Post on 01-Jan-2016
description
Session Outline
• Introductions• What is XCRI?• Where did it come from?• The technical bits!• Benefits• Hud-XCRI project• Questions
What is XCRi?
• EXchanging Course Related Information• Community-based standards organisation• Maintains an XML specification for distributing and
advertising information about courses• Works with FE and HE institutions across the UK and
Europe to define the format of the specification• Information model NOT a commercial product or
package
A brief XCRI History (1)
April 2005:• JISC funded study into curriculum management and
potential for new approaches to interoperability• One output from this is creation of an XML schema for
course management
A brief XCRI History (2)
March 2007:• JISC fund second project for 2 years• Aim: ‘to develop a lightweight specification to allow
universities and colleges to syndicate their course information to aggregators etc’
• Result from the project to be output to the open standards process - XCRI-CAP was born
• Specification only concerns the Course Advertising Profile aspects of course information
A brief XCRI History (3)
• Mandated by UK national Information Standards Board as UK’s e-Prospecti standard in January 2009
• DCSF recommended that all 14 – 19 Area Prospectuses adopt the standard from 2010
• UCAS exploring full implementation• European adoption anticipated later in 2010
XCRI-CAP
Basic principle:
Provider offers Courses which have Presentations (occurrences), Credits and/or Qualifications
XCRI-CAP: Layout
Provider
Course
Presentation
Venue
Credit
Qualification
Presentation
Venue
Course
Presentation
Credit
Qualification
XCRI-CAP: XML
<catalog><provider>
<title>Farm College</title><url>www.farmcollege.ac.uk</title><street>Farm Road</street><town>Farmville</town><postcode>FM1</postcode><email>admissions@farmcollege.ac.uk</email>
<course><identifier>1234</identifier><title>Horse Grooming 101</title><description type=”xcri:aim”>The aim of this course is to provide the learner with
all the skills necessary to groom a horse.</description><description type=”xcri:providedResource”>We will provide a horse for the
grooming practical.</description><description type=”careerOutcomes”>Many students who complete this horse go
on to successful careers in horse grooming. Some end up in gluefactories.</description>
<credit><scheme>Horse Grooming Scheme</scheme><value>30 Points</value>
</credit><presentation>
<start>03-Jan-2010</start><end>31-Mar-2010</end><duration>3 Months</duration><studyMode>Full Time</studyMode><attendanceMode>Campus</attendanceMode><attendancePattern>Evening</attendancePattern>…
</presentation></course>
</provider></catalog>
Benefits for Learners
Problem:
Learners comparing courses between 2 institutions will find information of varying quality in different formats for the same subjects
Solution:
XCRI-CAP ensures that the same fields are available, making searching for course information easier
Benefits for HE
Problem:
Institutions locked into an endless cycle of preparing information for prospectus and other publications, re-keying the same content into different formats
CourseDatabase
DataExtract
DataExtract
DataExtract
Edited for Web
Edited for Prospectus
Edited for UCAS
SchoolData Managers
ServiceData Managers
CourseDatabase
DataExtract
Publishto Web
Publishto Prospectus
Exportto UCAS
SchoolData Managers
ServiceData Managers
Transform To XCRI-CAP
Hud-XCRI: Project aims (1)
• JISC bid for 6 month project April 2008 – March 2009• Implement and test XCRI-CAP course specification to
evaluate its usability and contribute to refinement• Provide insight into changes required to business
processes and IT systems in order to develop automatically generated course catalogues
• Review institutional benefits of adopting this approach
Hud-XCRI: Project aims (2)
• Through WYLLN, establish precedence amongst HE providers in the region for storing and sharing course related information
• Work towards creation of an HE directory for West Yorkshire learners and employers
• Work with Hotcourses and UCAS to provide an automated feed of course advertising information for inclusion in LearnDirect National Learning Directory
Hud-XCRI: Phase 1
• External consultant engaged to investigate state of readiness for XCRI-CAP implementation
• Reviewed and documented courses information storage and processing methods
• Produced report identifying matches/gaps• Review meeting to discuss action plan
Hud-XCRI: Readiness
Attribute Start 0 1 2 3 4 End
No of courses Very large Y Very small
No of sources Multiple Y Single
Quality of authoring Poor Y Excellent
Update frequency Annually Y Continuous
Audit trail None Y Detailed
Centralisation Fragmented Y Complete
Process capability Ad hoc Y Defined
Org. context Hostile Y Benign
Resources Minimal Y Plenty
Hud-XCRI: Action Plan (1)
• Engaging schools– Briefing document for senior managers and ASIS managers– Presentation at ASIS Managers meeting– Considered approach to Business School
• Data Extract– Create data specification of data required for XCRI– Set up ‘production level’ feed– Implement and populate XCRI repository
Hud-XCRI: Action Plan (2)
• Outside agencies– Identify provision on National Learning Directory and compare
with what XCRI feed could provide– Identify gaps between what they currently hold on Huddersfield
and what we want them to have– Identify provision on UCAS and provide XCRI feed for their
testing
Hud-XCRI: Phase 2 Proposals
• Include ‘last updated’ dates in SITS to provide audit trail• Investigate collection of additional data from schools eg
Module information, CPD data• Identify other gaps in information and decide how to plug• Widen to other colleges within LLN• Investigate possibilities for internal usage of XCRI feed• Investigate other uses within LLN eg SHA
So what happened next?
• ‘Proof of concept’ and XCRI ‘readiness’ established at end of project in April 2009
• WYLLN dissemination event April 2009• Project report and action plan discussed at Senior
management team and approved June 2009• Steering Group (chaired by PVC) established August
2009• Two year project plan agreed August 2009• Appointment of Projects Officer September 2009
And now?
• Addressing data quality issues• Reviewing data consistency issues• Setting minimum XCRI output requirements• Building sql ‘database’• Providing XCRI web feed• Take-up within WYLLN• Successful bid for JISC funding to run a mini XCRI
project focusing on CPD / short courses
Future of XCRI?
• XCRI-CAP is on version 1.1.• Version 2 is currently being developed.• This will bring the UK Standard into line with the European
equivalent – MLO (Metadata for Learning Opportunities).• Universities and Colleges in the UK continue to adopt the XCRI
standard• Other organisations on board eg UCAS
XCRI Resources
XCRI Website: www.xcri.org
Case Study: East Midlands Implementation - http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/xcri/index.shtml
University of Bolton –
http://www2.bolton.ac.uk/coursefinder/
We offer a lively environment for study with excellent and distinctive degrees
Over 22,000 students study with us, on over 400 courses
www.hud.ac.uk