Sweet.NET Demonstrator – ICT for Business
The project successfully adapted and used an e-Framework software toolkit (Sweet.NET) to implement inter-college data sharing. The project team used and evaluated a range of tools and a new approach to software development (sometimes called agile processes), and this report draws conclusions about their experiences which should be of interest to any college currently pursuing an Managed Learning Environment strategy or engaged in partnerships with other providers.
Background
The three colleges in the project are partners in a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE), providing ‘ICT for Business’ courses across Hampshire and the New Forest. CoVE managers have, for some time, expressed a need for better access to data relating to provision, achievement and retention, which currently resides in the Management Information Systems (MIS) of the three different colleges.
In the summer of 2004 and with JISC funding, BrockenhurstCollege developed a software toolkit called Sweet.NET1 which would allow the exchange of lightweight institutional data in an interoperable and platform independent fashion.
The purpose of this project was to demonstrate the use of this toolkit in a real world scenario by attempting to provide unified access to CoVE data via a web portal, with Sweet.NET handling the back-end integration of the data from the three MIS.
Aims and Objectives
- Implement a partnership deployment of Brockenhurst’s Sweet.NET toolkit
- Sweet-enable the MIS data at each partner college through the authoring of adaptors
- Aggregate data drawn from the 3 MIS into a single partnership portal
- Demonstrate the operational benefits of the prototypical regional Managed Learning Environment (MLE)
- Test, improve and further develop the toolkit
Methodology
The project was managed by the Brockenhurst College MLE team. Input as to functional requirements was solicited from the Ict4biz steering group, and the MLE team liaised with MIS teams at each college regarding datasets and privacy concerns. The team also consulted with commercial MIS vendors regarding potential licensing requirements, and finding suitable integration points in their systems.