UNIVERSITY CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
(UCMS) FRAMEWORK
KHALID DHIYAB SAID AL-RUBAIEY
DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
FACULITY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA
KUALA LUMPUR
MAY 2011
Abstract
With the rise in amount of contents that are created at an organization, it becomes
very important to use more advance technology in order to manage the content and to
ease the dissemination of information to the audience. This study proposes a framework
of university content management system for the administration of Sultan Qaboos
University (SQU) to help in managing the content effectively and efficiently. This
research begins with investigation on the current management of content at SQU
administration to analyze and to know exactly what the current content management
system is. After the required information was gathered, a clear picture of what the
current content management system was gained. In addition to the findings; the
researcher, initially elicited content management system aspects and characteristics
from the conducted literature review, then researcher used the information that has been
gathered to propose a framework of University Content Management System (UCMS).
After that, based on that particular framework, a web based application prototype was
developed so as to support the findings and to meet the SQU administration needs,
furthermore it can be used as a guide for building a full functionality system. This
research followed on quantitative research methods, quantitative research techniques,
and modes of analyzing and interpreting quantitative data that emphasis on describing,
understanding the content management system framework. The fact-finding technique
that has been selected for this research is a questionnaire. The questionnaire was
distributed in Sultan Qaboos University administration in different departments and
centers for the data gathering.
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Acknowledgment
In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.
I would like to express my praise to Almighty Allah for every things and giving me
opportunity to finish my research.
I would like to express my gratitude and profound respect to my supervisor Associate
Professor Salimah Mokhtar for her supervision, guidance, advice, support and
comments, which led me to finish the research work successfully. I am grateful for her
generosity and amicable behavior.
A great thank and I feel a deep sense of gratitude to my beloved mother, for her
prayers, encouragement and continuous support and to my siblings.
To my family, my wife, my two daughters Ruqaiyah and Sumaiyah and my son Firas
for their continued support and patience over a period of my absence during the study.
To all my friends and colleagues, who stood with me during the study, especially from
the Sultan Qaboos University and Ministry of Education – Oman.
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Table of Contents
Title
Page Number
Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgment ............................................................................................................... iv
Table of contents ................................................................................................................. v
List of figures ..................................................................................................................... ix
List of tables ........................................................................................................................ x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION:
1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Statement of the problem .................................................................................... 5
1.3 Objectives of the study ........................................................................................ 6
1.4 Research Questions ............................................................................................. 8
1.5 Limitations of the study....................................................................................... 8
1.6 Definition and Terms......................................................................................... 10
1.7 Significance of the Study .................................................................................. 11
1.8 Methodology ..................................................................................................... 11
1.9 Dissertation layout............................................................................................. 12
CHAPTER 2 : LITERTURE REVIEW:
2.1 Introduction……………………………………… ......................................... 14
2.2 Content Management System (CMS) ............................................................. 14
2.2.1 Definition ......................................................................................... 14
2.2.2 The system users .............................................................................. 18
2.2.3 Types of organizations ..................................................................... 19
2.2.4 When organization use CMS ........................................................... 20
2.2.5 The benefits ...................................................................................... 23
2.2.5.1 Features ……………………………………… ................ 23
2.2.5.2 Content Management System on campus……………… . 28
2.2.6 How it works .................................................................................... 28
2.2.6.1 The Requirements ............................................................. 28
2.2.6.2 Content lifecycle ............................................................... 33
2.2.6.3 Framework and workflow ................................................. 36
2.3 CMS between proprietary and open source .................................................... 39
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2.4 Information Dissemination in a campus ......................................................... 42
2.5 Comparison between available CMS .............................................................. 44
2.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 48
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 50
3.2 Methodology ................................................................................................... 50
3.3 The instrument ................................................................................................ 53
3.4 The sample ...................................................................................................... 54
3.5 The sample process ......................................................................................... 54
3.6 Data collection ................................................................................................ 55
3.6.1 Survey questionnaire ........................................................................ 55
3.6.2 Document review ............................................................................. 56
3.7 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 56
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS
4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 57
4.2 The sample response rate ................................................................................ 57
4.3 Respondents background information............................................................. 58
4.4 Investigate on the current content management .............................................. 61
4.4.1 Investigation criteria......................................................................... 61
4.4.2 The current content management at SQU ........................................ 62
4.5 Open-ended questions ..................................................................................... 69
4.5.1 Question 1 ........................................................................................ 70
4.5.2 Question 2 ........................................................................................ 70
4.6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 71
CHAPTER 5: PROPOSED FRAMEWORK AND PROTOTYPE FOR UCMS
5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 74
5.2 Identifying factors for a proposed framework ................................................ 74
5.3 Proposed framework ...................................................................................... 76
5.3.1 Content management: ..................................................................... 77
5.3.1.1 Collaborative content creation: ........................................ 77
5.3.1.2 Content review: ................................................................ 77
5.3.1.3 Smooth update of published content: ............................... 78
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5.3.1.4 Efficiency: ........................................................................ 78
5.3.1.5 Storage: ............................................................................ 79
5.3.1.6 Easily scalable: ................................................................. 79
5.3.1.7 Reduction of human error: ............................................... 80
5.3.1.8 Consistency and no redundancy: ...................................... 80
5.3.2 Workflow: ....................................................................................... 81
5.3.3 Administration: ............................................................................... 81
5.3.3.1 Manage users: .................................................................. 81
5.3.3.2 System configuration: ...................................................... 82
5.4 Developing a prototype: ................................................................................. 83
5.4.1 Objective: ........................................................................................ 83
5.4.2 Methodology used: .......................................................................... 83
5.4.2.1 Prototype development stages: ......................................... 84
5.4.2.1.1 Requirements gathering: ................................... 86
5.4.2.1.2 Build Prototype: ................................................ 86
5.4.2.1.3 Prototype Demonstration and Review: ............. 87
5.4.2.1.4 Prototype Refinement: ...................................... 87
5.4.2.1.5 Completed prototype: ........................................ 87
5.4.3 Tools used: ...................................................................................... 88
5.4.3.1 C# (C sharp): .................................................................... 88
5.4.3.2 Microsoft SQL server: ..................................................... 89
5.4.4 Software and hardware requirement for the system: ....................... 90
5.4.5 Components of the system: ............................................................. 91
5.4.5.1 Interface: .......................................................................... 92
5.4.5.2 Content management: ....................................................... 92
5.4.5.2.1 Security: ............................................................ 92
5.4.5.2.2 System administration: ...................................... 92
5.4.5.2.3 Create: ............................................................... 93
5.4.5.2.4 Review: ............................................................. 93
5.4.5.2.5 Approve: ............................................................ 93
5.4.5.2.6 Publish: .............................................................. 93
5.4.5.2.7 Search: ............................................................... 94
5.4.5.3 Database: .......................................................................... 94
5.4.6 System testing: ................................................................................ 94
5.4.7 System screen shots: ....................................................................... 95
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5.4.7.1 Content Management: ...................................................... 95
5.4.7.2 Creating content: .............................................................. 96
5.4.7.3 Content review: ................................................................ 97
5.4.7.4 Content approves: ............................................................ 98
5.4.7.5 Content publishes: ............................................................ 99
5.4.7.6 Published content: .......................................................... 100
5.5 Prototype testing by users: ........................................................................... 101
5.6 Conclusion: .................................................................................................. 102
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION
6.1 Introduction: ................................................................................................. 103
6.2 Discussion on research questions: ................................................................ 103
6.3 Recommended future study: ........................................................................ 108
6.4 Conclusion: .................................................................................................. 109
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 110
APPENDIX A ................................................................................................................ 117
APPENDIX B ................................................................................................................ 123
APPENDIX C ................................................................................................................ 126
APPENDIX D ................................................................................................................ 128
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List of figures:
Figure
No
Title
Page
No
Figure 2.1
Framework of organizational content management system .......................... 37
Figure 3.1
Overall research phases and process ............................................................ 52
Figure 4.1
Participants age groups ................................................................................. 58
Figure 4.2
Participants roles .......................................................................................... 60
Figure 5.1
Proposed university content management system (UCMS) framework ...... 76
Figure 5.2
prototyping prototype development stages .................................................. 85
Figure 5.3
System components architecture. ................................................................. 91
Figure 5.4
Content Management .................................................................................... 95
Figure 5.5
Creating content ............................................................................................ 96
Figure 5.6
Content review .............................................................................................. 97
Figure 5.7
content approve ............................................................................................. 98
Figure 5.8
Content publish. ........................................................................................... 99
Figure 5.9
Published content .......................................................................................... 100
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List of Tables:
Table
No
Title
Page
No
Table 1.1
Definitions and Terms ...................................................................... 10
Table 2.1
A comparison between Drupal, Joomla and DSpace ....................... 45
Table 3.1
questionnaire distribution ................................................................. 55
Table 4.1
Participants roles .............................................................................. 61
Table 4.2
investigation’s criteria ....................................................................... 56
Table 4.3
investigation on the current system at SQU ..................................... 62
Table 4.4
the highest mean value ..................................................................... 68
Table 4.5
frequency of open-ended questions .................................................. 69
Table 4.6
participant’s comments regarding the current system ...................... 70
Table 4.7
participant’s suggestions .................................................................. 71
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CHAPTER 1: INRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction:
In the present globalized scenario, the tools for information gathering and dissemination
have become very important. With this rise in the importance of timely information, there
has been a parallel rise in the importance of efficiency in all the procedures from
information gathering and sorting to information dissemination, filtration and security. To
help on this it’s necessary to have a content management, otherwise it’s difficult to deal
with the huge amount of content without a content management system, wherefore many
organizations have turned to content management system (CMS) to fulfill their
needs(Rainville-Pitt &D’Amour, 2007).Yong-Gang et al. (2004) described the Content
Management Systems (CMS) as to manage the content development life cycle from
creation and categorization, review and editing, to ranking, live publication, searching
content and receiving feedback.
CMSs include everything fromportals to blogs and wikis (Daniel, 2007).CMS can also be
defined as a set of processes and technologies which support the digital information
management lifecycle. This digital information is usually referred as “content” and can be
found as not structured or semi-structured - such as photographs, images, documents or
XML data(Rares, 2009). CMS is frequently used for storing, controlling, revising,
semantically enrichment, and publishing document.
CMS has many benefits, such as aid in easy storage and retrieval of data, reduces repetitive
duplicate input, controls the access to data based on user roles which is define what
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information each user can view or edit, improves the ease of report writing and improve
communication between users through a communication channel(Honkaranta, 2003).
For an effective CMS, selection of a communication channel between the system and the
target audience is very important. while the CMS support collaborative content creation, it
requires a communication channel to ensure effective information dissemination. For this
purpose, the use of information display screens or electronic bulletin board is one of the
effective options. These information display screens it could be LCD or a Plasma screens
connected to the CMS and any information that is created can be published on them.
The advantage of audio-visual display screens is that they can deliver information far more
effectively than other communication channels. If an important piece of information is on a
notice board, it might go unnoticed. However, if the same information is on an audio-visual
display screen, it can easily attract the attention of the public. Those who would just pass by
the information display screen without reading the displayed information can still hear the
information. Thus the best communication channel for adverts, publication through using a
CMS is an audio-visual display screen (Angelo, 2006).
In the case of educational institutions, all procedures related to information have become
too complex to be managed entirely manually. In this modern age, universities have
thousands of students, enrolled in hundreds of different programs, with varying schedules
and diverging activities.
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Such complexity if managed manually would require wasteful use of human resources and
it would be prone to human error which in the case of universities would prove to be
critical and it won’t be user friendly. Simply put, a manual information system would be
prohibitively expensive and inefficient compared to an automated system. With a manual
content management system, content creation is a very lengthy and cumbersome process. In
the collaborative atmosphere of a university, most of the content is created by teams. In the
most efficient universities, these teams are cross-functional in nature as it enhances
efficiency; rather than circulating a draft through various departments, the team which
comprises of members from all relevant departments takes into account the concern of all
the concerned departments. This approach improves content creation; however, it has no
effect on information security, dissemination and updating.
Considering the wide variety and huge volume of content that has to be created in
universities on a daily basis, leaving the entire content creation process to human resource
is undoubtedly a highly risky approach. Besides that in an academic environment, it is often
necessary to review the content that has been published in the past. An entirely manual
system doesn’t provide that option as easy as the automated system.
Making changes requires going through the entire cycle (content creation to content
publishing) again which is highly inefficient. Maintenance of security is highly
questionable as it is very difficult to safeguard critical information when several people are
involved. Controlling the information life cycle is another hassle because usually the
responsibility for the content is diffused amongst various personnel/departments. An
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entirely automated system would greatly enhance the productivity, efficiency, usability and
security of a content management system.
One such automated system is the University Content Management System (UCMS),
which incorporates all the benefits of an automated system coupled with a high degree of
Artificial Intelligence. In a UCMS, every step of the information life cycle is centralized
and publishing is as easy as the click of a mouse button. The UCMS enables various
departments to simultaneously create content in a collaborative environment. There would
be no need for separate drafts for separate departments and no need for specialized teams
either as anyone concerned could easily modify the content from their offices.
Such systems also enhance the level of control over content creation as such systems ensure
restricted access to content creation. Only those with the requisite authority would be able
to access the content creation. User roles can be defined according to needs and access to
the system would be in accordance with the determined need of the user. Even when user
logs in, that does not give them access to everything (Deitz,2006). If the user is a faculty
member, he/she can create content as the nature of their job requires that. However, if the
user is a student, perhaps the system would only allow him/her an option of viewing the
content posted, not creating their own content.
