JISC

Start date: 1 March 2007

End date: 30 September 2007

Funding programme: e-Learning Capital programme

JISC theme(s): e-Learning, e-Administration

Committees: JISC Learning and Teaching committee

Overview

Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) has a large and complex catalogue of courses that are advertised through online and paper prospectuses. MMU supplies course data for major UK aggregators like UCAS and the UFI Learning Directory and is collaborating with the Greater Manchester Strategic Alliance to build a regional lifelong learning network that will help learners match their development aspirations with study opportunities available locally. MMU is keen to exploit the power of the web to improve the information, advice and guidance available on its study opportunities, and is participating in this project to produce an XCRI-compliant version of its course catalogue so that a single, definitive version of course information is available to any interested party or organisation that wishes to add value to it.

MMU has supported the eXchanging Course-Related Information initiative from its early inception, and is keen to see XCRI succeed. The XCRI@MMU team believe that the scale and complexity of MMU's course catalogue will provide a powerful critique of the XCRI Course Advertising Profile (XCRI-CAP) when the full catalogue is harvested by a demonstration aggregator and presented for review by UCAS, who are partnering MMU on the project. At all stages, XCRI@MMU will be feeding back experience and insights on XCRI-CAP deployment to the XCRI Support Project (http://www.xcri.org).

Aims and objectives

XCRI@MMU aims to represent MMU's large and complex course catalogue in XCRI-CAP XML, and report on lessons learned about producing an institution's definitive XML course information feed and keeping it up-to-date. Specific objectives are as follows:

• To audit course information currently held and presented by MMU and related aggregator organisations to explore XCRI-CAP coverage
• To synthesis available course information into a data source from which an XCRI-CAP XML feed can be generated
• To produce an XCRI-CAP-compliant XML prospectus for MMU
• To summarise business processes required to ensure MMU's XCRI-CAP XML feed remains up-to-date
• To communicate lessons learned and issues raised by MMU's deployment of the XCRI-CAP schema

Project methodology

Dr Mark Stubbs will work with a small team comprising MMU's New Media Manager and colleagues from MMU's Management Information Division, UCAS and specialist consultant, Alan Paull, to assemble all available course information and compare this to the XCRI-CAP specification. Data will be gathered in an Oracle database, and the suitability of the curriculum management module of MMU's student records system will be assessed as an ultimate location for data storage. The Oracle database will be used to produce an XCRI-CAP-compliant XML feed that will be validated and consumed by tools available through the XCRI Support Project (at www.xcri.org). Close communication with UCAS throughout the project will ensure that issues like identifiers and the timing of harvesting can be explored thoroughly with UK Higher Education's premier course information aggregator.

Anticipated impact

XCRI@MMU will make a major contribution to national trials of the XCRI Course Advertising Profile. The scale and complexity of MMU's course catalogue will provide a powerful critique of the XML schema, and the role of UCAS as review partner will make a significant contribution to moving XCRI from concept towards a realistic, service-oriented solution for harvesting course information from UK universities and colleges.