www.icbl.hw.ac.uk

Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

Joining Up: Virtual Learning Environments

Digital Libraries andInteroperability Issues

Santy Chumbe

www.icbl.hw.ac.uk

Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)

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

students

teacher

Web server

Internet

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

* Perhaps “A Virtual Environment of Learning” ?

www.icbl.hw.ac.uk

Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

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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Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

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

www.icbl.hw.ac.uk

Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

• Is DL just about search ("can I find it?") and access ("can I get it?“)?

Digital Library (DL)

That is basic and important, but DL is also about:

• Long term preservation

"googlization" of digital libraries ?

• Community (knowledge exchange )

• Institutional Repositories

• Interoperability (VLEs)

www.icbl.hw.ac.uk

Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

Scenario : a lecturer wants to provide some background reading for her students by making a list of some relevant reading resources

Catalogue Library

FileUpload

VLE without embedded DL (the ‘traditional’ way?)

VLE – DL Integration

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Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

VLE with embedded DL

DL middleware

VLE system

VLE

DL-OPAC-Google-Scirus-e-Jurnals-etc

Scenario : a lecturer wants to provide some background reading for her students by making a list of some relevant reading resources

VLE – DL Integration

www.icbl.hw.ac.uk

Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

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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Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

“Rigid computer systems played a big part in the decline of the British motor industry and the eventual collapse of Rovers”

MG XPower SV

Prof. Matthias Holweg, author of “Who Killed MG Rover?”

Normandy Fort, France, which was an almost immediate white elephant when it was built, because the Napoleonic wars ended before it was completed.

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Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

How integration is possible in life?

Plug and Play !

Standards and Norms

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Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

VLE – DL Integration

• 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)

are both partners ready for marriage?

• Ideally both, VLE and DL, are SOA-compliant.

www.icbl.hw.ac.uk

Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

• VLE : Full (client) Web Services support (SOAP / REST (XML, HTTP))

• DL : Full (server) Web Services support (SOAP / REST (XML, HTTP))

VLE – DL Integrationare both partners ready for marriage?

• Middleware : SOA compliant with full XML support.

• DL : e-Publishing identification and retrieving (DOI, openURL, crossRef)

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Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

SRU

server

SRU

client

SOAmiddleware

PerX and Blackboard VLE Integration Diagram

PHP/Apache Java/Tomcat

VLE – DL Integration

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Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

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

Technical joined up-ness?

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

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

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

• Search and access e-learning objects directly from and within VLE’s modules

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

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

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

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

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

• Search and access e-learning objects directly from and within VLE’s modules

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

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

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

www.icbl.hw.ac.uk

Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

References

A little bit "old" but still a good book to understand the principles of DL

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=863700

DL study at Master and Phd Levels:

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1141787

An early experience of VLE-DL integration in the UK:

http://library.ulster.ac.uk/4i/deliverables/outputs/Uhomoibhi%20Informatica.pdf

Practical experiences: Creating VLE content with standards

http://www.reload.ac.uk/interop.html

www.icbl.hw.ac.uk

Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

• 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?arnumber=991449

http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue40/morgan/

Standards and Specifications

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Interoperability with virtual learning environments - The Digital Library – VLE integration case -

Thank yousantiago@macs.hw.ac.uk

• These slides are available at:

http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/~santiago/vle-dl/

• Please tell us what you think of VLE-DL integration http://www.techxtra.ac.uk/index.html?action=feedback

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

• A pilot for VLE-DL integration at HWU, is here:

http://vleap2.hw.ac.uk