staffs XCRI

1. staffsXCRI Peter Moss (p.j.moss@staffs.ac.uk) Staffordshire University

2. Approach • Mapping • Structured Interviews • Internal aggregation using existing resources • Existing faculty/school systems/content • CMS (Tridion R5) • Student Records (TheSIS Plus) • Production of XCRI-CAP feed • Testing with aggregator

3. Experiences • Interview were generally successful • …but difficult to arrange! • Getting to ‘the big picture’ was difficult • Separating perception of the process from reality was challenging!

4. Findings • Very disjointed and inconstant process • Overreliance on manual processes throughout • Comprehensive QA underpins the processes, but creates complex workflows • Lots of less than satisfied stakeholders! • Some work underway to address these problems already

5. Issues • CMS content not accessible to us • Unfortunately due to restructure/redesign of website the team did not have time to supply us with a ‘feed’ which we could use • No other ‘repository’ of course advertising material available to the team • Student records system only contains current and historic courses • No ‘production’ quality feed was going to be possible 

6. Plan • To carry out a small scale development to synthesise an XCRI-CAP feed • This development would .. • Not focus on being a technically ‘brilliant’ solution (neither the time nor necessity) • Identify potentially problematic areas of the schema • Generate some suggestions/comments about the general implementation experience

7. Development • The following code packages were produced • simpleXcriGen • Simple Java model of XCRI-CAP document • Great as a learning exercise and as a ‘thought provoker’ • Disclaimer: Not suitable for production environment • Disclaimer: No … really – don’t do it! • staffsXCRISyntheticCatalogGen • Uses simpleXcriGen, JDBC + existing code • Outputs XCRI-CAP for SU containing current awards – but has no real ‘consumer’ content available • Shows how a simple internal aggregation could operate • Resulting feeds hosted on web server

8. Results • Got us a feed, sort of! • Feed lacked any real ‘consumer’ content but was structurally valid • This turned into a number of feeds • mainly performance reasons for this • aggregator did not seem to load a multi-provider document when it was tried • Registered with the xcri.org/aggregator • Raised a few questions and suggestions ….

9. Suggestions (1/2) • Internal Recommendations • Adopt a more holistic approach to course data management • Existing workflow automation solutions need to be extended and adapted • Make use of HIVE repository for outputs • Actions already underway • Recommending that XCRI-CAP output be considered as a requirement (alongside web, print, etc)

10. Suggestions (2/2) • Suite of ‘reference’ documents? • Identifiers • Is a resolvable ID necessary? • Vocabularies/Extensions • Course description type for ‘testimonials’/personal statements • Consistency of levels, subjects, etc • Distance learning courses and geolocation • Search equality? • Presentations with support for “home based” learning venue? • Update models • Guidance for implementation teams on approaches to update patterns • Entry requirements • Ability for ‘non-typical’ requirements (such as accredited experience) to be formally recorded, especially of interest for widening participation initiatives

11. Summary • Project has helped to consolidate lots of internal problems, which are now starting to be addressed • We have made some, hopefully, useful suggestions to the XCRI project • Project team intends to continue to monitor and, where possible, participate in further development and promote production of XCRI-CAP from SU

12. Questions? • Further Contact • p.j.moss@staffs.ac.uk • http://www.staffs.ac.uk/xcri