Integrating Micro-lesson Metadata in ID3V2 of MP3

Online teaching emerged as the only feasible mode of teaching and learning during the pandemic. This mode of learning demands Internet connection to every household and strong signal coverage. Lack of connecting devices and sharing of a single device among siblings are common problems. Staring at small screens of smartphones and lack of physical activity due to tight online class schedules create health issues too. Delivering pre-recorded multimedia lessons (micro contents with 15 minutes duration) followed by discussions with students using a virtual meeting platform will lessen these problems. Breaking down a single lesson into multiple short sub-lessons needs a robust sequencing mechanism to provide the necessary guidance for the students to follow micro lessons in a desirable order. This sequence information should be available with lessons themselves. That is, metadata related to navigation or sequencing should be kept with the lesson itself. The IEEE standard on Learning Object Metadata does not provide such sequencing metadata, while SCORM does. Metadata is stored in separate XML files in SCORM, and the lesson and the metadata files should be zipped to a package. This needs Learning Management Systems (LMSs) to handle metadata and lesson contents separately. However, most educators do not use LMSs and do not have enough technical expertise to create and manage these metadata. MP3 is the best file format for minimizing file sizes while retaining good audio quality. The ID3v2 tag area carries audio metadata with the MP3 file itself. MP3 with ID3v2 tagging has already been used in NeLCon Studio to deliver digital lessons to students. NeLCon studio provides an easy way to embed metadata into ID3v2 area and attach them into MP3 itself. This paper proposes the required lesson metadata and re-designed the ID3v2 tag area to embed this information. This mechanism has several advantages like keeping metadata and micro contents together, providing sequencing metadata of micro contents for sharing them among multiple courses, encouraging even non-technical educators to create micro contents which can reduce the staring time at small screens for a longer period by students, increasing their physical activities, and delivering and using micro contents with Internet connection having poor signal coverages or in coverage holes. Students will be guided to follow the micro contents in the order the educators decided to achieve the lesson outcomes. This work lays the foundation for MP3 based mobile and social media learning platforms.