1. DIVERSE Ben Trott Max Woollard 26 th October 2011

2. Aims for this session Understand what DIVERSE is Understand how DIVERSE can benefit you Understand how to use DIVERSE Understand how DIVERSE links to Component Based Software Engineering To be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of CBSE

3. What is DIVERSE? DIVERSE: Development and Integration of Varying Educational Resources and Student Engagement. DIVERSE is a social collaboration based virtual learning tool. DIVERSE is all about getting students more involved with their studies. –Student as Producer

4. What is DIVERSE? DIVERSE is a tool for constructing resource clouds. DIVERSE allows students to interact with resources and collaborate together DIVERSE aims to make the student experience more interactive.

5. Resource Clouds A resource cloud is created for each topic Students add new resources to this cloud –Those they feel are relevant to the ‘cloud topic’ Students can vote on resources which will effect the resource icon A link icon is automatically added depending on the resource type

6. Resource Clouds The size of the icon on a cloud determines its subject specific usefulness: –As voted by the students themselves –Smallest – deemed least useful/relevant –Largest – deemed most useful/relevant

7. An Example Resource Cloud

8. Demonstration

9. DIVERSE & CBSE DIVERSE utilises many external web services –OAuth: for user authentication –Nucleus: for student information –Linking You: for link shortening & analytics –Facebook: for sharing links –Twitter: for sharing links –WebSnapr: for web previews –Google Analytics: for statistics

10. DIVERSE & CBSE DIVERSE has no knowledge of these services DIVERSE relies on the API provided by the external services This is ok –CBSE means DIVERSE does not need to know implementation details of these external services.

11. Example DIVERSE uses student data from nucleus to personalise the users experience. DIVERSE does not know the inner workings of nucleus, or have direct access to student information. Instead DIVERSE uses nucleus’s API: E.g. –https://nucleus.online.lincoln.ac.uk/person/basichttps://nucleus.online.lincoln.ac.uk/person/basic

12. DIVERSE & CBSE

13. Example: Student Details

14. –Google Analytics is completely external from DIVERSE and therefore we have no input or control over how it works –It is a complete Blackbox –Perfect example of component based Example Analytics

15. Advantages of CBSE Avoids reinventing the wheel Saves time and resources Reduces development time Simplifies maintenance –Changes to external components do not effect DIVERSE, so long as the original API is still used. –Easy to swap out obsolete components

16. Disadvantages of CBSE Customising components can be limiting –E.g. Google analytics Dependency on external developers –Becomes an issue when there is no alternatives Risk of poisoned components –Components containing malicious code

17. Summary DIVERSE is a new online tool to help you engage in your studies –Provides a new starting point for research & assignments –Peer reviewed resources DIVERSE is a simple case study for illustrating the importance of components in web applications

18. Workshop During Fridays workshop you’ll be testing DIVERSE on a sample cloud. We’ll have a quick questionnaire for you to complete Optionally we are also looking for volunteers to take part in a short interview about your experience with DIVERSE

19. Any Questions?