| Enterprise | |
| SIG Coordinator | |
| Kamala Velayutham | |
| Email: kv2@bolton.ac.uk Based at: CETIS in Bolton | |
| Communication | |
| Enterprise Discussion List | |
| Kamala's Workblog | |
| Vashti's Workblog | |
| SIG Meetings | |
| 2008 | 17th Enterprise SIG |
| 2007 | 16th Enterprise SIG |
| 2007 | 15th Enterprise SIG |
| 2006 | Joint Enterprise/Portfolio SIG |
| Enterprise | |
| Enterprise Specification | |
| Enterprise Services | |
| Course Information | |
| XCRI (eXchanging Course Related Information) | |
| e-Administration | |
| e-Adminstration links and articles on e-Learning Focus website | |
| JISC e-Administration activities | |
| Events Diary | |
| 2007 | Enterprise SIG Events Diary |
| JISC CETIS Conference 2004-2006 | |
| 2006 | Future of Educational Institutions |
| 2006 | Priorities and Progress: The Systems Strand 2004-2006 (Vashti Zarach) |
| 2006 | Review of the JISC CETIS Conference 2006 (Paul Walk for Ariadne) |
| 2006 | Blog on the 2006 Conference and Future Institutions Strand (Susannah Diamond) |
| 2006 | Systems Integrations Strand |
| 2004 | Institution Level Systems Integration Strand |
One of the Enterprise SIG events
| Place | Manchester Metroploitan University |
|---|---|
| Time | 2009-09-07 Monday 07th september 2009, 10:30 to 16:00 |
The meeting kicked off with the presentation from Mark Stubbs .The evolution of XCRI was outlined in the presentation. The Background and history of XCRI was presented. The need for appropriate course information has been stressed in number of reports (for example; the Dearing Report, formally known as the reports of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education) on the UK further and higher education sector. The report recommended ‘that clear descriptions of programmes should be developed so that students are able to compare different offerings and make sensible choices about the programmes they wish to take’. However, in the UK, the nature and scale of information flow strengthens and supports annual returns to funding bodies. XCRI merged from the Enterprise Special Interest Group of CETIS (Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards).A project website was established within the JISC’s emergency E-Framework support site: http://www.elframework.org/projects/xcri. XCRI has taken a service-oriented approach to exchange course information that highlights the course marketing, quality assurance, reporting and personal development requirements. Currently, the JISC funded XCRI project is working closely with European partners to develop a European standard for course information. The Metadata for Learning Opportunities (MLO) standard they have developed will be submitted to CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) by a working group which includes representatives from 12 countries including the UK (XCRI), Norway (Course Description Metadata), and Sweden (Education Information Mark-up Language).
Scott Wilson from JISC CETIS presented next on the EU perspectives of XCRI. The close mapping between XCRI and the European standards development process has created a good impact on XCRI. He also focussed on the HEAR (Higher Achievement Record Information) reforms, in managing the communication, description activities (like XCRI) and combining with the personal record information.
Alan Paul , took us off on the journey with his next presentation on the XCRI Implementation Model (XIM).It’s a JISC funded mini project aimed at both technical and non technical staff in producing set of good practice models and carrying out the implementation of XCRI-CAP projects. Based on the Information from the previous XCRI projects, thirteen different attributes were defined as a way of assessing the ‘XCRI readiness. These include number of courses, availability of resources and so on. XIM also looked at the issues and problems from the Higher education point of view and gave full guidance in transforming and mapping of the XCRI-CAP data. The main output from the XIM was a set of good practice models for the XCRI-CAP implementation. XIM also investigated the use of XCRI-CAP in HE sector. (e.g.) worked with Greater Manchester Strategic Alliance (GMSA) within the ioNW2 project where the information was gathered from different resources like project reports, face-to face interviews and so on. Examples from the BoXCRIp, OXCRI were given.
The next presentation was from Viv Bell, University of Worcester. The XCRI project in the University of Worcester developed a course catalogue for exporting data in the XCRI-CAP (eXchange of Course-Related Information – Course Advertising Profile) specification format. HWLLN (Herefordshire and Worcestershire Lifelong Learning Network) launched in 2006 consists of one University (Worcester) and eight FE (Further Education) Colleges. This project initially planned to combine the course advertising information from a partner college (Kidderminster College) with the catalogue of the University of Worcester. Unfortunately, due to the time constraints and the results not being up to the mark when data was extracted from the Content Management System, the XCRI-CAP readiness report could not be completed at Kidderminster College. So, the university followed the steps suggested in the XCRI developer’s guide. The project was tested for the ‘’XCRI Readiness ‘’ at the first step. The report available to the public definitely gives a good overview to other institutions that might choose XCRI in the near future. The new course catalogue is based on the data extracted from two different existing databases: Red Dot Content Management System and SITS ( the Student Record System) which is exported as an XML file and mapped to the XCRI schema. The next step is to develop a course search tool using PURL (Persistent Uniform Resource Locator) and publicly publish the XCRI-CAP file as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). As a result of this implementation, the university found that the XCRI-CAP feed added value to the student because it provided easy navigation of courses and related details. As a part of the evaluation process, the university presented this XCRI project at the EUNIS (European University Information Systems) conference in June 2009.Overall it was discovered that XCRI-CAP is not difficult to implement and that having a common standard like XCRI across different institutions can benefit the other agencies such as UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service). The XCRI Readiness report and the XCRI-CAP file is now available to the public in the Wider Horizons website .
The next presentation was from ChrisParkin on HudXCRI .The main objective was the implementation of the XCRI CAP 1.1 against the university catalogue comprising undergraduate, postgraduate, FE and CPD components. The university has many disconnected databases, created and maintained by different business functions that contain course Information. The course catalogue was driven from the ASIS student record system and an xml course repository was created and accessed through web services and aggregators. Through this project,
The project influenced the partner institutions through the WYLLN (West Yorkshire Life Long Learning network) and has worked with the non-partners to investigate different ways the XCRI –CAP can benefit in regards to the 14-19 area prospectus.
The last open session focussed on ‘’what next in XCRI?’’. Interesting points like
