What is the relationship between metadata and vocabularies?
Metadata standards typically use vocabularies (sometimes “controlled vocabularies”) to define the range of possible values for a particular characteristic. When describing a learning resource, one has to say what aspect is being described and then give the description. For example, suppose you want to assert that a particular interactive applet is appropriate for students at the university level. To communicate this, you must first say that you are going to make a statement about two aspects of the applet (its audience and its educational level) and then say what these are (students and university). Had the resource been different, you might have described the same aspects but with different words (teacher for audience, K-12 for educational level).
