Outcomes
Aims
The aims of the project were:
| Aim | Achievement |
| To implement and evaluate the NIMLE student portal infrastructure as a way of managing the delivery of flexible lifelong learning | The NIIMLE student portal infrastructure was proved to work with minimum modification in the SURF and WETN environments. The only changes required were to NIIMLE configuration files and database views at the institutions. |
| To improve the learner experience by providing easy access to a personalised collection of essential information, applications and electronic resources. | The portal provided easy access to personal, course and transcript information and access to electronic resources and VLEs but as the portal could not be piloted, the improvements to the learner experience were not achieved. The JISC SURF WBL-Way project builds on the SUNIWE portal development work and has much the same aim so it is hoped that the intended improvement in the learner experience will eventually be realised. |
| To enable the learner to log in once to access all the information, applications and resources. | The portal was configured to work with the single sign-on system as part of the Shibboleth implementation but the Web services could not be secured using Shibboleth so this aim was not achieved. |
| To provide a foundation for tracking flexible student learning plans across institutions. | The service-based approach proved that it was possible to aggregate information to support student learning plans across institutions but the lack of a security solution, once again, meant this could not be demonstrated. |
| To enable learner interaction in business processes such as learner data reconciliation. | The project proved that it was more of an organisational than a technical challenge to provide personal information from multiple institutions to enable learner interaction in data reconciliation. Web services and channels were developed for this purpose but the lack of a pilot meant that the aim was not achieved. |
| To implement a service-oriented approach to integrate the enterprise applications in each consortium to provide dynamic data via web services. | The project developments have formed a first step towards a service-based approach to sharing information within the project partners. Barriers to further development are the lack of available electronic data and the lack of a security solution. Work to develop a security solution and promote a coherent approach for data storage and access across each consortium will continue. The data protection agreement will form the basis of a SURF-wide data protection agreement enabling all SURF members to participate in the service-based system as it is developed. |
| To improve enrolment operations between student record systems and VLEs via services. | This was not achieved. |
Objectives
The objectives for the project were defined by the collection of envisaging scenarios and use cases which illustrated the functionality and services required from the point of view of the user.
| Objective | Achievement |
| To enable display of current college course and university module titles and descriptions | This was achieved as part of the View Module List, Module Information and e-Resources channel. |
| To enable display of transcript / learner record information (course results, etc) | This was achieved as part of the View Module List, Module Information and e-Resources channel. |
| To enable display of personal information (name, address, telephone, etc) | This was achieved as part of the View and Change Personal Information channel. |
| To enable sending of learner requests to update personal information | This was achieved as part of the View and Change Personal Information channel. |
| To enable launching of course content in VLEs from links in the portal | This was achieved as part of the View Module List, Module Information and e-Resources channel. |
| To enable direct access to e-Resources from links in the portal | This was achieved as links to the MyAthens collection of Web-based resources. |
| To enable direct access to library catalogue system from the portal to view books on load and reserved | This could not be achieved because of technical limitations of the library catalogue. |
| To Automate enrolment operations between the student records system and VLEs via IMS Enterprise Web Services. | This was not achieved because it was the lowest priority objective and resources allocated to it were diverted to the Shibboleth work. |
| Implement Shibboleth to secure the portal, applications, e-resources and Web services to allow single sign-on access to all applications and resources accessed from the portal. | The portal was secured using Shibboleth but Shibboleth was ultimately found to be an incapable of supporting the SUNIWE portal/Web services environment so this objective was not achieved. |
Outcomes
The SUNIWE project set out to create a portal to support learners and pilot and evaluate it. Ultimately, the project failed to pilot the portal but there are some valuable lessons to impart about the process of creating a portal-based system, the cultural, organisational and political issues involved in cross-institutional data sharing and the technical challenges of securing such a system.
The project development team have gained expertise in portal channel development, IMS Enterprise Web service development, Shibboleth, and Web application security. At SURF, this expertise is being utilised in the JISC SURF WBL-Way project which builds on the work of SUNIWE and the JISC SURF WBL project to implement a portal to support employers, mentors, tutors and learners involved in work-based learning in Foundation Degrees.
Project outcomes have been disseminated via several JISC events. The data protection agreement and the details of the development process have generated considerable interest in particular. It is hoped that the Shibboleth experiences will enable other projects to readily understand the scope of Shibboleth and determine the suitability for their project.
Methodology
The RUP methodology provided an essential framework for the development process but there were limitations to the approach as well as good points.
The iterative and incremental aspect of the RUP approach suited the R&D nature of SUNIWE but implementing iterations proved troublesome. It was difficult to get the development team together as frequently as was desired because of the time involved in travelling to and from and attending face to face meetings. This was a consequence of the project team being spread over three countries. Future projects would benefit from planning regular meetings at the start of the project to avoid delays trying to schedule meetings during the project. An alternative approach would be a focused effort where the consultant works continuously with the development team for the first few iterations to get the development process started.
RUP encouraged a focus on production of working software but it was easy to drift towards artefact creation, i.e. documenting the software instead of creating it. In future developments a greater focus on prototyping and less emphasis on documenting requirements would give better results. Use cases were essential to capture only features of value to the user but documenting the use cases could be done in an informal manner. Formal use case descriptions were overkill for the simple use cases in SUNIWE.
The SURF WBL-Way project is using an Agile approach for the creation of the WBL portal. Agile development has many of the good features of RUP but has even more emphasis on measuring progress in terms of working tested software instead of documentation.