Universal object

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Universal object describes a kind of object with a particular purpose and a standardised structure according to its purpose and the PSSP ontology. The open assessment contains the following kinds of objects:

• Assessment
• Variable
• Class
• Method

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The research question about universal objects

What are the kinds of objects that are needed to describe an assessment (including all its content about reality and all the work needed for creating the content) in such a way that all objects comply with the PSSP ontology?

In general, descriptions of reality are described as products, while the work needed to produce these descriptions is described as processes. Assessment, variable, and class are product-type objects, and method is a process-type object.

In addition to the object types listed above we could add context as the object type that is above assessments in the hierarchical structure. In practice contexts typically do not need to be explicitly defined as such, rather only their influence in the assessments needs to be explicated, and therefore they are not considered here in any more detail.

• Assessment is a collection of information for helping decision-making, and the end product of an open assessment process. Assessment is constructed according to its intended use purpose. It can be described as a collection of variables, collected with reference to the use purpose that the assessment is intended for, complemented with information about the scope of the assessment and assessment-specific analyses and conclusions. Assessments are discrete objects having defined starting and ending points in time and specific contextually and situationally defined goals. Assessment is needed as a separate universal object because of its context-specific properties.
• Variable is a description of a particular piece of reality. It can be a description of physical phenomena, or a description of value judgments. Also decisions included in an assessment are described as variables. Variables are continuously existing descriptions of reality, which develop in time as knowledge about them increases. Variables are therefore not tied into any single assessment, but instead can be included in other assessments. Variable is needed as a separate universal object as a basic building block of describing reality. D↷
• Class is a set of objects (variables or classes) that share the same property or properties. They can be used in describing general information that is shared by more than one variable or class or sharing general information among the classes and variables of similar kind. Class is needed as a separate universal object because of its ability to efficiently reduce the redundancy of information in the system.
• Method is a systematic procedure for a particular information manipulation process that is needed as a part of an assessment work. Method is needed as a separate universal object because it is the basic building block for describing the assessment work (not reality like the other objects).