EQUELLA offers a range of professional services
that deliver structured, methodical, and successful
deployments of EQUELLA.
Our proven methodology, adopted and refined by
EQUELLA teams around the globe, maximises the
effectiveness and benefits from institutional use of
the EQUELLA digital repository.
The EQUELLA methodology incorporates best
practices from deployments to university, vocational,
school, government, and corporate clients.
The high quality services the EQUELLA Professional
Services team delivers include:
Strategic
Implementation
Content Migration
Training
Hosting Solutions
Extending EQUELLA
EQUELLA Capabilities
Strategic
n
Strategic Planning Workshop...4
n
Change Management...6
n
Business Analysis...7
n
EQUELLA Agent Design...9
n
Synchronisation Agent...10
Implementation
nEQUELLA Deployment...9
n
System Architecture Design and Implementation...11
n
Advanced Configuration Assistance Program (ACAP)...12
Content Migration
nContent Migration...13
n
EQUELLAizer...15
Training
nEQUELLA Certification Program...16
Hosting Solutions
n
Remote Application Monitoring...21
Extending EQUELLA
nDocument Creation Using Metadata...23
n
Document Creation and Merging...25
Strategic
Services
Overview
Institutional repositories can be a challenge to implement
as such solutions can require involvement, assets, and
cooperation from a variety of teams, including teaching
and learning, library, research, IT, content production,
academic departments, marketing, and various others.
It is critical to gain the support and cooperation from
all institution wide teams – and a clear communication
strategy can greatly assist with this important process.
A key to the successful deployment of EQUELLA is a
strategic approach to its implementation. Whether an
institution is implementing EQUELLA for the first time,
or is looking to re-evaluate and expand their existing
educational technology architecture, a Strategic Planning
Workshop will provide a clear pathway to ensure a
balance in interests and objectives for the institution’s
digital repository.
Benefits
Experienced EQUELLA consultants will lead an onsite Strategic Planning Workshop covering a variety of topics ranging from current content management practices, institutional objectives, content auditing, content
life-cycle, change management, to staffing requirements,
and more. In addition to the best practices shared and worksheets completed during the engagement, the EQUELLA Professional Services team will create a formal recommendations document based on the workshop discussion and outcomes.
A Strategic Planning Workshop will enhance the institution’s central management of digital resources, and develop selective consolidation for all users. Strategic planning and analysis of an institution’s individual and tailoured implementation of EQUELLA builds a solid foundation for the institution to continue to build upon with the EQUELLA Professional Services team throughout their implementation of EQUELLA. This process also enables the institution to follow on from a successful pilot and strategically plan to minimise risk
and incorporate feedback, leading to various benefits
including reduced overall system maintenance costs, increased consistency across the institutional systems, and greater value for student, academic and research communities.
Inclusions
n Review of Current Content Management and Future Content Management Objectives
n EQUELLA Overview
n Content Management Lifecycle Review
n Exploration of Content Migration Alternatives
n LMS Integration
n User Interface Customisation
nTraining Requirements
n Implementation Planning
TAFE/FE/Community College Sector
A leading TAFE Institute established a clear long-term vision for transforming the delivery of teaching and learning across the Institute, through replacing a legacy learning management system with an integrated platform including EQUELLA, Moodle, and Wimba. The Institute and the EQUELLA Professional Services team have developed a strong long-term relationship, recognising the importance of an integrated team and approach incorporating strategy, change management, technology, and other aspects. The engagement was launched with an on-site strategic workshop, eliciting the institution’s online teaching and learning objectives and business outcomes, whilst ultimately mapping these back to EQUELLA functionality. The engagement continued with a variety of remote and on-site activities,
including installation, configuration, content migration, load testing, disaster recovery planning, EQUELLA certification, and
documentation. The EQUELLA Professional Services team have also deployed remote application monitoring, which includes 24/7 monitoring and response on their EQUELLA servers. The relationship incorporates feedback from the Institute into our EQUELLA solution as well as the dynamic integration with Moodle.
Case Studies
HE/University Sector
A well established university conducted a current content management review, which involved an analysis of an existing repository, and their other institutional systems, coupled with a review of their EQUELLA pilot, with the goal of intelligent consolidation of platforms. The EQUELLA
deployment objectives focused on content authoring requirements, workflow processes, content sharing, federated searching, copyright management, reporting, training and staffing requirements. The university’s
Strategic Planning Workshop explored EQUELLA architecture design: load considerations, scalability, review of system architecture options, and disaster recovery. It also featured content migration, current content
locations, migration mechanisms and lifecycle, workflow requirements,
and contribution lifecycle and participants. The university also emphasised search capabilities, federated search, Blackboard integration, and developing an implementation plan for consolidating a number of content management needs into an integrated EQUELLA platform.
Technical University
An acclaimed technical university’s goal was to ensure their EQUELLA repository
would contain a wide variety and high quantity of materials, to meet a range of requirements across the university. The content areas that were addressed were: the
Institute’s Images collection, iTunes U content, multimedia learning content created by the university’s various media production groups, the library’s eReserve and CAL content, and other institution wide content. Core to the Strategic Planning Workshop
was to identify key business requirements – such as enabling easy and rapid content discovery – and then demonstrating to academics how EQUELLA could provide a
solution. The Strategic Planning Workshop focused on the way the institute would support media-rich content, eReserve and copyright materials, academic-created content online, as well as with the encouragement of academic contribution into EQUELLA, incorporating change management and additional content types, course outlines, and research materials.
Change Management
Overview
Change management is key to the successful deployment
of a digital repository. The most successful EQUELLA
deployments balance individual and institutional needs to
provide easy access to valuable resources, while enabling
broad overviews and more effective management of
content. The introduction of new processes, systems
and approaches to content management can be met with
resistance – as is often encountered during a change
process. Clear communication, education, training and
other mechanisms are required to properly convey the
benefits of the rollout and provide proper support to the
community to benefit the institution, the educators, and
ultimately the students.
