Page 1 / 13 Specifications vs Standards: the adoption dilemma

Page 2 / 13 “all roads lead start from Rome” European workshop, 9 th November 2007 in Rome Defining standards and procedures for the exchange of student curriculum data between Higher Education Institutions  40 participants from 13 countries  Rome Student Systems and Standards Group (R3SG)  Recommendations o Permanent Observatory o Delegation of Experts to CEN o Promote technical subgroups

Page 3 / 13 … new kid on the block Market attention  Reports o PESC o Academy One o Gartner  CEN (European Committee for Standardization) o MLO (Metadata for Learning Opportunity) o NWI (New Work Item) on European Learner Mobility

Page 4 / 13 … The Road to Dublin Actions on the Recommendations  Permanent Observatory o Report on MLO activities o 2° workshops  Delegation of experts to CEN o Done – 3 representatives o Bruxelles and Paris meeting  Promote Technical subgroups o Glossary (considered also at MLO level) o Business Cases – to be fed to MLO

Page 5 / 13 Dublin Worshop Sharing Perspectives for the Rapid Development of Standards for Course Description and Curriculum Data Implementers i.e. R3SG Standardization authorities i.e. CEN 2 “standard” perspectives:

Page 6 / 13 Building momentum European workshop, 25 th April 2008 in Dublin Sharing Perspectives for the Rapid Development of Standards for Course Description and Curriculum Data  37 participants from 11 countries  2 “standard” perspectives – implementers vs. standardization authorities  Business Cases: the need for standardization  Focus Areas o Graduation Documents (Diploma Supplement) o European Learner Mobility (EUROPASS) o Course Unit Description o Course equivalencies

Page 7 / 13 The opportunities for standards Student Observatory STUDY PROGRAMMES & COURSE UNITS CATALOGUE STUDY PROGRAMMES & COURSE UNITS CATALOGUE STUDY PROGRAMME DETAILS STUDY PROGRAMME DETAILS COURSE UNIT DETAILS COURSE UNIT DETAILS LEARNING AGREEMENT LEARNING AGREEMENT TRANSCRIPT OF RECORDS TRANSCRIPT OF RECORDS DIPLOMA SUPPLEMENT DIPLOMA SUPPLEMENT CURRICULUM VITAE CURRICULUM VITAE Course Description Academic Offer Validation Course AdvertisingMediated ApplicationCourse Unit Curriculum Description Exchange MobilityTransfer Mobility Graduation Documents Employment

Page 8 / 13 Business Cases Flow

Page 9 / 13 Focus areas  European Learner Mobility  Security / authentication (identity and tamper-evidence)  Description of course units / unit catalogue  Curriculum versioning (snapshot)  Curriculum rules / Degree Structure / Pathway  Academic history of individual  Graduation documents (European Diploma Supplement and other)  Course equivalency/matching  Grading Scheme (how the grading scales and distribution are built

Page 10 / 13 Principles agreed by the group 1.Manage diversity 2.Integrate and acknowledge existing activities by always checking other work first, i.e. don't reinvent where there has been work done elsewhere such as by PESC, CEN, ISO, HR-XML, IMS 3.Use pilot implementations and feedback from users to advance standards activity 4.Publicise the work of the group as possible with keynotes at major conferences 5.Generally use of pointers is better than transfer of data, where appropriate

Page 11 / 13 Destination Stuttgart  “Growing pains” - from group to organization  Visibility and Proliferation of workshop results o EUNIS (RS3G mentioned in 4 presentation) o EAIE 2008 (Antwerp) – RS3G invited to host a workshop on Digital Student Data Portability at EAIE 2009 (Madrid)  CEN experts delegation o Active on MLO (standard in the making) o Expert pool for European Learners Mobiliyt o Adoption “scout” (PLOTEUS)  Euro AFI project (University of Stuttgart)  Liason with Terena, EUNIS, CEN, NEC (National Europass Centers)

Page 12 / 13 Specifications vs Standards: the adoption dilemma