Best practices for using metadata

Applies to

Personas

• Content Developers

• Administrators

Prerequisites

Before using these best practices, you should:

• Understand how your organization structures items, tests, assets, and deliveries.

• Know which metadata values are important for search, filtering, reporting, or test assembly.

• Have a basic understanding of metadata schemas, lists, and item classes. For information on the workflow and use cases for metadata, see Metadata: Full workflow from configuring to search.

Purpose

As your TAO platform grows, so does the volume of items, tests, assets, and metadata. Without a clear structure, it becomes harder to locate, reuse, maintain, or report on content over time.

This article outlines best practices for using metadata in a way that promotes clarity, consistency, searchability, and long-term content management.

Recommended approach

When planning or improving metadata, focus on these areas:

1. Structure folders logically.

2. Define metadata schemas early.

3. Use metadata strategically.

4. Choose the right field types.

5. Standardize labels and values.

6. Separate drafts from published content.

7. Review and clean up metadata regularly.

Best practices

1. Structure your folders logically

Metadata works best when it supports a clear content structure.

Start by defining a folder hierarchy that reflects how your organization thinks about content. This might be by:

• Subject

• Grade level

• Assessment program

2. Define metadata schemas early

Define your metadata schema before large-scale item creation begins.

A metadata schema determines which fields are available, what types of values authors can enter, and how metadata is inherited across item classes. Planning this structure early helps prevent manual cleanup later.

Whenever possible, define metadata at the highest appropriate level in the class hierarchy. This allows child classes and items to inherit the same metadata structure, reducing duplication and improving consistency.

3. Use metadata inheritance deliberately

Metadata inheritance allows all items in a class to share the same metadata structure.

This provides several benefits:

Think of item classes as templates. The metadata properties assigned to the class become the baseline for every item created in that class.

Avoid adding metadata schemas too low in the hierarchy unless the fields apply only to that specific subset of content.

4. Use metadata strategically

Metadata should describe content in ways that help users find, reuse, manage, or report on it.

Useful metadata often includes:

• Grade level

• Subject

• Language

• Difficulty

• Topic

Use metadata for information that needs to be searched, filtered, sorted, reported on, or maintained over time.

Avoid creating metadata fields that are rarely used, unclear, or too similar to other fields.

5. Choose the right metadata field type

Different metadata values require different field types.

Use open-ended fields when values are unique or highly variable. Use closed-ended fields when values need to be standardized for searching, filtering, or reporting.

Open-ended fields provide flexibility, but they can lead to inconsistent values.

Closed-ended fields, such as dropdowns, checkboxes, and trees, help standardize data entry and improve search accuracy.

6. Use controlled lists whenever possible

Use lists for metadata values that authors should select from a predefined set.

Lists are especially useful for fields such as:

• Subject

• Grade level

• Language

Controlled lists help prevent value inconsistencies such as:

• Grade 9

• grade nine

• G9

• 9th Grade

Using a single approved value makes content easier to find and filter.

7. Standardize metadata names and values

Metadata is only useful when authors apply it consistently.

Use clear, standardized names for both metadata properties and values.

For example:

Property labels should be easy for authors to understand and easy for administrators to search across item classes.

8. Group related item types

Avoid placing unrelated items in the same class if they require different metadata.

Instead, group items by meaningful categories such as:

• Subject

• Grade

• Topic

• Program

• Assessment type

Grouping related items helps ensure that inherited metadata fields are relevant to the content in that class.

For example, a metadata schema for Grade 9 Science items may include fields such as Subject, Difficulty, Standard Code, and Topic. Those fields may not be appropriate for a language assessment or survey item class.