Comments on: UCAS Course code lookup http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2009/10/ucas-course-code-lookup/ Ideas linking Libraries, Computing, E-learning, and anything else that springs to mind. Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:08:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Linked Data Explored « PIPaL – JISC Business and Community Engagement project at Loughborough http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2009/10/ucas-course-code-lookup/comment-page-1/#comment-502 Linked Data Explored « PIPaL – JISC Business and Community Engagement project at Loughborough Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:54:25 +0000 http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/?p=558#comment-502 [...] in combination with structured data in a format such as XML, many doors are opened.  For example JACS course codes and XCRI course advertising in combination potentially allow a prospective student to “shop around” to see which [...] [...] in combination with structured data in a format such as XML, many doors are opened.  For example JACS course codes and XCRI course advertising in combination potentially allow a prospective student to “shop around” to see which [...]

]]> By: ostephens http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2009/10/ucas-course-code-lookup/comment-page-1/#comment-424 ostephens Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:01:12 +0000 http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/?p=558#comment-424 Thanks Alan - it's very good to hear that there is work happening to make this information more accessible. I'm aware of the XCRi model and the XCRi-CAP work, and did wonder if I could output my scraped results in this format, but in the end decided for something quicker and dirtier for my purposes. I don't know if this is something you are looking at with UCAS, but I'm not sure that their approach to using JACS codes to form UCAS codes is that helpful. It would be nicer if they recorded the full JACS codes (with a searchable index) for each course, rather than creating the short code in the way they do currently. I was wondering about linking from UCAS codes to (for example) learning objects in JORUM (which I understand use JACS) - which would require decoding the UCAS code to the constituent JACS codes (and of course the UCAS code is lossy from the original JACS codes) Thanks Alan – it’s very good to hear that there is work happening to make this information more accessible. I’m aware of the XCRi model and the XCRi-CAP work, and did wonder if I could output my scraped results in this format, but in the end decided for something quicker and dirtier for my purposes.

I don’t know if this is something you are looking at with UCAS, but I’m not sure that their approach to using JACS codes to form UCAS codes is that helpful. It would be nicer if they recorded the full JACS codes (with a searchable index) for each course, rather than creating the short code in the way they do currently.

I was wondering about linking from UCAS codes to (for example) learning objects in JORUM (which I understand use JACS) – which would require decoding the UCAS code to the constituent JACS codes (and of course the UCAS code is lossy from the original JACS codes)

]]> By: Alan Paull http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2009/10/ucas-course-code-lookup/comment-page-1/#comment-423 Alan Paull Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:48:18 +0000 http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/?p=558#comment-423 Re: "Dealing with UCAS UCAS really don’t make it easy to get information out of their website on a machine-to-machine basis. I’ve done an entire post on scraping information from UCAS, which I’m not going to rehash here, but honestly if we are going to see people developing applications which help individuals build personalised learning pathways through Higher Education courses this has got to improve." I strongly sympathise, having worked alongside UCAS on a few JISC-funded projects myself. I'm currently working with a range of projects to do with course advertising information (see: http://www.xcri.org/), which includes working with UCAS (somewhat) to encourage a service oriented approach to the whole range of UCAS vocabularies, including JACS and others related to both courses and applications. Progress is slow, but in the next two to three weeks we are hoping for a bit of a breakthrough. Please contact me if you want more info on the UCAS angle. Our eXchanging Course Related Information (XCRi) information model and XML schema, plus work we've done already on making course advertising information available may be of interest. Some of this work is out of the University of Huddersfield via the West Yorks Lifelong Learning Network; for contact details, please contact alan@alanpaull.co.uk. Re:
“Dealing with UCAS
UCAS really don’t make it easy to get information out of their website on a machine-to-machine basis. I’ve done an entire post on scraping information from UCAS, which I’m not going to rehash here, but honestly if we are going to see people developing applications which help individuals build personalised learning pathways through Higher Education courses this has got to improve.”

I strongly sympathise, having worked alongside UCAS on a few JISC-funded projects myself. I’m currently working with a range of projects to do with course advertising information (see: http://www.xcri.org/), which includes working with UCAS (somewhat) to encourage a service oriented approach to the whole range of UCAS vocabularies, including JACS and others related to both courses and applications. Progress is slow, but in the next two to three weeks we are hoping for a bit of a breakthrough. Please contact me if you want more info on the UCAS angle.

Our eXchanging Course Related Information (XCRi) information model and XML schema, plus work we’ve done already on making course advertising information available may be of interest. Some of this work is out of the University of Huddersfield via the West Yorks Lifelong Learning Network; for contact details, please contact alan@alanpaull.co.uk.

]]> By: Do you Read to Learn? » Overdue Ideas http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2009/10/ucas-course-code-lookup/comment-page-1/#comment-399 Do you Read to Learn? » Overdue Ideas Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:07:01 +0000 http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/?p=558#comment-399 [...] information out of their website on a machine-to-machine basis. I’ve done an entire post on scraping information from UCAS, which I’m not going to rehash here, but honestly if we are going to see people developing [...] [...] information out of their website on a machine-to-machine basis. I’ve done an entire post on scraping information from UCAS, which I’m not going to rehash here, but honestly if we are going to see people developing [...]

]]> By: David Kay http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2009/10/ucas-course-code-lookup/comment-page-1/#comment-391 David Kay Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:26:11 +0000 http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/?p=558#comment-391 MOSAIC as a project is concerned with both the possibilities and the problems (of all types) relating to the use of library and learning activity data to enhance both the user experience and resource management functions - so this post provides some very welcome pointers for the final report to be written next month ... And therefore (as per the previous post) everyone's a wiinner ;-) Keep it coming! MOSAIC as a project is concerned with both the possibilities and the problems (of all types) relating to the use of library and learning activity data to enhance both the user experience and resource management functions – so this post provides some very welcome pointers for the final report to be written next month …

And therefore (as per the previous post) everyone’s a wiinner ;-)

Keep it coming!

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