JISC

The project primarily involved building IMS Enterprise specifications into Quercus Plus and processing the resulting XML export files through Blackboard Level 3 to prove interoperability. Data transfer from the MIS to the VLE was investigated.  The products do not incorporate LIP or FE extensions and these were not investigated. Integration studies involving Quercus v1.6 and Blackboard 5.5.1 Level 3 were carried out on development servers and did not include live student records.

Executive Summary

To express in detail the levels of integration achieved in this project we have used the integration spreadsheets designed by Bill Olivier that were distributed at the Interoperability Pilots meeting held in Manchester on 24-25th October 2001. The completed sheets are attached. Separate spreadsheets are included for each product and a third spreadsheet deals with source/sink integration from Quercus Plus to Blackboard.

On commencement of this project City College deployed Blackboard 5 Level 1 as its VLE, a product considered an entry-level option by many FE colleges. Consequently early investigations concentrated on Blackboard 5 Level 1. These investigations involved live student records. Blackboard 5 Level 1 was deemed unlikely to provide a ‘full college solution’ for 3 reasons. It does not incorporate IMS specifications, it accepts student record data from the MIS by a slow batch transfer process involving only 500 records per batch and it is not scalable much beyond approximately 10,000 active users. These issues have been addressed in the recently announced and newly priced Blackboard 5.5.1 Learning System.

The work carried out in the course of this project informed Blackboard Inc about VLE integration requirements in the UK FE sector and was influential in the decision taken by the company to undertake a restructure of their products. City College Manchester endorses the product restructure and the consequent launch of the Blackboard 5.5.1 Learning System as beneficial to the sector.

The work carried out in the course of this project informed Campus IT about MIS integration requirements in the UK FE sector and was influential in the decision taken by the company to develop Quercus Plus to incorporate IMS Enterprise specifications. City College Manchester views this product development as beneficial to the sector. It is an important step in establishing Quercus Plus as an interoperable MIS component of a MLE.

The stated aims of the project in terms of Interoperability between a MIS and a VLE using English ISR/ILR were found in practice to be over ambitious in the time-scale available and of dubious commercial advantage to the vendors. Our considerations of LIP and ISR during the course of the project led the vendors to conclude that incorporation of these specifications into their products was unrealistic at this stage in their product development strategies.

The partners in this project have agreed that the final reporting of our findings to JISC will not conclude our work on integration. It is envisaged that fully interoperable products will be installed at City College Manchester in the spring of 2002.

Read the final report below