Exchanging Course-Related Information - Support Project
Overview
The project will provide the equivalent of a full time person to support the further development and use of the XCRI specification, and support projects that implement the specification within the capital programme (including XCRI mini-projects, e-admin projects, regional pilot projects).
A number of CETIS, ManchesterMetropolitanUniversity and KaiNao staff will be employed on the project with wide experience in the development and promotion XCRI, and standards more broadly. By embedding the support post within the larger CETIS Enterprise community wider organizational and technical expertise will be made available to projects.
The project will support projects through online facilities. It will also develop and promote XCRI. It will also research and implement a prototype hosted service for the aggregation of course information.
Aims and objectives
The project aims to:
- finalise the specification for the XCRI Course Advertisement Profile and publish the specification documentation, XML schema, and supporting information on a dedicated website.
- provide technical support for the implementation of XCRI
- provide a prototype aggregation service
- promote the specification and liaise with other projects and organisations who have an interest in the development of standards for course description
Project methodology
The support project is made up of four workpackages:
- Workpackage 1 Specification development (6 person months)
- Workpackage 2 Project support (6 person months)
- Workpackage 3 Prototype aggregator (8 person months)
- Workpackage 4 Promoting the specification (4 person months)
Anticipated impact
A specification for course advertising and description has excited a great deal of interest in a wide range of bodies across the education sector. The XCRI specification could potentially help regional initiatives such as the Lifelong Learning Networks and 14-19 area prospectuses meet their aims, and its role in admissions is also being investigated.
XCRI was written as a flexible, light-weight XML specification that could be implemented by colleges with limited software development capacity. Over the next year the XCRI team expect to see refinements to the schema, institution-specific extensions (such as ucas:entryRequirements), and the enhancement of data precision through use of controlled vocabularies. XCRI’s aim is to address these issues whilst retaining the light-weight nature of the schema. XCRI’s role within the e-Framework makes it a key partner for JISC projects pushing the boundaries of e-Portfolio, Competence Development and e-Admissions.
See a proof of concept aggregator of XCRI feeds. Comments and questions are welcome in the forum.
Lead institution
- CETIS - University of Bolton Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards
Project partners