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Specifications vs Standards: the adoption dilemma

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European workshop, 9th 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)

RecommendationsoPermanent Observatory

oDelegation of Experts to CEN

oPromote technical subgroups

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… new kid on the block

•Market attention

ReportsoPESC

oAcademy One

oGartner

CEN (European Committee for Standardization)oMLO (Metadata for Learning Opportunity)

oNWI (New Work Item) on European Learner Mobility

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… The Road to Dublin

•Actions on the Recommendations

Permanent ObservatoryoReport on MLO activities

o2° workshops

Delegation of experts to CENoDone – 3 representatives

oBruxelles and Paris meeting

Promote Technical subgroupsoGlossary (considered also at MLO level)

oBusiness Cases – to be fed to MLO

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Dublin Worshop

Sharing Perspectives for the Rapid Development of Standards for Course Description and Curriculum Data

Implementersi.e. R3SG

Standardization authoritiesi.e. CEN

2 “standard” perspectives:

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Building momentum

European workshop, 25th 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 AreasoGraduation Documents (Diploma Supplement)

oEuropean Learner Mobility (EUROPASS)

oCourse Unit Description

oCourse equivalencies

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The opportunities for standards

Student Observatory

STUDY PROGRAMMES & COURSE UNITS CATALOGUE

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STUDY PROGRAMME DETAILS

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COURSE UNIT DETAILS

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LEARNING AGREEMENT

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TRANSCRIPT OF RECORDS

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DIPLOMA SUPPLEMENT

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CURRICULUM VITAE

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Business Cases Flow

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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

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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

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Destination Stuttgart

“Growing pains” - from group to organization

Visibility and Proliferation of workshop resultsoEUNIS (RS3G mentioned in 4 presentation)

oEAIE 2008 (Antwerp) – RS3G invited to host a workshop on Digital Student Data Portability at EAIE 2009 (Madrid)

CEN experts delegationoActive on MLO (standard in the making)

oExpert pool for European Learners Mobiliyt

oAdoption “scout” (PLOTEUS)

Euro AFI project (University of Stuttgart)

Liason with Terena, EUNIS, CEN, NEC (National Europass Centers)

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Specifications vs Standards: the adoption dilemma