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Cloud collaboration: Using Microsoft SharePoint as tool to enhance access services
No full textProper knowledge-base access and document storage has long been an issue for the Document Management Team (Access Services) at the Information and Library Services of University of Maryland University College. Team members researched Share-Point and decided it could be exploited as a combination of intranet and cloud computing technologies. SharePoint?s features allow it to be a 1-stop location tomanage information in a secure, efficient, remotely accessible, and consolidated manner. The team could then reduce redundancy and knowledge gaps by using the collaboration and communication features. This article will discuss the steps the team took to transition several previous avenues of document storage and knowledge base access into SharePoint, specifically in the case of creating a troubleshooting wiki for remote circulation locations.Cloud Collaboration: Using (Microsoft) SharePoint as a Tool to Enhance Access Services
Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, Dennis Nangle
University of Maryland University College
Abstract
Proper knowledge base access and document storage has long been an issue for the Document Management Team (Access Services) at Information and Library Services of University of Maryland University College. Team members researched SharePoint and decided it could be exploited as a combination of intranet and cloud computing technologies. SharePoint’s features allow it to be a one-stop location to manage information in a secure, efficient, remotely accessible, and consolidated manner. The Team could then reduce redundancy and knowledge gaps by using the collaboration and communication features. This paper will discuss the steps the Team took to transition several previous avenues of document storage and knowledge base access into SharePoint, specifically in the case of creating a troubleshooting wiki for remote circulation locations.
Introduction
Remote access to information, knowledge sharing, and communication play pivotal roles in distance education. The growing popularity of cloud computing combined with intranet technology has made achieving this much easier. The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has chosen Microsoft’s SharePoint product as an internal information sharing solution that combines the best features of both intranets and cloud computing, such as security, ease of use, and remote accessibility. This article will focus specifically on facilitating internal staff communication and collaboration across remote locations by using SharePoint as an intranet and cloud computing solution.
Background
The University of Maryland University College has a strong history of distance education. UMUC was founded in 1947 “to provide off-campus, evening, and weekend courses for adult, part-time students throughout the state” (Hudgins, 2000, p. 1). Within a decade it was offering classes at military installations around the world. UMUC currently has a worldwide headcount of over 86,000 students in over 20 countries (University of Maryland University College, Office of Institutional Planning, Accountability and Research, 2009). Information and Library Services (ILS), formed in the early 1990s, works diligently to support faculty, students, and staff in their research needs.
Although UMUC has worldwide office locations, the library is currently located in Maryland. In the past, there were satellite libraries in Germany and Japan. The library support for these locations is now remotely handled by ILS. Within the State of Maryland, ILS has three remote circulation pick-up and return locations. Although they are all physically located in the same state and time zone, communication and training was historically uneven and unreliable.
ILS’ Document Management Team (Access Services - Circulation and Interlibrary Loan) struggled with the best way to handle training and documentation for these remote circulation points over the years, as well as their own internal documentation and communication. Since library circulation is not the main responsibility of the non-library staff at these remote circulation points, it is extremely important to keep all documentation current and accurate, and to maintain open communication to answer questions and provide additional training as needed. There is also a need to keep this knowledge current at the main library location and to streamline the workflow through efficient communication and collaboration. An early attempt at documentation was three-ring binders. These were difficult to keep current as each binder had to be manually updated across all locations when procedures changed. Then, a staff member attempted to create an online circulation manual that pointed to material on a shared network drive. While this was a step forward in centralizing and digitizing the documentation, it never got off the ground due to security issues. Next a standalone wiki was created. This seemed promising as it was easy to access from the remote locations and it was easy to update. Documentation only needed to be updated in one location, and was then accessible by all who needed to use it. Yet, the wiki was located on a local computer that was not backed up on a regular basis. The staff constantly worried about the computer crashing and losing everything in the wiki. Also, while the wiki was a great place for documentation and procedures, it did not really allow for staff collaboration and communication.
Intranets – a brief definition
Of the Document Management Team’s previous information sharing solutions, the online circulation manual could be most likened to an intranet-based solution. An intranet is a private network belonging to an organization accessible only by the organization’s members, employees, or others with authorization. Similar to the Internet, an intranet’s Web site looks and act just like any other Web site, but the username-and-password authentication surrounding an intranet fends off unauthorized access. Bottazzo (2005) defines the intranet as “…part of the organizational internal information system, dedicated to the support of group work and mastering of the organizational knowledge” (p. 79). Gunjal (2004) identifies central information storage and effective communication flows in organizations as some of the important attributes of intranets. Within libraries, Gunjal singles out the facilitation of information sharing as the primary benefit of an intranet as “it helps in dissemination of stored information as well as allows to access to remote information” (p. 9). For example, any paper documents can be converted into HTML and made Web-accessible on an intranet. Such documents can range from staff training manuals, policies, schedules, procedures, to calendars of events (Gunjal, 2009).
Weiner (1999) divides intranet functions at a university into three categories. These are administrative, academic and general. The administrative functions are concerned with finance, human resources, records management and course scheduling. The academic functions refer to research, course work, publishing and course administration. General refers to communication and public relations. This can range from calendars of events that display the programs and activities of the organization to a vast range of internal organizational information that may include employee lists, telephone and office number lists and geographic locations of departments.
Building on Weiner, Natarajan (2008) provides a list of some of the key benefits of an intranet: (1) Employees can share information and documents; (2) Any authorized staff member can easily update documents; (3) Teams can save time through online discussions instead of holding physical meetings; (4) Organization can access their vital information easily and quickly. The shared access provides a platform where documents are saved in a standard form at a specific location where every employee can easily access a specific document. The intranet’s bulletin or discussion board is an important outlet that allows employees to express their opinions and ideas. Employees can make use of a calendar of events on the intranet to arrange meetings and book other appointments. Gunjal (2004) conclusively asserts that “intranets are relatively cheap and easy to develop because they use the existing technology of the internet” (p. 14).
As much as intranets have emerged as an effective paradigm for information sharing, the UMUC intranet is set up as more of a one-way communication tool. In order to update or add information to the intranet, one must submit a request to the UMUC department that is responsible for its maintenance. Due to this delayed and inefficient method, the UMUC intranet could not serve as a proper consolidated space for multi-user collaboration. The University’s departments primarily use the intranet as a way to promote their department to the rest of the university; the intranet is not used in the ways Natarajan and Gunjal suggest above. As a result, the Document Management Team attempted to create an intranet of their own: an online circulation manual that was web-based, and linked to pages on the shared network drive. This approach was effective for those whose offices were at UMUC’s stateside headquarters, since they had access to this shared network drive. However, remote circulation staff was unable to view the manual, which essentially forced the Team to start at square one with their knowledge base. Also, due to the fact that the online circulation manual links to an internal drive, the IT department deemed it unsafe for remote access. The fact that the UMUC intranet was not set up as a document repository necessitated the Document Management Team to consider cloud computing as an optional knowledge base and information sharing system.
Cloud Computing- a brief background
The term cloud computing, while certainly prevalent in today’s technological discussions, came into prominence in 2006 when Google CEO Eric Schmidt started referencing the term in popular discussions (Nelson, 2009). Certainly, the term (and concept) has skyrocketed in popularity since then. However, a definition of cloud computing reflects the metaphor applied to the concept itself: anomalous and difficult to pin down. Archana Venkatraman (2009) offers an appropriate definition of cloud computing: “In cloud computing…the software resides on an [I]nternet server run by or on behalf of the software supplier, and users get to access the features of those applications via the [I]internet” (p. 16). Mike Gunderloy (2008) defines cloud computing more simply, comparing the difference between traditional and cloud computing to the difference between retrieving money stored under the mattress or at an ATM:
My attitude towards online information…was pretty close to taking my paycheck in cash, and stuffing it under the mattress because I didn’t trust a bank to hold it for me… Now we can treat the [W]eb much more like a bank with a network of ATMs: it’s a secure repository with a network of points where you can withdraw your information on demand. (p. 1)
A brief scan of recent library literature shows that cloud computing is lucrative for libraries of all kinds. Most libraries’ motivations for moving into the cloud are cost effectiveness and efficiency. Lynn Collier (as cited in Venkatraman, 2009), the Director of Archive and Compliance Solutions at Hitachi Data Systems, further explains the cost-effectiveness of the cloud: “A key prerequisite to cloud computing is to pinpoint where maximum savings can be made based on a realistic and accurate understanding of the content” (p. 17). Andrew Pace (2009), Executive Director for Networked Library Services at OCLC, emphasizes that the key benefit to cloud computing for libraries is to free up the librarians’ time to allow for innovation:
Despite a surge of online content being available to patrons, libraries will continue back-office operations for all types of materials. The more these workflows are industrialized and served by network-level applications, the more time and effort libraries can assign to other intellectual endeavors. (p. 649)
While there is plenty of documentation to prove the effectiveness of cloud computing, there are several concerns surrounding the adoption of this new technology. Paramount to all other concerns is the issue of security. John Sheridan (as cited in Venkatraman, 2009), head of e-services at the National Archives, explains: “While there is an exciting possibility and inevitability of the cloud model for the information community, concerns of portability, security, and privacy remain unsolved” (p. 17). It would appear that cloud computing’s greatest strength - ease of use and access - is also its greatest potential downfall. Another issue that commonly plagues cloud computing software is ownership (or lack thereof). Robin Hastings (2009) warns, “Data ownership is an issue any library must consider before making the decision to upload to a public server. Sensitive information like budget data, internal memos, or documents concerning major organizational decisions should never be uploaded to a public server” (p. 12). These two concerns cause many libraries to look at cloud computing as more of a recreational platform to reach out to patrons, and not a reliable location for sensitive internal data.
The Document Management Team saw the problems inherent in both intranets and cloud computing, but realized that the valuable functions of the technology were difficult to ignore. Intranets, while touting security, are frequently inaccessible to those outside of an organization’s range of IP addresses and its firewall. Cloud computing, on the other hand, is efficient and easy to access from any location, but is laden with security issues. With these concerns in mind, the Document Management Team was initially hesitant to migrate their information into SharePoint. However, after much research and trial testing, the Team realized that an effective approach to the SharePoint application could result in the creation of a “cloud intranet” -- an online environment that takes advantage of intranets and cloud computing’s strengths, while circumventing their inherent weaknesses. SharePoint became a consolidated storehouse of the Team’s information and knowledge base, all while maintaining a high level of security. The UMUC library’s recent move to a new physical location illustrates how effective the Document Management Team’s SharePoint site was as a functioning cloud intranet.
Move to SharePoint
ILS began investigating Microsoft SharePoint in 2008 while it was being piloted by the IT Department at UMUC. It quickly became clear to the Document Management Team that this could be what they were looking for in terms of bringing documentation, communication, and collaboration together in one place. Although having a “free,” institutionally supported program to use was a factor in the decision to use SharePoint, the product’s features and limitations were carefully considered before the Team decided to move forward. In the context that the Team is using SharePoint, it can be defined as both an intranet and cloud computing, or even cloud collaboration: “… unlike a simple intranet or collaboration solution, SharePoint also includes portal, Web content management and business intelligence capabilities” (Koplowitz & Owens, 2009, p.8). Although the Team had made progress over the past several years by moving from print binders to an online circulation manual to a wiki, nothing up to this point worked as a truly collaborative space. After some initial interest in SharePoint, several factors slowed down the migration process.
One reason for the slow start to the migration project was the turnover of several staff in the Document Management Team. This change in staffing was just one more indication that using SharePoint was a good idea: “The SharePoint approach helps limit the liability of concentrating knowledge in one person and minimizes the effects of attrition” (Fox & Deutsch, 2000). Having a primarily new Team was a great opportunity to switch the knowledge base to SharePoint and spread the knowledge around the Team as much as possible.
When the project did start taking shape, there was a conscious decision to not simply repeat what had been done before. The Team implemented best practices for the wiki so it would have a homogenous look and feel even though several different people were working on it. Initially, the Team simply moved documents from the messy, outdated shared network drive to the SharePoint document library. They then realized an opportunity to step back and rethink the hierarchy and structure of the information. As Koplowitz & Owens (2009) noted, “Just because the tools exist doesn’t mean the structure will build itself. Careful planning is required, and plans will need to adapt as new lessons are learned. Don’t take lightly the opportunity a blank slate offers” (p.22). Many documents became wiki pages instead of storing them in the SharePoint document library based on this thoughtful restructuring of the information.
In addition to asserting that libraries can use an intranet to access remote information, Gunjal (2004) states:
With increasing emphasis on resource sharing not only between libraries but between different branches and departments of a library, the intranet offers the potential to be a very important tool in libraries’ effort to make the most efficient use of their resources. (p.10)
The Document Management Team saw this potential in SharePoint and decided it would work very well for documentation and training at the remote circulation locations. Consequently, the next step in the migration to SharePoint involved setting up a site for the remote circulation points to use when needing to refer to policies, procedures, and documentation. This would replace the haphazard method of documentation these remote sites were currently using. The project was further spurred on by the need to train and provide documentation for the people staffing a new remote circulation location.
