1. Presentation by Sarah Currier
JLeRN Project Lead, Mimas
22 February 2012
CETIS Conference 2012 Learning
Registry Session:
Capturing Conversations About
Learning Resources

2. Amplifying
• Please use hashtags: #jlern #learningreg
• The JLeRN blog is here:
http://jlernexperiment.wordpress.com/
• Contact me at:
sarah.currier@manchester.ac.uk
• Get involved via Learning Registry lists:
Updates; Collaborate; Developers

3. Project overview
• JISC gave Mimas the job of setting up and
running an experimental learning registry
node (November-ish 2011)
• I started as Project Lead (0.25FTE) 5/12/11
• Nick Syrotiuk (0.2FTE) and Bharti Gupta
(0.25FTE) started as Project Developers, Dec.
2011 & Jan. 2012.
• Project funded to 31 July 2012.
• Working closely with JISC CETIS, The Learning
Registry and an informal Task Group.

4. JISC said …
“JISC will be participating in the Learning Registry project
by setting up an experimental node in the UK with a focus
on content from the higher education and cultural
sectors. Utilising the expertise and content available to
JISC, the project will explore contributing data and
analysing it. JISC hopes to collaborate with the Learning
Registry in exploring the infrastructure considerations and
to help specify and support useful applications.”
– Learning Registry website:
http://www.learningregistry.org/community/jisc

5. JISC said …
“JISC will be participating in the Learning Registry project
by setting up an experimental node in the UK with a
focus on content from the higher education and cultural
sectors. Utilising the expertise and content available to
JISC, the project will explore contributing data and
analysing it. JISC hopes to collaborate with the Learning
Registry in exploring the infrastructure considerations and
to help specify and support useful applications.”
– Learning Registry website:
http://www.learningregistry.org/community/jisc

6. JISC said …
“JISC will be participating in the Learning Registry project
by setting up an experimental node in the UK with a
focus on content from the higher education and cultural
sectors. Utilising the expertise and content available to
JISC, the project will explore contributing data and
analysing it. JISC hopes to collaborate with the Learning
Registry in exploring the infrastructure considerations and
to help specify and support useful applications.”
– Learning Registry website:
http://www.learningregistry.org/community/jisc

7. JISC said …
“JISC will be participating in the Learning Registry project
by setting up an experimental node in the UK with a
focus on content from the higher education and cultural
sectors. Utilising the expertise and content available to
JISC, the project will explore contributing data and
analysing it. JISC hopes to collaborate with the Learning
Registry in exploring the infrastructure considerations
and to help specify and support useful applications.”
– Learning Registry website:
http://www.learningregistry.org/community/jisc

8. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
• What do we mean by “node”?
• What options are there for Learning Registry
nodes?
• Where do they fit in the Learning Registry
model?

9. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
There are three levels of togetherness in the
Learning Registry:
• Nodes
• Networks
• Communities

10. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
We can:
(1) share data with others via a single node;
(2) widen our sharing to a network of nodes
with shared policies about access etc.;
(3) widen our sharing even further within
communities of networks.

11. Learning Registry Network Model
From: Learning Registry Resource Distribution Network Model:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1msnZC6RU9N72Omau0F4FNBO5YCU6hZrG1kKRs_z42Mc/edit?hl=en_GB

12. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
Nodes are the building blocks of the Learning Registry. They enable
decentralised networks for sharing data about learning resources
and their use.
• Anyone can set up a node wherever they like by installing the
node code and making it available to whomever they like.
• They can also restrict access to the node if they choose.
• Others can publish their data to the node, or extract anyone's
data from the node.
• A completely open node allows literally anyone to publish or
access data.
There are two kinds of node: common nodes and gateway nodes.
Each kind of node supports distinct activities.

13. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
There are two kinds of node: common nodes and gateway
nodes. Each kind of node supports distinct activities.
• A common node can support all the different specific
services you need to push, pull, distribute and process
resource data with any number of external sources, and
within a given network of nodes.
• A gateway node allows different networks to connect
with each other to share data. It provides a data
distribution connection between one network and
another, because nodes cannot belong to more than one
network, and a clearly defined pipeline is needed, for
security and other policy reasons.

14. Learning Registry Network Model
From: Learning Registry Resource Distribution Network Model:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1msnZC6RU9N72Omau0F4FNBO5YCU6hZrG1kKRs_z42Mc/edit?hl=en_GB

15. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
The JLeRN team have implemented a common
node, without requiring signatures to push and
pull data out of the node.
(In fact we’ve now implemented two common
nodes: more later from Nick and Bharti).
Until the JLeRN Team has some pressing use
case or strong steer for testing a gateway node,
we're working with a common node for now.

16. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
What can a common node do? Common nodes can offer five kinds of service:
• Publish Services allow data to be published to the node from external
sources. We can choose which publishing APIs we will support (e.g.
SWORD), but we have to (and we do) support the Basic Publish Service.
We’ve also responded to community use cases by developing OAI-PMH
feed publish (more later from Nick).
• Access Services allow data to be pulled, or accessed from the node or the
distribution network the node is part of. Again, different APIs (e.g. OAI-
PMH) can be, but don't have to be, supported.
• Distribution Services allow data to be replicated and transferred between
nodes. We’re looking at replication between our two nodes.
• Broker Services allow us to "augment, transform or process resource data
held at that node to produce new or updated resource data for access or
distribution". Interesting!
• Administrative Services, which "are used to query a node to obtain its
status or to trigger node administrative actions."

17. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
What can a common node do? Common nodes can offer five kinds of service:
• Publish Services allow data to be published to the node from external
sources. We can choose which publishing APIs we will support (e.g.
SWORD), but we have to (and we do) support the Basic Publish Service.
We’ve also responded to community use cases by developing OAI-PMH
feed publish (more later from Nick).
• Access Services allow data to be pulled, or accessed from the node or the
distribution network the node is part of. Again, different APIs (e.g. OAI-
PMH) can be, but don't have to be, supported.
• Distribution Services allow data to be replicated and transferred between
nodes. We’re looking at replication between our two nodes.
• Broker Services allow us to "augment, transform or process resource data
held at that node to produce new or updated resource data for access or
distribution". Interesting!
• Administrative Services, which "are used to query a node to obtain its
status or to trigger node administrative actions."

18. Learning Registry Network Model
From: Learning Registry Resource Distribution Network Model:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1msnZC6RU9N72Omau0F4FNBO5YCU6hZrG1kKRs_z42Mc/edit?hl=en_GB

19. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
What about Networks and Communities?
"A resource distribution network is a group of
one or more connected nodes, with each node
providing node services. All nodes in a resource
distribution network operate under the same
policies. Multiple resource distribution networks
MAY be established."

20. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
What about Networks and Communities?
"A resource distribution network is a group of
one or more connected nodes, with each node
providing node services. All nodes in a resource
distribution network operate under the same
policies. Multiple resource distribution networks
MAY be established."

21. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
Important things about networks are:
• Common nodes can be part of networks.
• Networks can be connected via gateway nodes.
• When networks are connected, this is called a network
community.
• A node can only be part of one network, and is subject to
the policies of that network. A gateway node is needed for
a common node to connect to a different network.
• Network policies include such things as security
requirements for sharing data via nodes in the network,
e.g. whether signatures are required, data deletion, etc.
• A network can be part of only one community (so if you
want your node to interface with other communities, you'll
need to set up and connect via a gateway node).

22. 1. Setting up an experimental node in the UK
What about communities?
"A network community is a collection of
interconnected resource distribution networks.
A community MAY contain one or more resource
distribution networks. A resource network SHALL
be a member of only one community.”
Open communities, or social communities, and
closed communities are both allowed.
JLeRN’s nodes are not currently part of any
network or community

23. 2. Exploring contributing data and analysing it
• Jorum metadata via standard, openly available
OAI-PMH feed of >15K resources.
– Required code development by JLeRN.
– Same use case from Open University (and likely
from others).
– Jorum also exploring framework for capturing
paradata about resources.
• Hackday tests (Scott Wilson from CETIS and
Andrew Green from Liverpool University).
– Exposed bug in Learning Registry code, now fixed.
• More please!

24. 3. Exploring the infrastructure considerations and
helping specify and support useful applications
Ideas -- > Use Cases -- > Useful services, tools, apps …
• Hackday ideas:
– Educational widget store ideas (Scott Wilson)
– Accessibility and learning resources (Terry McAndrew)
– Dynamic Learning Maps: complex and rich paradata?
(Suzanne Hardy)
– Tools for capturing paradata (Richard Goddard and
Julian Tenney).
• Dev8D ideas:
– JLeRN Paradata Developers’ Challenge: please enter!
• Entries due midday 24 Feb: ideas / use cases welcome.

25. 3. Exploring the infrastructure considerations and
helping specify and support useful applications
Ideas -- > Use Cases -- > Useful services, tools, apps …
• Today’s ideas:
– ??

26. Where to next?
• With 5 months to go, what should JLeRN do?
– Use cases? Services? Tools? Additional nodes?
Networks and Communities? Dissemination activities?
• What recommendations should we make to JISC
and the wider community?
– Ongoing funding for a test node? A node service?
Funding for any of the above activities?
Let’s return to this at the end of the session!
Thank you! Over to Nick and Bharti …