A Guide to Implementation: Implementing XCRI-CAP

How an institution implements XCRI-CAP or any review of its courses information will depend on its own particular infrastructure, processes and policies. This Guide therefore cannot be prescriptive about whether or how each institution might plan and implement change. Past experience has shown that where problems exist, they tend to be organisational and people related, rather than technical. For this reason, many of the recommendations in this Guide and the questions in the XCRI Self-assessment Framework are focused on human factors. Any steps indicated here may necessarily be iterative, or may be re-ordered, dependent on the particular circumstances of your organisation.

Review Courses Information

You may wish to consider implementing XCRI-CAP within the context of a longer term and holistic review of courses information as a whole or the marketing aspects of it, so that MIS, marketing, courses systems and business processes can be integrated more efficiently. A typical organisational goal is to create one authoritative source of course marketing information useable by any institutional system or external course aggregator via XCRI-CAP enabled outputs. XCRI-CAP discussions can act as a catalyst for institutional assessment of internal processes and how these could be improved.

Lining up your key personnel and using the questions in the XCRI Self-assessment Framework (collectively or individually) can be a good starting point. Discussions on the issues raised can help to develop a collective and considered view of the institution's situation. This view can then lead to an action plan or similar start-up activities for planning for change.

Potential steps for review are covered in more detail by the XCRI-CAP Self-assessment Framework.

Pilot the XCRI-CAP Process

For some organisations, it may be a good idea to develop rapidly an XCRI-CAP export based on website course marketing information. There are three main objectives to this approach: a 'quick win' that produces useful course marketing information in the standard format, gaining experience of using the chosen technologies, and gathering knowledge about the organisation's relevant systems and processes.

Alternatively the implementation of XCRI-CAP services may be the result of a wider project or programme of change over the longer term.

Click on any of the steps below to find out more and refer to the Planning and Process section of the XCRI Knowledge Base.

Step 1 - Identify key personnel.
Step 2 - Review current systems.
Step 3 - Identify where the courses data comes from. 
Step 4 - Identify technical resources. 
Step 5 - Develop the XCRI-CAP feed. 
Step 6 - Publish the XCRI-CAP feed.