies. For example, the 300 series Technical Track might have a Course for Postgres-specific implementations, AWS deployments, Power BI, and similar.

…a Series contains Tracks, Pathways, and Courses. Most of Courses are part of one or more Tracks and one or more Pathways.

Track

A high-level indicator of the audience for a particular course.

Currently defined Tracks include:

• Technical Track. For developers, architects, devops, and similar audiences. Technical Track courses often contain nontechnical context — but will assume some level of multidisciplinary technical knowledge. 
• Program Track. For analysts, technical project managers, instructors, researchers, and consumers of educational data. Program Track courses can cover technical topics, but only with some introduction and conceptual overview provided.

...a Track contains a group of Courses.

Pathways

A specific sequence of courses that meets some larger instructional objective. For example, there are pathways that cover knowledge areas for an Ed-Fi Badge, Ed-Fi Certification, or specialty skill.

Other pathways cover instruction laser-focused on a particular role in a project or organization. For example, there are tracks for data engineers containing just a few courses in each series, while a track for a commercial client system vendor may consist of several courses.

...a Pathway contains a sequence of Courses.

Course

A complete and contained set of learning objectives, analogous to a class or a textbook.

• The Course numbering within a series starts at x01.
  • So, the first course in series 100 is 101.
  • Saying it a different way, there is no course 100, 200, or similar round hundred.

Course Prerequisites

Courses may have prerequisites. 

• Series 100 Courses:
  • Assume any knowledge conveyed in Series 000.
  • Require knowledge conveyed in Course 101, Introduction to Ed-Fi (i.e., every 100 Series course has Course 101 as a prerequisite).
  • May have prerequisites of other Series 100 Courses, but no higher Series number.
• Series 200 Courses:
  • Have a prerequisite all Core Courses in Series 100. Students must have attended the Series 100 Core Courses for their particular Track, or clearly demonstrate the knowledge and experience.
  • May have prerequisites of specific Series 100 Courses, or other 200 Courses, but no higher Series number.
• Series 300 Courses:
  • Are specialized, and typically for experts in the topic.
  • May have prerequisites to knowledge in any other Course, or may refer to an external course, certification, technology tutorial, or other required expertise.

…a Course contains Modules.

Module

A segmentation within a Course containing a set of related topics, or material covering a subset of the Course's learning objectives.

For content delivery, Modules are a named label to group Units together. Terminology Mapping:

• LearnDash: Section
• Storyline: Module

...Modules contain Units.

Unit

A segmentation within a Course that covers a related set of topics. Analogous to Units in a textbook. Often contains an introduction to and a review of the learning objectives related to individual Lessons within.

For content delivery, Units are used to group Lessons together. Units can function as label-only or as a page with content. Terminology mapping:

• LearnDash: Lesson / Module
• Storyline: Section

…a Unit contains Lessons.

Lesson

A discrete set of information, exercises, and activities, typically done in one sitting. For example, may consist of an online video, workbook activity, and short quiz to test understanding. A training seminar may conduct several Lessons in a single day.

For content delivery a page containing learning content. Terminology mapping:

• LearnDash: Topic
• Storyline: Page

…a Lesson contains Content.

Content

Finally, after all the above, the actual learning content! Generally, Content includes the media, lab, and test material that inform a lesson. Although Lessons “contain” Content, the Content may be used in multiple Lessons (and, often, outside of a Course context altogether, as in the case of the Ed-Fi Starter Kits).

General Content Types

• Video. A Storyline Page, YouTube video, Vimeo video, or other embedded video content.
• Article. Text and images. Think blog post or white paper.
• Activity. An activity that takes place within a lesson page. May be practice or actual work product.
• Exploration. A course-related activity that takes place outside of the Academy framework with the intention of learning or practice. May require team collaboration.
• Lab. An activity that takes place outside of the Academy. May include a hands-on technical work (e.g., installing technology in a test environment) or the creation of work product. May require team collaboration.

Resource

Material or set of materials that may be helpful for the student, but are not "required reading." A Resource section in the learning delivery will display on non-activity lessons or units if materials are present.

Quiz

Generally, a Quiz is a way to reinforce learning, and measure a user’s comprehension of learning material. We categorize Academy Quizzes thusly:

• Quiz. Measures comprehension of a Lesson, Unit, or Module.
• Test. Measures comprehension of a course. Cumulative.

Terminology mapping:

• LearnDash: Quiz.

Categorizations

Project Phase

The project lifecycle phase to which a training component applies. (For clarity, this does not refer to the stage of the production process used to create the course.)

For example (from ICF Knowledge Store Index):

• Phase 1. Prepare
• Phase 2. Implement
• Phase 3. Improve

Alternatively, consider a DevOps-type lifecycle & concepts? An example might look more like, e.g.:

• Plan
• Code
• Build
• Test
• Deploy
• Operate
• Monitor

   ...on one hand, this model is somewhat standard and fine-grained (which is good), but it assumes that "Improve" is continuous, not a separate subject.

Focus Area

For example (from ICF Knowledge Store Index):

• Organizational Management
• Technology Systems
• Teaching & Learning

Lesson Forum

For example:

• Instructor-Led Lesson
• Instructor-Led Workshop
• Self-Guided Lesson
• Self-Guided Activity

Lesson Type

For example:

• E-Learning. Online module or content delivery. Includes many of the Sessions from the Quick Launch series.
  • Self-Guided.
• Training Session. In-person training session. Includes “Deep Dive” sessions typically held with the Ed-Fi Technical Congress or the Ed-Fi Summit.
• Web Meeting. Instructor-led online session. Includes introductory and wrap-up Sessions from the Quick Launch series.
• Hands-on activity.
  • Self-Guided.
• Applied learning, in a production or simulated production environment.
  • Field Application.
  • Mock Application.

Resource Type

An indicator of file type. During production, used to communicate the planned deliverable(s). After publication, used in the content inventory for categorization and searching.

Often multiple when used to describe a job, especially where an "original" such as a PowerPoint is delivered alongside a final product such as a PDF.

AKA: File Type

For example (updated with more examples from ICF Knowledge Store Index):

• PDF
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Word
• MPEG
• JPEG

Publication Platform

The method of hosting or disbursing the file. During production, helps content developers and production teams understand the target. After publication, documents "where" a piece of content lives.

For example:

• LMS
• Vimeo
• YouTube
• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• WordPress

Content Author

The entity that produced and owns the content, typically an organization name or type.

AKA: Content Owner, Content Organization

For example (from ICF Knowledge Store Index):

• APQC
• Ed-Fi Alliance
• INsite
• LEA
• NewLeef
• NCES
• SEA
• U.S. DoE
• Other [i.e., Organization Name]

^[1] Ed-Fi training encompasses the Academy plus any formal or informal Alliance-produced training material shared externally, conference-specific boot camps, and the like. Externally, we would use this term in the same manner as the closest analogue we have today: “Ed-Fi technology,” which is a generic term describing all the tech stuff. Similarly, "Ed-Fi training" means "all the training stuff, including the Ed-Fi Academy."