Transcript Document 7472355

Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
Joining Up:
Virtual Learning Environments
Digital Libraries and
Interoperability Issues
Santy Chumbe
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
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students
Internet
content pages,
discussion forums,
chat,
quizzes and exercises,
etc.
Web server
teacher
* Perhaps “A Virtual Environment of Learning” ?
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
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Commercial, e.g. Blackboard
Open Source, e.g. Moodle
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
Digital Library (DL)
”scientific academic scholar“
The digital library vision: "Universal Access to Human Knowledge"
A digital library (DL) is a unified, coherent, organized
collection of learning and teaching resources, usually
accessible via the Internet.
Wait a minute!
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
Digital Library (DL)
• Is there really such a Digital Library (DL)?
• Have you used one before?
No and Yes (Hybrid DLs)
• Unified (a single point access)
• Coherent (always valid metadata)
• Organized (e-journals, books, theses, etc.)
• Internet
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
Digital Library (DL)
• Is DL just about search ("can I find it?")
and access ("can I get it?“)?
That is basic and important, but DL is also about:
• Long term preservation
• Institutional Repositories
• Interoperability (VLEs)
• Community (knowledge exchange )
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
"googlization" of digital
libraries ?
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
VLE – DL Integration
Scenario : a lecturer wants to provide some background reading for
her students by making a list of some relevant reading resources
VLE without embedded DL (the ‘traditional’ way?)
File
Upload
Catalogue
Library
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
VLE – DL Integration
Scenario : a lecturer wants to provide some background reading for
her students by making a list of some relevant reading resources
VLE with embedded DL
DL middleware
VLE system
VLE
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
DL
-OPAC
-Google
-Scirus
-e-Jurnals
-etc
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
What are the big challenges for
effective VLE-DL integration?
• VLEs are still monolithic and closed enterpriselevel-applications, making difficult the integration
of their native functionality with external services
such as a DL
• We do need open and effective DL
implementations (“first operability, then interoperability” )
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
MG XPower SV
Normandy Fort, France, which
was an almost immediate
white elephant when it was
built, because the Napoleonic
wars ended before it was
completed.
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
“Rigid computer systems played
a big part in the decline of the
British motor industry and the
eventual collapse of Rovers”
Prof. Matthias Holweg,
author of “Who Killed MG Rover?”
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
How integration is possible in life?
Standards and Norms
Plug and Play !
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
VLE – DL Integration
are both partners ready for marriage?
• VLE : Content created using standard e-Learning
Objects (EEE LOM, SCORM, IMS CP)
• DL : Software developed using DL reference models
(5Ss)
• DL : Content created using metadata standards for
harvesting, retrieving and searching (OAI, Z39.50, SRU)
• Ideally both, VLE and DL, are SOA-compliant.
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
VLE – DL Integration
are both partners ready for marriage?
• DL : e-Publishing identification and retrieving (DOI,
openURL, crossRef)
• VLE : Full (client) Web Services support (SOAP / REST
(XML, HTTP))
• DL : Full (server) Web Services support (SOAP / REST
(XML, HTTP))
• Middleware : SOA compliant with full XML support.
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
VLE – DL Integration
SRU
server
SOA
middleware
SRU
client
PHP/Apache
Java/Tomcat
PerX and Blackboard VLE Integration Diagram
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
Technical joined up-ness?
• Availability of standards, models and specifications for
DLs and VLEs
• VLE-DL integration using WS and SOA is a "future-proof“
solution.
• Proprietary solutions are now beginning to appear
(Building Blocks (Blackboard), PowerLinks (WebCT))
• Search and access e-learning objects directly from and within
VLE’s modules
• See the library status of items on reading lists without going
into the library catalogue
• Read around in the ‘research’ literature (inter-linking)
• Connect to third-party databases and full-text services without
inputting my ID and password
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
References
A little bit "old" but still a good book to understand the principles of DL
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=863700
DL study at Master and Phd Levels:
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1141787
An early experience of VLE-DL integration in the UK:
http://library.ulster.ac.uk/4i/deliverables/outputs/Uhomoibhi%20Informatica.pdf
Practical experiences: Creating VLE content with standards
http://www.reload.ac.uk/interop.html
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
Standards and Specifications
• Metadata standards
Digital objects: EEE LOM, SCORM, IMS CP
Interoperability: OAI-PMH, Z39,50, SRU
• SOA (Service-oriented architecture)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture
• Web Services (SOAP, REST (SRU/SRW))
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=991449
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue40/morgan/
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk
Interoperability with virtual learning environments
- The Digital Library – VLE integration case -
Thank you
[email protected]
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Please tell us what you think of VLE-DL integration
http://www.techxtra.ac.uk/index.html?action=feedback
(http://business.scotsman.com/ebusiness.cfm?id=207612007 )
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These slides are available at:
http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/~santiago/vle-dl/
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A pilot for VLE-DL integration at HWU, is here:
http://vleap2.hw.ac.uk
www.icbl.hw.ac.uk