Case Studies
TAFE/FE/Community College Sector
There were a wide variety of change management processes implemented within
a state-wide TAFE institute prior to the official deployment of the institution’s EQUELLA repository, including a formal Change Readiness Audit, official EQUELLA certification for the Institute, further EQUELLA configuration and optimisation, configuration for EQUELLA installation, and project management. The value of
EQUELLA increased for the TAFE institute as additional sources of content and delivery mechanisms were added to the repository and other institutional systems. An integrated architecture delivered greater value from each individual system as well as introducing an overall solution that will continue to grow and evolve. The addition of various sources of content included both internal resources, such as library and SharePoint content, as well as external collections, repositories, and
systems. This rollout provided a wealth of valuable resources but also significant
changes to processes. The initial reception, adoption, and success of the platform were all improved as a result of the formal change management program.
Benefits
Change management can be a critical factor in
maximising the effectiveness of the rollout of an
institution’s EQUELLA repository. There are multiple
aspects of change management required for this
particular project: strategy, communications plan, sponsorship/champions, training, support, as well as reporting and feedback processing. While the scale of
the change management required for the pilot may differ
across various institutions, it is still worth considering change management formally, and envisioning how it will scale for future phases of the deployment. Given the indepth nature of change management, EQUELLA typically partners with institutions for joint planning and delivery of change management.
Inclusions
n Conducting a Change Readiness Audit
n Development of a Communications Plan
n Project Management
nEQUELLA Direct and Train-The-Trainer Certification
nCreation of Administration Videos
n Establishment of On-Going Communication and
Change Management Regime
n Documentation
HE/University
A client university achieved a successful deployment of EQUELLA by building upon the strengths of the repository in accordance with the strategic evaluation of the solution. Through the extensive integration
of the institution’s LMS, and the development of research collections, users across the university will now benefit from continuous research
collaboration and wider dissemination. The strategies utilised, including
efficient training, a fully supported deployment, and detailed reporting,
alongside CLA enabled the university to extend their research capabilities and achieve further search outcomes, including external/ national library systems.
Business Analysis
Overview
Business analysis is used to identify and articulate the need for change
in how organisations work, and to facilitate that change. This disciplined
approach facilitates the introduction and management of change within
organisations with existing EQUELLA implementations.
Business Analysts engage with an organisation to deliver expertise that
will guide your team towards the best solutions for your current business
challenges. As part of this process, the Business Analyst will conduct
a thorough evaluation of the current services, systems, processes and
growth elements associated with your EQUELLA implementation.
Assisting your institution to identify ways to improve current work
processes, while establishing the current capabilities will ensure an
effective business solution is achieved.
Business Analysts apply specialised knowledge to leading your organisation
through new and different approaches to content management, eLearning
infrastructure, and the related procedures and integrated environments,
enabling the organisation to achieve the intended outcomes and project
requirements. This service can be applied to a range of tasks relating to
your implementation of EQUELLA, including; defining strategy, taking a
leadership role by establishing the goals and requirements for programs
and projects, and supporting continuous improvement in organisational
technology and processes.
Leveraging our experience with EQUELLA implementations globally,
the key business benefits are:
nAvoidance of additional costs associated with less-effective and less-efficient processes
nIdentification of new business opportunities, to engage further stakeholder involvement
nUnderstanding of required capabilities based on detailed assessment and manageable plan
nModelling the organisation for effective growth models
nAchieve greater time, resource and funding efficiencies for strategic planning projects
nApply funding to a well designed strategy with clearly identified intended outcomes
n Simplify the overall planning process with a clear plan for the implementation of upcoming tasks
Inclusions: The following is a list of business analysis services offerings:
Service
Service Description
Business Case Development The aim of the business case is to capture the reasoning for the initiation of an EQUELLA project
or task, which will be outlined during the initial requirements workshop. This service builds upon our content management and content service expertise associated with justifications for the
deployment of a centralised content management system.
Business Process Analysis Expand on your current use of EQUELLA: take content management system usage from the current state to an enterprise deployment. Working with stakeholder groups, the aim is to build
out the justifications from a cost and efficacy perspective for the implementation or expansion of
centralised digital content management with EQUELLA.
This service is included in a standard EQUELLA implementation and can be part of a strategic workshop that focuses on the review of centralised content management with EQUELLA.
Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) BPR is the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises included in your online
environment.
This service is included in, and will be delivered as part of a standard EQUELLA implementation.
The subseqent follow up can be part of a strategic workshop that focuses on the review of
centralised content management with EQUELLA.
Change Management Services (Optional)
Please refer to Page 6 for further details on Change Management as an independent service
Change management is the process, tools and techniques used to manage the people-element of change to achieve the required business outcome, incorporating the organisational tools that can
be utilised to help individuals make successful personal transitions resulting in the adoption and realisation of change.
This service is included in, and will be delivered as part of a standard EQUELLA implementation. It can also be part of a strategic workshop.
Change Request Consulting Services A change request often arises when an organisation wants an addition or alteration to the
agreed-upon deliverables for an EQUELLA project. Such a change may involve an additional feature or
customisation or the extension of a service. Because change requests are beyond the scope of
the agreement, the client organisation will need to allocate additional resources to meet this
requirement.
IT Risk Assessments IT risk management is applied to manage IT risk, e.g. the business risk associated with the
use, ownership, operation, involvement, influence and adoption of IT within an enterprise
implementation.
This can be part of a strategic workshop. and the subseqent follow up.
Project Feasibility Report Feasibility studies aim to objectively and rationally uncover the strengths and weaknesses of an existing business or proposed venture, as well as the opportunities and threats present in the
environment, the resources required to carry through, and ultimately the prospects for success. The two main criteria to assess feasibility by are cost required and value to be attained.
Independent Related Services
Service Description
Strategic Business Advisory This covers Business Strategy and Business Planning analysis.
UAT Testing Services To provide services to achieve the key objectives of the User Acceptance Test which is to:
n Validate system setup for transactions and user access
nConfirm use of system in performing business processes
n Verify performance on business critical functions
nConfirm integrity of converted and added data
Overview
EQUELLA Agents enable institutions and partners to
extend the EQUELLA platform to fulfil additional business
requirements. The EQUELLA Agent Design engagement
was developed to enable organisations to best architect
their extension to the platform. Experienced EQUELLA
consultants will work with the institution’s team to clarify
the requirements and design a solution using EQUELLA’s
flexible APIs. The EQUELLA Agents Framework is the
suite of services that make it possible for third parties
to integrate and build applications utilising EQUELLA
functionality. The types of EQUELLA Agents include
the EQUELLA integration interface, Rest Web Services,
the SOAP interface, and the Advanced Script Control.