SharePoint Wiki for Remote Circulation Locations
In preparation for ILS’ move to the new UMUC Academic Center at Largo, Maryland, the Document Management Team worked with UMUC’s Office of Enrollment Management (OEM), which staffs the Information Desk at the library’s previous location, to provide a circulation point and train them on relevant policies and procedures. On September 3, 2009, the Associate Provost for ILS, Assistant Director for Systems and Access Services, and the Document Management Librarian met with OEM management to discuss the feasibility of the Information Desk becoming a remote circulation location. It was decided that OEM staff should be trained and given an opportunity to pilot being a circulation point while ILS was still in the same building. On September 14, 2009, the Document Management Librarian met with the Assistant Director of the Information Desk to demonstrate SharePoint as an informational and collaborative tool that could be used as a knowledge base for staff to refer to when they had circulation questions. The Assistant Director was very interested in using SharePoint and expressed an interest in also using it for his own team. The Document Management Librarian and Library Associate trained all of the OEM staff who work at the Information Desk on November 3-5, 2009. By November 17, 2009, the SharePoint wiki for the Information Desk was in its final form and location. Although this was specifically created as a result of this Information Desk becoming a circulation point, it was also intended for it to be used by the other remote circulation points. All of the remote circulation locations are now using the SharePoint wiki. The Information Desk officially became a remote circulation location on November 18, 2009.
The main SharePoint feature used for the new remote circulation documentation was a wiki. Although the Team had already been using a standalone wiki for documenting procedures, it was one of several places to look for this information and one was never sure what was current or accurate. The standalone wiki was also never backed up and the computer it resided on could crash or disappear at any time. Moving the wiki and all other documentation into SharePoint allowed for consolidation of information, all users know where to look for information, and can trust that it is the most recent version. Also, SharePoint is on a secure server that is backed up daily, so there is no fear of data loss.
The SharePoint wiki is easy to create and maintain using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. The Document Management Library Associate created the content for the wiki for the Information Desk and other remote circulation locations in November 2009. A student worker put the content into the wiki using the best practices guide, which was created as a SharePoint wiki page. The remote circulation wiki includes step-by-step directions for circulation functions and a troubleshooting section. It also includes a staff list of the Document Management Team including pictures. This was especially helpful during the training and transition phase.. It helped the Information Desk staff become familiar with the Team and to know who everyone was when a member of the Team dropped off and picked up books at the Desk during the transition. The three training sessions during the first week of November 2009 for the Information Desk Staff were face-to-face. After a couple of attempts to find the appropriate “home” for this wiki within the Document Management SharePoint site, the wiki was given its own site called “OEM & MD Ops.” Office of Enrollment Management (OEM) and Maryland Operations (MD Ops) are the depart
An Online Writing Coach Program for Graduate Students - DE Oracle
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An Online Learning Magazine for UMUC Faculty
Center for Support of Instruction
An Online Writing Coach Program for Graduate Students
Alexis Hill White
Director, Academic Administration
Graduate School of Management and Technology
Published: May-June 2010
Category: » University-showcase » Classes-programs
In spring 2009, to provide structured and individualized writing assistance to students early in their
programs, the Management, Accounting, and Finance (MAF) department in UMUC's Graduate School of
Management and Technology introduced writing coaches into the foundation courses of the Master of
Science in Management (MSM) program, the department's largest degree program. The writing coach
program focuses on MGMT 610, an organizational theory course, and MGMT 630, a 6-credit course that
combines organizational theory, organizational communication, and leadership.
Students enrolled in online, face-to-face, and hybrid sections of MGMT 610 and MGMT 630 have access
to the writing assistance offered through this program. Students are not required to use coaching
services but are strongly encouraged to do so since this service is offered only in the first courses for
the MSM.
The mission of the writing coach program is to provide students with strong fundamentals in effective
academic writing practices. Through quality coaching support, the program's primary goal is to improve
students' academic performance in general and writing skills specifically.
The objectives of the writing coach program are to:
Provide assistance for students requiring writing help.
Establish writing standards and expectations that students can carry into subsequent graduate program
courses and professional experiences.
Through highly detailed feedback, assist students in thinking critically about their writing and its
appropriateness for a given audience (e.g. an academic essay vs. a personal e-mail to a friend).
Provide a strong foundation in good writing skills.
Refer students to appropriate resources so that they have toolboxes from which to draw for writing in
future assignments and courses.
Work toward improving academic performance of all class members and MSM students.
The Writing Coaches
All writing coaches have at least a bachelor's degree and are skilled editors, English teachers,
professional writers, and tutors who bring to this endeavor years of experience in teaching and editing
written English. They coach for UMUC because they believe in the institution's mission and enjoy
helping students become better writers.
Training for new coaches includes a requirement to complete Enhanced WebTycho training, being
rostered into a WebTycho community of practice (MGMT 999T), and being provided an extensive
manual with expectations for their work in the classrooms. Requiring the coaches to complete the
Enhanced WebTycho training ensures that they receive an introduction to working with the system as
well as certification that they can perform some basic functions in WebTycho. Since the faculty
Teaching with WebTycho training is not appropriate preparation for the work that the coaches do, the
department is working with Richard Schumaker, Manager of Worldwide Training in the Center for
An Online Writing Coach Program for Graduate Students - DE Oracle
Teaching and Learning, to develop a coach-specific WebTycho training that will be more comprehensive
than the Enhanced WebTycho training.
The Coaching Process
All of the coaching takes place virtually and asynchronously within the WebTycho classroom, though
some coaches offer supplemental help via the chat feature or by phone. Writing coaches are embedded
in the classroom so that faculty can be privy to the coaching/editing that the students receive. The
writing coach's role in the classroom is that of peer-facilitator and is student-focused, with a primary
responsibility being the review of student assignment drafts.
The writing coach's role is different than that of a traditional editor in that coaches will not simply "fix"
what is wrong with an assignment and return an edited version to the student. Rather, in their writing
reviews, coaches provide specific feedback and advice on how to better organize thoughts or fix
sentence structure, refer students to appropriate resources, and provide students with fundamental
rules that they can transfer to other writing experiences. To encourage student submissions, provide
help to all students in the class (both those who submit drafts and those who do not), and facilitate the
review process, coaches follow these best practices:
Create and maintain a writing coach conference in which they note due dates for draft submissions.
Offer assistance and engage students by posting both general writing tips and pointers and/or tips
related to specific assignments.
Respond promptly to questions.
Provide resources for improving writing skills and the use of APA format.
Coaches also create specially labeled Gradebook folders to which students submit drafts for review. The
course professor encourages use of the section's writing coach by posting announcements and
reminding students that the service is available.
Program Assessment
In summer 2009, in one section of MGMT 630, the MAF department piloted a Zoomerang survey to
elicit student feedback about the coaching experience. About a third of the students responded, and
their feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
Beginning in fall 2009, each coach-staffed section of MGMT 610 and MGMT 630 included the
Zoomerang coach feedback survey as part of the final wrap-up conference. The response rate for all
sections was between .4 and 59%, with some sections having 0 responses and some having up to 13.
The feedback was overwhelmingly supportive of the writing coach service, with 89% of students in one
section agreeing with the statement that the service should be available in all graduate courses. For
this same section, 83% of students agreed with this statement: Overall, I believe having the coaches in
the class greatly enhanced my experience in the course.
Since spring 2009, the program has expanded from being offered only in online sections to being
offered in all sections, regardless of format. The major strength of this program is that students receive
individual attention early in their graduate careers, a time when they need a great deal of support. In
addition, the basic configuration of this process can be applied to other courses. Based on the success
of the MSM foundation course writing coach program, a similar initiative is being piloted this semester
in HCAD 600, a foundation course for the MAF department's program in health care administration.
Note: This article is based on the author's presentation at the Maryland Distance Learning Association's
conference on March 4, 2010.
About the Author(s)
Alexis Hill White is the Director of Academic Administration for the Graduate School, where she manages the writing coach
An Online Writing Coach Program for Graduate Students - DE Oracle
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program.
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Professional Mentoring Program_ A Novel Approach for Industry-Academe Synergy - DE Oracle
No full textDE Oracle @ UMUC
An Online Learning Magazine for UMUC Faculty
Center for Support of Instruction
Professional Mentoring Program: A Novel Approach for Industry-
Academe Synergy
Rana Khan
Director, Biotechnology Programs
Graduate School of Management and Technology
Published: March-April 2010
Category: » University-showcase » Classes-programs
In fall 2009, one year after receiving a Department of Education grant, the Professional Science
Master’s (PSM) biotechnology program in UMUC’s Graduate School of Management and Technology
launched the pilot of a Web-based mentoring program.
The proposal for this program was developed in response to a request for proposal (RFP) put out by the
U.S. Department of Education's FIPSE program. The overall goal of the proposed project was to devise
an approach that would enhance interaction and increase synergy between the academic institution and
the private sector. The strategy used to achieve this goal was to develop an online mentoring program
that would bring master’s students and biotechnology professionals together in a long-term, sustained
relationship.
The mentoring program model consists of four main participants: mentors, students/mentees, mentor
assistants, and a mentor assistants lead.
Mentors are professionals who are currently working in the industry, academia, and government or
are self-employed. The desirable characteristics for a mentor include good awareness of the
biotechnology industry sector, a desire to help incoming professionals, and a willingness to play an
active role in molding current graduates to fit the workforce needs of tomorrow by volunteering time to
speak with these students on a regular basis.
Students in their second or third semester of the master’s degree program are eligible to apply for this
program. Students who are accepted are assigned a mentor, based on similar areas of interest, until
they graduate. The interaction between the mentor and the mentee is focused around developing and
achieving realistic professional goals. Getting advice and direction from a professional can be very
useful for our adult student population, many of whom are either changing careers or retooling
themselves for better positions within the industry.
Mentor Assistants (MAs) are alumni of the biotechnology program at UMUC. They are selected to
participate in the mentoring program based on their commitment to help new students navigate the
degree program and assist them with interacting effectively with their assigned mentor.
The Mentor Assistants Lead (MAL) is also an alumnus of the biotechnology program, but in addition
to the duties performed by the MAs, the MAL manages the logistics of the application process, pairs up
the mentors and mentees, and creates accounts and private interaction areas for them in the online
platform.
The Web site for the interaction between the various participants was developed from an open source
Learning Management System (LMS) called Claroline (http://www.claroline.net/) . The mentoring site has a
public and a private area. The public area describes the program in detail, including the roles and
benefits to each of the participants and the affiliations of the mentors. The private area is used for
Professional Mentoring Program: A Novel Approach for Industry-Academe Synergy - DE Oracle
interaction and as a repository of documents. It also stores the reports that each mentee writes after
every interaction with his/her mentor. The Claroline platform also has online video conferencing
capabilities with screen sharing and document upload in the private area. The biotechnology mentoring
site is currently undergoing enhancements to automate the application process and data collection from
the applications as well as end-of-semester evaluations.
The mentoring program has an auto-sustainable feature. Once mentees graduate, they can become
MAs, and those who have been in an MA position can move on to become mentors—creating a cycle
that regularly generates participants.
The initial launch of the pilot consisted of 18 pairs of mentors and mentees who were assisted by three
MAs, including one MAL. The mentees were selected based on their interest and enthusiasm for the
program and good written communication skills. The mentors were assigned to selected students based
on common interest areas. Regular meetings between the pairs were encouraged, and the momentum
of the interaction was maintained by effective communication from the MAs. The end-of-semester
evaluations by both the mentors and the mentees indicated that they enjoyed the interactions and
found them to be useful for their professional development. The number of interactions in one semester
varied from 2 to 12 and occurred through e-mail, phone, or chat. Interestingly, both mentors and
mentees indicated that they learned something new because of the interaction. A few pairs expressed
the need for more specific guidelines on interaction and a closer synergy between the mentor/mentee
pairings.
The second round of the pilot is currently underway with 15 new pairs of mentors/mentees assisted by
five MAs. The mentee selection process has been revised by including a phone interview and providing
the mentors with more information on the mentee and his/her background.
The strongest feature of this program is that it is discipline independent. We hope to disseminate this
innovative idea and have other UMUC PSM programs—as well as any other academic program that
might be interested—to adopt and adapt this mentoring program for their students in the next few
years.
We invite you to learn more about the biotechnology mentoring program by visiting the mentoring
site (http://psmmentoring.umuc.edu) .
About the Author(s)
Rana Khan has been the director of the biotechnology program at UMUC since 2003. She has several years of research
experience and has given numerous presentations, both nationally and internationally, on topics related to online education
—including teaching science-oriented courses via the Internet and developing and using learning objects to enhance online
teaching. Her research interests include the effect of mentoring on student success and retention at the graduate level,
enhancing and integrating corporate involvement in degree programs, and developing strategies to increase graduate degree
attainment among minorities.
Heloisa Siffert is a Senior Instructional Support Specialist in the Center for Support of Instruction, where she develops and
delivers faculty training programs and collaborates with the academic units on online classroom setup, course design, learning
object development, and implementation of new technologies. Her areas of expertise include graphic design and
Web/multimedia development.
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RSS Feeds_ Two Birds, One Information-Soaked Stone - Part II - DE Oracle
No full textDE Oracle @ UMUC
An Online Learning Magazine for UMUC Faculty
Center for Support of Instruction
RSS Feeds: Two Birds, One Information-Soaked Stone - Part II
Sharon Huston
Instructional Support Specialist
Center for Support of Instruction
Published: March-April 2010
Category: » Online-pedagogy » Teaching-tools
As discussed in the first article in this series, RSS is a great tool you can use to stay on top of
developments in your field. RSS also can be used to enrich your online classroom. This article examines
some common themes for using RSS in the classroom, ways to share feeds with your students, and
ideas for filtering/customizing feeds. At the end of this article are links to several DE Oracle tutorials
that will assist you with publishing RSS feeds in WebTycho.
Using RSS Feeds in the Classroom
Generally speaking, classroom RSS activities can be grouped into two categories:
Collecting and sharing information
Monitoring student activities
As you become more accustomed with RSS, you will likely find additional uses for it that will further
enhance your classroom activities. Some examples of how you might incorporate RSS feeds in your
classroom are discussed below.
