Joint IMS/CNI Whitepaper on interoperation between different types of ‘repositories’

http://www.imsglobal.org/
DLims_white_paper_publicdraft_1.pdf

I can only assume that the only reason someone didn’t point this paper out to me during my recent thrashing about concerning the difference between ‘institutional’ repositories and ‘learning object’ repositories is that, like me, they had never seen it before (or maybe you’re all just sadists and like to watch me flail about in public!)

Well in any case, hallelujah! This draft paper by Neil McLean and Clifford Lynch from June 28, 2003 is in my mind a model of clarity on the reasons for why these beasts are different (for one, the ‘transient’ versus ‘archival’ nature of their contents) but also why and how they need to interoperate.

Which is where I’ve landed on this topic – we need distinct types of repository software because they fill distinct end-user needs. But by implementing both common open protocols and using structured markup languages that can be mapped, we keep open the possibility of interoperating if and when this make sense. And I stress that last ‘if’ – the next piece in the puzzle I am waiting to see are convincing use cases, or even better yet convincing demonstrations, of search interfaces across catalogues of heterogeneous materials (e.g. records for books, ‘eprints’ and learning objects all at once) that don’t just confuse the matter entirely. – SWL

dokeos Open Source e-Learning

http://www.dokeos.com/

More proof of open source’s burgeoning effects in the field of course management systems – this Belgian company has taken the open source CMS Claroline and run with it in a value-added hosting/development/services/support model. News to me was that they have made strides developing a SCORM import tool, for which the lack of widespread support amongst many of the open source CMS has at times been used for an excuse not to adopt or investigate them. No longer! (see also Atutor in this regard). And for North American users, particularly those in the West, a small note that at least one of their customers, Washington State Community College, is nearby. – SWL

Utah Education Network

http://www.uen.org/ueninfo/

I recently came across these folks because of a project I’m working on ‘down’ in the States (yes, that’s how we Canadians say it) and wanted to highlight it because what they have accomplished here is really pretty impressive. From the site – “The Utah Education Network (UEN) is consortium of public education partners, including the Utah System of Higher Education and its ten universities and colleges and Utah Electronic College; the Utah State Office of Education, local school districts and the Utah Electronic High School; and the state’s Library system.” That is a truly broad constituency. There are some useful resources here too – both the Lesson Plan tool and the Rubric Tool are worth a look (they are k-12 focused) and I always wish there were ways for guests to take a look at people’s portals, as this looks like it could be good too. – SWL

Blackboard’s IPO SEC Filing

long SEC URL

Other than the subscription-protected piece at the Chronicle of Higher Ed (and Charlie’s reference to it at Kairosnews) this is the only thing public I can find on this so far, but yes, the rumours seem to have been well founded, and Blackboard is going ahead with it’s IPO. Congratulations to them and good luck. – SWL

Where are open source course management systems being used?

One of the big “Fear Uncertainty and Doubt” questions I often get asked as someone who spends a fair bit of time looking at the course management system landscape is “But are open source systems really ready for use as enterprise systems?” (Up until recently one might have done well to ask the same questions of the commercial systems that alleged to be ‘enteprise ready’!)

I don’t know what better way to respond than to simply point to where these systems are being used, so as some initial examples:

There are lots of fears held by Directors of IT, EdTech and others (some justified, others extremely unfounded) that need to be addressed before it becomes easy to adopt open source for ‘enterprise’ needs. This should be an easy one, though – any open source project that seriously wants to be adopted and that doesn’t actively solicit information on who is using it and share this back with potential users is clearly overworked or missing something. Better yet, segment your responses (k-12/colleges/universities/corporate training” might be a start for the education sector) so that people can point to a peer group and say ‘look who else has adopted this software!’ You’d be amazed how effective an argument this can be, especially as we move along the famous curve of innovation adopters (e.g. early and late majorities are like that for a reason.) – SWL

Technorati tip

pingConfigurations – Technorati Developers Site

Do you ever check out the technorati site to see who is linking to you and vice versa? Ever notice ‘gaps’ in the coverage, sites you know that have linked to you or you have linked to that don’t appear in the list. Here’s one small tip you might be interested in – simple instructions on how to add manually add Technorati’s XML-RPC interface to your list of automatically pinged sites in your blogging tool, so that when you post, your blog will get placed in their high priority queue for faster indexing. – SWL

WebFolio: A TOOL FOR VISUALIZING LEARNERS’ BEHAVIORS

http://www.formatex.org/jdc/219.pdf

From the latest Journal of Digital Contents in its Special issue on “Digital Learning-Teaching Environments and Contents” comes this fascinating article on a tool developed in Japan. “Webfolio’s” purpose is to “collect, store and visualize learners’ behaviors in Web-based learning.” In the myriad debates about the effects (and effectiveness) of various media on learning, I am surprised by how often aspect of computers/web-based learning is overlooked. To me one of the critical attributes that differentiates it as a medium is the fact that every action within that environment can be recorded (tracked/played back) as it is performed, providing a vast store of data on which people can base future design decisions or in fact which can serve as data for the system to alter its own course. To me, it’s this kind of use that actually starts to employ computers for what they are good at instead of using them as hugely expensive textbooks or lecture rooms. Adding visualization of this data is a natural – if you have ever looked at the usage stats produced by most course management systems, you’ll know that they are fairly limited in use, and typically fall far below what even a low end web stats analysis package can provide concerning generic website usage. It’s not that the data’s not there, its just not a feature that has been much capitalized on. Which is maybe not surprising – even in the world of ‘enterprise’ web site development, there seems to me to be a surprising reluctance to dig deeply into what usage analysis tells us about how people are using the materials and how it correlates (if at all) with desired behaviours. And that’s in cases where there is often a tangible financial incentive and ability to do so. – SWL

Pathfinder Research on Web-based Repositories – FINAL REPORT

Extremely Long URL

(My ISP connection dropped on my first attempt to post this, so here is a much briefer summary.)

Useful report from Mark Ware for the Publisher and Library/Learning Solutions (PALS) group in the U.K. which surveys the current field of ‘institutional repositories.’ It’s nice to see that Ware doesn’t hedge at all in defining his target:

“An institutional repository (IR) is defined to be a web-based database (repository) of scholarly material which is institutionally defined (as opposed to a subject-based repository); cumulative and perpetual (a collection of record); open and interoperable (e.g. using OAI-compliant software); and thus collects, stores and disseminates (is part of the process of scholarly communication). In addition, most would include long-term preservation of digital materials as a key function of IRs.”

The report gives good summaries of the available software, some numbers to fill out the picture of the current state of adoption, and section 4 has a good overview of the issues facing institutional repository projects. – SWL