JISC

This pilot project will examine the means for identifying resources of interests to tutors in creating courses, and will build on existing work to provide academic staff with tools to permit dynamic data integration between library and other resources and VLE based courses, for a variety of media. It will evaluate these tools and the resulting data integration from the perspective of staff and students, and assess organisational and management issues related to the joint working practices required.

Aims and Objectives

• To examine the existing means of sourcing learning objects for integration in VLEs, to establish liaison arrangements and protocols for collection discovery and the consequent searching and retrieving of resources from useful repositories outwith those managed by the Library
• To test the functionality of new tools built by Project ANGEL for dynamic data integration of resources in the context of VLE-based courses
• To explore the technical, organisational and pedagogic issues raised by establishing and maintaining system linkages to permit dynamic integration between Library and non-Library databases and datasets, and VLEs

Project Methodology

The project will bring together two institutions with different missions but similar visions and concerns, in order to allow a wide range of course requirements, resource databases and VLE systems to be tested. The synergy from the joint venture will enable us to look at the use of VLEs and digital libraries to extend the options for the classroom of the future – to give teachers and students a broader range of options for interacting with and gaining access to electronic resources, both while in the classroom and at a distance. The evaluation work will be based upon as wide a range of practical environments as possible in the timeframe. The range of different subjects and courses piloting the use of dynamic data integration tools will provide the opportunity to:

• consider the different requirements of the resource environments of particular disciplines
• examine the differing perspectives of digital librarians, learning technologists, teaching staff and students
• compare and contrast pedagogic approaches dictated by different VLE implementations and the varied demands of subject-based curriculum development
• examine the relative benefits of the ‘supplier partnership’ approach (Endeavor/UoE and OU libraries) and the ANGEL middleware approach.

Implications/ Deliverables/ Stakeholders

• An examination of the learning resource terrain of the various disciplines represented with the Project. This will result in a report and guidelines on the means and methods of incorporating repositories into the infrastructure which supports VLEs, including full consideration of intellectual property and licensing, persistence and preservation of resources which are not owned or licensed by the institution via the Library.
• The potential enhancement to identified courses at both institutions through the additional functionality implemented in a range of VLEs by means of ANGEL middleware.
• Pilot testing of Project ANGEL interoperability and middleware components with a range of software products, standards and protocols.
• A report to JISC with recommendations comparing the standards-based middleware approach of Project ANGEL with the proprietary supplier partnership approach employed by Endeavor Information Systems Inc and commercial VLE suppliers.
• Guidelines for dynamic data integration development between Library-managed systems and VLEs.
• Final report to JISC.