Get documents about "Distributed VLE Programme interim report, January 2011
Document Sample
Document title: Project Document Cover Sheet
Last updated: April 2007
Project Document Cover Sheet
Project Information
Project Acronym W2C
Project Title Extending the VLE through Widgets, Web and Cloud-services
Start Date 01-July-2010 End Date 31-December-2011
Lead Institution Manchester Metropolitan University
Project Director Professor Mark Stubbs
Project Manager & David Lee, d.r.lee@mmu.ac.uk, Tel: 0161 247 1468
contact details
Partner Institutions N/A
Project Web URL http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/
Programme Name Distributed VLE - Strand B: Institutional Pilot
Programme Manager Sarah Davies
Document Name
Document Title Interim Report
Reporting Period January-June 2011
Author(s) & David Lee, Project Manager
project role
Date 17th June Filename JISC_interim_report_highlights_v3.docx
2011
URL -
Access Project and JISC internal General dissemination
Document History
Version Date Comments
DVLE Programme: W2C Interim Report, June 2011
Section One: Summary
The W2C Project is progressing well, and sharing progress regularly. Our development of web-
services has progressed very well with many now in production. We have documented our experience
of developing sample Widgets. Organizational change sensitivities currently prevent us from sharing
insights gained about business processes, but the level of interest we are receiving in our work from
other institutions suggests that we are sharing useful information via our blog, twitter account,
presentations and visits. We were particularly pleased to receive this tweet the other day:
“@mmuw2c @thestubbs great model thanks!! you guys are always saving me work”
Section Two: Activities and Progress
Activities:
W2C project activity aims to deliver the following benefits:
B1: enhance the capability of our VLE to meet existing and emerging user requirements
B2: enhance user satisfaction of our learning systems
B3: heighten awareness about patterns of student engagement and success
B4: facilitate discovery of learning resources that others have found useful
B5: accelerate development of a community of practice for educational widgets
B6: improve, by providing practice-informed feedback, key sources of information
available to others in the sector contemplating similar endeavours
To deliver these benefits we have organised our activities into 7 strands. The table below
summarizes these strands and highlights progress so far:
Scenarios We have been publicising as widely as possible our vision for learning
systems, our scenarios and threshold user expectations that emphasise
convenience, integration, personalisation & extensibility…
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/ltreview/2010/01/28/scenarios/
http://www.slideshare.net/markstubbs/mmus-learning-technologies-
review-nottingham-20100624
We have spoken to colleagues at numerous institutions about our vision for
learning systems, including: Bradford, City, Nottingham, Plymouth, Royal
Holloway, Southampton, Staffs, Wolverhampton
Processes We have been mapping the processes in which institutional data necessary
for delivering key user requirements are created and maintained
Process maps for timetabling are being validated with stakeholders
A working group has been set up on student engagement tracking
Processes for resource recommendation have not been mapped yet
Organizational sensitivities mean we are not able to share our maps at the
moment.