Collecting/Sharing Information
RSS feeds are useful for gathering and sharing information with your students. You can use feeds to
collect information that you think matters, share that information with your class, and then open the
floor for discussion. Feeds help students see how your field relates to their lives. Sharing information in
this way is a great form of modeling, providing students with an inside glimpse of what the world is like
when the textbooks are no longer sufficient. It also makes students aware that true professionalism in
any field requires a strong commitment to lifelong learning.
There are many types of information you might want to share with your class through an RSS feed,
including:
Current events stories on specific topics, such as elections or wars
Journal articles of interest to your discipline
Relevant job listings to increase student awareness of how classroom objectives relate to future
paychecks
Tutorials to help with technologies that students may need to use to be successful
New articles about changes/issues in a related industry
These information-sharing feeds can be used throughout the semester or for specific class
assignments/discussion.
Monitoring Student Activities
While the bulk of your class activity (especially all grades and evaluative comments) should live within
WebTycho, it is sometimes desirable to use Web 2.0 tools to enhance your classroom. You can use RSS
RSS Feeds: Two Birds, One Information-Soaked Stone - Part II - DE Oracle
feeds to help you monitor the activities of students who are using these external tools. Most Web 2.0
services—including Twitter, Flickr, Delicious, Diigo, YouTube, Blogger, and LinkedIn—allow users to
create RSS feeds. Most social networking tools also support RSS—but note that at the present time,
Facebook does not support it.
You can use RSS to watch social media sites for student participation, such as student blog updates on
class blogs or student photos on a photo-sharing site like Flickr. As an example of the latter scenario,
art history students could take photos of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns located in their cities.
They could post their photos to Flickr, make their photos viewable to the public, and then tag the
photos with a predetermined custom class tag (such as "UMUC-ARTH-334"). The tag's RSS feed could
alert the entire class that a new photo with that tag has been added to Flickr—making it easy for all
class members to locate the newest additions.
Sharing RSS Feeds
You need to consider how you want to display and use the information in a feed so that you implement
the best approach to sharing that information with your students. You can share a feed with students in
a few ways:
Teach your students how to use an RSS reader and have them locate and set up their own
RSS feeds. This is a good practice in any situation where teaching objectives include conducting
research or evaluating information resources.
Build your own RSS feed and give its address to your students for use in their own RSS
reader. This method gives students some autonomy to further customize a feed on their own.
Build your own RSS feed and post the feed directly in the classroom. This method provides you
with a level of control over what articles students are actually accessing and reading for your class.
Note that when students use their own RSS readers, as in the first two options listed above, you have
no control over what they do. You cannot determine if students are using an RSS reader at all or if they
are accessing the specific feeds or articles as instructed. The third method, on the other hand, ensures
that all your students will see the material you want them to see.
For the first option, if setting up an RSS feed is a required student activity, you can have students post
their own feeds directly in the classroom, which can serve two purposes. First, it verifies that they are
doing the work as directed. Second, if posted to a public area of the classroom (such as Conferences),
students can view and learn from each others' RSS feeds.
If you post your own feed in the classroom, as indicated by the third option, there are many tools you
can use to accomplish this task. Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader) , for example, provides a
quick and reatively easy way to share individual articles from an RSS feed you have subscribed to. If
you want to share a Web site's entire RSS feed automatically instead of manually selecting articles to
share, a tool such as Grazr (http://www.grazr.com/) is a good alternative.
Filtered/Custom RSS Feeds: Going Beyond the Basics
In some cases, instead of exposing students to an unregulated RSS feed, it may be better to select
specific articles from your own feeds and share them with your students. Doing so ensures that you are
hand-picking articles that will be immediately relevant. It would be a wasted effort, for example, to
send a graduate-level organic chemistry article to students in the second week of Chemistry I. Many
RSS readers allow you to filter your feeds with keywords. Google Reader, for instance, has a labeling
feature that lets you tag articles (such as with keywords "Chemistry I" and "Graduate Chemistry") in
the feeds you subscribe to.
When you filter an existing feed by keywords, this is usually accomplished by creating a new custom
feed based on the original feed(s). Many sites, including the New York Times, will allow users to create
RSS Feeds: Two Birds, One Information-Soaked Stone - Part II - DE Oracle
a custom RSS feed by filtering the site's feed. For example, your customized feed from this site might
include only those articles appearing in the Health section that have the keyword "senior" in them.
Some sites allow you to build an RSS feed right from their search page, including the job search engine
Indeed.com. Making a custom RSS feed to track specific job openings from a site such as this is simple:
Search the site for, say, "marketing," then click the RSS icon in your browser's toolbar. On the
RSS feed page, you can then subscribe to the feed and add it to your preferred RSS reader.
If a site does not have tools to generate a custom feed, you can use a third-party tool like
FeedWeaver (http://www.feedweaver.net/) or Yahoo Pipes (http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/) to perform this task.
FeedWeaver is easy to use. After setting up a free FeedWeaver account, you can give FeedWeaver the
feed address (such as cnn.com), then specify that you want to see only the articles mentioning, for
example, "bank merger." FeedWeaver will strip out the unwanted articles and create a new RSS feed
containing your keywords.
FeedWeaver can also combine and filter several RSS feeds into a single new RSS feed, which can be
very useful. For example, if your students write blogs as part of their classroom activities, FeedWeaver
can collect the RSS feeds for each student's blog and roll them into one super RSS feed that notifies
the entire class when a blog has been updated—a much more manageable approach for finding blog
updates than visiting each blog individually several times a week.
Conclusion—And a Final Caveat
As you can see, RSS feeds are highly flexible. You can use RSS feeds to in many different ways to
enhance your online teaching and provide useful resources for yourself and your students, The
technology has been put to uses its creators probably never envisioned. Once you understand the
basics, you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll integrate RSS into your daily life and (more
importantly) into your students' lives. If the feed updates frequently, your class will have a constant
stream of new content to review and discuss.
As you incorporate RSS into your teaching repertoire, keep in mind one last detail: As feeds grow and
update over time, older articles are often dropped—so information that is viewable early in the
semester may not be available at the end of the semester. If the information in a feed is crucial to a
classroom exercise, you may want to place a link to the item(s) directly in your classroom to ensure
that your students have continual access to it.
Related Tutorials
The following step-by-step tutorials will help you share feeds using various RSS tools and publish them
in your classroom. Please note that while these tutorials demonstrate feed sharing from only two RSS
tools; Google Reader and Grazr, the directions for doing so in other tools will be similar—and the steps
for posting them in the classroom will be the same.
Adding an RSS Feed to Your WebTycho Classroom Using Google Reader
This tutorial demonstrates how to share one or more articles from an RSS feed you have subscribed to
within Google Reader and publish them in your WebTycho classroom.
Creating a Bundle of Shared RSS Items Using Google Reader
When you tag articles in Google Reader with a specific label, the tool creates "bundles," or groups of
articles, that have the same tag. This tutorial demonstrates how to create a bundle that you can then
publish to your WebTycho classroom.
Adding an RSS Feed to Your WebTycho Classroom Using Grazr
This tutorial demonstrates how to create a Grazr feed widget and publish it in your WebTycho
classroom.
Also see How to Set Up and Use Google Reader for Reading RSS Feeds from Part I of this series if
RSS Feeds: Two Birds, One Information-Soaked Stone - Part II - DE Oracle
Contact Site Manager
Created and Maintained by the Center for Support of Instruction
© University of Maryland University College
Powered by ArticleMS from ArticleTrader.com
you need a refresher on getting started with Google Reader.
About the Author(s)
Prior to joining CSI, Sharon was a full-time instructor for the Dallas County Community College District where she taught
face-to-face and online Web design/multimedia classes focusing on cutting-edge technologies like video podcasting, Flash,
and Second Life. Sharon earned an Innovator of the Year Award for her service on the Teaching and Learning Team, a
committee charged with bringing innovation into the campus classrooms. In addition to teaching, Sharon also served as a
faculty trainer and mentor. In this role, she helped fellow faculty design new online and face-to-face courses, fine-tune
existing courses, and master course development software.
Sharon has a BS in History from Texas Woman's University and an MS in Computer Education and Cognitive Systems from the
University of North Texas.
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RSS Feeds: Two Birds, One Information-Soaked Stone - Part II - DE Oracl
Advanced web-based education: The next five years and beyond
No full textFeaturing Vladimir L. Uskov, PhD, professor of Computer Science and Information Systems and co-director of the InterLabs Research Institute, Bradley University. Dr. Uskov discussed technology and instructional approaches for advanced Web-based education, along with online student enrollment growth and the results of the 2010 Online World Survey of Advanced Web-based Education.1
Advanced Web-Based Education:
The Next Five Years and Beyond
Dr. Vladimir Uskov
Professor, Department of Computer Science and Inf. Systems
Co-Director, InterLabs Research Institute
Bradley University
Peoria, IL, U.S.A.
April 1, 2010 (UMUC, Adelphi, Maryland, USA)
2
Prof. Vladimir Uskov, Ph.D.
n Professor Computer Science and Information
Systems, Bradley University
n Co-Director, InterLabs Research Institute and Lab
on Web-Based Education, Bradley University
n 2002-2010 Chair International Annual Conference on
Web-Based Education (WBE)
n 2002-2010 Chair International Annual Conference on
Computers and Advanced
Technology in Education (CATE)
n 2004-2008 Editor-in-Chief, International Journal on Advanced
Technology in Learning (ISSN:1710-2251)
n 300+ publications in 3 languages, including 60+ journal articles and 6
textbooks
Web-Based Education Activities: experience, D&D, grants, consulting
1996 – D&D of the 1st course for Web-based education
1999 - 2008 Principal Investigator or co-PI of 4 National Science Foundation (NSF) grants
on WBE with total funding of 0.512 M
NSF ITWF grant
(6 proj. m. - 0.869 M
+ several Caterpillar Fellowship grants,
grants from Bradley University, and
local organizations
11
From “Computer Science” base camp …
Technology Content
Services
Advanced WBE
“Computer Science”
base camp “Education”, “Management”,
“Business”, “Learning”, etc.
base camps
12
Dr. Uskov as WBE Practitioner and Developer:
Evolution of Developed WBE Courseware
Lecture notes in PDF format (articles, textbooks, etc.)
PPT slides + graphics
Recorded Computer Screen technology
1996
1997
2002-present
2003
2005-present
Videotaped lecture +
White Board=Smart Board
Technology (dynamic writing)
Video + Audio + PPT slides + animation + Web-based
simulation
2008-present
m-Learning
13
Advanced
Web-Based Education
14
A selection of Technology and Instructional Approaches
for Advanced WBE is dictated by
“How Much People Remember” Rule:
What they DO
(~75-95%)
What they SAY or WRITE
(~65-80%)
What they HEAR and SEE
(~50-65%)
What they SEE
(~40-50%)
What they
READ
(~20-40%)
LESS
MORE
LOW Level of Instructional Design HIGH
l Online papers (in PDF format)
l Emails
l Online textual self-study guides
l Online course with static visuals
l Online PPT presentations
l Online course with audio, video, animations
l Recorded live e-learning sessions + exercises
l Interactive live e-classes
l Video/audio-conferencing + white boards
l Web-based exercises, simulations
l Web-based Games, Serious Games
Sources: Edgar Dale, 1969, Nick van Dam, 2003, Uskov, 2005)
Advanced e-Learning
Learning-by-
Doing, inc. GBL
Learning-by-
Collaboration
= Collabor. L.
Learning-by-
Watching
(Streaming T.)
Learning-by-
Reading
I hear … and I forget.
I see … and I remember.
I do … and I understand.
(Chinese Proverb)
15
Part 2:
Research on Advanced WBE
for 2010-2015
16
2005-2010 World Surveys on WBE
and other topics/issues
16. Strategic Planning
15. Social Networking
14. Services
13. Security
12. Student/Learner Profile
11. Partnerships
10. Outsourcing/In-sourcing
9. Quality Issues
8. Intellectual Policy
7. Instructional Approaches
6. Infrastructure
5. Funding
4. Faculty Profile (Skills)
3. Assessment/Evaluation Issues
2. Courseware
Topics (or, groups of questions):
1.Technology
“In a Major Matter No Details
Are Small”
(French proverb)
17
Groups of Questions:
1. Respondent Profile (in terms of WBE)
2. University/College/Organization Profile (in terms of WBE)
3. Strategic Issues of advanced WBE (2010-2015)
4. Technology for advanced WBE (2010-2015)
5. Courseware for advanced WBE (2010-2015)
6. Instructional Strategies for advanced WBE (2010-2015)
7. Quality of WBE (2010-2020)
March 10 – 25, 2010
2010 Online World Survey on Advanced WBE for 2010-2015
18
We need your help
19
20
2010 Online World Survey on
Advanced WBE for 2010-2015
The Outcomes
(massive numeric data)
“When you can measure what you are speaking about and
express it in numbers, you know something about it”
(Lord Kelvin)
Formulated First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics
21
Profile of 357 respondents from 174 organizations
in 61 countries
(faculty – 55%, administrators – 30%, PhD. students – 12%, others- 3%)
Experience in WBE area
Primary Involvement into WBE
Self-Reported Skills’ Level: LMS, LOR, OCW Self-Reported Skills’ Level: Communication T.
Ownership of Advanced Technology
Countries.
Respondents represent a total of 61 countriesincluding (in alphabetical order)
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China
and SAR Hong-Kong, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy,
Jamaica, Japan, Kingdom of Bahrain, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia,
Mexico, Macedonia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Pakistan,
Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Yemen, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Taiwan/ROC, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, UAE, UK, Ukraine, USA,
and Venezuela.