A major advantage of these systems is that the control and security measures in place can
easily be altered for changing needs. For example heads of student societies can be allowed
to create and post content related to their societies. Thus it is very easy to make special
accommodations in a UCMS. The content created with the help of the UCMS can be easily
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published at several locations simultaneously with the help of information display screens.
Although a UCMS is prone to new security threats, it is definitely much more secure than
manual systems. The overall efficiency of the information cycle is greatly enhanced as
there is no duplication of resources and the inefficient use of human resource is decreased.
1.2 Statement of the problem.
With reference to theadministration of Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), it is essential to
note that they are seemingly in a transition phase—from a manual to an automated system.
This is evident from the fact that, they have several information display screens throughout
the administration area. But the most critical information e.g. announcements, adverts,
university news and timetables are still displayed on notice boards. One problem with this
approach the content (such as papers and posters) is prone todestruction; the administration
won’t realize that the notice is missing unless somebody points it out. This is highly
unlikely because most university notices aren’t expected by students; they are put up by the
administration at random e.g. information about seminars, workshops and events.
Information published especially information pertaining to schedules often requires
revision as problems surface only when the content is published. When the administration
is pressed for time, it is very difficult to make alterations to published information. This
puts students or the target audience at a great disadvantage as their legitimate issues with
timetables can’t be addressed only because it would be impossible for the administration to
make the alterations and republish the content within a short time. This manual system is
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also prone to delays due to the bureaucratic manner in which the various steps of the
information life-cycle are executed. Before information can be published, it has to go
through various administrative loops, with each loop making alterations and sending it
further up the hierarchy.
Also the current system consumes a lot of papers through printing the adverts and
publications, as the current global trend is to preserve the environment through reducing the
use of natural resources.
This is a major problem because it is a highly inefficient system. It is resulting in a wasteful
use of human resources and it is prohibiting collaborative content creation. Making
corrections or changes requires the administration to follow the entire information lifecycle again which is again highly inefficient.
To overcome the previousproblems, the replacement of bulletin boards by the electronic
display screens which connected to a content management system (CMS)willenhance the
all process and lifecycle of the content.
1.3 Objectives of the study:
The objectives of this study are:
1- To investigate the current content management at the administration of Sultan
Qaboos University(SQU):
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First and foremost, the researcher needs to analyze the current content management
system. The researcher will dothe investigation by information gathering through
distributing asurvey questionnaire to the administration of SQU which will include:
Deanship Student Affairs, Public Relation and information Department, Student
Counseling Center and Personnel Affairs Department.
2- To propose a framework ofUniversity Content Management System (UCMS) for
the administration of Sultan Qaboos University (SQU).
Once thecurrent content management analyzed, a clear understanding of what is the
current content management is gained. With this gathered information the needs of
SQU administration for content management will be clear,the study will move on to
the next step which is proposing a framework of a UCMS. In addition to the SQU
administration needs the framework will take into account:components for
controlling andmanaging content lifecycle (from creating to publishing)efficiently
and components for reliable security implementation to assure information security.
3- To develop a prototype of the UCMS:
The prototype is basically going to be an execution of the framework decided upon
in the previous stage. Afterproposing the framework the study will move to the next
step which is developing a prototype. The prototype would incorporate the most
feasible content control functions, which consist of: create, review, approve, publish
and search. In addition to that, the prototype would include the security
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implementation,which contains managing user's accounts and rolesbased on their
roles in the content life cycle;each user is required to login with aspecific username
and password.
1.4 Research Question:
Keeping in view the primary objectives of the study, the researcher has established
the following research questions:
1. What is the current content management system at the Sultan Qaboos
University?
2. Is it catering to the current needs of the university?
3. To what extent can UCMS facilitate the management of content?
4. To what extent the information in UCMS can be safe?is UCMS easy to use than
the current system?
1.5 Limitation of study:
This study has certain limitations. As mentioned earlier, content management systems are
of several types, however, this study only focuses on content management systemfor
university administration. Furthermore, this study analyzes the current content management
ofthe administration of Sultan Qaboos University (SQU)-Oman,which will include:
Deanship Student Affairs, Public Relation and information Department, Student
8
Counseling Center and Personnel Affairs Department.Apart from this, whenever the word
content is used, it is not referring to every sort of information disseminated by the SQU
administration; rather it is restricted to the information that is displayed on information
display screens or electronic bulletin board throughout the administration area.
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1.6 Definitions and Terms:
Table 1.1 Definitions and Terms
Term
Content
CMS
UCMS
Definition
The subjects or data can be defined as almost anything- documents, picture,
movies, scientific data, clips, PowerPoint slides, video, sound
Content Management System is a system to manage the entire information cycle,
from content creation to content publishing
A University Content Management System which allows multiple units to save ,
share and manipulate their content in one place.
Communication channel
The medium of publishing content.
Open-Source software
Freely available software that can be easily customized
Commercial software
Backup
Software developed by professional software developers and that needs to be
purchased prior to use
A system where all the data is stored apart from the actual storage. This is to
ensure that critical data is not lost even when the actual system crashes.
Firewall
A firewall is a special type of hardware that prevents unauthorized access
Traffic
The amount of users trying to access the system at the same time
System Down-Time
The amount of time the system remains shut
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1.7 Significance of the study:
This study is highly significant because it is going to revolutionize the information creation
and dissemination process at theuniversity. For an educational institution to maintain its
competitiveness in this challenging atmosphere it is necessary to maintain a technological
edge. Reliance on older systems shall impede progress and this would be aptly revealed by
this study. The study would effectively highlight how the present system is resulting in
wastage of precious human resource and how duplication of resources is decreasing
efficiency.
If such system implemented, that will lead to no more wastage of papers and printing,
which means reducing the cost of dissemination of information, it shall also reveal how
UCMS would eventually be a source of revenue for the university. Thus this study would
reveal a method of not only resolving the current issues of content management; it would
also show how this highly inefficient system which is a drain on the precious resources of
the university would be converted into a highly efficient system that generates revenue.
The study can serve as a decent sample for other universities to design their own content
management systems.
1.8 Methodology:
The study will be of a quantitative nature where questionnaire will be the instrument for the
data collection. The questionnaire will apply to administration members, who are involved
in creating, reviewing, agreeing and publishing the content.
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For the initial data about the aspects and characteristics of the content management system
framework will be extracted from the conducted literature review.
By the combiningthe initial data and the analyzing of the questionnaire findings, the study
will move on to the next step which is developing a framework of a UCMS as a powerful
information tool in a university setting.
The framework would outline the information needs of the university administration and try
to strike a balance between content productivity and efficiency. This section would have to
analysis of various, content creation protocols, content publishing protocols, would be
required to figure out the security measures, authentication procedures.
1.9 Dissertation layout:
This dissertation follows the standard format which is as follows:
Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter contains the overview of the study that has been conducted. It outlines
the problem statement and the objectives of the research. It also gives a brief
introduction on the research methods that was conducted.
Chapter 2: Literature review
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This chapter examines previous literature or studies conducted that are relevant to
the topic at hand.
