Integrated Content Management Model
FIGURE 12: UML ACTIVITY DIAGRAM FOR INTEGRATED CONTENT MANAGEMENT MODEL
Typified by
Characteristic |
Description |
| Number of courses | Any |
| Complexity of provision | Any |
| Number of sources | Single authoritative source of courses information in a content management system or document management system. Other data sources may feed into this system. |
| Quality of authoring | Good quality authoring with managed work flow. |
| Data structures | Well defined data structures designed to enhance quality of authoring and to provide high quality outputs for publication. |
| Update frequency | As frequent as desired by authors. Outputs can be instigated at any time and will usually be controlled by requirements of internal and external agencies. |
| Audit trail | Audit trail exists at every stage, so that content can be rolled back to earlier versions if desired. Functionality exists for editing drafts and for approving documents for publication. |
| Centralisation | Usually fully centralised, although some types of course may not be included (for example short or CPD courses). |
| Process capability | At least a managed process (planned and executed in accordance with policy; employs skilled people who have adequate resources to produce controlled outputs; involves relevant stakeholders; is monitored, controlled, and reviewed; and is evaluated for adherence to its process description) |
| Technical capability | Moderate technical capability. It is likely that existing technical and organisational infrastructure for this solution would support the addition of XCRI-CAP outputs. |
| Organisational context | Moderately benign organisational context; co-operation from managers of the CMS required. |
| Resources | Some resources required for developing the XCRI-specific outputs. |
TABLE 5: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INTEGRATED CONTENT MANAGEMENT MODEL
Description of scenario
The HEI has implemented a content management system, built on an Oracle database, so that academics and administrators can record all their courses information in a single authoritative source from inception onwards. The CMS supports work flow management for authoring all types of courses information, including validation documents, curriculum development, marketing, and feeding into the HEI’s MIS and Admissions systems. It enables editors to store draft documents during the creation and modification process, and provides the ability to approve documents for publication in a wide variety of output formats. All course advertising information for the HEI stems from the CMS, which provides services for various publishing formats, including the HEI’s website, prospectus, advertising leaflets, and a small number of external data collecting organisations. The HEI would prefer all users of their course advertising information to obtain the data from the CMS’ services, but a number of external organisations require the data to be re-keyed.
In a variant of this scenario some of the courses information is entered directly into an integrated Management Information System and linked via course identifiers to the CMS. The MIS holds critical operational information such as approval and vacancy information, as well as data for statistical returns. This information can be output within XCRI using an information flow linked via the course identifiers.
Example: London Metropolitan University
Although the diagram below does not describe a complete implementation of the CMS model, it shows its major characteristics.
