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IE Joint Programme Meeting, Nottingham- October/November 2002
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a centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk
The JISC Information Environment and VLEs
Andy [email protected]
UKOLN, University of Bath
IE Joint Programme Meeting, Nottingham
October/November 2002
2
Contents• summary of the technical architecture of
the JISC Information Environment• relationship to eLearning standards (IMS)• snapshot of new JISC DiVLE programme• simple example of link between JISC IE, a
Learning Management System (LMS) and a backend Learning Object (LO) repository
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/jisc-ie/
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Simple scenario
• consider a lecturer searching for materials for a course module covering the development of business in China
• the aim is to construct a ‘hybrid’ reading list that can be given to students to support their coursework
• he or she searches for ‘business china’ using:– the RDN, to discover Internet resources – ZETOC, to discover recent journal articles
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Issues• different user interfaces
– look-and-feel– subject classification, metadata usage
• everything is HTML – human-oriented– difficult to merge results, e.g. combine into
reading lists– difficult to build a reading list to pass on to
students– need to manually copy-and-paste search
results into HTML page, then upload into VLE
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Issues (2)
• difficult to move from discovering journal article to having copy in hand (or on desktop)
• users need to manually join services together
• problem with hardwired links to books and journal articles, e.g.– lecturer links to university library OPAC but
student is distance learner and prefers to buy online at Amazon
– lecturer links to IngentaJournals but student prefers paper copy in library
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The problem space…
• from perspective of ‘data consumer’– need to interact with multiple collections of
stuff - bibliographic, full-text, data, image, video, etc.
– delivered thru multiple Web sites– few cross-collection discovery services (with
exception of big search engines like Google, but lots of stuff is not available to Google, i.e. it is part of the ‘invisible Web’)
• from perspective of ‘data provider’– few agreed mechanisms for disclosing
availability of content
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UK JISC IE context…• 206 collections and counting…
(Hazel Woodward, e-ICOLC, Helsinki, Nov 2001)– Books: 10,000 +– Journals: 5,000 +– Images: 250,000 +– Discovery tools: 50 +
• A & I databases, COPAC, RDN, …
– National mapping data & satellite imagery
• plus institutional content (e-prints, research data, library content, learning resources, etc.)
• plus content made available thru projects – 5/99, FAIR, X4L, …
• plus …
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The problem(s)…
• portal problem– how to provide seamless discovery across multiple
content providers
• appropriate-copy problem– how to provide access to the most appropriate copy
of a resource (given access rights, preferences, cost, speed of delivery, etc.)
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A solution…
• an information environment• framework of machine-oriented services
allowing the end-user to– discover, access, use, publish resources across a
range of content providers
• move away from lots of stand-alone Web sites...
• ...towards more coherent whole• remove need for use to interact with
multiple content providers– note: ‘remove need’ rather than ‘prevent’
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JISC Information Env.• discover
–finding stuff across multiple content providers
• access–streamlining access to appropriate copy
• content providers expose metadata about their content for
–searching–harvesting–alerting
• develop services that bring stuff together–portals (subject portals, media-specific portals,
geospatial portals, institutional portals, VLEs, …)
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A note about ‘portals’• ‘portal’ word possibly slightly misleading• presentation layer will contain lots of
user-focused services…– subject portal– reading list and other tools in VLE– commercial ‘portals’ (ISI Web of
Knowledge, ingenta, Bb Resource Center, etc.)
– library ‘portal’ (e.g. Zportal or MetaLib)– SFX service component– personal desktop reference manager (e.g.
Endnote)
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Discovery
• technologies that allow providers to disclose metadata to portals– searching - Z39.50 (Bath Profile)– harvesting - OAI-PMH– alerting - RDF Site Summary (RSS)
• fusion services may sit between provider and portal– broker (searching)– aggregator (harvesting and alerting)
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Access• in the case of books, journals, journal articles, end-
user wants access to the most appropriate copy• need to join up discovery services with
access/delivery services (local library OPAC, ingentaJournals, Amazon, etc.)
• need localised view of available services• discovery service uses the OpenURL to pass
metadata about the resource to an ‘OpenURL resolver’
• the ‘OpenURL resolver’ provides pointers to the most appropriate copy of the resource, given:– user and institutional preferences, cost, access rights,
location, etc.
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Shared services
• collection/service description service– information about collections (content) and services
(protocol) that make that content available
• authentication and authorisation• resolver services• user preferences and institutional
profiles• terminology services• metadata registries• ...
JISC Information Env.
Broker/Aggregator
Portal Portal
Content providers
End-user
Portal
Broker/Aggregator
Authentication
Authorisation
Collect’n Desc
Service Desc
Resolver
Inst’n Profile
Shared services
Provisionlayer
Fusionlayer
Presentationlayer
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Summary• Z39.50 (Bath Profile), OAI, RSS are key
‘discovery’ technologies...– … and by implication, XML and
simple/unqualified Dublin Core– IEEE LOM doesn’t feature – but anticipate
delivery of rich metadata as part of content packages
• access to resources via OpenURL and resolvers where appropriate
• Z39.50 and OAI not mutually exclusive• general need for all services to know
what other services are available to them
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Common sense• Z, OAI and RSS based on metadata ‘fusion’ -
merging metadata records from multiple content providers
• need shared understanding and metadata practice across DNER
• need to agree ‘cataloguing guidelines’ and terminology
• 4 key areas–subject classification - what is this resource about?–audience level - who is this resource aimed at?– resource type - what kind of resource is this?–certification - who has created this resource?
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A couple of trends…• move towards Web services
– small units of functionality– b2b (m2m) remote procedure call (RPC)– key technologies
• XML, HTTP, SOAP, WSDL, UDDI
• increased awareness of need to manage intellectual output of institutions…– E-print archive (JISC FAIR programme)
– MIT Dspace project– LO repositories (e.g. Intrallect IntraLibrary)
• Grid and Grid services
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IBM Web services model
serviceregistry
serviceprovider
servicerequestor
Find
Publish
Bind
WSDLUDDI
WSDLSOAP
WSDLUDDI
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WSDL, UDDI and SOAP
• Web Service Description Language– XML descriptions of Web services– note: limited scope for describing content of
collections
• Universal Discovery, Description and Integration– technology for building distributed registry
of Web services
• Simple Object Access Protocol– remote procedure calls based on XML and
HTTP
JISC IE - Web services
serviceregistry
serviceprovider
servicerequestor
Find
Publish
Bind
Collection and Service description service
JISC Inf. Env.Service registry
Contentproviders, aggregators, brokers, shared services
Portals, aggregators, brokers
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JISC Information Env.
Broker/Aggregator
Portal Portal
Content providers
End-user
Portal
Broker/Aggregator
Authentication
Authorisation
Collect’n Desc
Service Desc
Resolver
Inst’n Profile
Shared services
Provisionlayer
Fusionlayer
Presentationlayer
26
Broker/Aggregator
Portal Portal
Content providers
End-user
Portal
Broker/Aggregator
Authentication
Authorisation
Resolver
JISC Information Env.
Inst’n Profile
Shared services
Provisionlayer
Fusionlayer
Presentationlayer
Service provider
Service requestor
Service provider
Service requestor
Serviceregistry
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Likely impact…
• increased use of SOAP as carrier protocol
• move distributed search from Z39.50 to something based on SOAP (SRW possibly?)
• potential use of WSDL and UDDI to provide ‘collection’ and ‘service’ discovery services– pilot JISC IE Service Registry at MIMAS
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A shared problem space• problems faced by end-users are shared
across sectors and communities– student looking for information from variety of
bibliographic sources– lecturer searching for e-learning resources from
multiple repositories– researcher working across multiple data-sets and
compute servers on the Grid– researcher looking for e-prints in multiple e-print
archives– school child searching local museums/libraries for
homework project– a.n.other looking to buy or sell a second-hand car…
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IMS
• global consortium defining open standards for delivery of online distributed learning activities: – Accessibility– Competency Definitions
– Content Packaging– Digital Repositories
– Enterprise
– Learner Information Package– Meta-data
– Question & Test
– Simple Sequencing
• http://www.imsproject.org/
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IMS Digital Repositories
• interoperability between VLE and repository– repository of information objects
– learning object repository (LOR)
– ‘metadata only’ and ‘metadata and full-content’ repositories
• integration of VLE with backend LOR• seamless access to information
resources from within VLE• Note: IMS uses Learning Management
System (LMS) rather than VLE
IMS Digital Repositories
Repositories
Resource Utilizers
DirectoriesVocabularyCompetencyMetadata
Repositories
Organizations Traders
Acc
ess
Man
agem
ent
MA
NA
GE
RIG
HT
S O
BL
IGA
TIO
NS
CO
NT
RO
L A
CC
ESS
AU
TH
EN
TIC
AT
E
AU
TH
OR
ISE
AU
DIT
Pro
curem
ent
NE
GO
TIA
TE
TR
AD
EM
AK
E P
AY
ME
NT
SEARCH
Learner Creator Infoseeker
AssetsMetadata
DISCOVER
REQUEST
USE Presentation
Mediation
Provision
People
Agent
RE
SOL
VE
Registries
