Projects
VLE Middleware and Kidderminster College have undertaken a number of projects, mainly in association with other institutions, organisations and commercial companies.Latest project
EasyView for Moodle: EasyView is the new, free tool from VLE Middleware which allows teachers to upload many types of file (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, OpenOffice documents) and learners to view those files without needing to install host software on their own computers. So now you can read a Word file without installing Word, or a Word 2007 without installing a compatibility extension for Word 2003, or a static PowerPoint slideshow without a PowerPoint reader! Very little processing is done on your Moodle - all the hard work happens on our server! There may be a commercial version which can run on your own server in due course.
Installing EasyView is simple - it comes as a single zip file and requires only basic technical skills (plus server access). Uploading files doesn't change in any way; teachers can carry on uploading any of the supported file formats (listed above) and students can still download the original files if necessary. But the magic little EasyView button automatically appears to the left of each item (and in the directory listing, where relevant) and gives platform and browser independent access to a clear version of the file. Find out more about Easyview...
Other current projects
IdM Toolkit: Working with the London School of Economics, Cardiff University and Bristol University. This project will produce a Toolkit to meet all identified requirements, with oversight and endorsement from UCISA, RUGIT, ISAF, JISC Infonet (and possibly other relevant bodies identified in the course of the project).
RAPTOR: The aim of this project is to build a software toolkit for reporting eresource usage statistics in a user-friendly manner suitable for non-technical staff. It will perform a "requirements gathering" exercise, talking to staff within the project institutions, a group of pilot institutions, interested parties, and via an open call for ideas. At the very least the software toolkit will consume Shibboleth Identity Provider log files, and may also be extended to consume log files from other e-resource access methods such as EZProxy. We are working with Cardiff University on this project.
Some of our past projects
KC-ROLO: The primary aim of the project was to setup Shibboleth architecture between Kidderminster College, RSC West Midlands and University College Worcester. This project was extended by JISC where we became “early adopters” of Shibboleth. This phase of the project looked into integrating Shibboleth with other software in Secondary schools, as well as the FE and HE sector.
FEIAMS: The FEIAMS project was funded by JISC under the Federated Access Management: “Institutional Access Management Support Project” (JIAMSP) initiative, working with Cardiff University. This project involved the installation of over 35 Shibboleth Identity Providers across the FE sector.
PAMS: Working with Cardiff University. This involved helping with the installation and setup of Shibboleth Service Provider software on a number of commercial vendors, including the British Library and Encyclopaedia Britannica.