Funded by the: Jisc e-Learning programme.
Lead Institution: Lancaster University.
Learner Provider Type: Higher Education
Project Duration: January 2012 - March 2013
Key Words: Course Data
Case study tags: course data, process improvement, course information, lancaster university
Note: This is an abridged version of this project's final report. The full version is available here.
Project Summary
Compared to many institutions embarking on this project, Lancaster University was very fortunate to be able to build on the foundations of an already existing centralised course management system. This system, the Lancaster University Student Information system (LUSI), was developed internally in 1998 and has been progressively enhanced over the years to form the main repository for course data within the University.
For Lancaster, the benefits of undertaking this project centre around the opportunities afforded once the provision of an XCRI-CAP feed have been made available. Although there has not been the scope to engage with external partners during this phase, it is appreciated that being able to collaborate with other agencies with a standard data format and with a rapid response to new requests are enviable qualities in a rapidly changing marketplace. An example of this is the use of this data to allow international partner institutions to publish selective courses from a dynamic list of Lancaster’s offerings (and perhaps others) without the need to build bespoke systems tailored to a particular institution.
Now engaged in producing this feed, Lancaster has been able to use this project as a vehicle to assess the quality and scope of the course programmes stored within LUSI, and to enhance the ability to publish this information with confidence and ease.
The Jisc funding for this project has not only allowed this project to run effectively to completion, but has also allowed overlapping projects to maintain their resources ensuring their success too.
The data repository has needed modification to allow full compliance with the XCRI-CAP schema, and the existing extract mechanisms used for other external agencies such as the HEFCE returns have been enhanced by the inclusion of this more comprehensive data.
What did we learn?
Before the commencement of this project, it was already widely understood throughout the University that Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses were well controlled, and managed within the Course Data database (LUSI). There was however little appreciation of the quantity or quality of other courses that were inadequately represented within LUSI. This project has helped to identify two categories of these non-standard courses:
Courses that should never be published
Including courses that have been laid down, courses that are not available for enrolment but that can be transferred onto, and part-time courses that are also advertised as full time courses.
Courses could optionally be published
Including courses from partner institutions, short courses, and non-qualification courses.
Feedback from this identification has allowed us to focus on the quality of the data in these areas. These courses have subsequently either been correctly marked up to indicate their publication status or have been dropped from the database.
Increased systems and data knowledge
By keeping our senior and most experienced developers involved in this project, they have been able to further broaden their understanding of our Course Data, its usage and quality.
Awareness of external Course Data Developments
The networking opportunities, the frequent updates from the Jisc team and the collaboration initiatives surrounding the marketing of Course Data, have all proved to be very stimulating and informative. This valuable insight will no doubt lead to further projects and successful marketing opportunities once this project has been completed.
Immediate Impact
Course Approval and Information Tool
This new tool within LUSI has now released to all LUSI users with responsibility for maintaining course structure data.
New processes and procedures have been rolled out resulting in tighter control of course changes, their approval, and ultimate delivery. This has already raised the profile of course changes that previously were auctioned in an ad-hoc manner, and perhaps without proper regulation. As this tool has only recently been released, there are no figures yet for the number of courses that have been changed through it that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Every Lancaster University programme will now be reviewed annually as a result of this project.
Web changes
With the enhanced provision of course data within the LUSI database, changes have been made to the Online Course System to show the extended data and this has been used extensively for all of the undergraduate courses which were covered by the KIS project.
Future Impact
Lancaster University hopes to see the XCRI-CAP standard used ubiquitously throughout higher education for the publication, and interchange of Course Data, and appreciates the benefits that being ready to join in this movement will bring. Once this stage of the programme has completed, Lancaster will begin earnest investigation into the uptake of the XCRI-CAP standard, and the potential uses to which it may be put.
Without further collaboration, the standard may be used to further enhance the provision of course information via our own website, and we see that being able to share this with our partner institutions especially international ones will be particularly valuable.
Conclusions
General
For Lancaster University the “Course Data: Making the most of course information” project has been a very worthwhile exercise. Some of the issues that have been addressed along the way were known shortcomings beforehand, but previously there had not been the opportunity to address them. This project has provided that opportunity, and in its delivery, several other overlapping projects have benefited significantly too.
Undoubtedly, there would have not been this synergy, if the timescales for this project had been different. Running hot on the heels of the KIS project, and at a time when course approval processes were also under review, has made a much greater impact for Lancaster University than if the XCRI-CAP project had been delivered in isolation.
Wider Community
... it is hoped that the XCRI-CAP schema will be widely adopted. Whether it is or not is yet to be seen, however the outputs from aggregator collaborations are already beginning to have an effect on the expectations in the marketplace for the access to course information. Having a substantial base of contributing institutions, will hopefully prove significant and it is now possible that XCRI-CAP will lead market expectations.
Jisc
The Jisc funding proved to be essential to Lancaster University for this project to succeed. Indeed, Lancaster would not have embarked upon a project with this particular remit without such funding. Being flexible in the allocation of this funding to the contributing teams, has allowed the shared resources from overlapping projects to all benefit, and this in turn has been the cornerstone to Lancaster’s success with this project.
Recommendations
It is difficult to generalise on recommendations that would be useful to other institutions. During discussions with other institutions at the meetings, and via forums, it is clear that each institution has its own distinct challenges, and that with our bespoke Course and Student Information system (LUSI), there will be little chance for sharing the methods and systems that we have used.
Our one recommendation therefore is that all institutions carefully assess their own provision of course information, and in light of outcomes from this project, and should not be put off embarking upon such an undertaking.
Further details: email and contact names etc
Project Director Katrina Payne
Project Manager Martin Knowles
Contact email m.p.knowles@lancaster.ac.uk
Project Web URL: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/coursedata/lancaster.aspx