Chapter 3: Methodology
This chapter details the research methodology and approach used in this study.
Chapter 4: Data analysis and discussion
This chapter present the findings of the research study summarizes the findings.
Chapter 5: Proposed framework and prototype for UCMS.
This chapter describes the development of framework and draft the prototype for the
UCMS.
Chapter 6: Conclusion
This chapter analyses the summary of the research findings and discusses its
implication towards the dissertation objectives.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERTURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction:
This chapter investigates existing works, researches and publications that have been
conducted with regards to content management system. The resources for this matter are
collected from variety of sources such as academic research paper, published journals and
some online references.
This literature will gives a clear understand about content management system, through
presenting what is the content management system, the main players, when we need it,
what type of organization implementing these systems, what is the benefits and finally how
it works.
Using the literature review, the researcher can easily determine aspects, which are
relevant to content management system framework, then the researcher can propose a
framework which is the main aim for this study.
2.2 Content Management System (CMS):
2.2.1 Definition:
A content management system is a software based enterprise tool used to collect, manage,
and publish information online. Effective content management should include consistent
and reliable methods to identify requirements, manage authoritative sources of information,
and assemble content on-demand to meet customer’s needs. The field of content
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management has become mainstream enough where the term is now familiar within the
workplace and the solution market is fairly mature(Sehring, 2009).
Manipulating and managing content is and has always been one of the primary functions of
a computer. Initial computing applications include text formatters and program compilers.
Content was initially managed by explicit user interaction through the use of files and file
systems. As technology has advanced, both the types of content and the way people wish to
use it have greatly changed. New content types such as continuous multimedia streams
have become commonplace due to the convergence of advances in storage, encoding, and
networking technologies(Cranor et al., 2003).
The main goal of a CMS is to achieve resources re-use and re-purpose online. In reality a
content management system is a concept rather than a product. It is a concept that embraces
a set of processes (Nordheim&Paivarinta, 2004). There are several types of content
management system already developed among Internet, like document management
system, electronic news/magazine publishing, E-business/ E commerce, web content
management frameworks, and XML processors. Each category has their specific features
need to be considered and implemented. In general, the CMS main functions include
authoring, workflow, storage and publishing. The whole spirit is used to implement the
content’s lifecycle, such as creation, giving semantic meaning, presentation, re-purpose,
and maintaining (Goodwin & Vidgen, 2002).
In the learning environment, the most important task for a content management system is to
maximize the reuse about archived material, thus minimizing the costs of iterative creating
15
same productions. A content management system should maintain metadata during whole
lifecycle, from pre-production to ingest, retrieval, editorial work, production, post–
production, airplay, archiving and reuse(Norman et al., 2003).
Yong-gang et al. (2004) described the Content Management Systems (CMS) as to manage
the content development life cycle from creation and categorization, review and editing, to
ranking, live publication, searching content and receiving feedback.
The term Content Management System in the broadcast domain comprises a system that
provides functionality for long-term preservation of continuous digital media, as well as for
annotation (cataloguing), retrieval, and reuse of the content. The requirements for a Content
Management System in the broadcast domain differ significantly from those in other
domains, for instance, the management of Web content, which is traditionally associated
with the term “Content Management”. A broadcast content management system has at least
to be capable of the following tasks:
•
storing and processing of high-volume audio and video content
•
matching between text-based annotation and image or sound-based information
•
integration in existing workflows and environments
•
provide fast access to recently ingested material
•
Manage the reference to media which are stored outside of the “digital world”, e.g.,
media stored on tapes in shelf archives.
The most important task for a content management system is, however, to maximize the reuse of archived material, thus minimizing the costs of new productions. This is obviously
16
accomplished by providing easy access via intuitive user interfaces, audio-visual feedback
for results, and other important elements of the human machine- interface. But whatever the
interface is, the quality of the results strongly depends on the quality of the metadata
available for the material - especially on the quality of the cataloguing process. Meeting all
the above mentioned requirements, the content management system is a kind of an
information turntable or an “operating system” for broadcasters. It is therefore an integral
part of all the digital processing inside of a broadcast facility, which leads to the term
Integrated Content Management(Kunkelmann & Brunelli, 2002).
CMS can also be defined as a set of processes and technologies which support the digital
information management lifecycle. This digital information is usually referred as “content”
and can be found as not structured or semi-structured - such as photographs, images,
documents or XML data(Rares, 2009).
The expression “Content Management” is largely used in industry, but sometimes with
different meanings. a content management system is a distributed software system which
treats information in a granular way, enabling the access, versioning, and dynamic
assembly of pieces of information, named contents, such as diagrams, tables, images, or
pieces of text( Canfora et al., 2002).
From the previous CMS definitions, it shows that, the content management system is a
set of processesto manipulate and manage content. A content management system is a
software based enterprise tool used to collect and managethe content development life cycle
from creation, reviewing, editing, searching and publishing information. Effective content
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management should include consistent and able to identify requirements, manage
authoritative sources of information, and assemble content on-demand. CMS has capability
to achieve resources re-use and re-purpose.
2.2.2 The system users:
‘It is necessary to differentiate the system users before designing role-authorized content
management’ (Cong et al., 2009). Content management is an inherently collaborative
process. It often consists of the following basic roles and responsibilities: System
administrator, Author, Editor, Publisher and Consumer.
-
System administrator has the highest access permission. He can not only do all the
operation actions of Author, Editor, Publisher and Consumer, but also endue or
withdraw the permissions of them and enact the variant quantity of areas managed
by variant content managers.
-
Author of the content- creating the content and editing the same is the primary
responsibility of the content author.
-
Editor of the content- the primary responsibility of the content editor is tuning the
content. The tuning includes correcting the style of delivery, localization and
translation.
-
Publisher- the responsibility of the publisher is publishing releasing the content for
use.
-
Consumer- these are the persons who views the content that is published. Consumers
are also one of the audience and target.
18
There is important aspect as far as content management is concerned. That is managing the
versions of the content. To make the version control easy the authors need to store the older
version of the contents that are edited.
2.2.3 Types of organizations:
The management of electronic records is as important to organizations as financial
management and human resource management. Enterprises, government, organizations,
and education sector or schools all need to manage and share their information and interact
with their users(Yong-gang et al., 2004).
Electronic content management, which automates the process of storing, searching for, and
reusing data in a centralized way, has been gaining ground in major corporations around the
world for years. Indeed, from Enterprise Resource Management (ERM) and Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) to Human Resources Management (HRM) and other
enterprise systems, organizations both large and small are now using such systems to pull
huge chunks of disparate information into centralized databases.
Lui et al. ( 2009) state that Content management systems (CMS) are widely used in various
industries. Financial content distribution, multimedia contents, and books sharing are some
of the examples that rely on CMS to store and distribute different information through
electronic means.
19
2.2.4 When organizations use CMS?
Any organization has a critical success factors to meet the business challenges and survive
in the ever-changing global market space. In order to meet these critical success factors
organizations around the world are moving towards Enterprise Content Management
Solutions(Muhammad Usman et al., 2009).
