RAMS Overview: An update on the research workflow tool

James Dalziel

Professor of Learning Technology, and Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE)

Macquarie University james@melcoe.mq.edu.au

www.melcoe.mq.edu.au

Presentation for 2007 European LAMS Conference, July 5th, 2007

Overview

• Introducing RAMS• Sample eResearch Activityflow Use Cases• Rationale for RAMS• Progress to date

– New features– Sakai integration

• Areas for future consideration– Challenges of RQF assessment

Introducing RAMS

• The “Research Activity Management System” (RAMS) builds on the LAMS V2 workflow core (+ new eResearch features)

• A suite of activity tools appropriate for group-based eResearch human workflows– Including multi-purpose tools that apply across eLearning and

eResearch

• The result is two different domain-specific applications (LAMS for eLearning; RAMS for eResearch) that draw on a common workflow core

• Everything is open source

Introducing RAMS

LAMS Application RAMS Application

“Education Workflow Engine” (LAMS core + new RAMS development)

Admin Author Monitor Participant

eLearning specific tools Multi-purpose tools eResearch specific tools

Teachers Researchers

As RAMS evolves…

LAMS Application RAMS Application

“Education Workflow Engine” (LAMS core + new RAMS development)

Admin Author Monitor Participant

eLearning specific tools Multi-purpose tools eResearch specific tools

Teachers Researchers

New tool features for eResearchNew tool features for eResearch

High level use cases from RAMP proposal:1. Managing the research enterprise lifecycle (from grant planning to

grant submission, to project initiation, to project lifecycle management, to research outcome dissemination),

2. Implementing auditable evaluation processes for assessing research quality (RQF assessor workflows, journal/conference peer review management, etc),

3. Designing and tracking article submission processes for Institutional Repositories,

4. Flexibly configuring and running online research collaboration processes (such as staged collaborative analysis and discussion for PhD/Postdocs around raw data, leading to interpretation, visualisation, and ultimately publications), and

5. Process-oriented research data collection from human subjects (such as in the humanities, and social and cognitive sciences).

Sample eResearch Activityflow Use Cases

Use case 3: Institutional Repository submission workflow

Use case 2: RQF assessor evaluation process

Use case 4: Example of weekly research group meeting

Use case 4a: Alternative example of weekly research group meeting

Rationale for RAMS

• Greater standardisation of common or repeatable research processes, leading to higher quality outcomes and improved efficiency;

• The ability to share descriptions of common research processes both within institutions, and between institutions – including the ability to adapt and localise shared research processes;

• Greatly improved accountability and audit for processes involving multiple actors across multiple steps – such as for research assessment (eg, RQF assessor workflows), as well as for research itself (eg, as a deterrent to academic fraud); and

• Providing a process-oriented checklist to ensure the ordered completion of relevant research tasks.

Progress to date

• Development of RAMS: activity tools + core additions– Done: Basic RAMS release, RAMS skin, “Live Edit”, Participants as

Monitors– Coming in second half of 2007 (V2.1): Initial branching, conditionality,

grouping, tool data in/out Contributed to

• JISC Human Workflow meeting in UK on July 3rd • Ramscommunity.org website ready to launch as basis for sharing

RAMS designs and discussion of issues• Sakai 2.3/2.4 integration available (same as LAMS)• Mid-way through workflow theory review

– Looks like LAMS/RAMS breaks significant new group, no really comparable system/specification found to date

– Key difference is that in LAMS/RAMS *groups of people* travel through the workflow, not data/processes

New RAMS Features: Default assumption is all Participants are also Monitors

New RAMS Features: Live Edit (starting with running sequence in Monitor)

New RAMS Features: Open live sequence in special author mode (some locked)

New RAMS Features: Can change sequence structure/tools for those not locked

New RAMS Features: Live sequence is immediately updated for current users

Areas for future consideration

• Areas considered (but not yet under development)– New “Welcome” page based on researcher workspace for all

eResearch workflows– Include “current status” information for all workflows– Allow system-launched sequences (eg, repository submission

workflow)– Investigating sequence aggregation, hierarchies and linking– Investigating (actionable) roles for RAMS tools, including

multiple roles across multiple actors with differential impact on different tools

– Investigating challenging “what constitutes task completion” issues (easy for single user, hard for groups)

Challenges of RQF assessment

• Consider the following version of the RAE/RQF assessment workflow:– Step 1: Academic submits articles for assessment; assessors

(including assessor manager) can then view articles– Step 2: Assessors (including assessor manager) discuss

quality of articles (eg, chat, forum or “offline”)– Step 3: Assessors (including assessor manager) provide

overall rating of academic’s quality and impact; assessor manager then finalises an overall score for quality and impact based on prior discussion and review of ratings from all assessors; at a later stage, the scores can be made viewable by the academic

Challenges of RQF assessment

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Submit Discuss Rate

Simple?

ViewView

Challenges of RQF assessment

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

AcademicRole

AssessorRole

AssessorManager

Submit

View

View

No task

Discuss

View

Rate & Finalise

ViewViewDiscuss ViewViewRate

? ? ?? ?(System)

Challenges of RQF assessment

• Some problems to solve– How to design tools to allow for actionable roles without the

system becoming unworkably complex for non-technical users?

– How does the system handle multiple actors within and across different roles?

– What constitutes task completion in group workflows?• How does the system know to notify assessors that articles

have been submitted?• How does the system know that the discussion is finished

and the rating has begun?• How does the system know to notify the academic that

their rating is now viewable?