Supporting learning at the library

1
Supporting learning at the library

• Towards integrating LMS and digital library
  technology at Penn
• John Mark Ockerbloom
• CNI Task Force Meeting
• December 6, 2002

2
The goal Bring together opportunities for
learning

• Universities are all about learning, and teaching
• through individual research and publication
• through class study and teaching
• The library is a commons for bringing together
  knowledge, and learners themselves
• Both class teaching and library resources
  increasingly use digital resources
• and often from the same source (e.g. electronic
  library reserves for courses)
• Common technology and tools should help both

3
What wed like to do

• Make it easy for scholars to find digital library
  resources and include them in their teaching
• open Web, licensed resources, ereserves, original
  material
• not just static documents, but dynamic services,
  local and remote
• Let them retain, preserve, and share material
• personal and course portfolios
• shared course materials workspaces for teachers
• public dissemination
• Institutional repository deposit?
• Support new ways of teaching and learning more
  effectively
• including targeted techniques for specialized
  applications

4
Bringing together diverse knowledge sources
5
Bringing learning resources outside the course
6
Penns strategy

• Bring LMS support into the library
• And work on integrating reserves, digital library
  services
• Support LMS architectures that can improve
  learning outcomes
• Open architectures (e.g. OKI) supporting
  best-of-breed integration
• System interfaces that integrate LMS, digital
  library capabilities
• Develop and test new content tools
• for smoother workflow for instructors, students,
  librarians
• for better integration of content and services
• for reuse of materials in new contexts
• (may involve conversion of data, domain-specific
  metadata)
• Reshape library space and services
• to better support learning in a digitally rich
  environment

7
The Open Knowledge Initiative

• Multi-year open development project
• Funded by the Mellon Foundation
• MIT and Stanford are lead universities
• Other universities, including Penn, are
  development partners.
• Deliverables
• Open, layered architecture and APIs for
  educational SW
• Open source example implementations of the APIs
• Exemplar tools using the APIs
• Why we like it
• Designed by and for its users (universities)
• Encourages integration and cooperation, for both
  commercial and academic efforts, including our
  own
• Expands choices and raises standards in software

8
We can build better course content management

• Easy drag-and-drop functionality
• Automatic inferences to avoid unnecessary forms
• Flexible metadata and access control
• Organizing diverse resources in workspaces
• which may or may not be associated with a
  particular course
• Smart modules for
• Defining dynamic services (e.g. search, channels)
• Classifying and converting content, metadata,
  references
• Interacting with digital library repositories and
  collections
• Compatible with OKI-compliant LMS
• So we can concentrate on where we have interests
  and skills, while leaving the other stuff we need
  to others

9
though some things are easier said than done

• Finding common data models and APIs
• SCORM learning object vs. OAIS AIP with METS
• What are appropriate APIs for search, repository
  fns?
• Finding usable software to implement them
• (multi-source simultaneous search, for instance)
• Lightweight protocols, collaboration, helpful
  here
• Keeping hassle factor low
• Inferring correct URLs for library resources
• Dealing with data format incompatibilities
• Maintaining ease of use in complex systems
• Enabling appropriate access control

10
Access control

• Challenge Make it easy to share material while
  protecting rights
• (of publishers, instructors, students)
• Gets trickier beyond course limits c.f. Clifford
  Lynchs paper
• Lockdowns, policy hard-coding not acceptable
• Institutions, groups need to determine
  appropriate policies
• May be different for active courses vs.
  repositories
• Useful tools to uphold policies
• Clear documentation of policies
• including LMS-processable form if possible
• Portable access and provenance metadata
• Created automatically where appropriate
• Clear visibility for access rights (and hooks for
  change)
• Make common practices simple, uncommon ones
  possible
• Trusted people better than trusted systems

11
The library evolves

• From shelving reserves to supporting courses
• Providing new digital points of service
• Integrating courseware with DL tools like
  searching, resolution, collection and repository
  control
• Cooperating with other divisions (campus IT,
  schools)
• Making the most of our nondigital assets
• Not just physical volumes, but also space, and
  expertise
• Example Collaboratory for Learning and Teaching
• In diffuse environments (like Penn), libraries
  are vital focal points for learning