CLASM – Video: Richard Davis – Pitch 2 – Day 2

devcsi-team — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:11:13 +0000

SWORD Repository deposits from Moodle

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CLASM – Interview: Richard Davis

michelle-pauli — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:41:10 +0000

Richard Davis, development manager in the digital archives department, University of London Computer Centre talks about Copyright Licencing Application using SWORD for MoodleWhat is CLASM and what problem is it tackling?CLASM stands for Copyright Licencing Application using SWORD for Moodle. Working in reverse, the Moodle is a virtual learning environment (VLE) application, widely used, open source, free and the scenario that we are addressing, as pretty much everyone who has ever been to a university will know, is that tutors used to give you bunches of photocopied stuff from books and that had to be copied under the Copyright Licensing Authority (CLA) regulations. In any institution the authorities, usually vested in the library, have to keep a record of the things that have been photocopied - or these days scanned – so that they can make a return, if required, to the CLA. It’s an auditable process and there are restrictions.The Moodle VLE, like any web system, allows people who are designing online courses to upload materials for their students to use. So a tutor will scan material and upload it to the VLE but the VLE doesn’t really manage this stuff well. There is another popular class of application in the field – repository software which has a lot of features appropriate to bibliographic information etc and this software is better for managing this stuff.The idea behind CLASM is that if, instead of letting tutors just upload stuff to the VLE where the auditors may never see it again, if they put it in a repository instead then the library has access to it. But we don’t want tutors to have to learn a new system so we want to keep them in the VLE they are accustomed to so we made a plug in so when they upload their stuff to the VLE it is stored in the repository even though they may not even know that. And so the library auditors can track the material and make sure it is being used in accordance with CLE terms. It keeps tasks in appropriate sill areas.How would you like other software developers and users to get involved in what you are doing?I think the we want to get users involved because what we are trying to do is see how different institutions manage this. In some universities the request for materials must come from the tutor to the library but we hope to be able to shortcut that process by allowing, once the request has been made to the library for the library staff themselves to deposit that material back in.What developer communities have you been involved in and if none, why not?This one! The JISC developer community and also widely involved with the community of developers in the repository area and this is where the project originates from. I’ve done a lot of work with repository developer communities and elearning communities – I’m doing a Masters in elearning. So this is a synthesis of my previous work in repositories and work in field of elearning.What is the coolest or most exciting thing in educational software development?Mobile learning – the fact that one can do this stuff anywhere with a decent iPhone or equivalent.

DevCSI | Developer Community Supporting Innovation » CLASM

CLASM – Video: Richard Davis – Pitch 2 – Day 2

CLASM – Interview: Richard Davis