Services We have been developing web-services for institutional systems that hold
definitive data required to meet user requirements:
PC Availability
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2010/10/15/pc-availability-inside-mmu/
Fee Status (RSS)
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2010/11/30/easy-access-financial-info/
WebCT Areas & Announcements (RSS)
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2010/12/02/vle-web-services/
DVLE Programme: W2C Interim Report, June 2011
Library Reading Lists (RSS) & Podcasts (RSS)
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/01/20/reading-list-web-services/
Integrating Talis Aspire and Equella
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/06/15/working-with-partners-talis-
aspire-and-equella/
And have shared insights on how those services are being used
An overview of web service usage in February
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/02/01/web-services-update-2/
Detailed information on how we gathered stats on usage of our fees
service
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/02/02/studfinancereport/
Widgets We have been exploring open source widgets and Moodle blocks to enhance
our VLE with the output from our web-services. We have
shared our experience of setting up a Wookie server
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/03/21/running-with-wookie/
shared our experience of writing our first (PC Availability) widget
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/03/21/widget-development/
described how we made our PC Availability widget location-aware
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/03/24/cetis-widget-bash/
Evaluation We have been surveying and interviewing our students about their mobile
devices and information preferences
We will be publishing a joint study with 4 other universities
982 students completed our mobile survey
http://testapis.ad.mmu.ac.uk/surveys/Service1.svc/getMobileSurveyHi
ghlights
Follow-up interviews are commencing, after initial piloting
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/01/14/device-led-student-interviews/
Preliminary analysis of 100 interviews has been published
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/06/11/responses-from-100-device-led-
student-interviews/
Case Study We have been sharing the business rationale for our decision to adopt a
“core plus” model for our learning systems and have been feeding back to
JISC-CETIS colleagues about DVLE scenarios
The public review of learning systems
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/ltreview/
Initial thoughts on our DVLE approach
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/01/26/our-dvle-model/
Presentation of our DVLE approach at 2011 UK Moodle Moot
http://www.slideshare.net/markstubbs/lrt-talks-moodlemoot-20110419
Presentation of our “core plus” model for JISC Innovation Guide
http://www.slideshare.net/markstubbs/core-plus-model-for-learning-
systems
Project We have extended our VLE deployment & EQAL programme delivery
Management structures to include W2C. We are blogging project progress regularly &
encouraging feedback on our dynamic case study via blog comments &
twitter
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c
http://twitter.com/mmuw2c
DVLE Programme: W2C Interim Report, June 2011
Section Three: Outputs and Deliverables
Outputs & Deliverables:
We scheduled activity to deliver intended benefits as follows
Benefits 2010 2011
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D
X X Scenarios √
X X X Processes M2
X X X Ser M3
vic
es
X X X Widgets M4
X X X Evaluation M6
X X Ca M7
se
Stu
dy
Project
X X M1 M3 M5 M7
Mgmt
^
At this stage in our approved project plan we expected outputs for milestones M1 – M5.
M1: JISC-approved project plan: complete
M2: Publication of relevant process maps
Process mapping activity was behind schedule, but is now progressing at speed
through the EQAL change programme for implementation across the university in
September.
M3: Relevant web-service APIs and technical model documented
Considerable progress has been made with web-services for WebCT, PC availability,
Podcasts and Fee Status in production use on the myMMU student portal. A
composite web-service is in the final stages of testing that will mashup data from a
range of systems for display in MMU’s new Moodle VLE. Specification work is taking
place to extend core Moodle web-services developed jointly with ULCC and oMbiel
(for use in their campusM product) to provide assessment and engagement tracking.
M4: Relevant widgets developed and deployed to VLE and Mobiles
Progress against this milestone has been significant but not entirely as envisaged in
the original bid. In July 2010, MMU procured oMbiel’s campusM mobile phone
DVLE Programme: W2C Interim Report, June 2011
product for September deployment: this accelerated web-service development and
created a focus for discussion about students’ mobile needs. Android and Blackberry
versions are soon to be released, but the myMMU app has already been registered
on over 2,800 Apple devices. The opportunity to deploy a production mobile service
was prioritised over widget development and a custom Moodle block (rather than a
widget) was selected for production deployment of web-service content into Moodle.
However, the team has developed Widgets and documented the experience of doing
so, making a major contribution to the CETIS Widget bash. Along with Widgets the
team has also created a basic RSS Reader-type iOS application which can pull
together numerous feeds from our web-services. The source code for this XCode
project will be issued in due course.
M6: Staff and student evaluation report
982 respondents completed our survey of students’ mobile devices and information
preferences. Results are being collated with those from partnering institutions
(Plymouth, Bradford, Staffordshire and Northampton), and will be released in a joint
publication. After pilots to refine the questions, 100 interviews took place across the
university with students about devices they carry and use. Preliminary analysis of
responses has been published and further detail will follow.
M7: Case study published critiquing DLE & e-Framework guidance
An initial assessment of our DVLE approach has been posted and is receiving
feedback. Production deployment of our DVLE architecture to 30,000+ users in
September will present further insights for the community.
Section Four: Evaluation
We have been monitoring use of the web-services we have developed and registrations of
the myMMU mobile application they feed:
Chart from June 2011 showing over 3M hits
on our WebCT web-service!
