Documentation assets for the Retool front end to the National Education Data Dictionary
The online data dictionary service for Australian education data is a prototype, jointly funded through the State, Territory and Federal Departments for Education as part of the National Schools Interoperability Program (NSIP), a business unit of Education Services Australia (ESA). The national data dictionary is intended to make it easier to mobilise data between different agencies and vendors. The data dictionary will:
- make data collection more efficient for schools and vendors
- coordinate the enterprise data modelling efforts of different school authorities
- help agencies to plan data collection activities more effectively.
The data dictionary captures the definitions of entities that occur across different national data collections, how the entities are related to each other (superclass/subclass, object/attribute), and how the entities are represented in different data standards. While the entity definitions reflect a broad, national consensus, the data dictionary also tracks differences in understanding about entities in different school authorities and different data collections, which have long been a concern for data mobility in the sector. The data dictionary definition of entities links to different contexts that they appear in, including different data collections, and to the different definitions and business rules applied in those contexts. It also links to the range of state and federal legislation determining how the entities are understood in different jurisdictions.
For example,
- The data dictionary defines School as an entity, and provides information about it (such as the overall definition, and the level of sensitivity that various jurisdictions apply to it in privacy compliance.)
- It further provides the relation of School as an entity to subclass and superclass entities (Organisation, Campus), and to attributes (ACARA ID, School Name, School Level).
- The dictionary entity links to various pieces of legislation, at a state and federal level, determining how schools are understood in different jurisdictions.
- It links to different data standards that represent schools, and the definitions they give.
- It also links to several data collections which gather information about schools, so that the varying definitions and business rules applying to them can be looked up in one place.
- Entities Page — Browse and explore all entities (objects and attributes).
- Collections Page — Browse and explore collections and the entities they contain.
- Navigation — Use double-click to follow links between related entities and collections.
- Junction Modal — Pop-up when navigating between entities and collections. View collection-specific definitions, business rules, and value restrictions for entities.
Elements and Objects are organised hierarchically in the Data Dictionary; for example:
- Organisation > School > Campus (objects)
- Person > Staff, Student (objects)
- Identifier > Organisation Identifier > School Identifier (abstract elements)
The Entity hierarchy can be navigated through the Linked Tables section of the Entity page. In this section there are two tables Superclass and Subclass which list the selected entities Parents and Children respectively. Users can navigate to view these entities by double clicking the row.
- Browse national-level data definitions.
- Compare how entities are used across collections.
- Navigate relationships between objects, attributes, and collections.=
- Access collection-specific metadata via the Junction Modal.
- Support privacy compliance by flagging sensitive elements.
A PDF with more information about the business case for the data dictionary, and what problems it is seeking to solve, can be viewed by clicking the download icon.
The footer contains five buttons: “Go To Technical Info,” “Go To Entities,” “Go To Collections,” “Go To Submissions,” and “Download JSON.” Clicking any of the first four buttons navigates the user to the corresponding page. Selecting “Download JSON” downloads a ZIP file containing twelve individual JSON files — one for each table in the database — providing a complete export of all data.
Underneath an Acknowledgment of Country is displayed, along with links to the Copyright and Privacy policies
The data dictionary uses a hierarchical model of entities belonging to collections, where entities are objects with attributes. For example:
- School is an object, with attributes such as ACARA ID and School name
- School is captured in several collections, such as the National School Census and NAPLAN Registration.
The Entity and Collection list panel is located at the left side of their respective dictionary pages, as the basic distinction that the data dictionary makes.
The information model behind entities is derived from ISO 11179, which is widely used in data dictionaries (such as Aristotle). The ISO 11179 model (source) defines the following elements:
- object_class: set of ideas, abstractions or things in the real world that are identified with explicit boundaries and meaning and whose properties and behavior follow the same rules,
- characteristic: abstraction of a property of an object or of a set of objects,
- data_element_concept: concept that can be expressed in the form of a data element, described independently of any particular representation,
- data_element: unit of data that is considered in context to be indivisible,
- conceptual_domain: concept that expresses its valid instance meanings or description.
A data dictionary track attributes of objects: data element concepts. So it needs a notion of objects (schools, students, staff), a notion of properties (name, gender, identifier), and a notion of a property specific to an object (school name, student gender, staff identifier).
In the language used in this data dictionary,
- Elements (ISO 11179: Data element concepts) are attributes of Objects (ISO 11179: Object classes)
- Elements are concrete instances of Abstract Elements (ISO 11179: Characteristics)
For the entity list only, there is an additional filter with four selections (all/abstract/element/object) for its content, based on the entity's metadata type. The all selection means no filter for the entity list.
There are three components of the ISO 11179 model that the data dictionary captures only in descriptive text, but not in navigation as distinct entities:
- Data dictionaries track how a Data element component is represented in a data standard (Data element). That includes for example the SIF-AU representation of School as the
SchoolInfoobject. The data dictionary tracks this information in its representation of data standards, and its discussion of data collections. - Data dictionaries track the possible values of a Data element (Value domain), and the conceptual foundation for those possible values (Conceptual domain). So the conceptual domain for gender includes Male, Female, Non-Binary, Intersex; the value domain for a specific data element, how values are coded, could be "1", "2", "3", "4", or "M", "F", "Other", or indeed the strings "Male", "Female", "Non-Binary", "Intersex". The conceptual domain for school identifiers is strings; the value domain for ACARA IDs is five-digit numbers.
