Interoperability

To give students more flexibility when studying, including outside their institutions, products, systems and organisations must be able to cooperate and exchange information without restrictions. They must be 'interoperable'. This is often not yet the case. That is why SURF, at home and abroad, works together to increase interoperability.

Key concepts of interoperability in education

What is interoperability

Interoperability is the ability of different systems, organisations and processes to work together effectively, exchange data and understand and use information. We approach interoperability from different dimensions, namely an organisational, semantic, legal and a technical one.

Organisational interoperability

Organisational interoperability is about ensuring that different organisations, departments or groups within a system can work well together and communicate with each other. This requires agreement on things like policies, processes, procedures, and, for example, cultural aspects that can affect cooperation. It involves removing organisational barriers. In practice, this means integrating business processes and facilitating corresponding data exchange.

Example
An example of organisational interoperability in education is timetabling. Organisational differences exist between institutions, such as different academic calendars, teaching methods and, for example, the availability of facilities. By consulting, collaborating and establishing common guidelines and standards for timetabling between institutions, organisational interoperability is created. As a result, students can easily participate in activities at different institutions without overlap.

Example
A Dutch and a German institution are going to cooperate. All matters relating to coordination between the two institutions in terms of policies, procedures and communication fall under organisational interoperability.

Semantic interoperability

Semantic interoperability focuses on understanding and interpreting the meaning of data, so that systems or components can really understand what they are exchanging. How do you exchange information? What meaning is given to data input?

Example
As an example, we look at recording the gender of a learner in a system. One system uses a 0, 1, 2 and a 9 to record male, female, gender neutral or not to say. While another system does so with an m, a v and an x. At the level of data, this is really a different value, while the meaning remains the same.

Example
In addition to terminological issues, there can also be ambiguity about the use of certain information. For example, the word "address" for some may have the purpose of indicating the visiting address and for others the meaning of postal address.

Legal interoperability

With legal interoperability, you ensure that different systems and processes comply with applicable laws and regulations. Think of privacy laws, rules around intellectual property, accessibility requirements and other legal requirements related to the exchange and processing of information. This allows all parties involved to comply with the applicable rules when sharing and using data.

Example
Several educational institutions join forces to set up a learning platform together. In the platform, student data is shared. To comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other privacy laws, these institutions must ensure that the sharing of data is done according to the applicable rules. They must make clear agreements on what data is shared, with whom, and under what conditions, to ensure that student privacy is protected.

Example
Despite the Bologna Process, a European initiative to create a common space for higher education in Europe, variations in the recognition of degrees between different countries still persist. While the Netherlands has a comprehensive system for the recognition of foreign diplomas, there may still be differences in the requirements and procedures for the recognition of Dutch diplomas in other European countries.

Technical interoperability

This approach to interoperability deals with the applications and infrastructures that connect systems and services. Namely, systems must be able to exchange data and information in an understandable way. You achieve this by ensuring that the same technical specifications are shared, including through defining interfaces, secure communication protocols, interconnection services, data integration services, data presentation and exchange.

Example
To collaborate a Learning Management System (LMS) with external educational tools, use Learning Tool Interoperability (LTI). By implementing the LTI protocol, the LMS is able to seamlessly integrate with external educational tools that also support the LTI protocol. This allows users within the LMS to access and work with those external tools, without needing separate login credentials or switching platforms.

Example
Several educational institutions want to work together to create an overview of subjects they offer. To make this overview fast, maintainable and accessible for multiple software suppliers and institutions, it is necessary to make agreements on the use of the REST and OOAPI protocols. REST is a data transport protocol. So is OOAPI, but supplemented with agreements on semantics, so that parties understand each other's data better. This leads to better communication and more simplicity when making connections. In this way, parties can validate each other's data and enable a well-functioning ecosystem.