SURF X4L Main Reports and Outputs

The SURF X4L project is now complete and its main outputs are now available:

Culture Change, Pedagogy and Organisation


The “practice-focused” work of the SURF X4L partners in these areas is summarized in:
 
Introducing the Reuse and Repurposing of Content as part of the embedding of eLearning - A guide to good practice and problem areas in cultural, educational and organisational change
Author:  Professor Mark Stiles, Staffordshire University,

The “Stories”
This document has been built on a synthesis of the accounts and evaluation of work done at each of Stoke on Trent College and Shrewsbury College.   These “stories are each available:

SURF X4L - The Stoke Story
Author: Steve Blakemore, Educational Technologist Team Leader, Stoke-on-Trent College

SURF X4L – The Shrewsbury Story
Authors: Richard Booth, ILT Co-ordinator and Dave Shearan, E-learning Project Champion, Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology

Technical Strand

The technical strand of SURF X4L was carried out at Staffordshire University and covered a number of areas, including packaging, interoperability, an various trials using, and enhancements to, the COSE VLE in the areas of content import, export and metadata carried out mainly with a view to enhancing COSE as a system promoting content exchange and re-use.

A report:

Reuse and Repurposing of Resources for Content Exchange, including Technical Considerations on Interoperability
Author: Edward Clarke, Staffordshire University

Is available, its contents include:

Introduction
An Export option for standalone content
Testing Content Interoperability
Project work and view on SCORM
Enhancing Metadata functionality
Linking to E-resources: a brokered approach in federated searching
Viewing third party content packages and importing content components
Accessibility
Identifying and Exploring E-resources
Ideas for further development
Outputs and Outcomes
Conclusions

Specific sub-sections of the report are available as separate documents :

Lists of Resources Produced


Each College has produced a list of the resources produced as a result of the project.  The lists indicate which resources are being made available outside of SURF via deposit in JORUM.

Resources from Stoke on Trent College

Resources from Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology

Staffordshire University also produced a small number of resources; these will be made available via JORUM

Accessibility Report


The Royal National College for the Blind, Hereford, was a minor partner in the SURF X4L project and produced an informal report which evaluates some of the technical work done by the project, and a number of the resources built by the two main partner colleges.

Evaluation Of Surf X4L Outputs
Author: Sue Garrett, ICT/ILT Development Officer, Royal National College for the Blind

The COSE Virtual Learning Environment


New versions of COSE have been produced which incorporate outputs from the SURF X4L Project.  These are available free of charge from the COSE Website

The COSE 2.1 manual supplement  describes the first COSE release to offer standalone content objects as a new interoperable option in content packaging and interchange. It also describes contributed effort in making COSE more accessible through use of screen readers.

SURF X4L Formative Reports

Bi-annual Report (August 2004)

Bi-annual Report (February 2004)

Bi-annual Report (August 2003)

Bi-annual Report (February 2003)

Powerpoint Presentation prepared for programme meeting at Warwick July 2003



Other Reports from Staffordshire University

September Update prepared for X4L-Wales and Midlands Cluster at Warwick, Sept. 2003.

illustrates use of standalone content objects generated in COSE VLE, imported to other applications, learning systems and repositories (reload, intralibrary, blackboard v. 5.5)

December Update prepared for X4L-Wales and Midlands Cluster at Telford, Jan. 2004

further illustrates use of standalone content objects imported to other learning systems and repositories (tekniCAL v. 4.1, granada learnwise 2 and olympus, webCT v4,(new version of intralibrary)and describes work integrating reload code for viewing and editing metadata

August Update prepared for X4L-Wales and Midlands Cluster at Kettering, Sept. 2004

illustrating further work integrating RELOAD code, developments in ICE (integrating e-resources) using JAFER / d+ toolkit, and discussion of ADL SCORM RTE integration

July 04 - The COSE 2.1 manual supplement describes the first COSE release to offer standalone content objects as a new interoperable option in content packaging and interchange. It also describes contributed effort in making COSE more accessible through use of screen readers.

Further upgrades will be released in due course to reflect further work including different organization elements, an interoperability feature often used in third party host environments to render the content, including a more accessible ('screenreader') organization element.

October 04 - technical report and update for ICE

(Further) Dissemination Events

September 05 - Abstract submitted for workshop at ALT-C, Manchester

TBA at JISC RSC, Wolverhampton (see ALT-C submission below)

Other Reports from Shrewsbury College

Aug 04 report SURF X4L Evaluation Report

Feb 04 report Developments

Feb 03 report Progress on locating and repurposing content

Other Reports from Stoke-on-Trent College

June 04 Stoke college work in progress / file downloads

Feb 03 report Notes on software  

X4L-Wales and Midlands Cluster

JISCMAIL Archives 

©Staffordshire University, 2003

Last Updated, 23/09/05, Mark Stiles