York St. John Digital Repository: an ecological view of interactions and systems

By R. John Robertson, Helen Westmancoat and Lauren Shipley.
Cetis Other Publication , serial number: 2009:X02.
Topic(s): ,

Link: York St. John Digital Repository: an ecological view of interactions and systems (pdf).

YSJ DigiRep is a newly established digital archive at York St. John. Established to help manage learning resources and research outputs from a diverse range of subjects across the institution, YSJ DigiRep has now come to the end of its project funding. This case study examines its context, seeks to identify why it has integrated so successfully into institutional processes, and highlight potential tensions as it transitions to being an institutional service. The study draws on an ecologically influenced approach developed by the Repositories Research Team.

Digital Repository Programme Support Project and Repository Research Team, Final Report

By Lorna M Campbell and Phil Barker.
Cetis Report , serial number: 2009:R03.
Topic(s):

Link: Digital Repository Programme Support Project and Repository Research Team, final report (pdf).
Link: Digital Repository Programme Support Project and Repository Research Team, Final Report (doc).

The Digital Repositories Programme Support Project (DRPSP) and the Repository Research Team (RRT) were two phases of a project that supported the JISC’s repository related programmes from 2005 to 2009. The project comprised staff from two JISC services (now Innovation Support Centres): two from UKOLN and 0.5 FTE (rising to 1 for the final year) at CETIS; it was initially managed by Rachel Heery of UKOLN, and in its final year by Lorna Campbell and Phil Barker of CETIS.
Continue reading →

Leap2A: A specification for e-portfolio portability and interoperability

By Simon Grant.
Cetis Other Publication , serial number: .
Topic(s):

Link: Leap2A: A specification for e-portfolio portability and interoperability (Reformatted for author’s website).
Originally published in ALT-N issue 16 [2009].

Summary: Leap2A is a specification for information portability and interoperability between electronic portfolio tools and related systems. It has been developed through close collaboration between e-portfolio system developers, to ensure immediate applicability and relative ease of implementation. It covers learner-owned or learner-focused artefacts, information and reflections that people are likely to want to use themselves or present to others, in the context of educational, personal, professional or career development, including personal abilities, achievements, activities, plans and resources. The development projects are supported by the JISC, and managed through JISC CETIS.

JISC CETIS 2009 Informal Horizon Scan

By Various members of JISC CETIS.
Cetis Report , serial number: 2009:R02.
Topic(s):

Link: JISC CETIS 2010 Informal Horizon Scan (doc).

This report looks at some of the key technology trends and issues we perceive as being of interest and relevance to CETIS. It forms a logical bridge between the question, from the point of view of CETIS staff, “what are the issues at hand” and “what should we do about them”. A great deal of ground is not scanned in this paper and it should be understood that no formal prioritisation process was undertaken.
Continue reading →

Eductional Technology Standards Review March 2009

By Adam Cooper.
Cetis Report , serial number: 2009:R01.
Topic(s):

Link: Educational Technology Standards Bodies Review Mar 2009 (doc).

A summary of a report made to CETIS Board in March 2009 on standards bodies in the educational technology arena. The bodies covered are IMS Global Learning Consortium, Centre for European Normalisation (CEN), British Standard Institute (BSI) Committee IST/43, the Education Schools and Children’s Services Information Standards Board (ISB), HR-XML, International Standards Organisation (ISO) – IEC JTC1 SC36, Systems Interoperability Framework (SIF), IEEE LTSC, Learning Education and Training Systems Interoperability (LETSI), Suppliers Association for Learning Technology Interoperability in Schools (LETSI), W3C, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI).

It is an update relative to the October 2008 Review. The reader is assumed to be broadly familiar with the work of the various specifications/standards bodies mentioned; this is not a primer.

Continue reading →

Technology Change in Higher and Further Education- a Service Oriented Approach

By Sarah Holyfield and Christina Smart (eds).
Cetis Other Publication , serial number: 2009:X01.
Topic(s):

Link: Technology change in higher and further education- a service oriented approach (html).