EQUELLA Agents connect EQUELLA to additional
content and other services in an integrated, seamless
manner.
EQUELLA Agent Design
Benefits
EQUELLA Agents, including Advanced Scripting Controls, present the institution with the following
benefits:
n Leverage powerful scripting libraries to solve a variety of challenges
n Enables users to search and consume from external sources
n Introduces custom functionality, either integrating external systems or new capabilities inside EQUELLA
n Provides users with strong support from documentation and other client usage examples
Inclusions
n EQUELLA Agent Design Session
n Requirements and Approach Recommendations
Document
n As Required, Proof-Of-Concept Development
TAFE/FE/Community College Sector
Seeking to provide greater access to teachers to online resources, a TAFE
Institute desired an integration between EQUELLA and Gale – a robust online
collection of reference content. The EQUELLA Professional Services team
identified and documented the integration requirements, and developed a
proof-of-concept integration with Gale via an Advanced Script Control (ASC).
Following prototyping and initial deployment, the Gale ASC has been refined and rolled out across the institution – providing a seamless integration between
the two systems that enables the linking of Gale resources inside of EQUELLA, and ultimate delivery through a LMS.
Case Studies
University
Similar to the TAFE example above, a university required tighter
integration between EQUELLA and EBSCO, the research database service. The EQUELLA Professional Services team prototyped the integration and developed an Advanced Script Control providing
the required functionality. The seamless integration eliminates the requirement to log in to EBSCO before searching and contributing the
Synchronisation Agent
Overview
Institutions with an international, multi-campus structure
have a growing need to provide central, synchronised
content for distribution to a diverse and widespread
set of users. For institutions expecting high growth, it
is essential they develop and implement a strategy for
distributed global content management. The EQUELLA
Professional Services team can deliver a strategic planning
workshop and assist with building a strategy to ensure
that course content and collections continue to be
readily accessible across the institution’s network with
the synchronisation agent.
The synchronisation agent delivers content to regional
hubs for international, multi-campus institutions.
Content contributed to one EQUELLA will be
automatically synchronised to all other international
locations. The synchronisation agent clones all aspects
of EQUELLA content, including the identifier, making
the content identical regardless of location. Ensuring
continuous content synchronisation enables an
institution to easily build an LMS course using EQUELLA
content in one campus, which can be shared to other
campuses, with the knowledge that the local content will
be available, making the course immediately accessible.
Content contributed to EQUELLA via the LMS is cloned
to the other international campuses, enabling a user
located at one of the international campuses to view the
content via their LMS and download this from their local
regional hub.
Benefits
n Provides one central, global system for content distribution to international campuses
n Facilitates the rapid and seamless upload and download of content for users that may otherwise experience delays in receiving content
n Enables the automatic capture of appropriate
metadata, including: course code, contributor, file type, and date, which ensures effective searching and
discovery of content, minimising the workload of academic contributors
n Synchronised content is available across a multitude of EQUELLA instances
n Support for multiple EQUELLA collections, promoting the reuse of existing course content in other courses across the international campuses
n Addresses poor bandwidth and firewalls within
countries, or for remote/intermittently connected sites
Inclusions
n Strategic Planning Workshop
Please refer to Page 4 for further details on a Strategic Planning Workshop
Remote Application Monitoring is recommended when using the synchronisation agent to ensure continuity with all synchronised EQUELLA instances. This complimentary service inlcudes the following:
n Proactive Monitoring and Response
n 24 x 7 monitoring performance optimisation
n Patch and upgrade management
n Regular status reports
n Client review meetings
Please refer to Page 21 for further details on Remote Application Monitoring
University
An international client university with teaching, research, medical and veterinary programs has established campuses in three locations around the world. Expecting high growth within the campuses, the university has a strong internationalisation agenda and has utilised EQUELLA to share content across a range of course areas for all campuses.
The institution’s strategic aim is to provide a consistent user experience, regardless of where each student is located. The university aims to provide the consistent user experience through a hosted LMS in the primary campus location, and enhanced
performance delivered via local file upload and download for the international campuses. The replication of content across all
three international sites facilitates the sharing of content between campuses and maintains local delivery of content for users moving between locations, with students in each location achieving much faster access to content. The synchronisation agent connects with the institution’s LMS, and is fully supported by a set of enhanced support services, including 24 x 7 monitoring performance optimisation, and regular status reports.
Implementation
Services
Overview
As an enterprise-wide solution, EQUELLA provides a
diverse range of deployment capabilities to address the
varying requirements of different client institutions.
These may include the following:
n Pilot: The EQUELLA Professional Services team combines high level experience in the education sector with product expertise. This service guides our clients through
the entire life-cycle of deployment, from an initial kick-off workshop, requirements gathering, system configuration, training, staffing requirements, content conversion
planning, deployment, and documentation.
n Full Deployment: The EQUELLA implementation is inclusive of the various installation
and configuration requirements the individual institution has chosen to deliver their
content, and may include a range of consulting processes that relate directly to each institution’s deployment objectives.
n Copyright Compliancy: EQUELLA provides a convenient method for institutions to manage content they access and reuse, and fully supports copyright licensing agreements, including CLA (UK) and CAL (Australia). EQUELLA automatically tracks content usage of the activated items and produces the appropriate reports, reducing the reporting work load for institutions.
n Research Repository: EQUELLA can be utilised as an open access repository for research collections, allowing for new research information systems, providing institutions with open access publications, research administration and management information.
