Planning & Process

XCRI-CAP has been developed to enable learning providers to publish online prospectus information in a standard format that facilitates efficient collection by aggregator and broker agencies (such as UCAS and the Skills Funding Agency).

Current methods for passing prospectus information from learning providers to aggregator organisations, such as UCAS, typically involve re-keying data already used to populate institutions’ prospectus websites into bespoke web-based forms designed by the aggregators. A sector standard for electronic publishing and collection of prospectus information offers clear benefits in terms of accuracy and comparability of content, agility for responding to changes, cost-savings on data entry and re-use for value-added services.

For an introduction to planning and process issues, we have made available a link to a November 2008 article first published by JISC CETIS entitled "Courses? What courses?
Can learning providers manage their course advertising information better?".

XCRI-CAP also supports major initiatives in the Higher Education sector, such as the Key Information Set (KIS) and the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR).

Introduction to Implementation Models

XCRI-CAP is designed for two primary purposes for which planning and implementation of process improvements are key:

• For publication of course advertising information for consumption by the learner without re-formatting or further classification, in a manner similar to an RSS newsfeed;
• For data exchange between learning providers and data collection organisations, for example between UCAS and its member institutions.

The management processes and information flows for these two purposes might not be aligned within the learning provider's systems, and each provider may place greater emphasis on one or other purpose.  Furthermore the provider may be able to make internal use of processes serving the first process, for instance in populating its own websites.This introduction to implementation models is based loosely on process improvement models for characterising the attributes of an institution as a way of assessing its 'XCRI readiness'. Thirteen different attributes have been defined, ranging from the number of courses, through data structures, to availability of resources; each one having a defined scale from 0 to 4.

We have illustrated here both a generic course advertising function in an HEI and some process models and associated scenarios of practice for XCRI-CAP implementation. Five main models have been included:

• Simple single stream output
• Outsourcing
• Feedback
• Multiple source aggregation
• Integrated content management

A range of problems based on the XCRI readiness characteristics has been described and associated solutions suggested; for each one, links are given to further information and illustrations.

The following diagram shows how course advertising information fits into the learner and course life cycles.

COURSE ADVERTISING INFORMATION IN A HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION