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[ 2004 Proceedings Contents ] |
EdNA Online offers a range of Shared Information Services that enable the presentation and reuse of content from its database through external websites. A number of institutions have implemented the EdNA Online Shared Information Services on their websites. The case studies will highlight use of these services by Australian universities' websites and other education and training related websites. The session will include information about the available services and technology solutions and a demonstration of websites that have embedded such services.
Javascript service is available for Recently Added Items, Browse and News Headlines.
The EdNA Online Shared Information Services are available in different technology options:
| Option | Use |
| HTML | Websites that are not XML-programmable. Basic web authoring skills (HTML, CSS) required. Content from EdNA Online is presented within the 'look and feel' of the embedding site. Paging, forms, or navigation capability available. URLs - EdNA Online's. |
| Javascript | Websites that are not XML-programmable. Basic web auhoring skills (HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT) are required. Content from EdNA Online is presented within the 'look and feel' of the embedding site. Forms, paging or navigation not supported as content is integrated with the site's 'look and feel' and page structure. URLs - from the embedding website. |
| RSS | Websites that are managed by a Content Management System that supports RSS. EdNA Content is embedded using the Content Management System. Forms, paging or navigation not supported as content is integrated with the site's 'look and feel' and page structure. URLs - from the embedding website. Also - personal use of EdNA content feeds into desktop/web based RSS reader. |
| XML | Websites that are XML-programmable. Fine grained control over the look and feel of embedded EdNA content. URLs - from the embedding website. |
Case Study 1: Government Education Portal
The Government Education Portal http://www.education.gov.au/ presents education and training information from authoritative Australian Government, State and Territory sources. Content for the portal is sourced from the EdNA Online database. The portal uses EdNA Online XML API for delivery of information categories and the EdNA Online Search XML API.
Case Study 2: James Cook University Library
James Cook University Library provides access to a number of news sources, including the News Headlines from EdNA Online
http://www.library.jcu.edu.au/News/Headlines/. The site offers a drop down selection menu of a number of news feeds, such as ABC, BBC News, Sydney Morning Herald, Chronicle of Higher Education and others. Most news material is not education specific, with the exception of Chronicle of Higher Education, which however is presented only as a link to the site itself. This makes the EdNA Online News Headlines the only specialised education/training related news source offered currently.
Case Study 3: University of Tasmania, Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies (ACYS)
ACYS provides information products and services for those working in the youth field and for anyone with an interest in youth. The site includes a Topics section where newsfeeds from EdNA Online are included under the 'Education' heading http://www.acys.utas.edu.au/topics/educat.htm. The site aims to provide a comprehensive listing of education and training related resources, including news materials. The newsfeeds from EdNA Online currently include: Higher Education News Headlines, VET News Headlines, and Government Education Portal News Headlines.
Case Study 4: University of Western Australia - Website Office
The University Website consists of over 100 individual web servers across the campuses maintained by faculties, departments, centres, staff and students. The co-ordination of on-line publications is headed up by the University Website Office. The page XML Demo http://www.uwa.edu.au/web/demo demonstrates a couple of simple XML/RSS feeds from EdNA online. The page provides information to website administrators, on adding content to the CMS used by UWA MySource that performs XSL transforms on XML. The page offers information about using two RSS feeds from EdNA Online: Higher Education News Headlines and Scholarships, Fellowships, Awards Calendar. The UWA is an example of using the EdNA Online RSS technology within a CMS.
Case Study 5: University of Technology Sydney - Institute for Interactive Media and Learning (IML)
The Institute for Interactive Media and Learning (IML) assists UTS, its faculties, academic units and staff in achieving their academic aims in learning and teaching, including the appropriate use of new information technologies. The IML website contains a News section http://www.uts.edu.au/div/iml/news/ offering a selection of newsfeeds from a number of sources: EdNA news feed, Stephen Downes OLDaily, Online Learning News, Higher Education Resources Online, W3C news feed, A List Apart: designing with web standards, and Web Standards Project. The IML website is a major source for information about content management within UTS. The university uses Site Manager (SM) content management system. Together with UWA, this example presents an opportunity for EdNA Online to investigate the use of RSS feeds within the universities' Content Management Systems.
Case Study 6: Training.com.au
training.com.au is a federal initiative designed to facilitate discovery and accessibility of information about the vocational education and training sector in Australia. The site provides users with news from reliable quality assured services. training.com.au uses the EdNA Online VET Headlines RSS news feed as part of a consolidated service which also takes feeds from NCVER and the site's own internal feed. This newsfeed can be seen at:
http://www.training.com.au/anta/cda/page/news/0,,a1534_b3101_f-vet-news,00.html.
education.au limited (2004) Shared/Common/Web Services - Discussion paper. [viewed 21 Jul 2004] http://www.educationau.edu.au/papers/shared-services.pdf
White, G. (2004) E-learning: Australia's achievements in education and training. [viewed 21 Jul 2004] http://www.educationau.edu.au/papers/CeBIT_gw.pdf
Putland, G., Leeson, J. & Hendrick, G. (2003) Re-engineering the national online services (EdNA Online) for education and training in Australia [viewed 21 Jul 2004]. http://www.educationau.edu.au/papers/edna.pdf
| Please cite as: Ivanova, N. (2004). EdNA Online Shared Information Services: Case studies. In R. Atkinson, C. McBeath, D. Jonas-Dwyer & R. Phillips (Eds), Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference (pp. 455-457). Perth, 5-8 December. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/ivanova-poster.html |
© 2004 Nelly Ivanova
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