EQUELLA Deployment
Benefits
n Allowing the institution to share best practice, EQUELLA deployment is based upon numerous clients who have successfully implemented the solution, and fully supports the installation of any new system, which can be complex
n Institutions can utilise the experienced EQUELLA
Professional Services team who can quickly train the institution’s staff in how the solution works on the
server, providing the team with the skills to avoid the need to invest largely in future support
n While on site the EQUELLA Professional Services
team provide log file locations and troubleshooting techniques, ensuring the institution is only required to
dedicate a small amount of time early on to save large amounts of time on future support
n EQUELLA deployment enables integration with other enterprise-wide systems, the EQUELLA Professional Services team are highly experienced in installation, and have the knowledge base to determine the best process of connecting disparate systems
Inclusions
EQUELLA Deployments typically include the following key elements:
Activity
Description
Project Management and Planning On-going project management, coordination, status reporting
On-site Kick-off Workshop On-site workshop to initiate the engagement, incorporating strategic planning, requirements gathering,
knowledge transfer, and planning
System Installation Installation of EQUELLA for locally-hosted clients
EQUELLA System Configuration Configuration of EQUELLA to meet the business requirements, including aspects such as the metadata schema, collection definitions, workflow, taxonomies, power search and hierarchy model
EQUELLA Identity Management Establishment of a scalable security model including users, groups and roles, and integration with an external authentication scheme
Design Look and Feel Customising various aspects of EQUELLA, including Dashboard portlets, navigation links, menu headings, graphics, CSS changes and language packs
Data Migration Conducting a content audit, analysis, and migration of data from a variety of sources. Refer to the Data Migration section below for additional details
Custom Reports Creating custom reports to deliver customised business reporting
Certification Formal EQUELLA training and certification courses. Refer to the Certification section below for additional
details
Documentation Formal documentation on the platform and the engagement for handover to the client
Testing Coordination and support during testing, which is often directly performed by the client team to ensure
fulfilment of business requirements as well as knowledge transfer to the client. Deployment Production launch of EQUELLA
System Architecture Design and
Implementation
Overview
Organisations typically deploy EQUELLA as an
enterprise-wide digital repository and plan to source hardware to
deliver a robust, scalable experience for their user base.
The goal is to design and deliver an extensible platform
that will scale appropriately and can be augmented as the
client chooses to deploy additional content collections and
release the system to a broader user base.
EQUELLA supports a number of different operating
environments, with clients successfully deployed using each
of our core supported platforms. While there are many
variables to consider in system architecture, ultimately
the EQUELLA Professional Services team recommends
that any EQUELLA architecture leverage client expertise,
parallels existing architectures for other systems, and also
integrates with existing disaster recovery plans.
System architecture components may include:
n
Load-balancing switches
n
Various operating systems
n
Database server(s)
n
EQUELLA application server(s)
n
Utility server(s)
n
SAN or other storage devices
Benefits
n High level of availability and performance with service management
n Maximum flexibility through clustered architecture
n Knowledge transfer to the client team for optimal performance and stability
n Improved management and business continuity
Many of the successful EQUELLA clients across all market sectors engage the EQUELLA Professional Services team for installation mentoring endeavours, including architecture design, hardware sizing, disaster recovery planning and performance testing. Installation mentoring
is a service that efficiently and cost-effectively facilitates additional or consequent planning that
may arise as the implementation of EQUELLA further progresses. This will often include complex upgrades of EQUELLA, and ensuring there is no functionality or data loss during or after this process. This service can also aid the process of integration with a wide, diverse range of CMS/ LMS/VLE solutions, which many EQUELLA clients have discovered to be highly valuable addition to this service.
Advanced Configuration Assistance
Program (ACAP)
Overview
The advanced configuration options presented within
EQUELLA enable our clients to achieve the maximum
benefits when implementing a digital repository in a
complex environment, whilst acquiring the level of
customisation required. EQUELLA is a highly flexible
solution, and the EQUELLA Professional Services team
provides highly skilled training for the institution’s
technicians, to overcome challenges in order to reach the
optimal results and leverage expert solution knowledge
that will support the institution’s implementation.
When trying to achieve the maximum benefit of
implementing a digital repository in a complex
environment, sometimes to get to the level of
customisation desired requires further investigation,
and using the advanced configuration options present
within EQUELLA. Strong flexibility can present challenges
in gaining access to the right highly skilled technicians
with expert solution knowledge that can support you
in your implementation. Such skills are often needed on
an on-demand basis as implementation progresses by
members of an institution’s implementation team.
Benefits
n ACAP provides flexible support to an institution
during their implementation of EQUELLA.
n ACAP allows an institution to allocate a particular
set of hours for either general tasks or specific requirements, by ensuring these needs are met
without being time or project schedule bound, but rather being adaptive towards the actual deployment’s outcomes and progression.
Inclusions
Members of ACAP can access advanced configuration
specialists that can assist you in the following areas:
nLDAP and Active Directory Configuration and Tuning
n Development of XSLT Templates for Display Purposes
n Re-Branding of the User Interface
n Advanced Scripting Within the Administration Console
n Development of Bulk Upload Scripts
n Integration Assistance with Learning Management Systems such as Blackboard, Moodle
n Development of Federated Search Plug-Ins, Customisation of User Management Schema
n Assistance in Creation of Complex Hierarchies, Power Searches or Collections
n Assistance in Implementing Access Control Policies
n Server to Server Data Migration
n Report Design and Creation
The ACAP service has enabled many client institutions to advocate specified and targeted professional service hours, that specifically and actively target project objectives and required outcomes including scripting, load testing, and LMS integration. EQUELLA’s flexibility and
customisation goes beyond the software solution and can be seamlessly included within any
institution project. ACAP is a highly versatile offering of the EQUELLA Professional Services team, which can be easily and readily applied to any configuration of the solution, and any
associated infrastructure within the timeframe an institution has set, or in direct response to an occurrence during the deployment.
Content
Migration
Overview
As organisations seek to enhance
their content management, content
stored within learning management
systems is often a major focus:
by extracting the content into
EQUELLA, the content can be
easily and efficiently discovered,
contributed, shared, managed and
reused. The EQUELLA Professional
Services team has experience
extracting data from, and delivering
linked content to, a number of LMS
platforms.