Canfora et al. (2002) present that organization recent interest towards content management
solutions has increased on the basis of three main issues:
1. The increase in semi or unstructured data:
The other extreme includes documents (have irregular structure) of mostly naturallanguage text such as word processing files, text fields from databases or
applications and e mail these are all examples of unstructured data.
Moreover, semi-structured data, between two extremes includes XML documents
and RSS feeds, flat files in record format, semi-structured data in spreadsheets.
XML documents, this technology becomes important to store and exchange data
among content management.
20
2- The need ofcontent managing and controlling not only the entire documents.
The main deference between document management system and content
management system is a document management system aim to deal with files that
are stored in and controlled by. Whereas a Content management system allows end
users to create a document even if it is not exist, retrieve the content controlled by
the system and mainly focuses on content reusability (Nina &Bailie, 2004).
However, both content management system and document management system use
metadata to search and classify the information.
2. Collaboration and internetworking within and between enterprises.
Collaboration within and between the institutions islead to the need for distributed
content management solutions. Itsupportssharing and transferringthe information
from a company to its business partners, moreover, it addresses the need to access
content wherever it resides at real-time. With the fast increasing of new
communication devices, such as mobile, the information can be displayed in
different ways, depend on that device.
Today, more and more digital technologies are developing along with incredible
information created. No one can read or even browse all the interested information, so
worthy information need to be organized, stored and management during its life-cycle. In
school environment, there are a lots of valuable assets need to maintain to educate our
21
students well (Norman et al., 2003). However, the rapid growth of high quality digital
content has become a challenge to tertiary education institutions(Zhengui & Doulai, 2009).
Cranor et al. (2003) say: The need for content management is apparent when one considers
the following:

Cheap storage devices with higher-capacity:
With the proliferation of storage devices with higher-capacity, could even become a
modest PCs store vast amounts of contents,
managing such content in the
traditional manner inefficient and ineffective, where it is difficult to get desired
content within contents accumulated by non-managed or at random way.

The storage of continuous media content:
The need to manage storage of continuous media content, where storing the content
of the continuous media still problematic in terms of storage resources, it is not
suitable for all, but small systems. On the other hand, storing the content of the live
broadcast, such as TV and radio, a problem in itself because it has continuous
streams signals with no endpoints. For this, should be taken into account the
managing of such content effectively.

Managing stored continuous media:
When managing continuous media content, there is a need to take into account
managing in both level, Fine-grained and an aggregate. Sometimes, user may need
to keep or store only a particular event scene, not the whole event. In the meanwhile
22
might think of the content in aggregatee.g. remove all of the content of a particular
event except a sceneon that event which was explicitly marked for archival.

From the above points, it is clear that it is difficult to trace the content without a
content management system; moreover, it is almost more difficult to track content
when storage devices are distributed through and across a network and this scenario
is not desirable in the home-networking.
2.2.5 The benefits
2.2.5.1 Features:
Qian et al. (2005) state that Content Management Systems (CMS) support the creation,
management, distribution, and publishing of content.CMS nowadays are used to manage
complex publications far more often than some years ago. The basic principles are the
separation of structure, content and presentation, an exactly defined workflow management
and the management of content in the form of small units, so called assets. This leads to
improved quality, better reusability and reduced costs( Bergstedt et al., 2003).
To ensure integrity, volume, creation, dissemination and storage of content, organizations
need the support of technology to keep the system active. The technology that supports
information creation, storage and dissemination is content management system (CMS)
23
(Zhou, 2008). A CMS in an organization may be used for product development, marketing,
sales support, order management, customer relations, supply chain, information
development, technical support and publication and training. Four primary components of a
CMS are authoring, linking and publishing, assembly and repository(Akpınar & Simsek,
2005).
According to Bergstedt et al. (2003) there are characteristic features all CMS have in
common and say that a perfect CMS should offer the following:
1) Division of Content, Structure and Presentation
2) So-called “SSMM”-principle (Single Source – Multiple Media)
3) Management of assets
4) Management of workflow
5) Managing users and their roles
6) Ability to import and export content
7) Content Syndication
8) Individualize the presented content
9) Being extensible by scripts or modules
10) Version-Management regarding content and assets
11) Archiving content
12) Publication
13) Supporting the editorial process
24
CMS can provide consistency, attractive and effective information (Amsler& Nicholas,
2008). CMS allows those involved in the course development process to forgo hours of
manual work, quickly reuse and reconfigure already existing course content, automate the
updating and versioning process, and create multiple courses for multiple purposes using
the same content (Paivarinta&Munkvold, 2005). By managing content in a highly
accessible, automated database where the work of untold legions of training professionals is
combined into one centralized hub, those who need to design a course from scratch, build a
new course using existing content, or find chunks of knowledge or learning objects to plug
into a course under development can do so in a flash. In short, LCMSs (Learning Content
Management Systems) can make the most of existing content while at the same time
supporting rapid development of new content (Caton&Katzman,2001).
A CM system facilitates the management of content within a framework of business
processes, workflows, and business governance (White, 2004).
The features of a CM system vary, but most include web-based publishing (content
creation, review, and delivery), format management, revision control, archiving, indexing,
search, and retrieval. A major misconception of a CM system is that it is just a piece of
software. While software is an important component, by itself it does not create a CM
system solution. Effective portal CM requires dedicated personnel who are highly skilled in
information management (Augustyniak et al., 2005).
25
Education sector has a big example of using CMS which is Learning Content
Management System (LCMS) and according to Caton & Katzman (2001) this system offers
the following benefits:
•
Faster Development: Most LCMSs offer a what-you-see-is-what-you-get authoring
environment, which allows content developers, instructional designers, and subject
matter experts to quickly create and publish just-in-time training.
•
Collaboration: Storing learning content in an LCMS provides functionality that
surpasses what typical learning authoring tools allow. Many LCMSs also have
check-in and check-out capabilities that enable multiple users in various locations to
access and work within the same course simultaneously. Meanwhile, versioning
features support collaborative efforts by offering quick and easy backups.
•
Reuse: A robust search capability, one that allows content developers to search for
content and reuse it, is one of the primary appeals of an LCMS. For example, large
retailers can create one learning module to teach safety regulations to employees,
and then use the same module again in multiple courses later on. LCMSs also allow
instructional designers to create the same content for publication in various formats.
For example, a safety regulation module might be published as a Web-based course
for employees who have access to the Internet--and as a student workbook for those
who do not.
•
Quick, global updates: With most LCMSs, course developers can link to a learning
object. This means that the same learning object can exist in multiple locations--but
when it's time to update the content of that object, the update can be done in one
location and all instances of it throughout the system will update automatically.