- Because the data dictionary is meant to range across multiple data representations, it does not cover value domains, and it gives only high-level description of value domains, particularly as they relate to collections.
The data dictionary adds a further layer of hierarchical modelling:
- Entities can be subclasses of other entities; e.g. Student is a subclass of Person, Campus is a subclass of School, Student Name is a subclass of Name
- Subclasses inherit the attributes of their superclasses; e.g. if Person has the attribute Person Address, and Staff is a subclass of Person, then Staff also has the attribute Person Address. These inherited attributes are shown separately in the data dictionary
- Subclasses can override inherited attributes; e.g. Organization has a default Organization Identifier, but School has ACARA ID, which overrides Organization Identifier
The following illustrates the overall conceptual model of the data dictionary, with subclasses, related entities, and collections:
The footer includes three buttons: Go To Home Page, Go To Entities Page, and Go To Collections Page, which navigate the user to their respective pages.
Navigates the user back to the landing page.
The interface includes both filtering on Entity Types and Entity Names.
Type Filtering
There is a filter with four selections(all/abstract/element/object) for its content, based on the entity's metadata type. The all selection means no filter for the entity list.
Name Filtering
A search bar is located at the top of the entity list, allowing users to quickly find specific entities by name.
This table lists all entities along with their types. It is scrollable, and selecting a row retrieves the corresponding data and displays it in the Right pane.
The Right Pane is divided into two views: the Details view (top) and the Links view (bottom).
The Details view has five tabs:
- Definition
- SIF
- Other Standards
- Legal Definitions
- Sensitivity
- Metadata
Upon selecting a tab the data related to that area displayed in the space under the tabs bar.
This button is displayed at the end of the tabs view and when seleced opens an info dialog explaining what each of the tabs means
The Links view has six tabs:
- Superclass
- Subclass
- Has Attribute
- Is Attribute Of
- Related
- Linked Collections
Selecting a tab displays the corresponding data in the area below the tab bar.
- For most tabs, this data consists of Entities linked to the Entity selected in the Left Pane.
- For Linked Collections, the data consists of Collections instead of Entities.
Double-click behavior:
- Entities → The Entities page resets with the linked Entity in the Left Pane, and the Right Pane updates with its values.
- Linked Collections → A modal opens with details for the selected collection.
This button is displayed at the end of the tabs view and when seleced opens an info dialog explaining what each of the tabs means
The Junction Modal appears in two cases:
- When a linked collection is selected on the Entities page.
- When a linked entity is selected on the Collections page.
This modal displays all data related to the junction between those entities and collections. The information may include:
- Description
- Standard
- Element Name
- Commentary
- Business Rules
- Values
- Definition Modification
- Elements If no data exists for a given section, that section is omitted.
Controls:
- Close and Cancel — Return the user to the previous screen.
- Progress — Opens the linked elements screen, showing the element in the Left Pane and its data in the Right Pane.
The Graph component provides an interactive visualization that maps how the selected data entity connects to superclasses, subclasses, attributes, and related elements within the data dictionary. This visual graph helps users quickly understand the structure, hierarchy, and dependencies surrounding a central entity. Codebase can be found here
This button is displayed and when seleced opens a dialog with an expanded view of the custom component and a legend.
The legend outlines what different shapes and colours mean on the graph
Navigates the user back to the landing page.
A search bar is located at the top of the collection list, allowing users to quickly find specific entities by name or definition.
This table lists all collections, It is scrollable, and selecting a row retrieves the corresponding data and displays it in the Right pane.
The Right Pane is divided into two views: the Details view (top) and the Links view (bottom).
The Details view contains two sections:
- Definition
- URL The relevant data for each section is displayed under its heading.
Displays just one table thats lists all the entities connected to the selected Collection Double clicking opens the Junction Modal
Use this page to propose new data definitions or updates to existing ones in the National Education Data Dictionary. You can submit either a new Entity or a new Collection using the Excel templates below. Download the template you need, complete it, and email it to info@nsip.edu.au
- Download the relevant template
- Complete the fields (follow the notes on each tab)
- Save your file
- Email it to info@nsip.edu.au
- Once submitted, your proposal will be reviewed by the NSIP team. You’ll be contacted if any clarification is required.
- Collections Submission (Excel) – propose a new collection.
- Includes: definition, URLs, linked entities.
- Entity Submission (Excel) – propose a new entity.
- Includes: definitions, standards (SIF/other), legal definitions, sensitivity, relationships, linked collections.
- One entity per workbook.
- Leave sections blank if they don’t apply.
- Don’t rename tabs or change the structure.
- Accepted format: .xlsx
- Submissions are reviewed before being added to the data dictionary.
Email info@nsip.edu.au
This section includes two icon text boxes that allow users to download the submission templates. Selecting an icon downloads either the New Entity Form or the New Collection Form.
The footer has one: Go To Home Page, which navigates the user to the home pages.