Benefits
n Flexibility: The EQUELLA tools provide flexibility by working directly from the LMS or
course export packages, allowing for the process to be run at any point for any number of courses. This enables an institution to deploy the integrated solution in phases across the institution, as well as performing periodic “clean-up”, should some courses with
local content require the migration at a future point in time.
n A robust solution: Current EQUELLA client feedback has been very positive, with the solution’s application across multiple clients resulting in the tools becoming increasingly robust. While the tools actively facilitate the migration between LMS platforms, and extraction of content into EQUELLA, the EQUELLA Professional Services team recommends a review of the updated courses, to ensure increased leveraging of the
target LMS tools, as well as for quality assurance.
n Client driven process: The content migration process enables clients to drive the structure and strategy behind the procedure, as while the existing tools provide the
underlying functionality, there are always local decisions to be made about specific
business rules. There are various issues that the EQUELLA Professional Services team would work through with an institution during the consulting engagement involving the migration process as part of the EQUELLA implementation.
n Ongoing, customised success: Automated content migration from LMSs to other LMSs, or even to integrated EQUELLA-LMS environments has been highly successful.
The EQUELLA team can extend our technology to meet specific content migration requirements.
A typical content migration process flow, working from
course backups, is as follows:
nInterrogate the LMS course backup file
nExtract all content files that are linked within the course
nUpload those content files to EQUELLA
n Replace the reference to the files with links to EQUELLA
nRemove the files from the LMS course backup file
nUpload the revised LMS course backup file
For selected LMSs, live extraction and conversion is available, which can streamline the content migration process.
Case Studies
TAFE/FE/Community College Sector
A client TAFE institute recognised from the beginning of their implementation the importance of content migration to the success of their deployment. The initial migration of 2,000 courses from their previous LMS to Moodle, with the EQUELLA Moodle harvester successfully processing 25,000 content items, following an iterative development process to ensure appropriate content conversion in accordance with the institute’s business rules. Following the initial strategic workshop with the institute’s key stakeholders, the EQUELLA Professional Services team developed tools that harvest content from Moodle courses, upload the content into EQUELLA, and update the Moodle course with links to EQUELLA. The team harvested two semesters of courses in mid
2010, providing a new platform for educators and staff at the institute to
build upon.
HE/University
A client university received additional value with content migration during their implementation of EQUELLA. The EQUELLA Professional Services team’s aim was to facilitate the process of formulating the design of common high level standards for courses across the university colleges, by completing the proof-of-concept in order to publish all content in the test course from the EQUELLA repository environment into the LMS
environment. The EQUELLA Professional Services team configured the
solution to accommodate migration of courses from the institution’s previous LMS into EQUELLA for publishing into the new LMS. This procedure also enhanced the packaging of media elements and centralised content, with the additional production of blended and online courses, while the deployment of the solution continually supported the university’s core business units.
Inclusions
The EQUELLA team utilises the following iterative methodology during a content migration engagement:
nRequirements Gathering Session
n LMS Content Mapping Exercise (when migrating between LMSs)
n EQUELLA Configuration Planning (when migrating
content into EQUELLA, and linking to the LMS)
nProof-Of-Concept Migration of Selected Courses
n Customisation of the EQUELLA Content Migration
Tools to Meet Client Requirements
nTest Content Migration
nClient Review of Migrated Contact
nAs Required, Revision to Content Migration Tools
nProduction Migration
EQUELLAizer
Overview
The EQUELLAizer is a Moodle Content Harvester
that allows users to utilise the EQUELLA SOAP API
to read a Moodle course backup. The user can upload
local Moodle content to EQUELLA as items with
attachments, adding metadata nodes and values as
required. The EQUELLA-izer has the ability to harvest
Moodle backup files for learning content, contribute
that content into EQUELLA, then modify the backup
to reference the newly contributed content. The tool
is able to locate attachments, including PDFs, Word
documents, PowerPoint, Excel, images as well as HTML
content, content created by the Moodle book Module,
and Moodle quizzes. Contributing these attachments into
the repository, it creates a new backup file within Moodle
where all of the previously local objects reference the
newly created EQUELLA items.
As part of a consulting engagement with a Moodle
course review, the EQUELLA Professional Services team
determine which content needs to be migrated out of a
course, and what metadata will be applied to the content.
Those involved in the review also decide which metadata
rules will be applied, and scripts are then prepared for this
to suit the institution’s course review requirements.
Benefits
n Upload Moodle resources into a centralised system
n Develop an automated process for converting mass courses
n Move local content from Moodle to the repository
n Limit the duplication of resources
Inclusions
The EQUELLA Professional Services team can assist you in the following areas:
n Uploading of local file resources (PDF, doc, images, video files) and local IMS packages
nConversion and uploading of Moodle Book Modules into EQUELLA navigation nodes with editable HTML pages (each chapter)
n Parsing local HTML pages and converting them into EQUELLA items with attachments for local links,
images and video files
Case Study
In various client institutions, EQUELLA has been used as the platform to contribute Moodle backups, marked for conversion by the EQUELLAizer.
The EQUELLAizer searches EQUELLA for available backups across all collections. The tool then downloads these backups: for each backup it extracts the collection it was uploaded to, the owner’s details, as well as the core metadata for that item. It then converts/uploads the
content selected in the configuration file as new items for the collection, linking these items as attachments to a parent course item, to enable all uploaded items to be easily identified. A new Moodle backup file is created (with EQUELLA links), and creates a new version of the EQUELLA item for the Moodle backup file. It then uploads the EQUELLAized Moodle backup file as an attachment
Training
Overview
The EQUELLA Certification
Program is designed to equip users
with the skill set to interact with
EQUELLA effectively. The EQUELLA
Certification Program focuses
on effective functional use and
management of EQUELLA, in the
context of educational technology
theory on learning management and
learning content management.