22
Profile of 357 respondents from 174 organizations
in 61 countries
(faculty – 55%, administrators – 30%, PhD. students – 12%, others- 3%)
Hours Spent Per Week on Technology-Related Activities
23
Strategic Issues
of Advanced WBE for 2010-2015
24
Selected Strategic Issues of Advanced WBE
18. Technology
17. Students
16. Strategic Planning
15. Social Networking
14. Services
13. Security
12. Quality
11. Partnerships
10. Outsourcing
9. Other
8. Intellectual Policy
7. Instructional Approaches
6. Infrastructure
5. Funding
4. Faculty
3. Evaluation
2. Courseware
1. Administration
25
Ranked Strategic Issues of Advanced WBE
for 2010-2015
Leaders: 1) Quality,
2) Faculty,
3) Technology and Infrastructure.
26
Metrics of Success
and Factors of Significant Impact on
WBE Projects and Programs
in 2010-2015
27
Metrics of Success
to be most widely used in WBE in 2010-2015
Leaders: 1) Student/learner satisfaction with online courses/programs,
2) Online student enrollment growth,
3) Quality of online student postgraduate outcomes,
4) Quality of online courseware.
28
Factors with Significant Impact
on Success of Advanced WBE in 2010-2015
Leaders: 1) Quality of online courses and programs,
2) Support from middle-level administrators (deans, chairs, directors),
3) Demand for advanced WBE by students/learners,
4) Faculty commitment to advanced WBE.
29
Quality of Web-Based Education
vs. Quality of Traditional Education
30
Quality of Web-Based Education vs.
Quality of Traditional Education
in 2010, 2015, and 2020
http://www.elearningguild.com/
In terms of student
academic
performance in
classes (at university or
college)
In terms of student post-graduate
outcomes
(marketability,
employment, positions,
promotions, salary, etc.)
Possible Methodologies to
Evaluate Quality of WBE
31
Instructor’s Skills Required
By Advanced WBE
32
Our Students (Our Customers) Have Changed …
33
Digital Natives. Digital Immigrants.
34
Creating web pages 21.7% 23.8% 19.6%
Creating graphics 46.7% 47.3% 46.3%
Downloading audio/video 80.9% 72.3% 87.1%
Chatting (with instant messenger) 83.0% 71.2% 91.3%
Playing computer games 69.6% 62.3% 74.8%
Using course management systems 75.8% 73.5% 77.4%
Creating presentations 57.1% 68.8% 48.8%
Spreadsheets 65.9% 75.1% 58.6%
22.6%
81.7%
96.4%
97.2%
99.5%
99.6%
Freshmen
E-Mail 99.5% 99.6%
Creating video and audio files 21.2% 18.1%
Using online library resources 83.6% 86.9%
Classroom activities (studying) 96.4% 96.4%
Surfing Internet (for pleasure) 97.2% 97.2%
Writing documents 99.5% 99.4%
Technology Used by Students All Seniors
2007 Student Profile:
Students and State-of-the-Art Technology
(based on 2007 survey of 24,000 students in U.S. universities)
Source: EDUCAUSE-2007
>65%
>50%
>20%
35
Digital Immigrants
They want to learn from anywhere …
They want computer technology to be everywhere …
Are we ready for the first wave of face-to-face
meetings with digital natives in Fall-2010?
Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.
William Butler Yeats
(Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature, 1923)
Digital Natives
?
36
Advanced WBE/Technology/Instruction Assistance Centers (CSI)
(as a mandatory part of advanced WBE system)
37
TOEFL
Test Of English
as a
Foreign Language
(for foreign students
and instructors)
TOENL
Test Of E-learning
as a
Native Language
(mandatory for
WBE instructors)
Certification Exam as a mandatory part of Advanced
WBE . (Should We Introduce/Use TOENL Exam?) ?
38
Innovative Technology and Faculty:
Roger’s Typology
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Conservative
Manority
2-3%
10-15%
30-35% 30-35%
12-15%
Source: E.M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, (4th Ed), Free Press, New-York, 1995.
39
Skills of Advanced Web-Based Educator (instructor,
teacher, trainer) to be in great demand in 2010-2015
Employee with online skills to be most needed in WBE systems in 2010-2015
No obvious leaders – all skills are very important
40
Instructional Strategies to be widely used in
Advanced WBE in 2010-2015
Leaders: 1) Collaborative learning,
2) Problem-based and project-based learning,
3) Learning-by-doing.
41
Technologies for Advanced WBE
42
Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web 4.0 …
Web-Based Education/Learning 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…
Web 1.0
Information Web
Web Learning/
Reading (1.0)
Web 2.0
Social Web
Collaborative
RMM Web
Learning (2.0)
Web 3.0
Semantic Web
Personalized
Web Learning
(3.0)
Web 4.0
Intelligent Web
Intelligent Web
Learning 4.0
2000
2010
2020
2030
• Mostly read only Web
• Millions of users
• Home pages
• Owning content
• HTML, portals
• Web forms
• Directories (taxonomy)
• Ex: Britannica Online
• Mostly read-write Web
• Billions of users
• Blogs, wikis
• Sharing content
• XML, RSS
• Web applications
• Tagging (“folksonomy”)
• Ex: Wikipedia
• Mobile and personal Web
• Focus on individual user
• Integrated on-demand
dynamic content
• Semantic web and
content objects
• Widgets, mashups,
metadata, dynamic web
services, ontology
• User behavior
• User engagement
• Self-learning and self-organizing
Web
• Focus on
Individual User +
Subject Domain +
Level of Knowledge
http://www.labnol.org/internet/web-3-concepts-explained/8908/
A. Amman, T.Kiss, M. Hirsch, H. Matthies: Where, What, Why: Mr. Q on the Web, 2008
1) Rich multimedia Web applications
and learning content
2) Web2.0-based communication tech.
43
Technologies
to be most widely used in WBE in 2010-2015
Leaders: 1) rich multimedia streaming technology,
2) wireless mobile technology.
44
Optimal Number of Media to be Used in 1 WBE Course?
(based on feedback from students, Fall-2009)
Televised courses (one-way educational TV programs) 3
Educational VHS videotapes 3
Educational audiotapes 6
Programming or scripting (JavaScript, VBScript, PHP) tools 31
Software simulation and programming (VB, C, C++, Java, etc.) 35
tools
Virtual reality, virtual worlds, 3D animation (VRML format) 35
Streaming animation (animated GIF, dynamic HTML, Flash, 45
Director)
Streaming video, films, movies (AVI, MPEG, MOV, QT, RV, 52
WMV)
Online testing 56
Recorded Computer Screen tech. (1024 x 768 pixels, AVI 58
format)
Streaming media (WMA, AVI formats) 63
Web-based graphics, pictures, photos (JPEG, BMP, GIF, VML, 98
SVG formats)
Web-based search engines and hyperlinks to Internet-based 100
knowledge res.
Web-based text (PDF, DOC, XLS, HTML, XML, PPT formats) 100
Type of Technology Answer
21 - 25 4
16 – 20 16
11 - 15 22
6 -10 39
1 to 5 different technologies 19
%
resp.
Number of MM and
Communication
Technologies to be used in
one WBE course
45
Rich Multimedia Streaming Technology
(the InterLabs Web-Lecturing Technology - current v.7.2;
v. 1. 0 - Nov 2001 as a part of NSF-CCLI grant outcome)
Video/
Audio
Email
Bulletin B.
Chat
Whiteboard
Video-conf.
Audio-conf.
Text
PPT slides
Pictures
Web-based
Animation
Web-based
programming
and simulation
http://www.interlabs.bradley.edu/nsf_ccli/demo/
46
Web Casting (all graduate CS lectures)
University of Illinois – Urbana-Champagne
47
Recorded Computer Screen (RCS) Technology
(Web-based Hands-On Exercises, Animations, Simulations, Games)
PowerPoint HOE Oracle DB HOE
48
Internet-2: Collaboration of 200+ U.S. Universities
on D&D of 100+ Gbps = 100,000+ Mbps Network
(at least 1,000 times faster than commodity Internet)
49
Examples of Internet2-Based
Online Courses at Bradley University
“Screenwriting” course
by Hollywood directors, producers, etc.
(from UCLA, LA)
2,500 miles = 4,000 km between Bradley U.
students and instructor at Hollywood (UCLA
studio)
“Hand Drumming” course
(by Matt Savage from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill)
1,250 miles = 2,000 km between Bradley U.
students and instructor from NC
50
Examples of Internet-2
Applications in Education
n Stanford University: Interactive and Simulation-Based Learning
Environments
n Bradley University: Live (synchronous) e-Learning (2-way
interactive video+ audio) for courses in Screenwriting and Hand
Drumming
n Carnegie-Mellon University: Digital Libraries
n University of Delaware: Remote Instrumentation
n Univ. of North Dakota: Distributed Learning
51
Virtual Scientific/Educational Labs
52
Start “BMV” Demo
Start “Arc” Demo
Web-Based Simulations
Start “Waves” Demo
Start “Pump”
Demo
53
Specific Technologies and Tools for Advanced
WBE (Dr. Uskov’s Choice)
3D modeling, texturing, animation, games-based
leasrning
3D StudioMax
Fast creation of presentations with graphics,
charts, text, etc.
Microsoft
PowerPoint
Desktop sharing, synchronous presentations,
webinars, product demo
Webex/AdobeCo
nnectPro
Adobe Websites, XML-based WBE courses
Dreamweaver
Adobe Captivate Application simulations
Top quality educational resources on Web.
Tools for personal learning on the Web
TED, Google
Search, Google
Reader
Adobe Creating and editing graphics/photos/images
Photoshop
Adobe Flash Interactive WBE projects
Web lecturing technology (fast creating of rich
MM applications for WBE)
InterLabs
54
Best Tools for Advanced WBE
(Jane Hart’s Survey)
55
Towards Web 3.0 and
Web-Based Learning 3.0
(Mobile and Personalized Web Learning)
q Toshiba e805 Pocket PC
q 4” + VGA (480x640 pixels); standard – 3.5 “
+ 320x240 pixels
q Voice over IP is great
q Video window only
q Acceptable for “Talking Head” teaching
technology (for courses in Sociology,
Psychology, Business, History, etc.)
Web 3.0:
q Mobile and personal Web
q Focus on individual user
q Integrated on-demand dynamic content
q Based on user behavior (profile)
q Semantic Web and learning objects
Recent Software Engineering Technologies:
q Syndication technology
q Mashup technology
q AJAX technology
q Web services
q Metadata, folsonomy, ontology
q Hypermedia technologies
q Location-aware technology
q Recommendation engines
etc.
+
Good Achievements in AI area
q Intelligent tutoring systems
q Intelligent agents
etc.
Il dire è una cosa, il fare è un'altra
(Italian proverb)
56
Collaboration and Communication
Technologies
57
Web 2.0-based project for 1…4-year old kids and parents
(by Dr. Luis Anido, University of Vigo, Spain)
http://escolasinfantis.net
R. Míguez, J.M. Santos, L. Anido
58
Web 2.0-based project for 1..4-year old kids and their parents:
Statistics
(by Dr. Luis Anido, University of Vigo, Spain); http://escolasinfantis.net
BLOG System:
§ 99 School Blogs & 165
Personal Blogs
§5359 Posts & 433 Pages
§3.170 Comments
§31.894 Photographs
§480 Videos, 492 PowerPoint
Presentations, 90 Audio Files
§ Average of 9,24 new posts
per day and 5,95 photographs
per post
(Updated on 18 March, 2010)
EscolasInfantis.net Web Portal:
Weekly visits (data from 8 March 2010 to 14
March 2010)
§4.603 visits per week
§806 visits per workday
§1.126 registered users
§ +26GB of stored information
§ 1GB of new info per month
59
Communication and Collaboration Technologies
to be most widely used in WBE in 2010-2015
Communication Technologies
Leaders:
1) emails,
2) asynchronous communications in
general,
3) collaborative groups (virtual teams)
Collaboration Technologies
Leader: file exchange tools
60
Learning Management Systems
(LMS)
61
Popular Commercial
Learning Management Systems
Commercial LMS
n ANGEL
n Blackboard
n Desire2Learn
n eCollege
n eduX VLE systems
n Gradepoint
n Inquisiq
n Learn.com
n learn eXact
n NetDimensions
n WebCT (has been bought by Blackboard)
n Scholar360
n SumTotal systems (formed by the merger
between Docent and Click2Learn/Aspen)
n SyberWorks Training Center (Enterprise
or Professional)
n TeleTop
62
Popular Open Source (GNU-GPL)
Learning Management Systems
n .LRN, http://www.dotlrn.org/
n Atutor, http://atutor.ca
n Bazaar
n Bodington, http://bodington.org
n Claroline, http://www.claroline.net
n Docebo
n Didactor, http://www.didactor.nl
n Dokeos, http://www.dokeos.com
n Moodle, http://moodle.org
n Sakai, http://www.sakaiproject.org
n Stud.IP
n e-Learning XHTML Editor
n Fle3
n Ganesha , http://www.anemalab.org/
n ILIAS , http://www.ilias.de/ios/index.html
n KEWL.Nextgen
n Ludwig
n OLAT
n Segue
n TelEduc
n Whiteboard ,
http://whiteboard.sourceforge.net/
n Workforce Connections ,
http://www.workforceconnections.dol.gov/
63
Learning Management Systems
to be most widely used in e-Learning up to 2015
Leaders: open source LMS (like Moodle, Sakai, Claroline, .LRN, etc.)
