We have some travel and other expenses included, to enable us to meet up with other jiscLMS projects and to share what we learn on the project, and to pay for food and incentives for users who are involved with our user testing.
Showing posts with label projectPlan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label projectPlan. Show all posts
Monday, 10 May 2010
Project Plan Post 7 of 7: Budget
Here's our project budget! (and this is the last of the "project plan" posts, so, dear reader, you can relax as we return to our normally scheduled blogging about progress and things we've learned.)
We have some travel and other expenses included, to enable us to meet up with other jiscLMS projects and to share what we learn on the project, and to pay for food and incentives for users who are involved with our user testing.
We have some travel and other expenses included, to enable us to meet up with other jiscLMS projects and to share what we learn on the project, and to pay for food and incentives for users who are involved with our user testing.
Project Plan Post 6 of 7: Projected Timeline, Workplan & Overall Project Methodology
Our project has a number of overlapping stages. Given that we're developing a portfolio of widgets, with some common elements, some of these activities will be repeated for the different widgets; and some early activities will be "infrastructure" creation, such as developing links with the institutional repository, which will be needed for most of the widgets later on.
Here's our project timeline - we're already well underway!
We will follow a lightweight, agile development model, aiming to deliver frequent rough prototypes for user testing with students where possible, and staff outside of term. This approach has delivered successful JISC projects before, and is closely linked to the JISC Users and Innovation Development Model. In addition, we will apply our expertise in user-centric design which derives from the JISC Academic Social Networking project.
- Setting up of a project blog, Google Code site etc. Allocation of staff time and resources.
- Identification of a sample set of library materials for a usable and useful prototype.
- Identify target student groups in liaison with faculties and departments.
- Investigation of course and exam codes as used by the student registry. Adoption of file naming and storage strategy for course materials to allow retrieval by course code. Link up with student registry data to tie course codes in with student authentication in a widget environment.
- Creation of routine to automatically retrieve library materials relating to a student's course into a widget. Design of clear and logical display for library/course materials retrieved.
- Integration of course materials delivery with existing library widget.
- Production of prototypes
- User testing of interface.
- Rollout of live version. Launch and marketing within and outside university.
Here's our project timeline - we're already well underway!
We will follow a lightweight, agile development model, aiming to deliver frequent rough prototypes for user testing with students where possible, and staff outside of term. This approach has delivered successful JISC projects before, and is closely linked to the JISC Users and Innovation Development Model. In addition, we will apply our expertise in user-centric design which derives from the JISC Academic Social Networking project.
Project Plan Post 5 of 7: Project Team Relationships and End User Engagement
Dr. Dan Sheppard will manage the project from CARET, and brings extensive software development expertise and also project management experience of cross-departmental projects, particularly with the University Library.
A project board, comprising representatives of Cambridge University Library and the University of Cambridge Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies will take responsibility for overseeing the project:
News flash!
Dan is this term's Arcadia Fellow at the University Library, so Laura is stepping into the breach as interim project manager. We look forward to having Dan back for the bulk of the project...
We will follow a lightweight, agile development model, aiming to deliver frequent rough prototypes for user testing with students where possible, and staff outside of term. This approach has delivered successful JISC projects before, and is closely linked to the JISC Users and Innovation Development Model. In addition, we will apply our expertise in user-centric design which derives from the JISC Academic Social Networking project - this has shown us how to carry out really good user testing.
A project board, comprising representatives of Cambridge University Library and the University of Cambridge Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies will take responsibility for overseeing the project:
- Patricia Killiard, Head of Electronic Services and Systems, Cambridge University Library
- John Norman, Director, Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies
- Dr. Laura James, Chief Operating Officer, Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies
News flash!
Dan is this term's Arcadia Fellow at the University Library, so Laura is stepping into the breach as interim project manager. We look forward to having Dan back for the bulk of the project...
We will follow a lightweight, agile development model, aiming to deliver frequent rough prototypes for user testing with students where possible, and staff outside of term. This approach has delivered successful JISC projects before, and is closely linked to the JISC Users and Innovation Development Model. In addition, we will apply our expertise in user-centric design which derives from the JISC Academic Social Networking project - this has shown us how to carry out really good user testing.
Project Plan Post 4 of 7: IPR (Creative Commons Use & Open Source Software Licence)
All software outputs will be released under an Apache2 licence, and all documents under a Creative Commons "BY" (Attribution) licence. This means that people can reuse our outputs, even commercially, which can support the creation of business models for more sustainable systems, including collaborative development across both nonprofit and commercial organizations.
You can see the CC licence at the bottom of this blog!
(Note I'm sticking with the British English grammar forms of licence/license :)
You can see the CC licence at the bottom of this blog!
(Note I'm sticking with the British English grammar forms of licence/license :)
Project Plan Post 3 of 7: Risk Analysis and Success Plan
As all the resources we will produce (code and documentation) are hosted on servers elsewhere (primarily Google's) we are confident that success in terms of hits can be managed.
If the widgets we create turn out to be huge successes with users within Cambridge, supporting them will form part of the "day job" of some of the project team members. Support for a popular codebase within other institutions would be provided through the community and by the project team.
Here's our risk analysis:
If the widgets we create turn out to be huge successes with users within Cambridge, supporting them will form part of the "day job" of some of the project team members. Support for a popular codebase within other institutions would be provided through the community and by the project team.
