University of Leeds Academic Services PORTOLE Project - Providing Online Resources to Online Learning Environments Tracey Stanley and Mina Sotiriou University of Leeds

University of Leeds Academic Services Scope l A resource list/discovery tool which enables tutors to: –Search for information from the web and their local library catalogue. –Bring records across into a course module within a VLE. –Add annotations and other contextual information. –Present the resource list to their students

University of Leeds Academic Services PORTOLE: Project Partners l University of Leeds (lead partner) –University Library –Learning Development Unit l University of Oxford l RDN

University of Leeds Academic Services Key drivers l To encourage wider use of the RDN and other information resources through the development and use of tools which enable tutors to discover quality-assured information resources. l To encourage integration of RDN resources within a local digital library environment. l To provide an enriched learning experience for students through the use of annotations etc.

University of Leeds Academic Services VLE Environment l Working with the University of Leeds VLE (Bodington). l Bodington is an open source project. l In use at both Leeds and Oxford. l Built on Java, Java Servlet platform l Building based metaphor l Tutors can add buildings and rooms –(represented internal as directory structure) l Tutors can add resources (web pages, quizzes, meeting places, etc.) –(represented internally as objects within directories)

University of Leeds Academic Services JAFER l Oxford-based project - funded under JISC 5/99 l Java based Z39.50 client/server toolkit for cross-searching of databases l JavaBeans for querying Z39.50, SRW, JDBC databases l JavaBeans for handling cross-searching

University of Leeds Academic Services Demonstration of results

University of Leeds Academic Services Issues raised by the project l Academics dont use the RDN: –Awareness of the RDN is high, but on the whole, academics prefer to use Google. –Academics feel able to judge the quality of resources for themselves, and dont feel the need of an intermediary service which does this for them. –They do have concerns about their students use of the web in relation to quality.

University of Leeds Academic Services Issues (2) l Resource discover for reading lists: –Some tutors claim that they dont need to search for new resources as they already know what to put on their reading lists (eg: favourite web sites, core texts etc). –This view differs widely from subject to subject.

University of Leeds Academic Services Issues (3) l Student interface: –The tool could be used by students to discover resources and recommend these to their peer group. –Issues relating to quality cause concern amongst some academics.

University of Leeds Academic Services Issues (4) l Need for inclusion of other information sources: –The tool would only be truly useful if it also included the ability to search for journal articles etc.

University of Leeds Academic Services Issues (5) l Relevance ranking: –Difficult to achieve as different databases use different algorithms. –Many of the source databases we used dont perform relevance ranking themselves.

University of Leeds Academic Services Impact evaluation l Portole has been released as a test service. l Evaluation with small number of academic staff, who will create resource lists for real modules. l Follow-up with their students on their experience of using the list. l Will lead to further development and full release of the tool.

University of Leeds Academic Services Possible future developments l Use of OpenURL to enable resource discovery from journal article databases, and other additional search targets. l Student searching interface. l Development of a standard XML schema for resource lists. l Additional functionality – eg: alerting for library staff.

University of Leeds Academic Services Key lessons learned l Unlikely to be of interest/relevance to all subject areas. Those who rely heavily on classic texts are less likely to be interested than those where the subject is changing rapidly. l Little recognition of the value of the RDN, but we hope that improved visibility through Portole will help to address this. l The system needs more search targets to be truly useful. l Project acted as a useful model for how cross-institutional collaboration could work in relation to development of an open-source VLE.