Joining Up: Virtual Learning Environments Digital Libraries and Interoperability Issues Santy Chumbe

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Joining Up Virtual Learning Environments
Digital Libraries andInteroperability Issues
Santy Chumbe
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Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)

• content pages,
• discussion forums,
• chat,
• quizzes and exercises,
• etc.

students
Internet
Web server
teacher

• Commercial, e.g. Blackboard
• Open Source, e.g. Moodle

Perhaps A Virtual Environment of Learning ?
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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!
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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

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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 )

"googlization" of digital libraries ?
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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
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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
• OPAC
• Google
• Scirus
• e-Jurnals
• etc

DL middleware
VLE system
VLE
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What are the big challenges for effective VLE-DL
integration?

• VLEs are still monolithic and closed
  enterprise-level-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 )

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MG XPower SV
Rigid computer systems played a big part in the
decline of the British motor industry and the
eventual collapse of Rovers
Normandy Fort, France, which was an almost
immediate white elephant when it was built,
because the Napoleonic wars ended before it was
completed.
Prof. Matthias Holweg, author of Who Killed MG
Rover?
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How integration is possible in life?
Standards and Norms
Plug and Play !
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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.

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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.

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VLE DL Integration
SRU server
SOA middleware
SRU client
Java/Tomcat
PHP/Apache
PerX and Blackboard VLE Integration Diagram
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Technical joined up-ness?

• Availability of standards, models and
  specifications for DLs and VLEs

• Availability of standards, models and
  specifications for DLs and VLEs

• VLE-DL integration using WS and SOA is a
  "future-proof solution.

• VLE-DL integration using WS and SOA is a
  "future-proof solution.

• Proprietary solutions are now beginning to appear
  (Building Blocks (Blackboard), PowerLinks
  (WebCT))

• Proprietary solutions are now beginning to appear
  (Building Blocks (Blackboard), PowerLinks
  (WebCT))

• Search and access e-learning objects directly
  from and within VLEs modules

• Search and access e-learning objects directly
  from and within VLEs modules

• See the library status of items on reading lists
  without going into the library catalogue

• See the library status of items on reading lists
  without going into the library catalogue

• Read around in the research literature
  (inter-linking)

• Read around in the research literature
  (inter-linking)

• Connect to third-party databases and full-text
  services without inputting my ID and password

• Connect to third-party databases and full-text
  services without inputting my ID and password

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References
A little bit "old" but still a good book to
understand the principles of DL http//portal.acm.
org/citation.cfm?id863700 DL study at Master
and Phd Levels http//portal.acm.org/citation.cfm
?id1141787 An early experience of VLE-DL
integration in the UK http//library.ulster.ac.uk
/4i/deliverables/outputs/Uhomoibhi20Informatica.p
df Practical experiences Creating VLE content
with standards http//www.reload.ac.uk/interop.htm
l
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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
  ?arnumber991449
• http//www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue40/morgan/

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Thank yousantiago_at_macs.hw.ac.uk

• Please tell us what you think of VLE-DL
  integration
• http//www.techxtra.ac.uk/index.html?actionf
  eedback

(http//business.scotsman.com/ebusiness.cfm?id
207612007 )

• These slides are available at
• http//www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/santiago/vle-dl/

• A pilot for VLE-DL integration at HWU, is here
• http//vleap2.hw.ac.uk