26
CMS also help with institutional accreditation review. When the time comes to prepare the
institutional self-study for accreditation review, the process of collecting the data from numerous locations can be a difficult time consuming task. This can be eliminated through the
use of a content management system to serve as a central archive for all electronic
documents related to accreditation. Since access can be controlled, the data is not accessible
to the outside public. One concern regarding a centralized location of accreditation data is
the potential of catastrophic loss of the data through a system failure or operator error.
Typically larger institutions have systematic data backup systems that protect against the
loss of data which provides comfort in the knowledge that all accreditation data is stored in
one location(Obermier, 2006).
A non-centralized Content Management System will cause many issues as follow
(Rockley et al., 2003):
•
Content redundancy:
When there is no information sharing within an enterprise, that will lead to create
the same content by multiple authors,
•
Lack of communication:
The author does not realize that the content exists elsewhere in the institution, this
will cause the same content will be authored several times.
•
Inconsistent content:
Shortage of standard in content often resulted inconsistent content, such as format,
therefore that will make tracking and reuse content almost ungainly.
27
2.2.5.2 Content Management System on campus
The University of Utah that has implemented a CMS outlines the following primary
benefits of the system as published on their website:
•
Content can be shared effectively across institutional reporting lines, but the content
will be managed by knowledgeable content owners.
•
Improves usability and satisfaction with the user experience, as content is delivered
in the context of the user’s role and not necessarily based on organization structure.
•
Content can be delivered according to audience, and different needs from the public
versus the insider can be addressed.
•
The quality of content can be improved and the content life cycle can be managed.
Duplicate and contradictory content are minimized, and authoritative sources of
content can be owned and published from a more reliable content repository.
2.2.6 How it works:
2.2.6.1 Requirements:
In a typical CMS, information is either authored by the organization or brought in from
outside the organization, but it is the content and once linked and placed into the CMS, it is
ready for viewing and studying by the target users. The content in a CMS is kept in the
form of information objects stored in CMS repository. Information objects can be searched
and retrieved by authors and others in need of information. All the interactions of users
with the information objects may be monitored and controlled by the CMS where the
28
concern of learn ability of the content is not a question and the most effort put on the setup
and production of the content( Akpınar & Simsek, 2005).
The development of CMS should consider to be customizable enough, aligned with
strategic business goals, objectives and specific requirements, smart to gel-in the
organizational operations, quick to produce results, simple to work with and acceptable by
the stakeholders(Muhammad Usman et al., 2009).
CMS should involve easy managing, fast and secure access in multimedia through network,
it also need semantic features for searching and syndicating content. ‘We considered
following aspects in addition to a normal CMS requirements’(Yong-gang et al., 2004):
1- Portability
Content management system should be independent platform doesn’t rely on specific
systems, and switching an outside system in the same type should not affect its
performance.
2- Supporting multimedia content, and standard based meta-data
Metadata is structured data or information which describes and explains the
characteristics of resources. Metadata is often called data or information about data.
It is essential for understanding information stored in data repositories. Metadata
makes content easy to manageand facilitates finding the relevant information. In
addition to that, metadata provides digital identification and supports archiving.
29
3- Accessing content list in different ways
Adopting taxonomy (a particular classification arranged in hierarchal structure) on
content management system, that makes better and quicker access to information
and less duplication of work. Taxonomy classification also allows different users
access content by different ways depending on their needs.
4- Showing relationship of content
Appling hierarchy taxonomy management which organized by super type-subtype
relationships also called generalization-specialization relationships will show and
view the relationship between content in the same media type or various media
types.
5- Supporting multi-source
Content management system should support multimedia content type through both:
multi views for different media type and getting content from multi-source such as
follow:
-
Video on Demand (VOD) through stream media serve.
-
More control over downloading through FTP.
-
Email for notification.
6- Supporting fine-grained access control
30
The need of fine-grained access control because of the content amount increasing on
the web and user should focus on most valued and recommend content, therefore, what
can be published and recommend on the web must be carefully determined.
7- Lightweight and easy to use
Content management system should be easy to use, moreover, should avoid a complex
functions and definitions; it is difficult for those who involved in content management such
as administrator or advanced users, let alone normal users who just know browsing and
clicking links' buttons.
While Rares (2009) considered the following key features for how CMS should act:
•
Data (content and metadata) management
•
Security management
•
Ability to ingest content
•
Ability to process content
•
Ability to classify content
•
Retrieve data (metadata and content)
•
Allow and control concurrent access
•
Manage storage space
•
Allow collaboration on content
•
Allow definition of content enabled flows
31
•
Each of these features can be defined and discussed from the point of view of high
performance.
To avoid some challenges that may opposed the implementation of CMS
Cranor et al.
(2003) suggested some requirements for content management system for example:
•
A running on heterogeneous systems should be supported by the content
management system, as it is sometime required to manage contents that are stored
on different places, for example: it is required to manage content stored on a local
file system and content may be stored on a separate network storage device.
Moreover, a uniform interface is needed for the content management system,
through providing Application program interface (API) and associated network
protocols.
•
The flexibility is very important in the content management system in order to easy
manage and handle various requirements for content management policies. Content
policies are a set of rules that manage the availability and behavior of content and
information. Moreover, Policy enables administrators and content manager to
control and evaluate who can access the content, how long the content to be
retained, and how effectively other content management system users are
complying with the policy.
•
For better and efficient application access, content management system should
monitor the references for content and use that information to place content in the
right location in the network.
32
•
The amount of content in content management system is increasingly, therefore the
interaction between implicit and explicit population of content must be managed
and handled at the network edge.
•
In terms of continuous streams content, content management system needs to have
the ability to handle and package this content efficiently.
The University of Utah recommends the following steps prior to the implementation of a
CMS as outlined on their website:
1. Content audit:
The content first needs to be audited and inventoried, through examine and
organizing content in such way that become as a resource and re-usable.
2. Defining Content Management roles:
Specify the whole players in the content lifecycle, which include content creator,
reviewer, approver, publisher and content manager.
3. Defining workflow:
Define the business process and rules for content lifecycle roles
2.2.6.2 Lifecycle:
The content life cycle is the path of the data, from its creation or inception up through
the time it is either archived or deleted. It is imperative to map out an efficient workflow
schematic for the entire life cycle. Defining the content life cycle facilitates modeling the
33
path of the content, thereby providing insight into patterns of usage and workflow, and
allowing a better understanding of what system applications and processes will need to
occur,following are the steps of the content life-cycle as outlined by White (2004):
1) Content creation:
First step in the content lifecycle is creating or authoring content such as document,
video file, audio file and picture, as
part of content production process before
presenting it in the final medium.
2) Content review:
Reviewing content for assuring that it meets the quality standards with a complete
committing to editorial guidelines.Furthermore, checking the functionality efficiency. If
the content meets the requirement, it moves on to the next step in the content life cycle,
if not, it will be rejected to be archived or discarded.
3) Content versioning:
Managing the different version of edited content, this process will end by getting the
final accepted version of content which is ready to be published to audience.
4) Content classified and held in repository:
This step after the content has been checked for a quality and has been approved, so
now it is ready to be classified, then to distribution, delivery and searching retrieval.
