IEEE LTSC: U SE C ASE S CENARIOS FOR E-L EARNING
Introduction
The purpose of this document is to encourage individuals in the e-learning space to develop additional
use case scenarios specific to rights expression languages. This document tries to accomplish the stated
purpose by providing a brief introduction to the concept of a rights expression language, followed by a
template on how to create the desired use case scenarios, and finally a listing of example use case
scenarios.
Overview of a Rights Expression Language
A rights expression language (REL) provides the syntax and grammar needed to specify rights
expressions on how digital content may be distributed or used. These rights expressions can be very
simple such as “this digital content may be viewed/played at anytime by anyone” or very complex such as
“digital content 34567 may be viewed from 15-Jan-2004 until 15-Jun-2004 only by current university
students.”
The core elements of a rights expression language are broken down into the following elements:
1. Principal – the individual or group allowed to exercise the specified permission over the stated
resource, e.g., students, teachers, administrators, etc.
2. Right – the permission given to the principal over the stated digital content, e.g., play, print, copy,
execute, edit, etc.
3. Resource – the digital content that a principal can exercise the stated right, e.g., e-book, chapter,
presentation, etc.
4. Conditions – the restrictions placed on a principal who wants to exercise the stated right over the
specified digital content, e.g., time interval (from, until), count limit, etc.
5. Issuer – the individual or group granting the rights over the specified resource, e.g., authors,
publishers, etc.
Template for Creating REL Use Case Scenarios
The following template serves as an aide for creating use case scenarios that a relevant to rights
expression languages.
What is the resource in question
What are the permissions being granted?
Who can execute the stated permissions?
What restrictions are placed on the execution of the
permissions?
Who is issuing the permissions?
What environment does the use case scenario
apply to?
General description of the use case scenario
A single learning object, a cluster of learning
objects, an image, a text file, etc.
Play, print, execute, copy, etc.
A specific device, a specific user, a group of users,
a group of devices, etc.
Limited time interval such as not-before and/or notafter a specific date, count limit, etc.
The individual or party who is authorized to issue
the specified permissions over the stated resource
K-12, university, etc.
Description of the use case using the information
provided in the previous questions.
Title of the use case scenario
The above questions help narrow the use cases to elements that affect the REL.
August 26, 2003
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Example Use Case Scenarios Specific to E -Learning REL
Example 1
What is the resource in question
What are the permissions being granted?
Who can execute the stated permissions?
What restrictions are placed on the execution of the
permissions?
Who is issuing the permissions?
What environment does the use case scenario
apply to?
General description of the use case scenario
Title of the use case scenario
Example 2
What is the resource in question
What are the permissions being granted?
Who can execute the stated permissions?
What restrictions are placed on the execution of the
permissions?
Who is issuing the permissions?
What environment does the use case scenario
apply to?
General description of the use case scenario
Title of the use case scenario
Example 3
What is the resource in question
What are the permissions being granted?
Who can execute the stated permissions?
What restrictions are placed on the execution of the
permissions?
Who is issuing the permissions?
What environment does the use case scenario
apply to?
General description of the use case scenario
Title of the use case scenario
August 26, 2003
Multiple learning objects that can be uniquely
identified
Play, aggregate
Current students and current instructors at a
learning facility
No constraints on the play right, but the aggregate
permission must be tracked to a central server
Individual authors of the learning objects
Colleges, universities, k-12, vocational, training,
etc.
Students and instructors at a learning facility who
are engaged in e-learning activities shall be able to
access (play) and process (aggregate) content
from multiple sources. Sometimes this may mean
aggregating components of a learning object with
components of another learning object.
Multiple Sources of Aggregated Content
Document
View, print, extract
Anyone
Attribution “xxx yyy” must be made whenever
someone extracts a portion of the document for use
in another work
Author of the document
Education
A professor writes a scientific paper and allows
everyone to view and print the paper. However, if
anyone extracts a portion of the text, the professor
want a specific attribution “xxx yyy” to be included
in the new work
Attribution
All the digital content in a library
Play
Patrons of the library
3-week borrowing period
Library
Education
A library allows patrons to borrow digital content for
playing (viewing a video or listening to a song)
purposes for a period of 3 weeks
Library lends digital content to patrons
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