Year-End Status 2009
2009 was a year of substantial progress for the Digital Marketplace. Prior to 2009, DM development was technology driven due to the challenge that the technology issues originally presented. As these issues have been worked out and reflected in the DM architecture and tool set, work was accelerated in 2009 to integrate the DM with learning applications and support specific campus-level learning workflows. With improved understanding of the role and value of DM services in these workflows, the DM team has been able to consider innovative approaches to some of these workflows and to the digital delivery of learning resources overall. A major campaign, the Affordable Learning Solutions (ALS) campaign, was launched in the fall throughout the CSU. The DM will provide the enabling services to implement the features of ALS in 2010. Below is a snap-shot of the status of various DM projects at year-end.
The outlook for 2010 is for more integration of learning applications with DM services, continued expansion of the functionality of the services, introduction of a new business model under which to acquire content, and accelerated implementation of selected services on CSU campuses. 2010, in short, is the roll-out year for the Digital Marketplace.
Designed, built, and ran a Library "Pay-Per-View" pilot with Xerxes, MetaLib, CCC, and a major content provider. This pilot offered a new interlibrary loan option, digital delivery. The content was delivered to the requester electronically in minutes versus days under the current system. Based on the success of the pilot, effort is underway to establish a new service roll-out plan for participating CSU campuses.
Established a development license with SoftChalk, a vendor of authoring tools, to evaluate the effort needed to integrate a commercial authoring tool with the DM services. SoftChalk implemented modifications which will publish authored content to ScholarWorks, a CSU repository built on DSpace. Based on the success of this effort, SoftChalk will be offered as an authoring choice to faculty in the Affordable Learning Solutions campaign. Integration with WorldImages, MERLOT was also completed. A DM discovery tool was built based on extensions to Xerxes and evaluated by CSU San Bernardino. Further improvements are planned for 2010.
Continued engagement with AFB. Studied industry efforts for federated search of accessible content. Studied migration of CAM to use DSpace and DM services. Metadata for accessibility has been reviewed by CAM and published. SoftChalk added support for DM Accessibility Metadata.
Met with representatives of all categories of DM stakeholders: faculty, students, campus store managers, campus leadership, wholesalers, and publishers (both commercial and open). Developed a licensing business model designed to offer a new scenario for the higher education publishing marketplace. Proposed a pilot featuring the digital delivery of commercial learning materials paid for via the content licensing business model. Presented that model to six CSU campuses: San Bernardino, Fullerton, Long Beach, Dominguez Hills, San Francisco, and San Diego. We currently expect to have a total of 25-50 courses participating in the pilot starting in summer/fall 2010.
Refined the "Get It Now" student acquisition of content and workflow to connect to a resource list repository (using DSpace). Further tested accessing DM transaction services through an LMS (specifically Blackboard). Validated student ecommerce value proposition with commercial ecommerce provider, Verba Software. Added links for profile information from campus applications. Added VitalSource as a development partner to evaluate the delivery of ebooks directly through the Digital Marketplace.
Developed the story of the needs to be fulfilled and the method of operation of a campus digital store for the Digital Marketplace. Incorporating input from four CSU campuses' store staffs, illustrated student accounts, tenders, material acquisition and delivery formats, tracking, and customer service as well as processes for timely course materials adoption collection, research, and management. Initiated dialogue with four representative campus commercial auxiliaries managers/directors, bookstore directors, and I.T. staff. Reviewed college bookstore Point-of-Sale/Inventory Management systems for ecommerce operations, materials and digital delivery, records and tracking, and faculty/customer support organizations. Identified several areas of potential DM/Auxiliary partnerships for future pilot programs.
Clarified the exposition of the architecture (documentation) and greatly increased the services detail. Building off GIN, the service interfaces and metadata are now spelled out in sufficient detail to review and code against. Architecture has been reviewed by Verba Software. Metadata for accessibility has been reviewed by CAM.
Centered content workflow from authoring and discovery through acquisition on the establishment of a campus content repository using DSpace for evaluation. Established interface specifications for such a repository. Built an LMS harvesting tool to load such a repository and provide continuity for critical learning content.
Established initial requirements for storing transaction service data.
2009 CSU