Overview

Background

The processes for pushing data from upstream systems into some of our critical Technology Enhanced Learning services are no longer working as expected. 

This is negatively impacting not only staff in Colleges and Schools but also the DLAM team who need to run manual processes in order to reduce the impact of the issues. 

An example of this is a regular issue for visitor accounts in PebblePad which particularly negatively impacts the Medical School as many of their markers are visiting staff. 

Another instance is that in Learn we are using an option for our data feeds that Blackboard no longer recommends. There may be more modern, better and more efficient options for those data feeds.  

This project will analyse the issues impacting the data being fed into these services; understand any areas where behaviour is not as expected, and look for improvements that can be made. It will then fix or replace the functionality to ensure the data reaches our services more reliably without human intervention, thus reducing the team time required as well as the possibility of errors.  It will also look at pulling new data into the services where appropriate, such as looking at the possibility of importing programme enrolments into Learn. 

Scope

1. Identify the feeds/sources to be investigated 

• Identify the feeds used to populate Learn, PebblePad and Moodle (most likely Timetabling, EUCLID and IDM), investigate and current state recorded, including clearly defining the problems occurring. 

• Include visitor/staff/student feeds 

• Identify feeds in VRS rewrite project that will impact this project  

• Identify problem fixes where appropriate 

• Confirm if there is any dependency on the GDPR compliance project being proposed this year and current data retention work which has been ongoing. 

• Confirm if any dependency on the IDAM replacement project which will probably start in August 2022. 

2. Investigate new functionality  

• Different granularities of the identified data feeds will be investigated – such as programme-level data feeds for Learn which would be useful for course population and student rep course sites. Also, more recently, mandatory student courses have been in development, and new feeds will be required to populate these. 

• There will also be the opportunity to look at other fields now available in the upstream systems that might provide benefit if stored within the above services. 

3. Redevelopment of feeds 

• Update or rewrite current feeds as required, reducing the need for manual intervention by DLAM and service owners 

• Conduct thorough testing to minimise mistakes  

• Update Abacus and other relevant documentation

Out of scope

N/A

Objectives and Deliverables

The deliverables are prioritised using the MoSCoW prioritisation method:

M=Must Have; S=Should Have; C=Could Have; W=Want

• M= has to be satisfied for the delivered solution to be acceptable in terms of delivery dates, compliance, viability etc.
• S= high-priority requirement that should be included if possible -workarounds may be available
• C= a nice-to-have requirement
• W= want but will not be part of this project

Benefits

Success Criteria

• Existing functionality is more reliable and efficient
• New functionality introduced improves existing functionality

Project Milestones

N.B. It should be noted at this stage that the later milestones will be subject to change because the work for 22/23 will be fully estimated after the business analysis stage is complete. The current set of milestoines has been worked into a plan using most likely durations at this time.