EQUELLA Certification Program
Benefits
n The EQUELLA training team delivers a consistent, validated and structured set of content through a series of interactive, hands-on workshops.
n Certification courses benefit individuals in client organisations by recognising their skills and extending those with EQUELLA, enabling those staff to develop expertise and serve as a resource to other staff members.
n A certificate that incorporates an examination provides a level of validation to organisational management, confirming that the institution’s staff have successfully achieved the required competencies and knowledge from their EQUELLA training.
n Certification courses can be used within the institution as training tools for both new and existing staff.
n Marked certification courses can identify high quality individuals with the potential to
EQUELLA Certification Courses
n
EQ101 – EQUELLA Digital Repository (Core Principles)
This 1-day base level certification provides a standard EQUELLA user (e.g. contributing educator or student) with a detailed look at the
core functionality of the product through the web interface and through an LMS.
n
EQ201 – EQUELLA Content Administrator Certification
This 1-day course builds on the base digital repository certification to ensure a full understanding of:
nHow to manage copyright collections in EQUELLA
n Bulk modification and management of EQUELLA items (Item management, Advanced item management, Activation management)
nReporting (running reports with parameters, exporting to Excel, PDF) n Advanced workflow (e.g. rejecting, commenting, editing within workflow)
Please Note: Successful completion of the EQ101 examination is a pre-requisite for this course.
n
EQ301 – EQUELLA Application Administrator Certification
This level of EQUELLA training is recommended for participants who have a high level of competency as a user and administrator of all
basic EQUELLA functionality, including collections, schemas, workflows, hierarchies and other fundamental elements of the solution. During the 3-day course, the participant will be required to set up a basic configuration demonstrating their understanding of the core
principles of educational content management using EQUELLA. On completion, the participant will be fully aware of the wide range of
solution features and configuration possibilities, extending their EQUELLA expertise within their institution. Please Note: Successful completion of the EQ101 examination is a pre-requisite for this course.
n
EQ302 – EQUELLA Advanced Application Administrator Workshop
The 1-day workshop is designed for staff responsible for the day to day administration and application support of EQUELLA.
This course provides the participant with the ability to understand and manage the more technical elements of EQUELLA. This includes an understanding of the EQUELLA security model and EQUELLA data management.
EQ302 presents participants with the practical knowledge to troubleshoot issues that the user base may encounter, providing a basis for a support model to be rolled out in the target institution.
Please Note: Successful completion of the EQ101 and EQ301 examinations is a pre-requisite for this course.
n
EQ303 – EQUELLA Reporting Workshop
This flexible (2-3 day) hands-on workshop teaches staff how to write EQUELLA reports, and includes:
nEQUELLA database structure for reporting nEQUELLA text and graphical reporting nDrill-down reports
nExternal data sources for reporting
Please Note: Successful completion of the EQ101 examination is a pre-requisite for this course. It is highly recommended that staff attending this course have database experience.
This course can be delivered as a standard training course (2 days) that builds a set of standard reports and capabilities, or as an
interactive workshop (2 - 3 days) that builds a number customer-specific reports in addition to the basic reporting capabilities.
n
EQ304 – EBI Workshop
This half-day hands-on workshop teaches staff how to use the EQUELLA Bulk Import (EBI) tool to import content into their EQUELLA
instance.
It provides users with activities, scenarios and examples that will allow them to and includes: nUnderstanding EQUELLA collections and schemas
nAn overview of the EBI nInstallation of the EBI nEBI Quick Start nSetting and working with:
n
EQ305 – EQUELLA Scripting Workshop
This 1-day hands-on workshop teaches staff how to perform tasks with EQUELLA using the advanced scripting functionality.
The workshop is targeted at staff who are responsible for the configuration of EQUELLA and are interested in learning how to make the
most of EQUELLA using the scripting functionality of: nSave scripts
n Workflow scripts
nXML Transformation (XSLTs)
Please Note: Successful completion of the EQ101 and EQ301 examinations is a pre-requisite for this course.
n
EQ306 – EQUELLA Advanced Scripting Workshop
This 2-day hands-on workshop teaches staff how to use EQUELLA APIs to interact with external systems and covers the following:
nSOAP and REST API principles nEQUELLA SOAP and REST APIs
Please Note: Successful completion of the EQ101 examination is a pre-requisite for this course.
It is a pre-requisite that staff attending this course have previous coding/development experience, with experience in REST and SOAP
development highly desirable.
n
EQ401 – EQUELLA System Administrator Certification
The 2-day course is designed for EQUELLA System Administrators and or Second/Third level support staff.
This course provides participants with the knowledge to manage EQUELLA as part of their own institutions IT strategy and frameworks,
enabling an understanding of how to install, configure and backup EQUELLA within standalone and clustered environments. Participants in EQ401 training will also complete training on how to effectively troubleshoot issues in EQUELLA and be able to restore EQUELLA as
part of a Disaster Recovery Programme.
Please Note: Successful completion of the EQ101 examination is a pre-requisite for this course.
TAFE/FE/Community College Sector
A prominent TAFE institute that has extended their implementation of EQUELLA completed a high level of
EQUELLA Certification courses to further expand the capabilities and technical EQUELLA knowledge of their project team members. Those who completed EQUELLA Certification courses stated the training was beneficial to the performance of their work, and that an added benefit was the discovery of unexpected techniques and
abilities the user may not have encountered individually. Various participants believed the training involved a high level of EQUELLA Administration knowledge and expertise, and that the included exercises were not only useful for their experience with EQUELLA, but the process of being tested was very worthwhile for extending their knowledge base. The training institutions created by EQUELLA have also been well received and utilised during training.
Case Study
Hosting
Solutions
Overview
Our company’s hosting options deliver an expertly-hosted
managed instance of EQUELLA. As the developers of
EQUELLA and a global organisation, our company is
uniquely positioned to provide a stable, supported delivery
platform for your EQUELLA repository.
EQUELLA’s clustered environment means that for a fixed
monthly price, your repository institution is hosted on
a high availability managed hosted environment. There
are multiple redundancy points to maintain a high level of
availability.
EQUELLA Hosting
Benefits
n Expert Administration: our EQUELLA Managed
Application Service team is specially trained and staffed
to provide advanced administration and monitoring of EQUELLA.
nProactive Monitoring and Response: the Managed Application Service includes 24 x 7 monitoring, including server performance as well as EQUELLA service availability.
nReduced Risk: by engaging an expert team taking a proactive approach to monitoring your EQUELLA application, on-going risks to your platform are mitigated.
n Streamlined Support: all EQUELLA issues are handled through the central EQUELLA helpdesk, with dedicated hosting support team members on three continents, and escalation to EQUELLA Product Development.
