JISC

DICE: Demo project for the d+ toolkit

The project team has been interested, over the last couple of years, in trying to enhance the learning experience in resource discovery, exploiting the power of the internet. Web references (links) would be that much more useful if they can be 'captured' and contextual information added to make them relevant to individual students' education.Once captured, they could be more useful still if they were transferable between systems (VLEs and repositories) to allow re-use and repurposing. Through the SURF X4L project 1 (JISC's Exchange for Learning programme), we identified the D+ toolkit 2 as providing a useful means of resource discovery, but this doesn't  allow capturing of web references (next phase of D+ development) or further metadata tagging with educationally relevant contextual information. Integrating D+ with COSE 3, the VLE developed here at Staffordshire University in recent years, would allow this, building on previous work (ICE 4 project, 'Integrating COSE with e-resources'). Integration would permit returned reference objects to be selected and re-used in generating COSE content; furthermore it would leverage the facility in COSE to export web reference objects as interoperable content to other systems. DICE would thus satisfy the e-learning programme objective to integrate or enhance the functionality of existing e-learning applications.

1. SURF X4L project
2. Discovery +  tools project    Brokerage for deep and distributed e-Learning resources discovery, Edinburgh University
3. COSE Project
4. Staffordshire ICE  project

Aims and Objectives

The prime focus of the work is to evaluate the d+ toolkit, to demonstrate that the toolkit is useful to a community of practice, and to make it still more useful by linking it to the COSE VLE. Integrating would provide users with a federated search service, the results of which can be selectively captured in the VLE, labelled with educationally relevant contextual information (metadata) and exported (standalone or to other interoperable systems). 

The specific objectives are to:

• evaluate and demonstrate the usefulness of the D+ toolkit in its own right. Google Scholar is another facility available in education for resource discovery, so some time will be spent assessing their relative merits
• look at different models of deployment of D+, including on different platforms. D+ could be a hosted service outside of the VLE, a lightweight option and easily implemented. This would be only a partial solution, but useful in offering federated search services for assessment early in the project timeline. The primary aim would be to achieve full integration with COSE: the attendant advantages outlined above cost in terms of the extra time for system development described inthe next two bullet points
• allow the selection of results returned by D+ and to capture these as reference objects in COSE
• build on the work of ICE and develop COSE to allow metadata tagging and searching of reusable web reference objects
• evaluate the usefulness of the integrated D+/COSE system to cohorts of learners and tutors

Project Methodology

In terms of the specific objectives outlined above, most of these can be progressed in parallel but some will depend on the academic calendar when student cohorts would be available. There are some quick wins available to us but the final objective is contingent on an integrated system: the most substantial work relates to metadata tagging and searching.

The work plan depends firstly on evaluating D+ toolkit in its own right, so we will be looking at evaluation methodologies and different strategies for recruiting testers, consulting with our own Learning Support specialists. A demonstrator version of COSE linked to but not integrated with D+ will be available quite early in the project. Core system development relates to capturing results returned from D+ in COSE (which should be achievable early in the project) and the ICE-related labelling and searching of captured reference objects. The latter is likely to continue throughout the project timeline but sufficient progress made by October to allow evaluation of an integrated system.  

A number of related matters could distract from the core aims. Whilst the project will be tracking progress in other areas, exploring new targets, accommodating the RLI specification etc. are supplementary aims.

Deliverables, Implications and Stakeholders

Deliverables will include access to d+ services via a demonstrator version of COSE, a downloadable version of the same and an updated COSE manual. Evaluation methodology and results will be disseminated in appropriate documentation, at conference meetings and from the project website, as will technical reports, open source code of any implementation classes (adaptors) produced and a UML model of the demonstrator test bed. The project would participate in the ‘Live Demonstration’ event (November).

There are implications associated with the project worth commenting upon. These relate to specifically technical matters e.g. use of the RLI and other metadata specifications, and to matters of general interest, relating to wider use and availability of a range of web services and open source software.

In assessing D+, stakeholders include the e-learning community at large. In terms of integrating D+ and COSE, they would include communities of practice using COSE within Staffordshire University and outside (including SURF) and COSE registrants. The work would also be of interest to communities working on interoperability and (perhaps others) interested in web services.

Project Partners

Users recruited from mailing lists and newsletters (COSE registrants, respondents within Staffs. University et al)

SURF partners at Shrewsbury and Stoke

Edinburgh University (consultancy, possibly hosting service during evaluation)

Collaborators in related projects (EGEE, D+ phase 2, MDC, Heriot-Watt)