Exchanging Course-Related Information
This project defined a vocabulary and appropriate (XML) technology bindings for describing course-related information that encompassed course marketing, course quality assurance, enrolment and reporting requirements.
Executive Summary
The Exchanging Curriculum-Related Information (XCRI) project was a virtual organisation of interested parties that included representatives from universities, colleges, CETIS and the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). The initial 12 month project began April 1, 2005 and was subsequently extended by 5 months. A review of outputs confirms that XCRI achieved its stated aim of defining a vocabulary and appropriate (XML) technology bindings for describing course-related information that encompassed course marketing, course quality assurance, enrolment and reporting requirements. Outputs are documented on XCRI’s presence within the e-Learning Framework website which now contains over 100 documents, including:
- A project manager ‘blog’ explaining the thinking that has influenced project deliverables
- A review of the suitability of Norway’s CDM curriculum metadata approach for UK need
- UK case studies and utilities for harvesting, converting and publishing curriculum content
- An illustrative business case for adopting an integrated curriculum services approach
- A survey of 160+ UK online prospectus entries used to critique candidate schema elements
- Draft and Release 1.0 XML Schema documents with sample XML for each
- A series of case studies of XCRI XML deployment from across the UK
- Links to a web service demonstrator for uploading to and querying an XCRI repository
- Links to the source code and UML documentation for the web service demonstrator
- XCRI transformation web services
- A report on requirements for an XCRI structured authoring tool
- A report on competence modelling and XCRI
- A report on curriculum mapping and medicine
- Lessons learned about curriculum modelling
- XCRI Course Advertising Profile Schema with sample XML instances
Adoption of XCRI’s initial R1.0 XML schema exceeded expectations. Highlights include:
- Reid Kerr FE College publishing an XCRI-compliant XML version of its prospectus catalogue in an afternoon
- Adam Smith College using an XCRI to PDF transform for course brochures
- The Learning Matrix Regional Pilot project using XCRI to aggregate learning opportunities offered by a range of providers in Liverpool
- APS consultants using XCRI XML for a database-to-database transfer of Plymouth University’s course catalogue to UCAS
- Kainao.com developing an XCRI validator, Word 2003 transforms and web-based forms for capturing course information for the Pathways4Progression Regional Pilot project
- Oxford University Computing Services using XCRI to aggregate Continuous Professional Development short course information
- London Metropolitan University developing a prototype XCRI XML repository that supportsXPath and XQuery web service searches, which was consumed by the Personal LearningEnvironment (PLE) Reference Model within 4 hours of being advertised
Critical reflection on these deployments produced an optimised Course Advertising Profile (CAP schema). This schema was tested against existing R1.0 deployment and with a prototype aggregator that demonstrates the powerful potential of adding value to course information services (in this case through a Google Maps mashup). XCRI is proud the JISC have shown sufficient confidence to commit 100K to funding national trials of the XCRI CAP schema and for developing the aggregator and supporting infrastructure. These outcomes represent important progress in XCRI’s intended trajectory towards a national course information standard and demonstrate that JISC funding can be targeted effectively to support a virtual organisation in addressing a sector-identified problem that delivers outputs of significance for the whole UK FE and HE sector.