Inclusions
EQUELLA SaaS manages critical aspects of maintaining your EQUELLA environment, including:
nA high performing, highly available and scalable enterprise grade solution
nBackups
• Weekly snapshots to disk - saved for 4 weeks • Monthly snapshots to disk - saved for 7 years • Yearly snapshots to disk - saved for 7 years • Tape backups also taken and stored off-site
n Server hardware
nOperating system
n Application monitoring
n Storage requirements
n Regular Quality Assurance updates and scheduled release upgrades
Remote Application Monitoring
Overview
The EQUELLA repository has been deployed within
institutions around the world and increasingly serves
as a mission-critical repository for learning content and
other materials. Given the integrated nature of EQUELLA
with LMSs and various institutional systems, it is
important to effectively manage the entire infrastructure.
The EQUELLA Professional Services team has significant
experience with the optimal configuration and
management of the EQUELLA digital repository. This
service is uniquely positioned to offer a cost-effective
service for remotely monitoring and managing upgrades
for our solution, where clients have opted to host the
platform within their network.
Benefits
nExpert Administration: The EQUELLA Remote Application Monitoring team is specially trained
and staffed to provide advanced administration and
monitoring of EQUELLA.
n Reduced Risk: Through engaging an expert team that take a proactive approach to monitoring your EQUELLA application, while on-going risks to your platform are mitigated.
n Controlled Expenses: The EQUELLA Remote Application Monitoring service reduces variable costs from system monitoring, upgrades, restoration of data, and other activities to enable organisations to properly budget and plan for EQUELLA management.
n Off-Hours Management: EQUELLA’s global team streamlines the application management – facilitating upgrades and other activities during off-peak hours.
nSupported local hosting: The team that delivers EQUELLA provides a highly supported and responsive environment during the deployment of EQUELLA ,
which enables those staff working directly with the
repository to have a stronger involvement in, and understanding of the infrastructure in place.
Inclusions
n Upgrades and Patching: this service includes the application of any applicable Quality Assured releases, hot fixes, or
major releases of EQUELLA. This service will be applied on the development, staging, and production environments, as
requested.
n Monitoring and Reporting: the EQUELLA Professional Services team will perform weekly monitoring of the application
log files and system usage, identifying minor issues before they can develop into more significant issues. We will deliver a regular report to the client with our findings.
n Performance Tuning: based on the above monitoring and client usage profile targets, the EQUELLA Remote Application
Monitoring team may periodically recommend and adjust, in conjunction with the client team, server-side parameters in
EQUELLA configuration files to enhance performance to better fulfil client business usage requirements.
n Restoration of Data: The EQUELLA Professional Services team will provide advice on the setup and scheduling of regular
backups of EQUELLA, including the database and file store, and will assist in the restoration of content from
client-maintained backups to restore lost data up to four times a year.
nCommunication: The EQUELLA Professional Services team will conduct regular communication with the client covering the above activities. Protocols will be established on the client approval process prior to the EQUELLA Remote Application Monitoring team applying any changes to the client environment.
TAFE/FE/Community College Sector
A TAFE institute is utilising the EQUELLA Managed Application Service, and receive 24 x 7 monitoring and response, extensive log analysis, server upgrades, and server fault response. The EQUELLA support team
receives SMS and call notifications, as well as an email for alert monitoring
services, and also applies the EQUELLA Service Monitoring of application
log files and system usage to identify minor issues and deliver regular reports to the institute on the outcomes. Any configuration change is passed through a detailed change request process, and are approved by
the client before the EQUELLA team proceeds.
Case Studies
HE/University
Complementing the work the EQUELLA Professional Services team has completed for a client university leading up to their deployment, the institution
is now benefiting from the supported management of their EQUELLA
installation. The remote application monitoring services are proving valuable for the university that still needs to host locally, but does not currently have
all the staff or the expertise required to manage EQUELLA directly. The
university receives a weekly log report and associated remediating actions, upgrades to EQUELLA, and other assistance.
TAFE/FE/Community College Sector
Document Creation Using Metadata
Overview
This offering for the document management space grew out of a need to collaboratively create
documents with a specific, defined purpose. Institutions require a way of enabling users to create
components of a document and merge the components into a single document whilst having control
over the format and layout of the content.
Through the standard EQUELLA contribution and workflow processes, document components
can be captured using free text, HTML, taxonomies (controlled vocabularies) or any of the 20+
wizard controls. Using workflow and security, EQUELLA can restrict creation, viewing and editing of
content by certain users based on their role and the stage within the workflow.
Extending
EQUELLA
Inclusions
n Workflow and metadata controls for disparate document content
n Development and storage of templates to meet corporate, industry or regulatory standards.
n The navigation builder is used to order the documents for merging
n TinyMCE plug-ins introduced in EQUELLA 6.1 allow users or administrators to set up templates to determine the format and layout of the produced
document, including headers, footers, tables and specialised mathematical and scientific notation
n Once the information has been captured, EQUELLA will produce a document in HTML or XML format, including DOCX or PDF.
n Users are also able to leverage EQUELLA version capabilities to (add some more stuff).
n EQUELLA’s usage of wizard controls to capture additional information, including security information. An example is the various settings in PDF files that
enable or restrict copying and printing
Benefits
n Additional functionality for clients using EQUELLA for non-teaching and learning content, e.g. technical papers with multiple contributors
n Streamline and automate the document management and creation process while removing the need for users to complete this function within a separate system
n Enable administrators to maintain control of content and ensure users are only accessing the latest version of the document
n Leverage EQUELLA’s metadata, workflow, and security functionality to create and manage the documents, including versioning, permissions for editor
Document Creation and Merging
Overview
This offering for the document management space grew
out of a need to manage and merge documents, including
TEQSA submissions for University courses undergoing
the process of reaccreditation. Users required a
workflow that would enable different documents,
with separate EQUELLA attachments or resources,
e.g. student assessment, learning outcomes or a policy
document to be developed into one document through
a single process. Users can now create metadata around
the documents, have a creation cycle for one or multiple
collaborators, develop a final version of the documents,
and merge all as a final submission. As part of this, users
needed to manage permissions, authors collaborating on
a document and versioning. Once individual documents
are created, a master EQUELLA resource is generated;
the navigation builder is used to link and aggregate all
the disparate documents into one master output – after
which all are brought together into one single document
or PDF.