64
Types of WBE Courses
to be taken by online students/learners
65
Types of Web-Based Courses most likely
to be taken by online students/learners in 2010-2015
66
Part 3:
Invitation to submit papers to
WBE and CATE international conferences
( world community of technology-based educators
from 60+ countries)
"None of us are as smart as all of us"
(Japanese proverb)
67
2010 Web-Based Education international conference
(WBE-2010)
9th International
Conference on
Web-Based Education
(WBE-2010)
March 15-17, 2010
Sharm El Sheikh
EGYPT
68
2011 Web-Based Education international conference
(WBE-2011)
10th International
Conference on
Web-Based Education
(WBE-2011)
March 14-16, 2011
Kyoto, JAPAN *)
*) Waiting for an approval by conference venue management
69
2010 Computers and Advanced Technology in
Education international conference (CATE-2010)
13th International Conference on
Computers and Advanced
Technology in Education
(CATE-2010)
n August 23-25, 2010
n Westin Maui Hotel
n Maui, Hawaii, USA
70
2011 Computers and Advanced Technology in Education
international conference (CATE-2011)
14th International
Conference on
Computers and
Advanced Technology in
Education
(CATE-2011) *)
n July 27-29, 2011
n University of
Cambridge
n Cambridge, UK
*) Waiting for an approval by conference venue management
71
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank:
1. Dr. Orkand
2. D.Sc. Jay Liebowitz, Orkand Endowed Chair,
3. UMUC top and middle level managers,
4. Angela Hutchison (logistics)
5. all guests and attendees on this lecture.
“The Future Belongs to Those
Who Prepare For It Today”
(American Proverb)
72
Thank You !
(“O??????? ???????” – in Russian)
Dr. Vladimir Uskov Phone: + 1 309 677 2461 (direct)
Professor of Computer Sci & Inf. Systems Phone: + 1 309 677 2460 (secretary)
Co-Director, InterLabs Research Institute Fax: + 1 309 677 4504
Bradley University Email: [email protected]
Peoria, IL, 61625 http://www.interlabs.bradley/uskov
U.S.A.
73
Demographics of
Web Educational References
(Educational Web Sites):
an example (U.S.)
74
Demographics of Educational Reference Category
(both form Home and Work)
Age 50+ ?
Age 35 - 49 ?
Age 2
Impact factor and journal rankings
No full textThe Impact Factor helps to determine which journals are most important in a given discipline, however it has also been called ""the number that's devouring science."" Stephen Miller, Associate Provost for Information and Library Services, will discuss the Impact Factor and other journal ranking techniques, how they are used, and the controversies they have generated. Learn what information science can tell us about the spread of ideas, the impact of research, and the influence of articles, journals, and researchers. Examples of tools to analyze information about journals, articles, and authors will be discussed and demonstrated.The Impact Factor and Journal Rankings
Stephen Miller, MSLS, MBA
Associate Provost, Information and Library Services
University of Maryland University College
April 15, 2010Overview
About citations
Core principles of information science
The Impact Factor and its issues
Other citation metrics
Tools at UMUC and demonstrationPhilosophical Transactions
Established 1665
Oldest scientific journal in English
Established peer review
“Social registry of scientific innovation”(Guedon, 2001)
Concept of scientific priority
(Royal Society, 2010)
(Newcastle Collection, n.d.)Early Citation from Philosophical Transactions
(http://books.google.com/)Citation Anatomy
Giancola, P. R. (2004). Executive functioning and alcohol-related aggression. American Psychologist, 59(2), 5-7.
Author(s) Volume
number
Date of publication Issue number
Article title Page numbers
Journal titleMetadata
Structured information about an information resource
“Data about data”
Data constructed for a purpose that is actionable (Coyle, 2010)
Allows for resource discovery, organization, and management
(NISO, 2001)A citation
is a
Map
and a
Link
www.leehansen.comWhy cite?
Attribution for information used
Substantiating claims
Criticizing previous work
Arguing against other’s claims
Paying homage
Identifying methodologies/data
Providing background reading
(Garfield, as cited in Thompson Reuters, n.d.)Why Cite?
Correcting one’s own work or the work of others
Providing leads to less known, less well-cited works
Identifying articles where ideas first appeared
Alerting on forthcoming works
Disputing who was first
(Garfield, as cited in Thompson Reuters, n.d.)Utility of Citations
Citations and citation counts
are fundamentally
indicators of UTILITY
(Garfield, in Thompson Reuters, n.d.)Information ScienceInformation Science
Investigates:
properties and behavior of information,
forces governing the flow of information, and
means of processing information for accessibility and usability.
Concerned with origination, collection, organization, storage, retrieval, interpretation, transmission, transformation, and utilization of information.
(Borko, 1968)Information Science
Interdisciplinary
Pure and applied science
Major areas:
Classification and Control
Access and Information Retrieval
Communication
Evaluation and Bibliometrics
(Norton, 2000; Borko, 1968)Bibliometrics
Biblio: Books/bibliographies, documents, information; Metric: Measure
Sub-discipline of information science
Uses quantitative and qualitative descriptive methods
Concerned with the study of metadata and patterns of information and communication
Also called “Scientometrics”
(Norton, 2000, p. 63)Core Principles of Information SciencePareto Principle
VilfredoPareto, 1848-1923
“80/20”rule
In a collection of adequate size, 20% of the items account for 80% of the use; 80% account for 20% of the usePareto Principle
20% of the use
80% of
the use
The 80% is not necessarily
unimportant;
It is just used less!Zipf’s Law
George Kingsley Zipf, 1935
Predicts the frequency of words in a text
In a sufficiently large text, a word’s frequency ranking is inversely proportional to its number of occurrences
rankx frequency= k
(Potter, 1988)Word frequencies in Moby Dick (Rimm-Kaufman, 2007)Word frequencies in Moby Dick (Rimm-Kaufman, 2007)
80%
20%
Tag cloud of meaningful words in Moby Dick (Crain, 2008)
The relative size of the word is a result of Zipf’sLawThe Long Tail
Chris Anderson, 2006
Applies the power law distribution to commerce
The Web makes it possible to offer huge variety at low cost to providers
Reshapes traditional supply/demand bottlenecks, opening up previously underserved market niches
(Anderson, 2006)The Long Tail (Anderson, n.d.)Netflix.com’s Long Tail (Anderson, 2009)UMUC Research Database Logins, 2009
UMUC Research Database Logins050,000100,000150,000200,000250,000300,000350,000400,000450,000500,000Lotka’s Law
Alfred J. Lotka, 1926
The number of authors in a field making npublications is about 1/n2of the number with one publication
The proportion of authors with one publication is consistently about 60%
(Potter, 1988)Lotka’s Law
Publications % of Authors
1 60.79
215.20
36.75
43.80
52.43
61.69
71.24
8.95
9.75
10 .61
(Potter, 1988)Bradford’s Law
Samuel Bradford, 1934
For any subject there is a core of journals containing relevant articles
Farther out from this core, articles appear in larger groups of journals containing the same number of articles, with the relation 1:n:n2
(Bates, 2002a)Bradford’s Law
Bradford studied 326 geophysics journals
9 journals = 429 articles
59 journals = 499 articles
258 journals = 402 articles
Three zones of journals, each containing 1/3 of the articles,each about 5 times as large as the last
(Potter, 1988)Bradford
(Bates, 2002b)Bradford
1/3
1/3
1/3
5x
5x
Each zone = 1/3 of the articles
And is 5x larger than the lastBradford
429:9
499:59
404:258
Articles:JournalsBradford’s Law
Similar to Pareto’s, Zipf’sand Lotka’sdistributions, a small number of core journals has the greatest concentration of relevant articles
Going far beyond the core has rapidly diminishing returns, with greater effort and cost requirementsQuick Review
Bibliometrics/Scientometrics: Study of citation patterns
Pareto Principle: 80/20 rule
Zipf’sLaw/Long Tail: Disproportionate distributions of use, popularity
Lotka’sLaw: Most authors contribute few articles
Bradford’s Law: Journals can be grouped into a core of relevance and successive rings of lesser relevance for any topic or disciplineThe Impact Factor
(NASA)Eugene Garfield
Founded the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), 1960, now part of Thompson Reuters
Developed the Science Citation Index, 1961
Wanted to analyze citation trends, plus the structure and growth of science
(Thompson Reuters, n.d.)Eugene Garfield
Developed the Impact Factor to help determine what journals to include in Science Citation Index
(Garfield, 2005)The Impact Factor
Shows the average citation counts for the articles in a journal
Year-specific and journal-specific
Made possible by computing
Intended to compare journals regardless of their size
(Thompson Reuters, n.d.)The Impact Factor
Indicator of good editorial practice and publishing standards (Vankatraman, 2009)
Only ONEtool in the Bibliometricstoolbox
Awareness and use has exploded in the past 15 years, creating the “Cult of the Impact Factor”(Monastersky, 2005)The Impact Factor
IF = A/B
A = Citations in year x to articles published in previous two years
B = Number of citable articles published in those previous two years
(Garfield, 1994)Journal of Questionable Results
54 = Citations in 2009to articles published in 2007 and 2008
225 = Number of articles published in 2007 and 2008
IF = 54/225 = .24Journal of Good Science
817 = Citations in 2009to articles published 2007 and 2008
225 = Number of articles published in 2007 and 2008
IF = 817/225 = 3.2Journal Ranking by IF
IF Title
3.2 Journal of Good Science
0.24 Journal of Questionable Results
For comparison Nature = 31.43 (2009)
2-3 is normal; >50% score below 1
(Venkatraman, 2009; Monastersky, 2005)Where to find IFs
Journal Citation Reportsdatabase (Thompson Reuters)
Provides multiple journal analysis metrics
Available at University of Maryland, College Park –McKeldinLibrary
Thompson Reuters InCitesservice provides more detailed analytics (Brynko, 2009)Uses of IFs
Determining the core set of journals for a discipline (Bradford)
Library purchasing decisions
Determining quality/status of journals
Positioning papers for greatest impact –deciding where to submit articles
Publisher’s evaluation of their journal’s success
(Monastersky, 2005; Garfield, 1994)Misuses of IFs?
Hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions
Grant/funding awards and evaluation
Comparing academic programs and departments across institutions
As a marketing tool by publishers
(Monastersky, 2005; Thompson Reuters, n.d.; Flahiff & Miller, 2008) Problems with IFs for Evaluating People/Programs
IF is an average –does not indicate quality of any one author/article: The individual’s articles could be little cited
Association/citations do not necessarily indicate quality
Should not be used as the SOLEevaluation factor: “The impact factor should be used with informed peer review”
(Garfield, 1994)Unintended Consequences
Increasing pressure to publish in high-impact journals
Shaping of science toward fashionable or more general topics that are more likely to be published, ensure promotions/tenure, or get funding
More focus on general high-impact journals, resulting in declining specialty and discipline-specific journals
(Monastersky, 2005)Unintended Consequences
Sense of failure if not published in the desired journal
Process of targeting high-impact journals delays publication
Editors may reject scientifically important and creative papers in their focus on maintaining their IF
(Monastersky, 2005)Unintended Consequences
Fall in impact factor can trigger an exodus from a journal (Venkatraman, 2009)–increasing instability in the scholarly publishing systemWorking the System
Publishing review articles
Review papers get cited 2x as much as the average paper (Garfield, 2005)
Favoring articles that cite the journal
Encouraging self-citations (13% of citations are self-citations (Venkatraman, 2009))
Requests to authors to cite more from the journal they’ve submitted to
(Monastersky, 2005)Working the System
Running editorials that cite articles from previous issues
Publisher’s PR activities –announcing findings to increase journal awareness and citations
(Monastersky, 2005)The “Citable” Articles Issue
IF = A/B
A = Citations in year x to articles published in previous two years
B = Number of citablearticles published in those previous two yearsThe “Citable” Articles Issue
Defined by Thompson Reuters as items classified as “article,”“review,”or “proceedings paper”
Thompson Reuters determines the classifications
(McVeigh & Mann, 2009)
Has been criticized for errors in classifications and analysis (Monastersky, 2005)The “Citable” Articles Issue
News articles, editorials, book reviews, and meeting reports are not “citable”and not included in the IF denominator
BUT, citations to those items DO get counted in the IF numerator
Result: Increased Impact Factor
(Monastersky, 2005)The “Citable” Articles Issue
Notable journals (Cell, JAMA, Lancet, Nature, NEJM) have increased non-citable articles and decreased citable ones (Monastersky, 2005)
Some critics argue this artificially inflates Impact Factors (Monastersky, 2005)
Others say it has no impact (Garfield, 2005; McVeigh & Mann, 2009)The Future
Problems and limitations of the Impact Factor increasingly clear
Thompson Reuters cautions against its overuse, recommends additional metrics and traditional peer review (Garfield, 1994)
Non-traditional publishing, e-journals, pre-prints, and open access journalsThe Future
More Alternatives to the Impact Factor
Thompson Reuters metrics
ElseverSciValSpotlight Product
Eigenfactor(PageRankinspired)
SCImago(PageRankinspired)
Sage, et. al. “usage factor”
Increasing awareness and use of alternatives
(Venkatraman, 2009)Quick Review
IF useful for comparing the influence and utility of journals
Should not be used for evaluating individuals, academic programs, research projects
Overemphasis on IFsis causing issues with publishing patterns, career paths, and the types of research being doneQuick Review
IFscan be manipulated in various ways
There are many alternatives and complementary metrics
IF should not be the be-all and end-all metricOther Citation MetricsOther Citation Metrics
Productivity: number of papers published
Total citation counts
Second-generation citation counts
Average citations per paper
Percent cited to uncited
Field baselines for comparison of percent cited
(Thompson Reuters, n.d.)Other Citation Metrics
Expected citation rate
C-Index (Crown Index): Actual citations divided by expected citations
Collaboration/co-authorship rates
Research Fronts: Co-citation among highly cited papers
(Thompson Reuters, n.d.)Other Citation Metrics
Time series/trend analysis
Normalization across disciplines:
Citation density –average number of references cited per source article
Half-life –number of years required to get 50% of the cited references
(Thompson Reuters, n.d.; Garfield, 2005)H-Index
Developed by physicist Jorge E. Hirsch in 2005
Because impact factor only measures journals, wanted a way of ranking individual scientists
Total number of articles = productivity, but no indication of impact
Total number of citations = impact, but biased by articles with large numbers of citations or review articles
(Peterson, 2005)H-Index
h = the number of papers (n) that have at least n citations each
Papers that have less than n citations don’t count
Levels out effects of highly cited articles and articles that have not been cited
(Thompson Reuters, 2009)H-Index Examples
Joe
h = 20; has published 40 articles, 20 of which have been cited 20 times each
Jane
h = 10; has published 15 articles, 10 of which have been cited 10 times each
John
h = 10; has published 65 articles, 10 of which have been cited 10 times eachH-Index
Best to compare within a discipline
Physics, highest = 110
Life sciences, highest = 194
h is dependent on time in career
Hirsch suggests h milestones for tenure, promotion
(Peterson, 2005)H-Index
As with other citation metrics, h-index should not be the sole criteria
Peer review and multi-faceted analysis still critical
(Peterson, 2005)Eigenfactor
Alternate rating and ranking system for journals
A non-commercial academic project
Produced by the Bergstrom Lab of the Department of Biology, University of Washington
Uses Thompson Reuters’Journal Citation Reportsdata
(Bergstrom, 2009)Eigenfactor
Similar to Google’s PageRankalgorithm
Citation counts and IF do not care where a citation comes from, each has the same value
Also, no adjustment made for the way disciplines use citations differently
(Bergstrom, West, & Wiseman, 2008)Eigenfactor
Citations from higher ranking journals carry more weight than those from lower-ranked journals
Based on advanced, iterative mathematical analysis made possible through increased computing power
Takes into account the networked nature of citations
(Bergstrom, West, & Wiseman, 2008)Bradford
429:9
499:59
404:258
Articles:JournalsEigenfactor
EigenfactorScore: Measure of a journal’s importance to the scientific community
Article Influence Score: Measure of average influence of the articles in the journal; comparable to Impact Factor
(Bergstrom, West, & Wiseman, 2008)Eigenfactor
Eigenfactorcitation data also used for
Mapping the structure of science
Showing relationships and interactions between disciplines
Tracking changes in structure and relationships over time
(Bergstrom, West, & Wiseman, 2008)Citation map of the social sciences (Mapequation.org, n.d.)Quick Review
There are many citation metrics available in addition to the Impact Factor
The H-Index is useful for comparing individual researchers
The Eigenfactoris an alternative to the Impact Factor that uses Google-like analysis to rank journals UMUC Tools for Citation Analysis
Web of Sciencedatabases:
Science Citation Index Expanded, 1945-Present
Social Sciences Citation Index, 1956-Present
Arts & Humanities Citation Index, 1975-Present
Covers over 11,000 journalsDemonstrations
Web of Science analysis tools and h-index rankings
EigenfactorRankingsReferences
Anderson, C. (2006). The long tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more. New York, NY: Hyperion.
Anderson, C. (n.d.). The long tail [Graphic]. Retrieved from http://thelongtail.com
Anderson, C. (2009, September 28). Netflix data shows shifting demand down the long tail [Graphic]. Retrieved from http://thelongtail.com
Bates, M. J. (2002a). Speculations on browsing, directed searching, and linking in relation to the Bradford distribution. Retrieved from http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/searching_bradford-m020430.html
Bates, M. J. (2002b). Figure 1: The Bradford regions [Graphic]. Retrieved from http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/images/searching_bradford-figure1.jpg
Bergstrom, C. T., West, J. D., & Wiseman, M. A. (2008, November 5). The Eigenfactor metrics. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(45), 11433-11434. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0003-08.2008
Bergstrom, C. (2009). About eigenfactor.org. Retrieved from http://www.eigenfactor.org/about.htm
Borko, H. (1968). Information science: What is it? In M. J. Norton (ed.), Introductory concepts in information science. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc.
Brynko, B. (2009, April). InCites: Charting research performance. Information Today, 26(4), 36. Retrieved from www.infotoday.com
Coyle, K. (2010, April 1). ALA Techsource Webinar: Directions in metadata with Karen Coyle. Retrieved from http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2010/03/techsource-webinar-directions-in-metadata-with-karen-coyle.html
Crain, C. (2008). Mobydick75.jpg [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.steamthing.com/2008/06/jellyfish.html
Flahiff, J. M. & Miller, J. M. (2008). Journal impact factors: Use and misuse. Retrieved from Mulford Health Science Library, University of Toledo at: www.utoledo.edu/LIBRARY/mulford/pdf/impactfactor.pdf
Garfield, E. (1994, June 20). The Thompson Reuters impact factor. Retrieved from http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/free/essays/impact_factor/
Garfield, E. (2005, September 16). The agony and the ecstasy: The history and meaning of the journal impact factor. Retrieved from http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/jifchicago2005.pdf
Guedon, J. (2001). In Oldenburg’s long shadow: Librarians, research scientists, publishers, and the control of scientific publishing. Retrieved from http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/mmproceedings/138guedon.shtml
Mapequation.org. (n.d.). Social Science 2004 [Graphic]. Retrieved from http://www.mapequation.org/images/socialscience2004-695x445.png
McVeigh, M. E. & Mann, S. J. (2009). The journal impact factor denominator: Defining citable (counted) items. Journal of the American Medical Association, 302(10), 1107-1109. Retrieved from http://jama.ama-assn.org/
Monastersky, R. (2005, October 14). The number that’s devouring science. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/The-Number-That-s-Devouring/26481
Newcastle Collection (n.d.). Philosophical Transactions [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/collections.nsf/display?readform&id=40141017D8C7A1BA80257427003E9E9E
Norton, M. J. (2000). Introductory concepts in information science. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc. Peterson, I. (2005, December 2). Rating researchers. ScienceNews. Retrieved from http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/6824/title/Rating_Researchers
Potter, W. G. (1988, September). “Of making many books there is no end”: Bibliometrics and libraries. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 14, 238a-238c.
Rimm-Kaufman. (2007, September 18). Mobydick.png [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.rimmkaufman.com/content/mobydick.png
Royal Society. (2010). Philosophical Transactions. Retrieved from http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/
Thompson Reuters. (n.d.). Using bibliometrics: A guide to evaluating research performance with citation data. Retrieved from http://science.thomsonreuters.com/info/bibliometrics/
Thompson Reuters. (2009). Web of Science citation report. Retrieved from http://images.isiknowledge.com/WOK48B5/help/WOS/h_citationrpt.html
NISO. (2001). Understanding metadata. Retrieved from www.niso.org/standards/resources/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf
Venkatraman, A. (2009, September 10). Impact factors dominate citation metrics. Information World Review. Retrieved from http://www.iwr.co.uk/information-world-review/analysis/2249258/journals-cherish-status-symbo
Biblical versification and French religious paraphrase in Anne Lock‘s 'A meditation of a penitent sinner‘
No full textAbstract: While modern readers take the division of Psalm 51 into 19 verses for granted, it is worth remembering that dividing the Bible into standardized verse units was a humanist innovation of the early sixteenth century. In ―A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner,‖ the early English writer Anne Vaughan Lock divides Psalm 51 into 21 verses. Her versification is both unique and remarkable, and it references the important scholarship of those working on the Geneva Bible. In particular, her sonnet cycle duplicates an error that appears in the marginal notes to the Geneva New Testament. The paper also notes parallels in page layout between Lock‘s book and a popular early sixteenth-century French psalm paraphrase by Pierre Gringore.UMUC Working Paper Series
Running head: BIBLICAL VERSIFICATION AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS PARAPHRASE
Biblical Versification and French Religious Paraphrase
in Anne Lock‘s ‗A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner‘
Catherine A. Carsley
University of Maryland University College
Montgomery County Community College
[email protected]
Spring 2010
UMUC Working Paper Series
Abstract
While modern readers take the division of Psalm 51 into 19 verses for granted, it is worth remembering that dividing the Bible into standardized verse units was a humanist innovation of the early sixteenth century. In ―A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner,‖ the early English writer Anne Vaughan Lock divides Psalm 51 into 21 verses. Her versification is both unique and remarkable, and it references the important scholarship of those working on the Geneva Bible. In particular, her sonnet cycle duplicates an error that appears in the marginal notes to the Geneva New Testament. The paper also notes parallels in page layout between Lock‘s book and a popular early sixteenth-century French psalm paraphrase by Pierre Gringore.
Keywords: Anne Vaughan Lock, Pierre Gringore, English sonnet cycle, Biblical versification, Psalm paraphrase
BIBLICAL VERSIFICATION AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS PARAPHRASE 3
Biblical Versification and French Religious Paraphrase
in Anne Lock‘s ‗A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner‘
Anne Lock‘s 1560 sonnet sequence, ―A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner,‖ puzzles scholars for at least two reasons. The first concerns her pairing of each sonnet, after the prefatory five, with a verse from Psalm 51. Little precedent for this type of organization exists among English metrical psalmists. Most verse paraphrases simply translate the Vulgate into a poetic vernacular without a set organizational schema. For example, in Goostly psalmes and spirituall songes (1535), Coverdale‘s psalm paraphrase, the poet uses five stanzas to translate all of Psalm 51. In Certayn Psalmes, published in 1549 (although probably composed in 1536), Wyatt uses ―continuous terza rima‖ (Spiller, 1997, p. 46) to paraphrase Psalm 51 without any stanzaic breaks. While modern readers take the division of Psalm 51 into 19 verses for granted, it is worth remembering that dividing the Bible into standardized verse units was a humanist innovation of the early sixteenth century. Lock‘s division of Psalm 51 into 21 verses is both unique and remarkable, and references the important scholarship of those working on the Geneva Bible.
The second puzzle concerns the well-known early date of the cycle, 1560. Lock‘s sequence predates, in England, the use of sonnets for religious purposes by almost twenty years. While metrical versions of the psalms had been in vogue in both Catholic and Protestant circles for some time, no psalm paraphrases in sonnet form exist in English at the time of publication of ―A Meditation.‖ Lock‘s model for her paraphrase, therefore, has resulted in much scholarly discussion. While recent scholarship has posited Tottel’s Miscellany as the source for Lock‘s choice of poetic form (Spiller, 1997, first, followed by Coles, 2008), the French vogue for psalm paraphrases keyed to specific Bible verses may offer an additional model for her choice of poetic form.
Bible Study, Biblical Versification and “The Meditation”
Verse Divisions in Early Bibles
Susan Felch (2000), after an extensive analysis of the available editions and translations of each Bible available to Lock, argues convincingly that Lock does not use a received translation, but instead translates the Psalm herself directly from the Vulgate. The Vulgate Bible, however, does not divide Psalm 51 into 21 verses. Modern Bibles assign 19 verses to this Psalm, and medieval manuscripts rubricated the Psalm (without its header) into 20 verses. Why did Lock use 21? A short review of the history of Biblical versification may help resolve the issue.
The earliest printed Psalter to use Arabic verse divisions in the Old Testament was the Quincuplex Psalterium published in 1509 in Paris by Robertus Stephanus and Le Fèvre d'Étaple (Penkower, 2000, p. 382). Prior to this time, individual psalms throughout the Psalter were divided into sections, each lettered A, B, C, D, E, and so forth. The publication of early polyglot Bibles, such as the Quincuplex Psalterium, targeted Christian humanists trying to uncover and remedy the corruptions in the received Vulgate text. These polyglot Bibles printed different versions of scriptures in long columns to better enable side-by-side comparison.
BIBLICAL VERSIFICATION AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS PARAPHRASE 4
The addition of Arabic numbering to these study bibles in the early part of the sixteenth century made comparisons among the various columns easier. According to Penkower, ―the first Latin Bible with verse enumeration was the 1528 Lyons Bible, with the Latin translation of Sanctus Pagninus‖ (p. 382). Only from the mid-1540s onward do all Stephanus editions of the Bible use Arabic numbering to divide chapters or psalms into verses. It is fair to assert that lay readers of Lock‘s generation would not have been able cite the Bible by numbered chapter and verse. The tools for such citation were only just being developed, printed, and circulated during the first half of the sixteenth century.
Lock’s Paraphrase of Psalm 51
When modern scholars approach Lock‘s sonnets, however, we take for granted this incipient versification. For example, many scholars have seen Lock‘s alteration of the Psalm‘s verses as sparked by her imitation of Wyatt, as does the literary historian of the sonnet, Michael Spiller (1997):
Psalm 51 has nineteen verses, all of much the same length, and Locke keyed each verse to one sonnet, except that she split verses 1 and 4 each into two, to give twenty-one sonnets in all after her prefatory five. There is no obvious reason for this, until we look at Wyatt‘s translation: he writes in continuous terza rima verse, but allots between two and five lines to each psalm verse—except for verse 1, which has nine lines, verse 4, which has eleven, and verse 6, which has eight. (p. 46)
Spiller makes several assumptions in this passage. First, he assumes that Psalm 51 indeed has 19 verses; however, the number of verses belonging to Psalm 51, as we shall see, was not quite fixed in 1560. Second, he assumes that Wyatt is also paraphrasing Psalm 51 according to its verses; a look at Wyatt‘s text, though, reveals his paraphrase as one long 82-line poem. If he is, as Spiller thinks, paraphrasing verse by verse, he certainly does not make that organization important in the explicit way that Lock does (Figure 1).
Figure 1: An accurate digital transcription of the page layout of Lock‘s sonnet cycle on Psalm 51 (transcribed by Greg Foster, 2003).
BIBLICAL VERSIFICATION AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS PARAPHRASE 5
In a more general sense, Spiller seeks a pattern of origin for Lock‘s poetry that is fairly traditional; in other words, he argues that she imitates Wyatt in some conscious way. But the organization of her paraphrase may be more easily explained by thinking about Protestant Bible study, not about Wyatt‘s terza rima.
To my knowledge, there are no Renaissance Bibles that divide Psalm 51 into 21 verses. The 1555 Stephanus Vulgate counts 21 verses in Psalm 51, but two of those verses are located in the head note to the psalm, so ―Miserere me‖ begins as verse 3 (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Psalm 50 in the 1555 Stephanus edition of the Vulgate. Note the cross-reference to Romans 3:4.
The original Hebrew has 19 verse divisions, and Reformation scholars are not likely to have overlooked those. Lock‘s divisions of verses 1 and 4, by these standards, seem anomalous. Her unusual verse count, however, may be an attempt at reconciling divisions across a few texts: the Vulgate Bible and its traditional, unnumbered, divisions; the new English translation of the New Testament, later to be included in the Geneva Bible; and that English translation‘s published marginal notes. The textual issues are a bit complex, but interesting.
Early Versification in the Geneva Bible
The most problematic split into two verses comes at verse 4, which reads: ―ut iustificeris in sermonibus tuis et vincas cum iudicaris‖ (Vulgate). Lock inscrutably accords this passage her sixth sonnet. Yet there are no printed Bibles in English or Latin, as mentioned above, which count six verses between the beginning of Psalm 51 and this line. However, a reference to this very verse of the Psalm appears elsewhere in the New Testament. Paul quotes this verse verbatim in Romans 3:4: ―God forbid; yea, let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy words, and overcome, when thou art judged‖ (Geneva Bible 1560). In the Geneva Bible, the marginal note cross-referencing this Pauline quotation of Psalm 51 reads, somewhat surprisingly, Psalm 51:6 (Figure 3). BIBLICAL VERSIFICATION AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS PARAPHRASE 6
Figure 3: Geneva Bible Romans 3:4, showing cross-reference to Psalm 51,6.
Clearly, the English-speaking Calvinist community at Geneva numbered this passage, which Lock assigns to the sixth sonnet in her sequence, as Psalm 51:6. Why? The reason is unclear. When one looks up Psalm 51 in the Old Testament of the Geneva Bible, the verse referenced is numbered as Psalm 51:4. There is a discrepancy between the marginal note and the Old Testament numbering. As mentioned earlier, the numbering of verses in Psalm 51 was not yet fixed at this juncture. Lock clearly counts this verse as verse 6, assigning it her sixth sonnet. The mismatch may speak to the differences in the dates of the completion of the Old and New Testaments of the Geneva Bible. The Geneva New Testament, based Whittingham‘s translation, was completed and printed around 1557. The marginal notes to the Whittingham translation, however, reference only Psalm 51.a, the alphabetical marker referring to the marginal lettering common in early study Bibles. The revised Olivétan Bible (1535), in French, a favorite of Calvin‘s and probably referenced by Whittingham, also uses the old-style mark ―51.A‖ as a cross-reference. Sometime, therefore, between 1557 and 1560, the very period of time during which Lock lived in Geneva, the (erroneous) cross-reference to Psalm 51.6 was added to the margins of Romans 3:4.
If the marginal notes to the Geneva Bible were being written at the very same time that Lock was resident in Geneva, it is possible that Lock might have encountered them there as works in progress. Her unusual ―splitting‖ of verse 4 Psalm 51 might be an attempt to reflect the current state of Biblical scholarship as she then knew it. She could have had access to the new English translation of the New Testament, read the marginal note to Romans 3:4, observed the cross-reference to Psalm 51:6 and then counted backwards from there, knowing that she, in the humanist spirit of Biblical accuracy, was following the most current and most scholarly understanding of the Biblical text.
That leads us back to the division of verse 1 into two parts. Unlike Lock‘s unusual division of modern verse 4, there is precedent for her division of verse 1 in the Vulgate. Traditionally, in either manuscript or early printed versions of this psalm, modern verse 1 is split into two, just as Lock‘s sequence splits it. Lock would read ―Misere mei deus; secundum magnam misericordiam tuam‖ as one verse and ―Et secundum multitudinem miserationem BIBLICAL VERSIFICATION AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS PARAPHRASE 7
tuarum dele iniquitatem meam‖ as the second verse of the psalm. Traditional capitals divide Psalm 51 into 20 individual passages visually and clearly, as illustrated with a quick look at the Psalm in the Gutenberg Bible (1454), which mimics the rubrication of medieval manuscripts (Figure 4).
Figure 4: ― Miserere mei‖ (Psalm 50) from the Gutenberg Bible. Note the division of modern verse 51:1 into two parts.
Importance of Scholarship to Early Protestant Devotion
It may seem pedantic to spend so much time trying to understand verse divisions of minor importance to the literary aspects of these sonnets. According to Alec Ryrie (2006), however, humanist scholarship formed the heart the Reformed devotional life. As he notes:
Yet the model for the discursive side of the Protestant religious life was at heart a scholarly one. Protestants engaged in private and group study, held discussions of varying degrees of formality on theological questions, and above all attended lectures. Their tradition valued reading, learning, thinking and, indeed, arguing as religious activities. (p. 52-53)
We also know that Protestant life in Geneva in the late sixteenth century would have exposed Lock to, as Betteridge (1983) writes:
BIBLICAL VERSIFICATION AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS PARAPHRASE 8
a hive of vigorous and critical biblical scholarship. Some twenty-two editions of the French Bible were published there at that time as well as Greek and Latin texts. It is surprising how little we know of the small English refugee community there, but undoubtedly they were infected with this enthusiasm for accurate biblical translation and commentary. (p. 41)
It is reasonable to assume that Lock participated in this enthusiasm and wanted her sequence to follow the most sanctioned text of the Psalms available. A small change in the verse structure of the Psalm, a trifling edit to modern readers, may have been Lock‘s attempt to engage in the discourse of scholarship the formed the heart of the Reformation.
Recent work by Micheline White (2005) attests to Lock‘s scholarly reputation later in life. White notes the following:
In 1583 John Field printed Anne‘s manuscript of a sermon by John Knox and prefaced it with a dedication in which he discusses her enviable access to manuscripts by prominent preachers and the contributions that she should continue to make to the church. In flattering her in advance for her willingness to contribute additional texts to the ―good of the
Church,‖ Field asserts that she is a seasoned ―scholler in [God‘s] schoole.‖ (p. 201)
White goes on to note the poet Richard Carew‘s later praise of Lock, as when Carew calls Lock ―a Gentlewoman suppressing her rare learning, with a rarer modesty‖ (qtd. in White, p. 202). This reputation for scholarship, scant as it is, in unusual in its specificity and should not be ignored.
Another clue to the scholarly ambitions of Lock‘s cycle is found in its title. Lock or possibly her Protestant printer, John Day, called ―A Meditation‖ a ―paraphrase.‖ Our English word ―paraphrase‖ comes first from French but ultimately from the Latin ―paraphrasis,‖ itself a rendering of the Greek ―paraphrazein.‖ ―Paraphrazien‖ literally means ―to show something alongside.‖ Lock and her printer rely on a witty understanding of the etymological meaning term in the very layout of the text. Day prints the sonnets carefully alongside the Biblical verses, and the layout itself can be seen as a kind of sly humanist acknowledgement of the word‘s Greek root.
Paraphrase as Rhetorical Exercise
Of course, the sixteenth century also considered paraphrase as a distinct rhetorical genre. Ascham‘s treatise on education, The Scholemaster (1570), defines ―paraphrasis‖ in its rhetorical sense, as ―is not onelie to expresse at large with moe wordes, but to striue and contend (as Quintillian saith) to translate‖ (―Paraphrasis,‖ sec. II. para. 1). This should not be an exercise for grammar school students but for masters, Ascham opines, otherwise the paraphrase will come out much worse than the original: BIBLICAL VERSIFICATION AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS PARAPHRASE 9
Paraphrasis neuerthelesse hath good place in learning, but not, by myne opinion, for any scholer, but is onelie to be left to a perfite Master, eyther to expound openlie a good author withall, or to compare priuatelie, for his owne exercise, how some notable place of an excellent author, may be vttered with other fitte wordes.‖ (―Paraphrasis.‖ Sec. II para. 11)
Ascham goes on to comment on how paraphrase supplements, but does not replace, authority, ―for no Paraphrasis, though there be many, shall neuer take away Dauids Psalter. Erasmus Paraphrasis being neuer so good, shall neuer banishe the new Testament.‖ (―Epitome,‖ sec. II para. 6). The act of naming ―A Meditation‖ a ―paraphrase‖ allows either Day or Lock to link the sonnets, in a very overt and direct way, to a way of scholarly learning, ―priuatelie, for [her] owne exercise,‖ through the humanist‘s favorite tool of textual explication, the paraphrase.
Lock’s Page Layout its Relationship to French Devotional Paraphrases
Models in French Devotional Literature
If one assumes that Lock acts in a scholarly way as she parcels out the verse divisions of her sonnet sequence and then paraphrases the psalm, Warely‘s (2001) claim that ―Lok‘s sequence, in one sense, is a reading of the psalm much like the marginal notes of the Geneva Bible‖ (p. 227), seems somewhat over-stated. Not only is it unlikely that Lock would have put her poems in the same category as Geneva Bible‘s explanatory notes, it is unlikely that she would conceive of ―paraphrasing‖ as interpretation, much less as ―textual performance‖ of scriptural authority (p. 227). However, there were other precedents in French books of psalm paraphrases the mirror the look and feel of Lock‘s sonnet cycle.
For example, the French Catholic poet Pierre Gringore keyed one verse of each penitential psalm to a stanza of French poetry in his popular paraphrase of the seven penitential psalms (Figure 5). Gringore‘s book was originally printed in 1525 as Heures de nostre dame and reprinted eight or nine times between 1525 and 1544 (Jeanneret, 1969, pp. 36ff; Noailly, 2006, p. 235). The text is introduced this way:
Ensvyt vne para-phrase et dévote exposition sur les sept tresprecieux & notables Pseaulmes du Royal prophete David, non sans cause ditz penitentielz... Mis en rithme francoyse par Pierre Gringoyre, dict Vaudemont. (Paris, Langelier 1541)
The page format of Gringore‘s Heures provides powerful visual context in which to think about Lock‘s ―A Meditation,‖ as each verse of the psalm appears directly opposite a paraphrased vernacular stanza in rhymed decasyllabic couplets. Moreover, Gringore‘s book bears visual similarities to Lock‘s sonnets. The layout matching Psalm verse to poetic stanza is similar to Lock‘s. As an example, the first six stanzas of the Gringore‘s fourth penitential psalm, modern Psalm 51, are transcribed below (Figure 6).
BIBLICAL VERSIFICATION AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS PARAPHRASE 10
Figure 5: Digital facsimile of Gringore‘s paraphrase of Penitential Psalm 4 (Vulgate Psalm 50). BIBLICAL VERSIFICATION AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS PARAPHRASE 11
Psalmus.
4
Pseaulme
4
M iserere me deus: secundum magnum miseracordium tu- am .
O Sire dieu qui ostes hors desmoy Tes seruiteurs p[ar] ta s[ain]cte co[n]corde
Ton plaisir soit avoir merci de moy
Selon tes dictz : par ta miseracorde.
Et secundnum multitudinem miseratio- num tuarum : dele iniquitatem me- am
Ausi selon la grande multitude
De tes bontez & miserations :
Iniquitez ou i‘ay mis mon estude
Soient effacez: en tes discretions.
Amplius laua me ab iniquitate mea: & peccato meo munda me.
Encore plus, de rechef par ta grace Me laueras de mon iniquite : Et munderas des mon peche la trace
Entierement par ta saincte equite.
Quoniam inquitatem meam ego co- gnosco:&peccatum meum contra me est semper.
Car mes forfaictz deva[n]t toy reco[n]gnois Et mon peche. Qui me fait de soultrance Par durs remors ie le sens & congnois:
Et dont ie suis en douleur & souffrance.
Tibi soli peccaui&malum coram te fe- ci: vt iustificeris in sermonibus tuis & vincas cum iudicaris.
Iay contra toy peche: ie le confesse Et deuant toy: don‘t i‘ay bien merite De soubstenir pugnition expresse: Ainsi vaincra tousiours la verite. BIBLICAL VERSIFICATION AND FRENCH RELIGIOUS PARAPHRASE 12
Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conce-
ptus sum: & inpeccatis concepit
me mater mea.
Ie suis conceu eu coulpe originelle
Cest dont ie suis a mal faire incline
Abien ouurer ma nature est rebelled
Car ie suis trop, de peche domine .
Figure 6: Transcription of first six stanzas of Gringore‘s paraphrase of the fourth penitential psalm.
Note that the verse divisions of Gringore‘s book follow the Vulgate‘s traditional divisions as compared to Lock‘s six.
Humanist Paraphrase and Lock’s Work
Lock, therefore, can be seen as adapting a popular continental and Catholic form, the versification the penitential psalms in widely circulated French Books of Hours, and giving it a Reformer‘s twist: a humanist paraphrase of a penitential psalm following the translation of Calvin‘s sermon. Again, the work of Ryrie, who documents the activities of a typical sixteenth century Scottish Protestant, is helpful. Ryrie points out that there would be many activities a Protestant could perform to note publically that she was not a Catholic – breaking the Lenten fast or approving of the marriage of priests. Unfortunately, there were fewer approved private devotions to take the place of Catholic sacraments, rosary beads,
Semantic database management: Its evolution and challenges
No full textDr. Hasan Sayani, Professor and Program Director of Software Engineering in the Graduate School, discussed the evolution of digital data management, from early record-based systems through current, state-of-the-art semantic models.©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
1
Hasan H. Sayani, Ph.D.
Professor and Program Director
Software Engineering
Faculty Research Seminar
Graduate School of
Management & Technology
1616 McCormick Drive
Largo, MD 20774
(240) 684-2400
[email protected] www.umuc.edu
U M U C
Semantic DataBase Management: Its Evolution and Challenges, March 11, 2010©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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The Evolution of Digital Data Management
Storing Data
Lag between between when data becomes available and when it is needed (Marion Weisbard, IBM)
Retrieving it
At appropriate time
Three major parameters that interact
Storage Time
Storage Space
Retrieval Time©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Serial storage (Digital Data)
Punched cards
Paper tape
Magnetic Tape
Reel-to-reel
Cassette©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Direct Access
Drums, Disks, CardRandomAccessMethod (CRAM NCR)
Access by Cylinder, Track, Sector addresses
File access techniques
Sequential, Random, Indexed-Sequential…
Optical disks, Flash drives, Memory Chips
Removable vs fixed devices©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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The S-Curve Effect
A technology matures, providing increasing capabilities
Until it reaches saturation (asymptote)
About this time a new, more powerful technology arrives on the scene
The old technology proponents make frantic improvements to keep it relevant
minor gains
until replaced by the new technology©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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The Classic “S” Curve
Using S-Curves and Trends of Evolution in R & D Strategy Planning, Darrell Mann, Industrial Fellow, Department of Mechanical Engineering, U of Bath, Bath, UK©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Technology over time©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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File –Record based
Most data management techniques focused on files containing records
A record contained relevant information about an Entity of interest
A File was a collection of like records
Early data management systems were record –based
Network model –records connected to each other as a network; e.g. DMS 1100 from Univac
Hierarchic model –records related to each other hierarchically; e.g. IBM’s IMS
ANSI standards developed (Sayani participated)©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Advent of the Spread Sheet –Tables galore
Representing data in tables
Accountants adapted to it easily
Need for granularity at the “data” level, not just the “record” level
Ted Codd’s formulation of the “Relational Model” at IBM
3rdNormal form, etc.
(Visit to Sayani’s class at College Park)
RDBMS take off
SQL becomes a standard
End-user as well as programming interface
NIST (then, NBS) helped in standardization©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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RDBMS Technology Saturation
Requires complexity of multiple tables
Managing duplication
Connections between them (Inner/Outer Joins, etc.)
Difficult to program reliably
Not end-user friendly
Generates doubts about accuracy of retrieved results
Varies with query formulation style©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Efforts to Prolong Utility of RDBMS
Star Schema
Dimensional Modeling
Column-based storage of tables
Natural language to SQL translators©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Object-oriented data management
Filled a niche for programmers
“C”, ADA had no built in data management facilities
Self-contained parameters and methods
Convenient for modeling constraints
Inheritance as a way to maintain classification
End-users find it difficult to think of their data only in terms of Objects (Nouns)©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Need to manage even more complexity
Health Management systems
Manufacturing systems
Modern Airplanes
Battle arena
CASE Tools, Repositories
Security systems©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Demand for simpler access by non-technical folks
RDBMS requires users to model the world as tables
Object-oriented systems make users express the world using only nouns
How about describing your data in sentences?
“Patients are assigned to Doctors who belong to a Health insurance group and are billed for service by the business office.”
Traditional Entity-Relationship-Attribute models are broader, but restricted to:
⌧
binary relationships;
⌧
Multiple relationships needed for both directions
⌧
lack of role concept restricts more than binary relationships©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
15©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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The state-of-the-art: Semantic Model
It could be the ultimate model –because it models human thinking©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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CaMERA
Culture-adaptive Mechanism for Expression, Reflection and Analysis
Roots in an almost universal Problem Solving Approach
Formulate, express, synthesize, evaluate, modify, present a solution
Components
Meta -view of the application domain, or players –e.g.,Patients, Doctors, Insurers;
⌧
An Ontology
Data -instances from the application –e.g. Patient: Jane Doe, treating physician: Dr. Casey, Insurer: Klarion Corp.©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Meta Meta Model –A Sentence
Verb (RELATIONSHIP), Subject, Object (OBJECT), part played in sentence (ROLE)
OBJECTs can be categorized hierarchically with inheritance of PROPERTY and ROLE-playing capabilities
⌧
Class Hierarchies
Adjectives (PROPERTY of OBJECT)
Adverb (PROPERTY of RELATIONSHIP)
ROLEs
⌧
played by OBJECTs (simple affirmative, declarative sentence)
⌧
played by RELATIONSHIPs (to form complex sentences)
⌧
PROPERTY of ROLEs equivalent to a Preposition©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Visual Meta Meta Model
Relationship(n-ary)ConventionsusedinCaMERA'sInformationModelRoleRoleObject(Type)Relationship(Type)Characteristic(Type)RoleObject(Type)Relationship(Type)Characteristic(Type)Object(Type)Relationship(Type)Characteristic(Type)Abstraction(O,R,C)AbstractionAbstractionAbstraction(appropriateO,R,C)(appropriateO,R,C)HomogeneousTypeHierarchy123nk.....(appropriateO,R,C)PropertyPropertyDomainRules©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Using CaMERA
Define domain-specific meta model
Query it to check completeness
Alter as appropriate
Populate with actual data
Can be updated, queried as desired
Extract contents from the database
Customizable reporting, ranging from
⌧
English language reports
⌧
Programming Language outputs (e.g., for automated Y2K transformation)
⌧
XML
Governed by specified rules©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Examples of Meta Models/Ontologies
IDEF Methodology
PSL
DataFlow Diagrams
Audio/Video devices and interconnections
Vendors’ CASE tool environments
Student Enrollment
Gourmet Group
Architect’s system to manage pre-fab components
Health Care Model
GPRA Model
IRS Knowledge Skills and Abilities model©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
22©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
23©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
24©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
25©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
26©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
27©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
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Examples of Applications
Domain Engineering
Reverse Engineering
Vendors’ CASE tool Repositories
Index Technologies, Univac, NASTEC, Yourdon
Transfer between CASE Tool Vendors (Chapter in Book)
Meta Model comparisons
Data Warehouse to Data Mart mapping
DoD deliverables generation©Copyright, H. Sayani, Md, March, 2010
29
Questions/Comments
???The Semantic DataBase
Humans and Computers
It is our conviction that if we are to use computers more effectively, we must bridge the gap between human thought and the expressions we have to utter to make a computer do our bidding. The distortion between human thinking and computer comprehension is more easily understood by examining the language we use to command the computer to perform tasks.
Computer Programming Languages
Computers have as a base language organized sequences of zeros and ones, or, a binary language. Hence, in the very early days, humans had to organize the commands they wanted the computer to carry out as strings of binary sequences. This quickly evolved into mnemonic commands sent to the components of a computer; commands such as LR 1 x (i.e., load your register 1 with the contents of the address known symbolically as 'x'). These languages were then "assembled" into programs that the computer was to execute. They were known as second generation programming languages.
Next came languages that were almost the equivalent of human sentences. Foremost among these was COBOL (others were Fortran, Pascal, Algol, etc.) where one issued commands such as "ADD Parts-on-Hand To New-Parts GIVING New-Parts-on-Hand". These languages were classified as third generation languages. Finally, with the advent of databases, we realized that most of the commands revolved around the data and we developed fourth generation languages.
As computers became more powerful, our ambitions to manage larger systems grew also. We wanted to deal with large amounts of data that was organized in a fashion that made it easier to access and manipulate. Let us visit the evolution of data management in the same fashion that we examined language evolution.
DataBase Management
Dealing with data became most interesting when we had the ability to access and manipulate data directly (as opposed to sequentially on a tape). Our method of addressing data had evolved from addressing the physical location on a disc (by sector and track), to addressing records in files.
File Management
These methods too evolved from sequentially addressing records in files to directly addressing a desired record. Other clever variants also appeared (e.g., Indexed Sequential Access Methods). Soon we realized that we wanted to relate records from one file to those in another. For example, if we had a file on vendors and another on parts, we were interested in showing which vendors supplied which parts.
©Copyright, Hasan Sayani, Md, 1990-2010
Network Data Model
This desire eventually resulted in a new standard (ANSI) called the network data language. In this approach, the concept of file was replaced by that of a "set" that could be composed of many types of records and the sets could be related to other sets. Hence, the Vendor set would be related to the Parts set as "supplier". While this approach took away our correspondence with traditional File drawers with folders, it was closer to human thinking in terms of relationships between data.
Relational Data Model
The next evolution arose out of the desire to make query operations more formal to ensure reliability of responses. The concept of using tables to represent data of a particular type of Entity was proposed. Properties about the entity could be represented as columns with the rows being actual instances of the entity. For example, if we had a table about vendors, we could assign column one for the vendor name, column 2 for the vendor address, column 3 for the vendor terms, etc. The specification of such a table forms a template into which actual data can be stored. Hence, if one of our Vendors was the ACME company, data about ACME would go into, say, row 1. Data about the Smith company could go into another row, etc. Similarly, we could have another table for Parts. To show relationships between Vendors and Parts, we had two approaches. We could put a marker in either of the tables associating a particular Vendor as a Supplier for a particular Part (the "foreign key" approach), or form a new table to perform this association. To make sure that the underlying mechanisms of query work correctly, we must "normalize" the data to suit the data manipulation scheme.
While the above approach, known as the Relational Model (a misnomer if ever there was one) of data management has theoretical advantages, it is not the normal manner in which humans think about data. Hence, in our opinion, it is a step backwards in the evolution of human-machine interaction. However, due to a very large push by various vendors, and the advent of Spread Sheets (which have a similar mind-set), the Relational approach has become very widely used in industry. However, except in very simple data models, it has pushed actual users a level farther from the computer.
Object-Oriented Model
A current band wagon is the Object-Oriented model. This approach recognizes that most data needs to be constrained in some fashion. Some of these constraints come as a result of business practices of those using it. Others may be due to the nature of the data itself. These constraints are often commands that we would like to give the data management system saying "...whenever you deal with this type of data always do this...". These commands are known as "methods" and are combined with the data to which they apply and encapsulated together as "Objects." We do not intend to go into a detailed treatise on Object-Oriented (OO) models. Suffice it to say, that the proponents of OO have found great acceptance among programmers, but not among end-users. The reason: humans are far more sophisticated thinkers. They think in sentences (not just the nouns -- Objects -- in the sentences)
Semantic Data Model
A more logical approach is to use the way humans think (linguistically, in sentences) to describe their data. Hence, this data modeling approach would require the expression of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc., much the way humans form thoughts. Simple sentences would
©Copyright, Hasan Sayani, Md, 1990-2010
©Copyright, Hasan Sayani, Md, 1990-2010
probably be of the type Noun1-Verb-Noun2. Here Noun1 plays the Role of being the Subject; Noun2 plays the role of being the Object (in the English language sense); and the verb Relates the two together. Hence the data definition phase of defining a database on this principle would require the formulation of a generic sentence of the type "Animals eat Food." The data would be of the type "Bossy eats Hay." "Morris eats Fish", etc. Here Bossy and Morris are ("Entities") instances of Animals and Hay and Fish are (also "Entities") instances of Food. Bossy is playing the Role of the eater and Hay is playing the Role of the item eaten. "Eats" is the Relationship that ties the Entities together.
More sophisticated users would think in terms of compound sentences. Hence they would require that other Relationships (rather than only Objects) be allowed to play Roles in Relationships. Similarly, both the Objects and Relationships could have Properties. Further, if one wished to have prepositions, Roles would also be allowed to have Properties. Finally, humans like to categorize items. Hence one could decide that Animals is too broad a category to describe all animals. Hence one could categorize Animals into Dogs, Cats, etc. The Dog category could include specific instances such as Fido, Lassie, etc. This categorization infers that the items categorized under a type would have some similarities (either in their properties, or in the kinds of Relationships in which they can participate).
The ultimate closure in closeness between humans and computers would allow humans to speak their sentences in natural language and have the computer understand them (there is on-going research in this area). The next best thing would be to match the structure of human thought with representations in computers. This is accomplished via the Semantic model.
Entity-Relationship-Attribute (ERA) models allow a restricted subset (e.g., only binary Relationships) of the semantic model. However, they are mostly used for descriptive purposes only and generally do not allow the data to be actually stored in that fashion.
CaMERA: an Implementation of the Semantic Model
CaMERA is a database system based on a semantic model. It allows the description of Objects (nouns), Relationships (Verbs) with Roles, Characteristics (dependent nouns) and Properties (adjectives, adverbs, prepositions). The Relationships are not restricted to just 2 Roles (which would be called "binary"). Objects, Relationships, Roles and Characteristics can have one or more Properties. Further, Objects may be categorized via the Sub-Part/Super-Part constructs.
Most importantly, CaMERA models are executable. Hence, you do not have to distort your thinking to implement the database. Because of the semantic nature of the data representation, you do not have to worry about issues such as data integrity as in the Relational Model. Also, you can capture greater complexity than you could using the Relational model. You are able to visibly recognize what you have defined (as opposed to needing a technical interpreter to tell you what the tables mean)
CaMERA has the traditional data definition, query and report writing mechanisms. It also has a generic GUI (in the Windows environment). CaMERA may be invoked from programs (e.g., "c", c++, Visual Basic) and its data can be exported in any desired form (e.g., to other applications). There are also bridges available which will import data from various sources (e.g., other databases, spread sheets, XML and other applications)
Finally, CaMERA has super-structure built upon it to produce a Generic Shell, Meta Database management and translation between representations