Software used to develop the ASSET resource

A review of different technologies upon which to develop ASSET was conducted by one of our project consultants, Professor Stephen Gomez. (Technology report).

Discussion of the various software options took place during a project team meeting in January 2009 and during the subsequent Steering Group Meeting in February 2009. The team agreed that the choice of software needed to meet a number of requirements:

• The software had to be designed for video, as the use of video as opposed to audio as the chosen medium had implications for storage etc. as video is much larger in terms of file size.
• User generated content was viewed as very important in forming the feedback loop and not just a tool for staff. The software therefore had to allow user generated content (with staff moderation).
• To help students and staff, a user friendly layout with a search facility needed be included within the resource.
• Controlled access of the ASSET resource was seen as crucial to the success of the project. Our early discussions with academic staff indicated that they did not want their feedback videos to be accessed by students not registered on their modules and this openness may also affect the feedback that students give to tutors. Access to the resource needed to require a university login password with access to particular modules restricted to staff and students only registered on those modules.

The pros and cons of Clipshare, Blackboard, Sharepoint and Core were all discussed by the project team.

The CORE software already fulfilled many of the requirements of ASSET and did most of what was needed but required further development to include the controlled access and search facilities. The CORE software licence, with support, was purchased for one year. The project team has also developed an open source system which will allow staff to continue using ASSET, and for other institutions to be able to adopt it.