STORE
STORE EXPOSEMANAGE STORE EXPOSEMANAGE
DELIVER
(Query, Browse, Follow Path)ACCESS
GATHER
PUBLISH
MANAGE
ALERT
EXPOSE
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Search/Expose
• 2 protocols supported…• XQuery over SOAP (for native Learning
Object Repositories)• Z39.50 (for ‘legacy’ information object
repositories)• both return IEEE LOM metadata
records• ‘IMS’ Z39.50 profile under development
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Gather/Expose
• OAI-PMH• carrying simple DC records (mandated
by OAI) or IEEE LOM metadata• need to agree details for how to carry
IEE LOM records in OAI-PMH
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Alert/Expose
• no recommendations currently• considering use of RSS (but concerns
about conflicts between versions 0.9, 1.0 and 2.0)
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Request/Deliver
• HTTP (and FTP)• use of DOIs and PURLs for persistent
naming• use of OpenURLs to resolve to
‘appropriate copy’ of information (bibliographic) resources
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Publish/Store
• FTP• to upload IMS content packages to
Learning Object Repositories
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JISC IE and eLearning• learning technologist creating learning object
containing embedded links to hybrid external resources (books, journals, Web sites)
• lecturer searching for learning object to add to existing course material
• learning technologist searching for complete existing course to add to their LMS
• lecturer creating reading list containing hybrid resources (books, journals, Web sites)
• lecturer creating EML content package with embedded links to external resources
• student undertaking background research to support learning task
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JISC DiVLE Programme
• short projects (10 months)• Theme A: Practical Exploration of
Linking Digital Libraries and VLEs • Theme B: Learning and Teaching
Implementation Pilots• Theme C: Evaluation and Review
(technical, pedagogical and organisational issues)
• use of IE technologies within VLEs• involvement of commercial partners
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VLEs and Z39.50• Talking Systems
– Lead Partner: University of Wales College, Newport. Partners: IBM, Lancaster University, SIRSI, Percussion
– integrating learning objects and information objects in library catalogues using Z39.50 Bath Profile
• PORTOLE– Lead Partner: University of Leeds. Partners:
University of Oxford, Resource Discovery Network
– integrated searching of library catalogue, RDN and local Leeds gateway
cross-searching information and learning objects using Z39.50
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VLEs and OpenURLs
• EnCoRe - Enriching Courses with Resources– Lead Partner: University of Derby. Partners:
Openly Informatics– OpenURLs, 1Cate, HERON
• OLIVE - Open Linking Implementation in a Virtual Learning Environment– Lead Partner: Royal Holloway, University of
London. Partners: University of Westminster, Ex Libris, Granada Learning, Blackboard
– OpenURLs for learning objects
context-sensitive linking to resources from VLEs
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VLEs and OpenURLs (2)
• DELIVER - Digital Electronic Library Integration within Virtual EnviRonments– Lead Partner: London School of
Economics. Partners: De Montfort University, WebCT, Blackboard, Sirsi (UK) Ltd, Talis
– management of links within learning objects– central storage, distributed maintenance– OpenURLs as one technology
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Reading list example (1)• lecturer creates reading list using Endnote – Z search of
bibliographic services…
RDNResource Centre
OPAC
IngentaJournals
Amazon
EndNote/ReferenceManager
OpenURLresolver
ZETOC
Student
Lecturer
Librarian
RDN
Blackboard VLE
44
Reading list example (2)• lecturer uploads reading list thru LMS to backend learning
object repository (RDN resource centre)…
RDNResource Centre
OPAC
IngentaJournals
Amazon
EndNote/ReferenceManager
OpenURLresolver
ZETOC
Student
Lecturer
Librarian
RDN
Blackboard VLE
45
Reading list example (3)• student accesses reading list from learning object repository
through LMS…• links in reading list use OpenURLs
RDNResource Centre
OPAC
IngentaJournals
Amazon
EndNote/ReferenceManager
OpenURLresolver
ZETOC
Student
Lecturer
Librarian
RDN
Blackboard VLE
46
Reading list example (4)• clicking on OpenURL links in reading list takes student to
appropriate copies of resources via OpenURL resolver (e.g. SFX)…
RDNResource Centre
OPAC
IngentaJournals
Amazon
EndNote/ReferenceManager
OpenURLresolver
ZETOC
Student
Lecturer
Librarian
RDN
Blackboard VLE
47
Reading list example (5)• librarian maintains OpenURL resolver configuration to
provide access to appropriate copy based on University licensing arrangements…
RDNResource Centre
OPAC
IngentaJournals
Amazon
EndNote/ReferenceManager
OpenURLresolver
ZETOC
Student
Lecturer
Librarian
RDN
Blackboard VLE
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Questions…
a centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk