A Multi-Faceted Multi-Stakeholder Approach for Increased Visibility of ETDs in Zambia

The University of Zambia has had a functional Institutional Repository (IR) since 2012. However, while Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) are routinely deposited into the IR, the ingestion is not timely, with significantly large time gaps existing between ETD submission dates and ETD IR ingestion dates. We propose a multi-faceted approach that is aimed at providing a potentially viable solution to the problems through the use of effective workflows and automatic classification of IR objects. Preliminary results demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach is feasible. It is anticipated that the proposed approach will facilitate the implementation of a National ETD portal for storing up-to-date and consistent metadata records from Higher Education Institutions across Zambia

Investigating the Impact of Organised Technology-driven Orchestration on Teaching

Orchestration of learning involves the real-time management of activities performed by educators in learning environments, with a particular focus on the effective use of technology. While different educational settings present unique problems, the common challenges have been noted to primarily be as a result of multiple heterogeneous activities and their associated intrinsic and extrinsic constraints. In addition to these challenges, this thesis argues that the complexities of orchestration are further amplified due to the ad hoc nature of the approaches and techniques used to orchestrate learning activities. The thesis proposes a streamlined approach to technology-driven orchestration of learning, in order to address these challenges and complexities. Specifically, the thesis proposes an organised approach that focuses on three core aspects of orchestration: activity management, resource management and sequencing of learning activities. Orchestration was comprehensively explored in order to identify the core aspects essential for streamlining technology-driven orchestration. Proof-of-concept orchestration toolkits, based on the proposed orchestration approach, were implemented and evaluated in order to assess the feasibility of the approach, its effectiveness and its potential impact on the teaching experience. Comparative analysis and guided orchestration controlled studies were conducted to compare the effectiveness of ad hoc orchestration with streamlined orchestration and to measure the orchestration load, respectively. In addition, a case study of a course that employed a flipped classroom strategy was conducted to assess the feasibility of the proposed approach. The feasibility was further assessed by integrating a workflow, based on the proposed approach, that facilitates the sharing of reusable orchestration packages. The results from the studies suggest that the streamlined approach is more effective when compared to ad hoc orchestration and has a potential to provide a positive user experience. The results also indicate that the approach imposes acceptable orchestration load during scripting of learning activities. Case studies conducted in authentic educational settings suggest that the approach is feasible, and potentially applicable to useful practical usage scenarios. The long-term implications are that streamlining of technology-driven orchestration could potentially improve the effectiveness of educators when orchestrating learning activities

Simple Digital Libraries

The design of Digital Library Systems (DLSes) has evolved overtime, both in sophistication and complexity, to complement the complex nature and sheer size of digital content being curated. However, there is also a growing demand from content curators, with relatively small-size collections, for simpler and more manageable tools and services to manage their content. The reasons for this particular need are driven by the assumption that simplicity and manageability might ultimately translate to lower costs of maintenance of such systems. This research proposes and advocates for a minimalist and simplistic approach to the overall design of DLSes. It is hypothesised that Digital Library (DL) tools and services based on such designs could potentially be easy to use and manage. A meta-analysis of existing DL and non-DL tools was conducted to aid the derivation of design principles for simple DLSes. The desig n principles were then mapped to design decisions applied to the design of a prototype simple repository. In order to assess the effectiveness of the simple repository design, two real-world case study collections were implemented based on the design. In addition, a developer-oriented study was conducted using one of the case study collections to evaluate the simplicity and ease of use of the prototype system. Furthermore, performance experiments were conducted to establish the extent to which such a simple design approach would scale and also establish comparative advantages to existing designs. In general, the study outlined some possible implications of simplifying DLS design; specifically the results from the developer-oriented user study indicate that simplicity in the design of the DLS repository sub-layer does not severely impact the interaction between the service sub-layer and the repository sub-layer. Furthermore, the scalability experiments indicate that desirable performance results for small- and medium-sized collections are attainable. The practical implication of the proposed design approach is two-fold: firstly the minimalistic design has the potential to be used to design simple and yet easy to use tools with comparable features to those exhibited by well-established DL tools; and secondly, the principled design approach has the potential to be applied to the design of non-DL application domains

simplyCT: A Lightweight Digital Library Framework

Digital Libraries are information systems that store digital objects, and have associated services for accessing, managing, and preserving the digital objects. Digital Libraries began as an abstraction layered over databases to provide higher level services. As the services and tools became more complex, they became more difficult to maintain, extend and reuse. One possible solution is to explicitly avoid formalisms, abstractions and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) so that Digital Library Systems are more easily adopted and managed