Here's our risk analysis:
Project Plan Post 2 of 7: Wider Benefits to Sector & Achievements for Host Institution
The integration of library resources and services with the University's VLE and social networking sites, particularly iGoogle and Facebook, is an institutional priority for Cambridge University Library. The Arcadia Fellowship Programme, based at the library, has already explored student information needs and identified the potential value of delivering library materials and resources to students in their workspaces in addition to conventional library-managed interfaces.
Through a partnership between the library and the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET), which develops and manages the VLE Cambridge has made significant progress in this area, having developed the Cambridge Libraries iGoogle Widget. This already provides most of the example functionality outlined in the call, enabling students to view their library profile, view and renew loans, and view and cancel requests (it lacks only the ability to pay library charges). It is fully integrated with the University's authentication system, and is currently live in Facebook, iGoogle and CamTools, the University's Sakai-based VLE. One strand in this proposal would be to document and share the code for the widget in its current state.
The Library and CARET will build on this foundation, to provide a joined-up and relevant combination of library services and resource delivery outside the traditional library environment. We will extend the use of widget functionality to the delivery of other library materials - such as exam papers, reading lists, handouts, content from the institutional repository, and generic subject lists. It will make use of university identifiers to retrieve student course details from CAMSiS, the student registry system and this course information will be used to provide relevance in the delivery of library materials. The result will be a potentially powerful model of evaluating student profiles to provide relevant library services alongside appropriate teaching materials.
A further stage of development will focus on mining these course materials for links to library resources. This will enable us to start delivering relevant library content to students beyond the immediate library web environment. We envisage that one deliverable of the project will be a clear outline of the next steps in this area, and possible implications.
This project is a partnership between the University Library and CARET, a strong combination in terms of both skills and institutional roles. The University Library is the main provider of content for the support of teaching and learning in the University, and is repositioning itself to support the processes of teaching and learning more directly. CARET are leaders in the development of innovative educational technology, and are also the developers and operators of CamTools, the institutional VLE.
This project will produce a number of widgets delivering access to library content within social networking sites and VLEs in partnership with the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies. It will explore opportunities for making content delivered through widgets relevant to the user by linking to course-codes held by the student registry. The project will assist the wider take-up of widgets for library-related content by making the code for the existing widget and those developed through the project openly available along with documentation and guidance.
Through a partnership between the library and the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET), which develops and manages the VLE Cambridge has made significant progress in this area, having developed the Cambridge Libraries iGoogle Widget. This already provides most of the example functionality outlined in the call, enabling students to view their library profile, view and renew loans, and view and cancel requests (it lacks only the ability to pay library charges). It is fully integrated with the University's authentication system, and is currently live in Facebook, iGoogle and CamTools, the University's Sakai-based VLE. One strand in this proposal would be to document and share the code for the widget in its current state.
The Library and CARET will build on this foundation, to provide a joined-up and relevant combination of library services and resource delivery outside the traditional library environment. We will extend the use of widget functionality to the delivery of other library materials - such as exam papers, reading lists, handouts, content from the institutional repository, and generic subject lists. It will make use of university identifiers to retrieve student course details from CAMSiS, the student registry system and this course information will be used to provide relevance in the delivery of library materials. The result will be a potentially powerful model of evaluating student profiles to provide relevant library services alongside appropriate teaching materials.
A further stage of development will focus on mining these course materials for links to library resources. This will enable us to start delivering relevant library content to students beyond the immediate library web environment. We envisage that one deliverable of the project will be a clear outline of the next steps in this area, and possible implications.
This project is a partnership between the University Library and CARET, a strong combination in terms of both skills and institutional roles. The University Library is the main provider of content for the support of teaching and learning in the University, and is repositioning itself to support the processes of teaching and learning more directly. CARET are leaders in the development of innovative educational technology, and are also the developers and operators of CamTools, the institutional VLE.
This project will produce a number of widgets delivering access to library content within social networking sites and VLEs in partnership with the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies. It will explore opportunities for making content delivered through widgets relevant to the user by linking to course-codes held by the student registry. The project will assist the wider take-up of widgets for library-related content by making the code for the existing widget and those developed through the project openly available along with documentation and guidance.
Project Plan Post 1 of 7: Aims, Objectives and Final Outputs of the project
The project will build on the success of the iGoogle widget developed by Cambridge University Library to produce a number of widgets delivering access to library content within social networking sites and VLEs in partnership with the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies. It will explore opportunities for making content delivered through widgets relevant to the user by linking to course-codes held by the student registry. The project will assist the wider take-up of widgets for library-related content by making the code for the existing widget and those developed through the project openly available along with documentation and guidance.
We will deliver a portfolio of fully documented widgets released under an appropriate open source licence, which will work across iGoogle, Facebook, and Sakai (our institutional VLE) as far as technically possible. We will aim to deliver as many widgets as possible which are found useful in user testing, and to open up as much appropriate and useful library content through the widgets as we can.
Our project outputs will be:
We will deliver a portfolio of fully documented widgets released under an appropriate open source licence, which will work across iGoogle, Facebook, and Sakai (our institutional VLE) as far as technically possible. We will aim to deliver as many widgets as possible which are found useful in user testing, and to open up as much appropriate and useful library content through the widgets as we can.
Our project outputs will be:
- Widgets for: reading lists, past exam papers, lecture handouts and other course teaching content, and connections to other library content, delivered to students for their own courses using the student information system to create relevance information
- Software code with full and clear documentation for the Cambridge University Library iGoogle widget
- Guidance for libraries on code development for library widgets
- Recommendations for future development path for library widgets
- Project blog (which you are reading!)
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