34
5) Content released and repurposed for delivery to specific audiences:
The system automatically will repurpose the content once it released, further, providing
the end users a value-added content which has been specified by content manager.
6) Archive/discard
The system will automatically archive the content depending on present criteria.
Moreover the content can be archived manually in accordance with systematic
guideline, if the content has no historical value it may discarded (White, 2004).
While Qian et al.(2005) state that during CM life cycle content experiences only three
different phases: content creation, content administration, and content distribution:
1) Content creation.
It is important to provide content management system with the ability to add Meta data
and attributes beside creating and adding content, so that will allow users to get
personalized information, to refine searches and indexing. Moreover the interface for
content creator or author should be a powerful with easy access to all content creation
feature provided by content management system.
2) Content administration.
According to content administration, the following points should be taken into account:
-
Strictly controlling version for purposes of legal accountability and recovery
disaster.
35
-
Protecting contents' integrity through efficient security level and content
auditing.
-
Integration with the existing system.
3) Content distribution.
Content management system requirements for content distribution:
-
Integrated with delivery tools to provide additional publishing functionality.
-
Publishing to multiple formats for any device in any language.
-
Personalized content for delivery and presenting different information based on
user profiles.
2.2.6.3 Framework and workflow:
CMS should be coordinated and protected access to stored data. Also data must be readily available to advisory committees, program leaders, faculty, students, and often multiple
accreditation agencies for ongoing review and analysis. Rather than placing the
responsibility of data storage and access upon one individual, typically the department
secretary, a well-defined content management system that provides controlled access to
multiple individuals via the Internet or intranet must be implemented. Depending upon how
the workflow approval process has been set up, the Chair may be the final person to allow
content to be published to the website. The content cannot be published until all parties in
the workflow process have done their part. The workflow approval sequence can be made
as simple or elaborate as needed (Obermier, 2006).
36
We may identify at least two kinds of convergence taking place in organizational content
management. First, the management of content is deeply intertwined with organizational
work. Second, content as we know it is becoming exceedingly complex as it converges with
different logical and physical entities to be managed. The content management intertwined
nature with organizational work is discussed via a framework consisting of the four
components of content management: content, technology and systems, roles and processes
(Honkaranta&Tyrvainen, 2005). Figure 2.1 illustrates the aforementioned framework for
content management.
PROCESSES
ROLES
Content
TECHNOLOGIES
AND SYSTEMS
Figure 2.1 Framework of organizational content management
system(Honkaranta&Tyrvainen, 2005).
37
As presented by many researchers, the roles, processes, technologies and systems and
content form a consistent whole in organizations. Therefore the components of the
framework shown in the figure are interrelated. A change in one component will impact all
other components of the framework. For example, adopting a content management system
will impact the publication processes, the roles of the people, and the content units used
(Honkaranta&Tyrvainen, 2005). A change in content form—such as transformation from
paper to digital—may trigger the establishment of entirely new processes and roles in the
organization (Eriksen&Ihlstrom, 2000).
For content management, people’s rolesshould be separated with regard to content
management development vs. operational roles. From the business process (operational)
perspective a person may act as a manager, purchaser, accountant, and so on. From the
content management perspective, the roles are attached to the content life-cycle. Thus, there
are only a few roles to be considered. A person may act as a creator, modifier, viewer
signer, reviewer, publisher, and destroyer related to a content unit. The technologyof
organizational content management includes standards, architectures, technologies, tools,
and applications. Contemporary content management systems may be roughly divided into
three categories: platform systems, horizontal systems, and vertical systems. The amount of
metadatarelated to the content increases along the number of the content units when the size
of the managed unit decreases. Metadata is typically defined as “the sum total of what one
can say about any information object at any level of aggregation” (Gilliland & Anne, 2008).
Commonly people associate metadata with content description for retrieval. It has almost
become a norm to adopt a commonly used metadata standard into a content management
38
system. The metadata standard adopted defines the elements by which the content is
described. Content may then be searched for and retrieved using the combination of
metadata element names and their values specific to an instance content unit. Adoption of a
metadata standard typically involves making organization-specific adjustments.
According to White (2004), content inventory and analysis is very important. Providing
the end-user with the ability to find the right information at the right time will ultimately
determine the value of a portal. Therefore the portal will only provide as much value as the
accessibility of its content. The successful retrieval of relevant content is the result of the
CM strategy. Identifying content-related issues in detail is the most labor intensive and
critical step in defining the CM strategy best suited for your portal. The purpose of a
content inventory is to determine what data exists, who owns it, where it is stored, and the
current value. A content inventory will help identify gaps and shape your content plan as
well as pinpoint duplicative data and data that are no longer of value. Based on the content
inventory and analysis, a content acquisition strategy can be developed. Content acquisition
is the process of gathering information for the CM system. This process could be manual,
automated, or a hybrid.
2.3 CMS between Proprietary and Open source software:
A quality content management system can be expensive to implement. These systems are
based upon either open source software which is free or low fee or proprietary software that
requires extensive licensing agreements and fees. While it seems appealing to implement a
39
very low cost solution, what you gain in low software costs are offset by the need for
software programmers to adapt an open source code to a specific application. In addition
open source content management software typically has little or no software support and
may be more susceptible to security issues. Proprietary systems can be expensive to
implement but they are usually supported by the software developer. A typical enterprise
system may cost as much as $40,000 or more (Obermier, 2006). To those with the
expertise, open source software can often form the basis of a bespoke solution because the
source code is available in a way that the code for third-party software often is not. It may
be the only affordable solution to small organizations. Thus smaller colleges and schools
will often deploy mature open source software offering where commercial solutions are too
expensive. Open source software, therefore, complements commercially provided software
by widening choice. Few would doubt that open source software, intelligently chosen and
deployed, offers real benefits to education and society at large (Brown et al., 2007).
Although the rapid proliferation of commercially available content management systems
makes it easier to find a vendor that might have the right solution, many available
contentmanagement products do not provide the functionality aimed at library functions
andservices. The cost to purchase a commercial CMS application is beyond the reach of
themajority of libraries. Building an in-house system or application using open
sourcetechnology is becoming a trend. Actually, Yu (2005) might have taken it a step
further to say that the cost is not just beyond the reach of most libraries but also beyond the
reach of most universities. Only ahandful of content management system (CMS) vendors
presently have sufficientinterest in the academic market to provide realistic price quotes.
Also, the web servertraffic at a college or university will almost always be greater than a
comparably-sizedcompany. While businesses have employees and customers who may use
40
their web siteextensively, few will have anything comparable to a student body placing
daily, heavydemands on the web site. Finally, and this may be a debatable point, it seems
that evena medium-sized school such as the Morehead State University is probably
moreorganizationally complex than a comparably-sized company. For these reasons,
somecommercial systems may not scale smoothly to an academic environment.
