Jisc case studies wiki Case studies / Course Data - Burton and South Derbyshire College
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Course Data - Burton and South Derbyshire College

Funded by the: Jisc e-Learning programme.

Lead Institution: Burton and South Derbyshire College.

Learner Provider Type: Further Education

Project Duration: End date 31 March 2013

Key Words: Course Data

Case study tags: course data, process improvement, course information, burton and south derbyshire college

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

 

Project Summary

Between 2011 and 2012 Burton and South Derbyshire College took steps to improve the quality and reliability of its course data. The process was completed independently of this project and had a positive impact within the organisation making course data more accessible and useful to prospective students and employers.

 

Following on from this the college decided to take part in the “Making the Most of Course Information” project to reconcile its prospectus information with this improved course data.

 

The project focused on the implementation of a catalogue system to collate this information and format it into an XCRI CAP feed. Secondly the project aimed to improve the online prospectus available on the college’s website using the information provided within the XCRI feed to keep course information as up-to-date and user-friendly as possible.

 

The project was complicated by unexpected departure of staff members involved and some restructuring of management within affected areas. As a result of this the implementation was delayed and eventually outsourced to third party contractors who were able to complete the cataloguing system within the timeframe of the project.

 

While this means that there has been a shorter period of time to reflect on the lessons learnt during the project, the project has gained some valuable perspectives from recruits who have come from other colleges and non-educational backgrounds.

 

What could have been improved?  What lessons have been learned?

The review primarily focused on evaluating the project’s potential in regard to the ease of updating information, the accuracy of the information that was collected and the speed at which information could be updated. The output from the review was an average score for ease, accuracy and speed both before and after the project which could be further condensed to an overall score.

 

The results at this stage serve only to reflect the potential for the outcomes of the project since the workflow is not yet in active use throughout the organisation. However, the feedback... still demonstrated a clear impression that the new systems would improve  the ease, accuracy and speed of information flows around the College with the average rating for all three measures improving from “poor” to better than “good” on each account.

 

The group also provided more specific comments and highlighted general issues which would be faced when moving to this distributed model of collecting course information. Technical problems with the software were not included in the results but were fed back to the developers for improvement. The themes identified by the group were as follows:

 

  • Some members of the group felt that information would not improve unless specific mechanisms were put in place for information to be checked on a regular basis. This highlights the need for a general review of procedures as the new workflow goes live.
  • Members of the group queried how course information would fit into the process of curriculum planning and who would assume responsibility for ensuring information is accurate. Once again this highlights the need to review procedures but also highlights the need for communication between departments during curriculum planning.
  • Members of the group felt that character limits on description field as imposed by XCRI CAP 1.2 were slightly limiting. The general feedback from the group was for the XCRI CAP specification to provide an increased character limit, however this may also highlight the need for training to help editors break down course information into the available fields more effectively.
  • There was general recognition that the project would raise issues relating to consistency and standardisation for the prospectus as a result of the distributed model our project has aimed for. Responsibility for resolving these consistency issues would sit with Marketing, however we are looking at other ways to reduce that workload such as adding “hints and tips” to the interface which guide users on what they should be writing as well as limiting the interface to reduce formatting problems such as inconsistent text size and colour.

 
A practical issue relating to the link between course data and course information was also raised. Specifically members of staff noticed that they were unable to choose programmes without a “presentation” occurring in 13/14. This means that an occurrence of a course must be added by MIS before it can be advertised publicly and was a desired behaviour; however it does add confusion for the users of the system.

Taking the numerical statistics and comments together it is possible to see some specific trends relating to the three main questions.

 

The biggest improvement was seen in regard to the speed that information would be updated, most likely because the staff members recognised that updates to course information were previously occurring very rarely. The comments from staff show that while they recognise the potential for increased frequency of updates, this will only be achieved if there is a clear message going to curriculum staff that they are responsible for their course information and that they need to make regular checks on it.

 

The Ease of updating information was also recognised by staff as being significantly improved by the project and this reflects well upon the software which was being demonstrated. Comments and suggestions for how to improve the software were mostly related to supporting the users through hints and other forms of feedback and this represents a significant finding which was largely missed during the initial development. By introducing such features into the interface of the course catalogue system it should be possible to encourage users to check the system regularly as well as improving the consistency and helpfulness of course information.

 

The accuracy of information was seen as the least improved area, largely because staff felt that information was already relatively accurate. This may be due to the fact that most of the staff members in the group were curriculum administrators who will actually be responsible for updating the information in most cases, but whom do not have a detailed understanding of the courses being offered in their areas. In order to properly gauge this point a larger scale review would need to be conducted including members of staff responsible for the delivery of courses within the college.

 

Overall the group were very positive about the potential for this new workflow; however they clearly recognised that there were new issues which would be raised by the shift in course information ownership from Marketing to Curriculum.  Concerns about how the process would be managed, communicated and documented exemplified these feelings. 

 

Immediate Impact

The immediate impact of the project on Burton and South Derbyshire College has been the review and redevelopment of its course information workflow. From this the course information workflow is being opened up to curriculum staff around the college and this is in turn empowering more staff to keep their information more relevant and better quality.

 

The project has pulled representatives from all of the departments involved in the process and given them an opportunity to explore new solutions to how course information is gathered, as well as the new opportunities that this work enables. Working in this way has enabled the college to tackle significant issues with cross-college impact and it is likely that this model with be utilised again in the future for other challenges.

 

The course CAPES software is another tangible output of the project, and while it is not planned to be “live” to staff members around the college until June 2013, it is already enabling the college to hold its course information in a centralised way which can be related to course data.