An online publication for those involved in strategic planning, deployment, and implementation of IT systems in educational institutions. It takes a socio-technical perspective and the structure of the materials is based on the life-cycle model based on Enid Mumford’s work. The sections consider why you might want to move in this direction, your state of readiness, approaches you might take, and the technological options available. The authors provide information and insights from the extensive experience they collectively bring from senior management, through to strategic and technical development in education.

Learning Material Application Profile Scoping Study – final report

By Phil Barker.
Cetis Report , serial number: 2008:R0.
Topic(s):

Link; Learning Material Application Profile scoping study – final report (pdf).

This report details the findings of a scoping study carried out for the JISC to investigate a potential metadata application profile for learning materials. The objective of the study was to synthesize and analyse the advice that is currently available to managers of repositories containing educational materials who need to define a metadata element set to describe those materials. The hope was that this would help define the scope of a potential Learning Materials Application Profile. There was no intention to produce an application profile as part of this work, nor was the work limited to any particular metadata schema.
Continue reading →

Eductional Technology Standards Review October 2008

By Adam Cooper.
Cetis Report , serial number: 2008:R0.
Topic(s):

Link: Eductional Technology Standards Review October 2008 (doc).

This report is a summary of a report made to CETIS Board in October 2008. It is in the form of an update on changes since the previous (March 2008) Board meeting. The reader is assumed to be broadly familiar with the work of the various specifications/standards bodies mentioned; this is not a primer.

The bodies reviewed are: IMS Global Learning Consortium, the Centre for European Normalisation (CEN), British Standards Institute (BSI) – Committee IST/43, Education Schools and Children’s Services Information Standards Board (ISB), HR-XML, International Standards Organisation (ISO) – IEC JTC1 SC36, Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF), IEEE LTSC, Learning Education and Training Systems Interoperability (LETSI), Suppliers Association for Learning Technology Interoperability in Schools (SALTIS), and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI).
Continue reading →

An Ecological Approach To Repository And Service Interactions

By R. John Robertson (CETIS) Mahendra Mahey (UKOLN, University of Bath) and Julie Allinson (University of York).
Cetis Report , serial number: 2008:R.
Topic(s): ,

Link: An ecological approach to repository and service interactions (pdf).

A report detailing how the use of ecological metaphors can help us understand better the interactions that take place between digital repositories and related services.

This work began in response to a perceived need to express something of how and why digital repositories and services interact. As a community of implementers and developers we have well understood technical models and architectures that provide conceptual mechanisms to promote interoperability. Articulating the details and challenges of actual interactions that occur, however, is not so widely understood and knowledge about them is not often shared. This is, in part at least, because we tend to share in the abstract through architectures and use cases and in these we focus on the technical. Articulating interactions or connections requires an engagement with and presentation of specific local details. Beginning to consider why particular interactions succeed or fail over time requires us to factor in more than the technical.
Continue reading →

Open Educational Resources – Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education

By Li Yuan, Sheila MacNeill and Wilbert Kraan.
Cetis White Paper , serial number: 2008:WP01.
Topic(s):

Link: Open Educational Resources – Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education (pdf)

Higher education institutions around the world have been using the Internet and other digital technologies to develop and distribute teaching and learning for decades. Recently, Open Educational Resources (OER) have gained increased attention for their potential and promise to obviate demographic, economic, and geographic educational boundaries and to promote life-long learning and personalised learning. The rapid growth of OER provides new opportunities for teaching and learning, at the same time, they challenge established views about teaching and learning practices in higher education.
This briefing provides the background to the current development of and future trends around OER aimed at adding to our understanding, stimulating ongoing debate among the JISC community and developing a research agenda. The briefing is structured in three sections:

  • Discussion on the conceptual and contextual issues of Open Educational Resources.
  • A review of current OER initiatives: their scale, approaches, main issues and challenges.
  • Discussion on trends emerging in Open Educational Resources, with respect to future research and activities.

Continue reading →