One of MetaCat's advanced information management capabilities is that it enables appropriate teams to design, create, manage and distribute custom central repositories of integrated educational resources, which can become a comphrehensive intructional management system over time as desired. Instructional management systems can include all sorts of integrated components: Curriculum, models, lesson plans, media libraries, scored student work and other resources maintained by appropriate teams with secure workflow and signoff process, and integrated together as needed. The educational purpose of these instructional units is to demonstrate how to align content and instructional strategies to the cognitive levels of standards. Read more about the educational design here.

The information here demonstrates how a team can set up a custom structured document to store instructional units. The following screen shots show a partial example of the unit structure that was designed in MetaCat (by non-technical team) and the associated content as it looks under development. During development, team members can edit the sections to which they've been given permission. The teams use a custom, secure workflow and signoff process to ensure quality and process control. Completed units can be accessed by the intended audience when permissions are enabled. If desired, teachers can be given permission to upload new strategies, or comment on success and trials in the classroom, as well as upload student work when requested.

A partial screen shot of a Unit structure definition is shown below at left. An Example unit (Liberty and Citizenship) displayed at right. The inner window at the lower right shows a section being edited in a Word-like editor. Full edit history tracking is included.

The embedded assessments can include dynamic search links to appropriately aligned items stored and managed in separate item banks. Lessons can include links to samples of scored student work stored in portfolios. It's up to the design team how they wish to implement. The screen shot below illustrates a dynamic search link embedded in a lesson. When a dynamic search link is clicked, the search reesults (student work in this case) is displayed in an inner, resizeable window as shown at right below.