 

The software has also enabled the college to generate and maintain an XCRI CAP 1.2 information feed for FE and HE courses that it offers. This feed will be available to any third parties who are interested and should be much easier for them to obtain than previously was the case.

 

The redevelopment of the online prospectus system is another very significant impact of the project; allowing the site to take advantage of the new XCRI CAP feed by regularly updating to display up-to-date information. It will also display additional information held within the feed such as presentations of courses, locations, qualifications and places on the course.

 

Future Impact

With the experience which has been gained through this project the college has a better understanding of the challenges that exist around maintaining continually-up-to-date course information and making it available to third parties.

 

In the future the “CAPES” software will be further developed to meet the additional needs. In particular the system may be expanded to provide more on-screen information to editors and help them maintain standards. The development team will also consider methods to improve on how information is formatted and contained within the XCRI CAP format including the use of the Course Data Programme Schema from www.xcri.co.uk.

 

The project has also raised issues relating to curriculum planning and how this relates to the marketing of course; for example at what stage is a course publicised? The college will need to review its procedures in this area to answer these questions.

 

Conclusions

At Burton and South Derbyshire College, the “making the most of course information” project has highlighted many new issues as well as new opportunities. To achieve the goals of the project the college has taken a journey to restructure its course information workflow, unchaining it from the printed prospectus schedule and allowing updates to course information whenever they are needed.

 

This push for continually accurate information has, in turn, required more open access to course information both internally and externally to the organisation.

 

Internally the workflow for updating course information has been opened to a wide group of staff which incorporates representatives from each curriculum area. This in turn has highlighted new issues around consistency and curriculum planning which will have to be resolved in the future.

 

The development of the CAPES software has been an important resource in enabling this open workflow within the college whilst maintaining a single point of control for consistency and accuracy by the marketing staff.

 

Externally this information is now available openly in a standardised and flexible format. Due to the improved workflows in the college the data will be more accurate and will be as up to date as possible.

 

The XCRI CAP format itself has many advantages over previous methods of sharing course information; making it possible to expose relevant course information to external partners and other third parties without security concerns. Doing this in a standards-compliant way makes the resource even more useful and relevant for various uses.

 

There are however technical limitations which had to be worked around when trying to convert the college's existing course information; mostly caused by older information not being broken down into the XCRI CAP fields. Where XCRI CAP did not provide a field for certain types of information such as meta-tags it was necessary to use an extended definition from www.xcri.co.uk as recommended by the JISC team. While this has made it possible to work around these limitations within the XCRI CAP structure, there seem to be multiple options in doing so and as a result it is a concern that different approaches may emerge from different organisations in the sector.

 

Overall the XCRI CAP format has proved to be a useful way of sharing and transferring course information and clearly its benefits outweigh any disadvantages.

 

The development of the CAPES software to enable open access to course information has also been an important part of the project. It is conceivable that course information could be updated either via emails or some bolt-on product to an organisation's MIS system; however the specialised system which has been developed as part of this project has major advantages.

 

Initially having an independent system means that course information can be converted and updated within a closed environment which removes many risks from the process. The specialised nature of the system also makes it possible to control access to it more accurately and to customise its interface to support staff in writing consistent and accurate course information. Finally, acting as a central point for controlling what is published, the marketing department can use this software and maintain total control over what does or doesn’t appear in the prospectus.

 

On the other hand the college found that restrictions imposed through the end user license agreement of its MIS software meant that it was difficult to synchronise updates made within CAPES with the data held by MIS. By extension it means that changes to course data must be made within the MIS, while course information will always be held separately to the MIS course database.

 

Recommendations

In moving to the continually updated workflow for its course information, the college has seen a host of immediate and future benefits. This work is being seen as a foundation from which the organisation can continue to develop the functionality available on its website and the relationship it holds with third party organisations. As such a primary recommendation based on the college’s experience would be to ensure that course information can be updated as openly as possible at any time during the year regardless of any other schedules the organisation may have.

 

Before making such a change organisations will need to consider the guidance and procedures they will offer for staff members who want to update information on the prospectus.

 

  • Who will have access to make these changes?
  • How will this access list be maintained?
  • What level of control will editors have over formatting?
  • How often will course information be checked and how will this be enforced?
  • How often will course information edits be checked and authorised?

 

Alongside this recommendation it should also be considered that an organisation must ensure that its processes for curriculum planning and course marketing take the course information workflow into account.

 

  • When does a course presentation get advertised on the prospectus?
  • Do new presentations of a pre-existing course get published automatically?
  • When does course information get removed from the prospectus?

 

In regard to the XCRI CAP standard, there are several areas in which the standard itself or advice on the XCRI CAP wiki could be improved to encourage consistency throughout the sector:

 

  • Character limits on certain fields such as the <course> <description> have the potential to cause problems. Raising the character limit would be an ideal solution; otherwise clearer guidance needs to be given on how organisations should work with the limit such as provided by www.xcri.co.uk.
  • Categorisation of courses within the prospectus can be achieved using the <course>< type> field, but guidance on whether this should be focused on departments or subject areas would be helpful.
  • A high priority for an online prospectus is making courses easily searchable by users. We have utilized the Course Data Programme Schema for storing tags or keywords within the XCRI CAP 1.2 specification.

 

 

Further details:

Project Director: Rachel Jones

Project Manager: Vaughan Dyche

Contact email: Vaughan.dyche@bsdc.ac.uk

Project Web URL: http://bsdcxcri.jiscinvolve.org/