Internationalization Work Group - Education Organization Models

Owned by Gabrielle Garonzik
Feb 03, 2020
3 min read

Contents


Education Organization Domain Models

Ed-Fi Data Standard v3.2 Education Organization Domain

Source: Education Organization Domain

Ed-Fi Education Organization Domain - click to enlarge

IMS OneRoster v1.1 Org Data Model

Source: https://www.imsglobal.org/oneroster-v11-final-specification#_Toc480452016

IMS OneRoster Org Data Model - click to enlarge

Microsoft EDU CDM Org Data Model

Source: Internationalization Work Group 2019-12-11

MS EDU CDM Org Data Model - click to enlarge

FHIR v4.0.1 Org Resource

Source: http://hl7.org/fhir/organization.html

FHIR Org Resource - click to enlarge

Resources

Proposed Ed-Fi International Data Model - Education Organization Domain

The following is a UML diagram representation of possible internationalized versions of the Ed-Fi Education Organization domain. These suggestions are based on the above comparisons with other data standards and notes from previous Internationalization Work Group meetings.

Three options are presented, with varying levels of complexity. One key feature that is uniform across all proposed models is to "meet in the middle" in terms of complexity. Education Organizations are divvied into two generic categories: AdministrativeEducationOrganization and School.

AdministrativeEducationOrganization would include attributes and relationships intended for higher-level agencies in the Education Organization hierarchy. In the US, these would be the StateEducationAgency, LocalEducationAgency, and EducationServiceCenter entities. School would include attributes and relationships for enrollment.

Option 1: Two Concrete Education Organization Classes

Proposed Education Organization Model 1 - click to enlarge

The main differences in the three approaches are to do with structure. The first is the simplest model with two concrete classes that each have self references to create a hierarchy and a single reference between the two where a School can be an organizational component of an AdministrativeEducationOrganization.

Option 2: Education Organization Abstract with Two Sub-Classes

Proposed Education Organization Model 2 - click to enlarge

In this second approach, common elements between the two Education Organization classes are grouped into a single, abstract entity EducationOrganization.

Option 3: Education Organization Abstract with Two Sub-Classes and Relationship Association

Proposed Education Organization Model 3 - click to enlarge

The third option removes the self-references on each of the two Education Organization sub-classes and insteads allows for a hierarchy to be defined via a new EducationOrganizationRelationshipAssociation class. This provides two benefits over the self-referencing structure:

  1. Allows for defining relationships that are not explicitly parent/child between education organizations.
  2. A multi-tiered hierarchy of education organizations can quickly become cumbersome on an API.