1. The Learning Content Management Repository Virtual Environment System 2.0 and Its Future The Repositories Bit Sarah Currier Intrallect Ltd s.currier@intrallect.com http://www.intrallect.com JISC CETIS Conference 2008: Technology for Learning Teaching and the Institution, Birmingham, 25-26 Nov. 2008

2. Repositories: Factory or City? Today Andrew Feenberg contrasted a factory model of technology with an urban model –Repositories are often left out of discussions or denigrated in educational technology settings: why? –Is it because educationalists see them as exemplifying the factory model that threatens their humanistic values, pedagogical concerns and perhaps jobs? –But what would a city be without its libraries? (Maybe we’re going to find out if things keep going the way they are). –And what good is a library that doesn’t understand its community’s requirements? –We need repositories in e-learning, and we need to own the discussion, research, development and implementation of them on our own terms!

3. What are repositories for? Digital repositories are services –Can be based on monolithic systems –Can be open source or commercial –Can be loosely or tightly managed conglomerations of disparate tools/services What services?, e.g.: –Resource archiving and preservation –Metadata and IPR management –Storehouse (centralised or distributed) to deliver resources from – … that various organisations, communities and users can use for their purposes

4. Today’s presentation: Digital Repositories are Services –Can be based on monolithic systems –Can be open source or commercial –Can be loosely or tightly managed conglomerations of disparate tools/services What Services ?, e.g.: –Resource archiving and preservation –Metadata and IPR management –Storehouse (centralised or distributed) to deliver resources from – … that various organisations, communities and users can use for their purposes

5. In the beginning… eLearning Institution VLEWeb sitesOther VLEs

6. Fully-functioned… Research outputs Scanned eLearning ePrintsImagesPrivate Institution VLERAE evaluation Web sitesCLA reporting requirements “Collection” Portal Other VLEsWikis, BlogsOpen access portals

7. In a world of choices…

8. intraLibrary Connect

9. Standards & interfaces inform –RSS, Yahoo pipes, podcasting discover –SRU/SRW, OpenSearch gather –OAI-PMH (DC, LOM, ODRL) store –SWORD (Atom Publishing Protocol)

10. Everyday tools and intraLibrary inform –Browsers, News Readers, Email, iTunes discover –Browsers, Portals, VLEs gather –Aggregators, Catalogues, Portals store –Desktop, File system, Authoring Tools

11. discover – using open source SRU client

13. discover – SRU-based OpenSearch Browser search

14. discover – SRU client enables open repository IRISS Learning Exchange Open Search IRISS achieved open licence status for enough of their teaching and learning resources to offer an open web interface to their repository Built on our open source SRU client; Open Search is also open source Jorum are looking at building on this approach for JorumOpen Various universities (e.g. Newcastle, Leeds Met) are using this to enable their institutional repositories to manage behind-the-wall learning resources and openly available research outputs IRISS have initiated an intraLibrary User Group to facilitate sharing of tips and practice: http://intralibraryuserforum.ning.com/http://intralibraryuserforum.ning.com/ Let’s have a look: http://www.iriss.ac.uk/openlx/http://www.iriss.ac.uk/openlx/

15. discover - VLEs

16. gather - PerX

17. gather - PerX continued…

18. inform - iTunes

19. inform – news reader

20. store – SWORD Desktop Deposit Tool

21. IntraLibrary SWORD Desktop Tool Our SWORD Desktop Deposit tool supports: Drag-and-drop desktop deposit: –Any file type –IMS Content Packages (including SCORM) with metadata –External Web links with metadata –Bulk deposit Configuration of which collection(s) to deposit to Immediate publication on deposit (or not) ‏ Still allows for: –automatic and/or manual metadata and licensing generation –quality checking –all other workflow actions after publication

22. IntraLibrary & SWORD Other use cases Bespoke Bulk Migration -Intrallect has always done bespoke bulk content migrations for customers: but SWORD has made that a *lot* easier. NHS Scotland -Bulk nightly ingest of IRISS Learning Exchange metadata into NHS Scotland repository, using OAI-PMH to extract and SWORD to deposit -Nightly harvesting of repository metadata into wider NHS Scotland e- Library catalogue for use by NHS staff only. NHS England and NHS Scotland -Integration with MyKnowledgeMap authoring tool: -Create SCORM Packages in Compendle and click to direct deposit into intraLibrary (uses SWORD) -Easy end user interface using SRU, to search repository materials on the open Web

23. The whole picture Other interfaces … … once you’ve got the stuff in via SWORD, you can … inform: push it straight out again by collection / search / browse / tag / favourites using: –RSS, Podcasting discover: find it again straight away (or after rights and quality metadata is added) using: –SRU/SRW, OpenSearch, Google Sitemaps gather: scoop it all up overnight and feed it straight into your catalogue for the next day’s users, using: –OAI-PMH (DC, LOM, ODRL) ‏ store: push it straight out again into other repositories in one action, so the contributor doesn’t have to upload more than once, using: –SWORD (Atom Publishing Protocol) ‏

24. Conclusions Digital repositories can –integrate with your existing tools –offer reliable single source access/archiving –are easy to search (metadata/classification) –encourage mashups, etc. Open standards –support new uses with existing tools –put power in the hands of the user –are the basis for open access –… and possibly for supporting ongoing open educational resource management requirements T&L repositories require (IMHO) –a dedicated manager to oversee policy, implementation and community co- ordination and support –information management expertise (can be the same person as above, or not) –technical expertise –a direct line to relevant communities of practice the repository is serving –strategic institutional support with ongoing funding

25. Watch for: JISC study on business models and business cases for sharing teaching and learning materials –Report due out in a few weeks –Intrallect and Lou McGill –Looks at existing business models for sharing t&l resources, AND –… the tangential or orthogonal(?) relationship between sharing resources and the OER movement. JISC-funded guidelines on staffing repositories projects (about to be funded).