14-19 Area Prospectus XCRI Aggregation Pilot Blog
From Xcri
Contents |
[edit] Intro
This is the Project Manager's blog (Alan Paull, alan@alanpaull.co.uk), recording events and thoughts as the project runs.
[edit] April 2009
Feeds are now starting to emerge, though rather late, so we have had to obtain an extension to the time scale for the project.
We have a web service feed from Connexions Notts, implemented by Stuart Wood (University of Nottingham) at http://80.249.109.45/passportfolio/export/service.asmx/.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the project will only have a limited impact on vocabulary usage, because there is very little commonality of approach in this respect between each Area Prospectus and between the Area Prospectuses on the one hand and Progression Pathways data on the other.
It is worth noting that there is no requirement for a large depth of data in this aggregation into Progression Pathway, and that Area Prospectuses would prefer the aggregation of only headline information coupled with sign-posting back to their own websites. This may be a general principle. As data aggregation services move up a hierarchy of data collectors, the need for depth of data decreases. This is particularly true if the aggregation services collect URLs that give access to greater depth.
[edit] Software vendors
We are working with VIS Communications (now part of UCAS Media) for Northants and S-Cool for Leics. Both vendors are technically well placed to deliver appropriate feeds, but both have their own development schedules, and it is proving difficult to make progress with this work within the very tight time scales of the project (already later than originally planned). Lead times for this type of work need to be at least 6 months and possibly more. Sample data from both vendors has been of good quality, and the technical development is not likely to be a problem.
[edit] Lincolnshire and Rutland
We had an unexpected late difficulty here. It was not until comparatively late in the project that it became clear that the data was obtained on a course by course basis in the form of search results and could not be readily obtained as a data set without extra development work. Fortunately the Hotcourses team were already working on another XCRI-CAP project and were able to develop a relevant mechanism to output the data. XCRI-CAP data was obtained as a separate XML instance file for each school or college from Hotcourses.
[edit] March 2009
[edit] Notes on our Workshop held on 2 March 2009 at the University of Nottingham
Issues:
- East Midlands = a “hub” – national policy?
- Course IDs:
- Limitations of internal processes within colleges.
- Controllers of data are not the marketing department.
- REQUIREMENT: permanent course ID – probably not going to be done for many providers.
- Date of last update.
- Start details/date
- Use a description element in presentation as a start details field.
- Badly formed mark up in description text.
- Moving stuff from old data with HTML/Word.
- Sustain formatting within own mark up.
- Progress when edited & saved.
- Saved with new, better mark up, but import is dirty.
- Possible solution? Input controlled, no mark up until display – This is a no-no, because users don’t like it.
- Authoring Problem
- Can VIS map institution’s own mark up to XHTML?
- XHTML needs to be well formed
- 1 feed for multiple users
- Would feed Progression Pathways (PP) also be good for Hotcourses and others?
- Yes, should be if we arrange it right from the start.
- Get PP feed done, add more later.
- Consistency across county borders.
- Next stage – admissions across county borders
Question about depth of data: Provide URL or descriptive text or a paragraph summary? Answer: Provide summary & URL link to course page if possible.
Vocabularies
- Coding of providers feed – should be handled by the collector not the provider.
- PP uses a subject keyword list very similar to Sector Subject Area subject.
- If you have SSA, please provide it.
- And label it, so that it can be identified.
- Generally: no common duration vocabulary.
- Generally: there is Attendance Mode and / or Study Mode
- If used, it should be the National Learning Directory version unless explicit why not.
[edit] January 2009
Very useful set of meetings on 6 and 7 January.
The first one was with FE / HE colleagues participating in the wider project. We looked at the practicalities of implementation, and there was a general consensus that the work wasn't technically difficult; however, it did require some commitment and effort, and staff had to fit it around mainstream work. We mapped out a schedule of actions:
- Send breakdown of mandatory data with sub-fields by 12th Jan
- Map these fields to XCRI and send out and example feed by 12th Jan; send out with this a blank spreadsheet to capture details for a data dictionary containing all mandatory progression pathway fields and the XCRI element.
- Feedback from everyone on these by 23rd Jan
- Email Routes Ahead data
- Look into possibility of Hotcourses XCRI trial
- Aim towards an export by February 20th
The second meeting was with all the 14-19 Area Prospectus representatives and their technical experts, including staff from software vendors. We agreed a similar implementation plan:
- Produce and distribute Progression Pathways data specification by 12th Jan
- Area Prospectuses to provide data specs (field lists, structure and data content) by 16th Jan
- Produce and distribute XCRI mappings and sample files from Area Prospectus data back to Area Prospectuses by 23 Jan
- Implement XCRI feeds via web services by end of Feb
- Draft Project Report by 18 March
- Final Project Report by end of March
The Area Prospectus technical staff agreed that provision of data via web services was the agreed solution. FE and HE colleagues had a more varied approach.
[edit] December 2008
Initial data samples received from Connexions Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Derbyshire. Initial mapping of the samples for Derbyshire and Leicestershire were completed; though in the absence of the mandatory / optional fields from Progression Pathways, this was only a proof of concept task. It is becoming clear that relatively few vocabularies will be needed; probably only subject, duration, study mode and age group.
