Funded by the: Jisc e-Learning programme.

Lead Institution: Bath Spa University.

Learner Provider Type: Higher Education

Project Duration: January 2012 - March 2013

Key Words: Course Data

Case study tags: course data, process improvement, kis, course information, bath spa university

Note: This is an abridged version of this project's final report.  The full version is available here.  

 

Jisc Course Data @ BSU

 

 

Project Summary

The purpose of this project was to provide an XML feed (XCRI-CAP 1.2) for BSU’s course provision – and we are pleased to report that we have been successful in achieving this outcome.

 

This project derived from the increasing external demands for course data, and the need to establish a standard format for course data provision across all HEI’s, allowing for improved access and more accurate and timely information that could be more easily compared. This sector-wide approach has been reinforced by the introduction of the Key Information Set (KIS), as well as work by UCAS and the SLC in respect of information and guidance they make available.

 

BSU maximised the impact of the XCRI-CAP project by:

• Exploiting every opportunity to share course information between internal systems, particularly the Content Management System (CMS) and Student Records System (SRS)
• Using the SRS to provide the data framework and the CMS to provide the contextual information for the feed.
• We were able to reap the benefit of specialist expertise in both marketing (for the qualitative information) and business systems (for the quantitative structure)
• Examining the existing course data infrastructure and developing a full proposal for a fit for purpose and future proofed reimplementation of the institution’s course framework
• Developing the XCRI-CAP feed alongside the implementation of KIS, allowing us to engage with a broader stakeholder group with an interest in published course information. We have actively exploited the synergies between these projects to maximise outcomes and benefits.

 

We have achieved the project’s key goal, successfully implementing the processes to produce the XCRI-CAP feed, resulting in a fully tested and validated output. Our feed does not currently include all learning opportunities available at BSU, which is a direct consequence of our decision to align the project with the KIS outputs which became the focus. However, other course types will be brought into the feed as the data sources are further enhanced and developed.

 

What did we learn?

Implementing a new course data structure across systems is a significant undertaking – and we were unrealistic to believe we could achieve a full implementation in the lifetime of this project.  We have, however, undertaken a comprehensive review that will allow us to implement a new structure, but this will be rolled out over the next three academic years.  Please see detailed description on our website of progress to date and the next steps in this area.

 

During iterative testing of the XCRI-CAP feed, it became clear to the development team that even a single exception may hide a wide range of underlying issues as identified by the aggregator. Therefore, solving one exception would sometimes have a “can of worms” effect that would require re-examining the code several times before passing validation.

 

Reflecting on how we might have done things differently, there is a sense that had we known more about the details of the KIS when planning XCRI-CAP (including how our Student Records System would manage this return), the project would have had a different focus throughout.  The team strongly believes that we would still have achieved the same outcomes, but would perhaps have had a less tortuous journey.

 

Whilst researching possible course data structures, we identified a number of areas that will be of interest to the sector, some of which we have already fed into the HE Information Landscape project’s consultation:

• That issues of difference in coding conventions between UCAS, HESA and the SLC have to be navigated and mapped at every institution and are therefore resource intensive.
• That there is some ‘confusion’ between UCAS coding and JACS3 – they look similar but do not mean the same thing.
• That we needed to be mindful of how our student records system’s processes for HESA, DLHE and KIS return generation operated when identifying a new course infrastructure.
• That the downstream uses of the SITS course information needed to be fully identified so that any new structure continued to meet the requirements of various stakeholders.
• That the flexibility that many of these systems have adopted through the use of free text fields leads to inevitable inconsistencies in the data, the legacy of which makes tackling this area a significant and long term challenge.
• The simple use of Lego to illustrate course structures for our show and tell poster, and its exposure within our working environment, has allowed us more opportunities to engage with colleagues whose curiosity led them to ask further questions – an unexpected, but welcome outcome.

The project outcome we are most proud of is the sense of collegiate engagement and willingness to work together for the longer term benefits that are now the shared vision of a wider range of stakeholders and not just the ‘data geeks’ in the project team.  This sense of engagement is not confined to BSU, but also embraces the project team’s sense of inclusion in a wider community across the sector.

 

Immediate Impact

The immediate impact of the project can be seen in the following areas:

• Improved course data within the CMS system
• A shared course coding for the CMS and SRS systems
• Better course data coding structure which is future proofed
• XCRI-CAP feed for undergraduate courses registered with the Aggregator service.

 

As a result of the Course Data project, a review of the course data on the University External Marketing website has been undertaken by the University’s Web Management Group and standardisation and guidance on content across all course descriptors is being rolled out. This will make it easier for potential applicants to understand our course descriptions when evaluating courses on our website.

 

The project has provided a wide range of opportunities for collaborative working and discussions across institutional ‘silos’, exposing gaps in our current practices and allowing an institutional buy-in to change.

 

Future Impact

Implementation of additional course types to the XCRI-CAP feed will have a positive impact on prospective students, particularly postgraduate applicants who do not currently have access to the same breadth of course data information as undergraduates.

 

Implementation of the new course data structure within University systems will have a significant impact across the Institution. The new course data structure will be future-proof and will enable improvements to a number of processes, through consistent use of coding and related practices. In addition, there will be more immediate benefits in terms of aiding reporting and data mining. When fully implemented, we expect this to enhance the production of our statutory returns by addressing some of the gaps we identified at the start of this project.

 

Future marketing opportunities will be explored with the use of outputs from the Course Data Tech projects demonstrated at the “Course Data Show and Tell”. Of particular interest are social media projects: the Facebook Application, the UCLan Mobile Apps rebranded as a BSU course search application.

 

Conclusions

Providing a robust infrastructure that underpins the CMS system and its marketing function, whilst also linking this dataset to other internal sources of supplementary information has provided us with the most opportunities to develop the XCRI-CAP and other potential feeds. Adopting the principle of collecting course information only once and reusing this for a wide range of purposes, enhances the quality and reduces the likelihood of disparity.

 

SITS was introduced at BSU in the early 1990’s.  Since that time, both the SITS database and the institution’s portfolio of courses have broadened and diversified so that we are no longer utilising the functionality to best reflect what we now deliver (and what we plan to deliver in the future). Our proposed new course infrastructure enables us to re-evaluate and future proof our core data.

 

Our initial aim to adopt a “big bang” approach to changing the institutional course infrastructure has proven unrealistic and can only be undertaken following broader and deeper analysis of all downstream feeds and processes.

 

Recommendations

We recommend that BSU continues to build upon its existing XCRI feed, expanding it to include the full range of courses and learning opportunities available as these evolve.  If this is to be achieved, it is imperative that our course infrastructure continues to evolve to include every learning opportunity. Failure to act upon this recommendation would mean that we could face similar difficulties in the near future.

 

We would like to recommend that JISC continues to work with potential consumers of the feed to sell the benefits of utilising a standardised dataset across the sector.

 

We would also recommend that any relevant outcomes from the work of the HE Information Landscape Project are incorporated within the XCRI-CAP specification.

 

We would recommend that any institution embarking on the same journey to develop an XCRI-CAP feed starts with the basic building blocks of their course infrastructure – by doing this, we have been able to instigate the feed whilst enhancing other course reporting and management processes.

 

Contact details:

Project Director Tessa Griffiths

Project Manager Chris Stedham

Contact email  c.stedham@bathspa.ac.uk

Project Web URL http://jisccoursedata.bathspa.ac.uk/