Post on 28-Mar-2015
University of Leeds Academic ServicesUniversity of Leeds Academic Services
PORTOLE Project - Providing Online Resources to Online Learning Environments
Tracey Stanley and Mina Sotiriou
University of Leeds
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Scope
A resource list/discovery tool which enables tutors to:– Search for information from the web and their
local library catalogue.– Bring records across into a course module
within a VLE.– Add annotations and other contextual
information.– Present the resource list to their students
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PORTOLE: Project Partners
University of Leeds (lead partner)– University Library– Learning Development Unit
University of Oxford RDN
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Key drivers
To encourage wider use of the RDN and other information resources through the development and use of tools which enable tutors to discover quality-assured information resources.
To encourage integration of RDN resources within a local digital library environment.
To provide an enriched learning experience for students through the use of annotations etc.
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VLE Environment
Working with the University of Leeds VLE (Bodington).
Bodington is an open source project.
In use at both Leeds and Oxford. Built on Java, Java Servlet platform Building based metaphor Tutors can add buildings and
rooms– (represented internal as
directory structure) Tutors can add resources (web
pages, “quizzes”, meeting places, etc.)– (represented internally as
objects within directories)
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JAFER
Oxford-based project - funded under JISC 5/99 Java based Z39.50 client/server toolkit for
cross-searching of databases JavaBeans for querying Z39.50, SRW, JDBC
databases JavaBeans for handling cross-searching
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Demonstration of results
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Issues raised by the project
Academics don’t use the RDN:– Awareness of the RDN is high, but on the
whole, academics prefer to use Google.– Academics feel able to judge the quality of
resources for themselves, and don’t feel the need of an intermediary service which does this for them.
– They do have concerns about their students’ use of the web in relation to quality.
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Issues (2)
Resource discover for reading lists:– Some tutors claim that they don’t need to
search for new resources as they already know what to put on their reading lists (eg: favourite web sites, core texts etc).
– This view differs widely from subject to subject.
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Issues (3)
Student interface:– The tool could be used by students to discover
resources and recommend these to their peer group.
– Issues relating to quality cause concern amongst some academics.
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Issues (4)
Need for inclusion of other information sources:– The tool would only be truly useful if it also
included the ability to search for journal articles etc.
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Issues (5)
Relevance ranking:– Difficult to achieve as different databases use
different algorithms.– Many of the source databases we used don’t
perform relevance ranking themselves.
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Impact evaluation
Portole has been released as a test service. Evaluation with small number of academic staff,
who will create resource lists for ‘real’ modules. Follow-up with their students on their experience
of using the list. Will lead to further development and full release
of the tool.
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Possible future developments
Use of OpenURL to enable resource discovery from journal article databases, and other additional search targets.
Student searching interface. Development of a standard XML schema
for resource lists. Additional functionality – eg: alerting for
library staff.
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Key lessons learned
Unlikely to be of interest/relevance to all subject areas. Those who rely heavily on ‘classic’ texts are less likely to be interested than those where the subject is changing rapidly.
Little recognition of the value of the RDN, but we hope that improved visibility through Portole will help to address this.
The system needs more search targets to be truly useful. Project acted as a useful model for how cross-institutional
collaboration could work in relation to development of an open-source VLE.