14-19 Area Prospectus XCRI Aggregation Pilot
From Xcri
Contents |
[edit] Introduction
The project is being run by the Centre for International ePortfolio Development (CIePD) at the University of Nottingham, which has a long track record in supporting regional development work in the realm of interoperability to enhance the learner experience. The CIePD aims to deliver the project by working with regional partner organisations, including up to five 14-19 Area Prospectus organisations, the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Lifelong Learning Network (Leap Ahead) and Aimhigher in the East Midlands. The project is fairly small in scope, running for 6 months until 31st March 2009 with a modest amount of funding available to support input from the Area Prospectus managers.
[edit] Links
University of Nottingham, CIePD projects website
14-19 Area Prospectus XCRI Aggregation Pilot Blog
14-19 Area Prospectus XCRI Aggregation Pilot Documents
For XCRI-CAP feeds, see the XCRi Feeds page.
[edit] Leap Ahead LLN and JISC 14-19 Area Prospectus Landscape
[edit] What is the pilot trying to achieve?
The 14-19 Area Prospectuses and Aimhigher in the East Midlands have agreed that the pilot will aggregate specified 14-19 Area Prospectus course advertising information from five different areas into the Aimhigher Progression Pathways database, as part of a wider Lifelong Learning Network project to amalgamate regional courses information. The information will be published on the Aimhigher Progression Pathways service to show that 14-19 course advertising information can be aggregated via XCRI-CAP and searched.
A primary aim is to investigate issues for 14-19 Area Prospectuses in the implementation of XCRI-CAP outputs, for example to examine the compatibility of data content and structures across the partners and to consider how the aggregated data can be maintained. The project will report to JISC on the usage of XCRI-CAP for this purpose and will make wider recommendations in respect of using XCRI-CAP within the 14-19 Area Prospectus arena nationally.
The project will produce a case study of XCRI-CAP implementation in the 14-19 sector that will be a source of best practice guidance for the sector as it pursues the LSC’s 14-19 vision of interoperability and orienting data around learners.
[edit] Benefits in the short term
Alongside this pilot is a project within the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire LLN (Leap Ahead) working with further and higher education partners to standardise and output their own courses advertising information, primarily into Aimhigher Progression Pathways via software developed for this purpose. Progression Pathways will provide the key method for capturing and managing the courses data for the purposes of this pilot.
The two projects will provide efficient and compatible solutions to manage the aggregation of local and regional information into the Aimhigher Progression Pathways system, as well as producing standardised high quality data sets for each 14-19 Area Prospectus and directly from each institution involved in the LLN project.
[edit] What does this involve for the Area Prospectuses?
This pilot has been designed to minimise workload for the Area Prospectuses. There are no requirements to change existing systems, data structures or the way Area Prospectuses work with their partners. The pilot does however, offer Area Prospectuses the opportunity to review current processes and export standardised high quality data sets.
The XCRI-CAP standardisation process will sit above the normal data and systems and will not interfere with live courses data at all. Transformation and aggregation will occur separately from the core data.
The bulk of the data transformation and aggregation is being undertaken by the project staff, Alan Paull, Kirstie Coolin and Stuart Wood of the CIePD, University of Nottingham (the wider project team), and Aimhigher Progression Pathways.
[edit] Post Pilot and long term implications
This pilot is uniquely placed to inform national strategy for joining up 14-19 courses information. The work also offers strategically important opportunities in terms of regional recognition, tackling boundary issues and demonstrating potential for further work to enhance efficiency and streamlining of data collection. It directly implements the ‘collect once, use many times’ ethos promoted by experts in the field, as well as by national and government bodies, including MIAP. Furthermore, it supports the wider objectives for development of the knowledge based economy.
Project outcomes include the promotion of XCRI within the 14-19 sector. The project outputs will be reported to the DCSF’s Information Standards Board (ISB) via the new Portfolios, Learning Opportunities, Transcript (PLOT) Special Interest Group, and to other JISC XCRI projects via the JISC’s eLearning Programme.
We expect that as a direct result of the project 14-19 Area Prospectus organisations will consider embedding solutions generated by the project in their operational practices. Longer term, a full local and regional adoption of the XCRI-CAP standard and methods of data collection and aggregation could provide a solution to the issue of streamlining data collection amongst partners, providing aggregation and search facilities to learners and advisors across boundaries, as well as supporting the national agenda in joining up these systems.