Chart from June 2011 analysing the 2,853
Apple devices on which the myMMU mobile
app has been registered so far.
We intend to continue this monitoring policy and supplement the statistical picture of usage
with students’ perceptions of these services gained through interviews.
We will also be conducting evaluation activities with staff.
Section Five: Outcomes and Lessons Learned
We remain impressed by the speed at which mobile services can be deployed for the benefit
of the student community. oMbiel’s model of deploying standard web services and a
standard (iPhone) App, enabled MMU to sign a contract in July and launch a mobile service
for students in September:
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/mymmu-mobile/
DVLE Programme: W2C Interim Report, June 2011
Our survey of students’ mobile devices and information preferences has challenged some of
our assumptions and those held by our development partners, and it will be very interesting
to see how the sector as a whole responds to the findings when our collaborative study is
published. Our blog post about the growth and make-up of Blackberry ownership is a good
example of a lesson learned:
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2010/12/07/growth-of-blackberry/
We are reflecting on our work in the context of the JISC-CETIS DVLE framework and
making public the decisions we face as we seek production-level solutions that will work for
our 30,000+ user community:
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/01/26/our-dvle-model/
Our distributed VLE model depends on integrating solutions from a number of different
partners and we have discovered that an agile, can-do working relationship with partners is a
key enabler for this style of provision:
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2011/06/15/working-with-partners-talis-aspire-and-equella/
We expect the depth and richness of these insights to increase as the project progresses
and we hope that our candid communication approach will be of value to the community as a
whole.
Section Six: Communication and Dissemination Activities
We have described in previous sections how our project blog at http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/ is
providing our main channel of communication with public stakeholders. We have configured
it to show our twitter timeline (http://twitter.com/mmuw2c), which we use to provide more
regular updates; it also carries a live example of our PC availability widget.
We are also engaged in a series of internal communication activities to support the EQAL
change programme including mini conferences and targeted briefings. These briefings have
highlighted W2C work, eg:
http://www.slideshare.net/markstubbs/talk-to-student-information-point-colleagues-
about-moodle
http://www.slideshare.net/markstubbs/moodle-update-for-mmus-eqal-programme-
feb-2011
http://www.slideshare.net/markstubbs/lrt-talks-library-20110607-v2
The link to EQAL is extremely important for successful embedding of our work.
We also shared some of our thinking in the Subverting Corporate Systems slot at the last
JISC-CETIS conference:
http://www.slideshare.net/markstubbs/lrt-talks-cetis1020101115
And presented our work to the campusM user group
http://www.slideshare.net/markstubbs/lrt-talks-campusm-user-group-20110404
We have fielded telephone calls from seven institutions who have been tracking our blogs
and have been keen to talk about Moodle, campusM and mobile developments in general.
Section Seven: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities
DVLE Programme: W2C Interim Report, June 2011
We have reviewed the risk assessment submitted in our project plan and have not identified
any new risks. We suspected that establishing a production-standard widget environment
could be problematic and that risk remains high, so we have played safe and will be using a
Moodle block to deliver web service content into Moodle. The top-level decision to deploy
campusM for September 2010 spotlighted access to corporate systems, which helped to
reduce that risk, although we have some lingering concerns about resilience of these
systems under the load we expect Moodle to generate. Creation of the fees web service is
generally regarded as an exemplar within the institution of collaborative development and
was featured recently in our in-house magazine (p.11), which has helped to reduce that risk
further.
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/about/publications/mmyou/127.pdf
We continue to give thought to suitable security models, and have shared our thoughts on
an approach that we believe would suit widget deployment:
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c/2010/09/14/jisc-dvle-meeting/
Section Eight: Collaboration and Support
So far we have not had need to seek specific support from the programme team but in
general communication with them they have always been very quick to respond, and
feedback on our blog posts has been very encouraging (and motivating for the team).
In our last report we identified Wookie/Widget implementation as an area in which W2C
would value support. We are pleased to report that the run-up to the CETIS Widget Bash
and the event itself helped us to climb the necessary learning curves.
DVLE Programme: W2C Interim Report, June 2011
