What are controlled vocabularies?
A controlled vocabulary is a prescribed set of consistently used and carefully defined terms. Some vocabularies are established through a prescribed range of values that an element can contain. For example, the LOM element Classification.Purpose is described as “the purpose for classifying this resource” and lists eleven terms that can be used. Of these, Vetadata recommends the use of ‘competency’, ‘educational level’ or ‘discipline’. Other elements allow a choice of vocabularies. For example, the element Classification.TaxonPath.Source, defined as “the name of the classification system/scheme”, allows the use of “any recognised ‘official’ taxonomy or any user-defined taxonomy”. In this case, Vetadata specifies that a value from the AQF qualification system is used to describe the educational level, rather than one of the other qualification level vocabularies available. A thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary with an internal structure, usually conforming to a specific standard with fe