Benefits
n Additional functionality for clients using EQUELLA for non-teaching and learning content, e.g. technical papers with multiple contributors
n Streamline and automate the document management and creation process while removing the need for users to complete this function within a separate system
n Enable administrators to maintain control of content and ensure users are only accessing the latest version of the document
n Leverage EQUELLA’s metadata, workflow, and
security functionality to create and manage the documents, including versioning, permissions for editor rights, and support for collaborative document creation
n Ability to manage individual components of a
resource: users can configure workflows that are
separate from the master, published document to enable collaboration and management of each piece of the item via the individual document collection
Inclusions
n Workflow for disparate documents; each including their own EQUELLA resource, metadata, creation cycle, permissions
and collaborators
n Development of master EQUELLA resource using the navigation builder to link and aggregate all disparate documents into one master output
n Set up with 2 collections:
n Individual Document Management Collection: this collection for the individual items includes a standard
contribution screen with metadata that describes the document, and can be configured to the institution’s specific requirements
n Document Merge Collection: includes metadata and workflow for final editor review with different permissions, before content is published. This simplified collection removes the need to complete individual document uploads, as it links to the individual item’s collections, collects and orders these, and publishes the final version
n The navigation builder is used to order the documents for merging; firstly, documents are collected, downloaded, placed into the final item, and the user can re-contribute and attach the document back to the EQUELLA resource, aggregating
EQUELLA Content Protection
Overview
EQUELLA provides users with the ability to store and display all types of content; however it did not
prevent content from being downloaded and distributed, until now. EQUELLA’s integration with the
FlexPaper (http://flexpaper.devaldi.com/) technology prevents end users from saving the displayed
content.
This capability enables users to control content presentation and delivery. The Flexpaper solution is
a web-based application# to publish a view of PDF documents, designed to control the publication of
resources and the possession of original resources.
When a resource is contributed to EQUELLA the attachments that will be converted for
display-only are sent to the conversion tool. The converted document(s) will then be stored in the
asset. When a request is received to display an attachment, either from an LMS or directly from
EQUELLA, the display of the resource is handled by a separate web server using the FlexPaper
technology. The Flexpaper technology displays the content using either Adobe Flash, HTML* or
HTML5*. Adobe Flash ensures greater content protection and security, as consumers only gain
access to the Flash file, not the content. The solution controls the possession of original resources
via the use of Flash and that protection capability ensures original resources never get delivered;
consumers are only getting a view of a PDF of the original resource.
Benefits
n Protect source materials from editing
n Ensure content author rights are respected
n Enable administrators to maintain control of content and ensure users are only accessing the latest version of the document
n Increase level of sharing and collaboration by removing the control barrier from contributing content
n Decrease teacher and author apprehension towards
contribution and sharing of content with EQUELLA, due to user downloads
Inclusions
n Digital Rights Management Control enables content owners to specify the
terms of use: requires agreement from content consumers
n Version control by ensuring one, consistent resource is accessible
n Copyright applied to content adheres to set business rules and protects content
n Intellectual property control
# Requires an Apache PHP web server.
* Please Note: the full capability of Flexpaper requires a site licenced version of
Thesis Contribution and Management
Overview
Each year, Universities encounter the challenges
associated with effectively managing the process of
thesis submission and evaluation. This process often
includes a complex set of tasks, is labour intensive
and time consuming to manage manually. EQUELLA
functionality has been applied to this process, in support
of institutional business rules for thesis management.
EQUELLA enables students to contribute their
thesis, which travels through a set of workflow steps,
each assigned to a specific individual/group, allowing
examiners to store comments, note awards or apply
failure notifications, and authorise resubmits as
permitted.
Inclusions
n Custom built thesis contribution and marking environment
n Replicate manual process with electronic submission and marking environment
n Planning Workshop for examination of current process
n Development of project documents, including specs for
collections and workflows to manage thesis submission,
assessment and marking (based on documentation of current process)
n Development of basic functionality, refinements, advanced functionality and reporting requirements
n Capture all information in relation to submission as part of
process e.g. status – failure, issues and more
n Final version stored in electronic form
Benefits
n Create a simplified, time efficient student thesis submission process
n Remove the need for a complex paper trail
n Maintain involvement of all academic supervisors, internal academic markers,
external academic or industry expert markers, and student administration staff
n Electronic form of final accepted thesis can be made available to staff and students
online
n Whole process tailored to the business requirements of the institution
Case Studies
HE/University
A client University utilised EQUELLA to build a thesis contribution and marking environment, to enable students to contribute their theses, and for these to then
move through a series of workflow steps. Each workflow step is assigned to a specific group of individuals, including Student Services staff, internal examiners/
supervisors, and external examiners. The University team utilised the EQUELLA Professional Services team for a planning workshop, to examine the current
manual process and define and document new requirements. As part of this, the institution provided detailed documents of the current process, and requirements
for a new electronic process. These items formed the basis for developing project
documents, including a specification for collections and workflows to manage thesis
submission, assessment and marking. The project was then divided into three stages:
development of basic functionality, refinements and advanced functionality and reporting requirements, and this new functionality for their EQUELLA was rolled out.
The system now enables examiners to store comments, and awards to be noted. A
student whose work has failed or requires additional work will be notified of this via
EQUELLA generated emails, and if authorised, resubmits are permitted.
HE/University
A fellow University built a final year project documents submission and
marking environment with their EQUELLA. Traditionally, the University
managed final year projects using spreadsheets. The faculty wanted to move
to an online environment for submission and marking, and the EQUELLA Professional Services team was engaged to develop an environment which would support these goals.
The University required students to upload a sequence of documents relating
to their research topic including the initial proposal, a conference poster,
and a journal paper. The University also implemented cut-off dates for each
submission that prevent students uploading or modifying their documents
after the date. Supervisors and examiners (either internal University staff or
external industry partners), are assigned via the contribution wizard, while
workflow ensures that notifications at each stage go to the appropriate
supervisor or examiner. Following this, marks are uploaded by those
supervisors and examiners, and are stored for each requirement that a project must meet, with all marks kept confidential.
