West Yorkshire - Lifelong Learning Network

In August this year, the West Yorkshire Lifelong Learning Network secured funding of £10,000 from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) after submitting a successful proposal to implement and test the XCRI (eXchanging Course-Related Information) schema at the University of Huddersfield.

This exciting 9 month mini-project, commencing in October 2008 aims to implement and test the XCRI schema against the full University of Huddersfield course catalogue.

Institutions currently face significant challenges in providing high quality course information which is accessible to potential learners. This is mainly due to the sheer volume of programmes used within and across institutions and the range of disparate individuals who might usefully require or impart information about available courses.

The XCRI Course Advertising Profile (XCRI-CAP) will allow users to present information in a standard format in order for it to be easily shared between institutions, organisations such as UCAS and websites advertising courses.

The University of Huddersfield has a number of disconnected databases which contain course information and when information needs to be passed from one database or area to another it often needs to be re-keyed. The XCRI system will allow this information to be more easily transferred without the need to duplicate work.

A significant advantage of WYLLN securing this funding is that any experiences learned and developments fostered can be shared with all partners of the WYLLN and support can be offered to other institutions to embrace XCRI across West Yorkshire. The ultimate goal would be to use XCRI to develop a West Yorkshire Prospectus of Higher Education which would provide improved information for learners and employers.

View the briefing document
Find out more on the JISC website
Other Useful Links


XCRi Dissemination Event
Friday 27th March 2009
3 Albion Place, Leeds

This event provided an overview on the national developments around XCRI (eXchanging Course Related information) and explored the principles of XCRi and the institutional benefits from adopting the standard.

View the papers from the event

For further information on this project contact Joanne Charlesworth at j.charlesworth2@hud.ac.uk