Managing cultural heritage: information systems architecture

This chapter is about the architecture of systems that store, preserve and provide access to digital cultural heritage objects. It presents some major design considerations for implementing cultural heritage system architectures and some existing architectural patterns currently in use. Then, a simpler architectural design is proposed; this new architecture could potentially have a positive impact on digital preservation

In Search of Simplicity: Redesigning the Digital Bleek and Lloyd

The Digital Bleek and Lloyd is a collection of digitised historical artefacts on the Bushman people of Southern Africa. The underlying software was initially designed to enable access from as many people as possible so usage requirements were minimal – it was not even necessary to use a web server or database. However, the system was not focused on preservation, extensibility, or reusability. In this article, it is argued that such desirable attributes could manifest themselves in a natural evolution of the Bleek and Lloyd software system in the direction of greater simplicity. A case study demonstrates that this is indeed feasible in the case of the Digital Bleek and Lloyd and potentially more generally applicable in digital libraries

Benchmarking a File-based Digital Library System Repository Architecture

Digital Library Systems (DLSes) have over the past few decades evolved into complex tools and services used to manage Digital Libraries (DLs). However, as the amount digitised and born digital content being generated increases, there is increasingly a growing need for much simpler tools for the storage, management and long term preservation of data. The simplification in the design of DLS components has obvious an implication of, among other things, adversely affecting overall performance of resulting tools and services. This paper builds on previous work, which resulted in a prototype simple repository design, by outlines experimental results from a series of performance benchmarks that were conducted on to determine the extent to which such a simple repository architecture would scale to provide acceptable response times. The designed experiments were executed on a dataset with 1,638,400 objects, and involved execution of common DL operations on linearly increasing workloads designed based on the simple architecture. In addition, the experimental setup was replicated on a commonly used DL software ---DSpace--- to provide comparative metrics. The results indicate that collection sizes with at most 25,600 objects yield desirable response times. Furthermore, performance degradation typically manifests in information discovery operations

Flexible Design for Simple Digital Library Tools and Services

The design of Digital Library Systems (DLSes) has evolved over time, both in sophistication and complexity, to complement the complex nature and sheer size of digital content being curated. However, there is also a growing demand from content curators, with relatively small-size collections, for simpler and more manageable tools and services for managing content. The reasons for this particular need are driven by the assumption that simplicity and manageability might ultimately translate to lower costs of maintenance of such systems. This paper builds on previous work in order to assess the flexible nature of the proposed design approach ---the explicit adoption of a minimalistic approach to the overall design of DLSes. A two-axis evaluation strategy was used to assess this proposed solution: a developer-oriented survey assessed the flexibility and simplicity; and a series of performance benchmarks were conducted to assess the scalability. In general, the study outlined some possible implications of simplifying DLS design; specifically the results from the developer-oriented user study indicate that simplicity in the design of the DLS repository sub-layer does not severely impact the interaction between the service sub-layer and the repository sub-layer. Furthermore, the scalability experiments indicate that desirable performance results for small- and medium-sized collections are attainable

Ad hoc vs. Organised Orchestration: A Comparative Analysis of Technology-driven Orchestration Approaches

The use of technology to orchestrate learning activities in formal learning spaces is becoming commonplace. However, orchestration is arguably conducted in an ad hoc manner. This paper presents a comparative analysis between ad hoc orchestration---using the PortableApps platform---and organised orchestration---using an implemented workbench user interface. The effectiveness and impact on teaching experience of the two orchestration approaches was evaluated using a within-subjects controlled study involving 55 participants. The results show that learning activities were orchestrated 21% faster with the workbench than using the ad hoc approach. The AttrakDiff 2 responses for the workbench approach scored higher means for all dimensions. The results suggest that participants were more effective when orchestrating activities using the workbench than when using the ad hoc orchestration technique. The results further show a more positive user experience when using the organised approach