So Yu (2005) is correct about the trend of home-grown and open source systems. Butthis
trend could easily be reversed in the future, after the CMS vendors have pickedover the
low-hanging fruit of large corporate customers and begin to perceive academiaas a viable
market. If they tailor their systems and their pricing to the needs ofacademic institutions,
then it is likely that home-grown systems in academic librarieswill be swept away just as
completely as home-grown an Online Public Access Catalog (OPACs) have been. It would
be the rare library that would desire, insist on, or be allowed autonomy in the face of a
campus-wide implementation (Yu, 2005).
The open source software model creates an open forum for identifying, collaborating, and
learning from othercompanies who have faced similar challenges. Moreover, the nature of
open source makes it more sensitive to evolution by thecommunity that uses it than closed
source software. Through mail lists and other forums, one can connect with other users ofan
application and find out what they are doing with the software, what modifications have
proven effective, what modificationswere painful, and where the software is going. Open
source content managementsystems tend to have a modular architecture to encourage
communities to extend the core application with add-ons. This canmake the addition of a
new feature an administrative tax rather than a software development project.Companies
41
that tend to build custom applications to satisfy their unique needs are also leveraging open
source frameworks andcomponents. Doing so not only reduces licensing and development
costs, but it also lessens reliance on a single proprietarysoftware vendor. Heavilycustomized proprietary software is difficult for software companies to support, makes
compliance withforced upgrades expensive, and is vulnerable to deprecation of the
underlying product (Doyle, 2005).
2.4 Information Dissemination in a campus:
For an effective CMS, there is a need for an effective communication channel and
information display screens are one of the most popular medium at present. In an article on
Universitybusiness.com, the author Angelo (2006) described the use and importance of
information display screens in the following words: “Need to direct new students to
unfamiliarbuildings on campus? Nothing does the trick like a map". That map could be
displayed in colors on LCD screen. Moreover, many descriptions and details can be added
and included in this image, such as location of the building in the campus, pictures of
destinations, if such image printed out several copies with colors and in large size that will
cost a big amount of money.
Just a few years ago the new technology of digital signs started spreading in higher
education institutions and that after other industries such as hotel, book stores and retailers,
showing how convenient it is to digitally change providing information to the public
through creating multimedia presentation, because it has more ability to grab the audience
attention easier than papers and posters on the bulletin board.
42
Pricing Trends:
It is now more possibility for higher education institutions to have the digital signage such
as LCD, in addition to its widespread, the price come down and inexpensive compared to
the past, moreover, the vendors of LCD screens are increasingly every year, thus create a
competition between them and bring the prices down, which makes it affordable for most
consumers, as prices have also recorded a decline of between 25 to 50 percent over the past
years(Angelo, 2006).
Source of Revenue:
The spread of plasma screens and flat panel displays, which are the most common, Has
helped the content management and dissemination of information to the audience of higher
education institutions, these screens are hanging where students are accumulate, such as
waiting halls, buses waiting areas, places of entertainment, students buddies (Angelo,
2006).
In addition to disseminating information to students on campus, such as activities,
University News, publication, this technology can play an important role to create a
channel for communication between the outside community and the majority of students,
by allowing the outside institutions and vendors to publish some information for students,
which do not conflict with university policies, Furthermore, to allow companies and
43
vendors to announce and promote for their products and services, which can helpful for
students and staff(Angelo, 2006).
Charles Salas is associate director of Student Union Center at University of Texas, he
provided a 42-inch flat screen for the center with the help of digital signage vendors, the
screen helps to promote the university activities and the promotion of some companies, in
addition to that, he allowed some companies to advertise on this screen, with sharing of 20
percent of the advertising revenue, and said: "We receive a check for $ 200 each quarter"
(Angelo, 2006).
2.5 Comparison between available CMS:
In this section the study will go through what systems are available for content
management, to review their features and facilities. This review will include three content
management systems which almost used by universities, which include DSpace, Drupal and
Joomla:
-
DSpace:
Is an open source software package of choice for academic, non-profit and
commercial institutions, founded and released in 2002, as a product of the HP-MIT
Alliance. It helps to build and manage digital content repositories, including various
types of digital assets such as research data, eBooks, photographs, film, and video
(DSpace, 2011).
44
-
Drupal:
Drupal is a free software package, was first released in 2001 by Dries Buytaert.
Moreover, Drupal is open source publishing software that empowers anyone,
groups, and communities to easily publish, manage and organize content on a
website. It consists of a wide variety of features such as content management,
picture galleries, blogs, wiki, tagging and much more (Drupal).
-
Joomla:
Joomla is a free and open source content management system (CMS), the first
release of Joomla was released in 2005 for publishing content on the internet and
intranet; it helps in building a powerful online application and web sites (Joomla,
2011).
For more detail, following table demonstrating their features in a comparing way:
Table 2.1 A comparison between Drupal, Joomla and DSpace
Cmsmatrix (2011).
Drupal6.10
Joomla1.6.0
System Requirements
Application Server
Approximate Cost
Apache
Free
CGI
Free
Database
MySQL
MySQL
License
Open Source
Platform
Independent
PHP
Apache
Open Source
Platform
Independent
PHP
Any
Operating System
Programming Language
Web Server
DSpace 1.7
Apache
Free
PostgreSQL
/Oracle
Open Source
Any
JAVA
Apache
45
Security
Audit Trail
Content Approval
Login History
Authentication
Session Management
SSL Logins
Versioning
Support
Online Help
Professional Services
Public Forum
Public Mailing List
Ease of Use
Friendly URLs
Mass Upload
Prototyping
Subscriptions
UI Levels
Performance
Database Replication
Load Balancing
Management
Advertising Management
Asset Management
Content Scheduling
Content Staging
Inline Administration
Package Deployment
Workflow Engine
Interoperability
Content Syndication (RSS)
Flexibility
Content Reuse
Metadata
Multi-lingual Content
Built-in Applications
Document Management
File Distribution
Search Engine
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Free Add On
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Limited
Yes
Yes
Free Add On
Limited
Free Add On
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Limited
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Free Add On
Yes
Free Add On
Free Add On
Yes
No
Limited
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Limited
Limited
Yes
Yes
Yes
Limited
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Free Add On
Yes
Yes
Yes
Limited
Free Add On
Yes
Free Add On
Free Add On
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Based on the features and specifications comparison, Joomla doesn't have a workflow
engine, while Drupal and DSpace include limited workflow, which include the content
submission processing only to the system (Gorton, 2007).
46
For an example the study will go through DSpace submission workflow. Gorton (2007)
stated that, the workflow steps in DSpace content submission for the metadata of a
submission only, which include the following steps:

Describe: user enters metadata about the document (s), such as author, title,
keywords, and description.

Upload: the user has to select and upload the submission files from his local
machine.

Verify: an overview and summary of all entered metadata and details of the
submission including the files.

License: the user must agree to the license, which assigned to submitted content.

Complete: the submission process is complete.
From the above, the workflow is limited to the content submission and only the metadata,
which is the first step in the content management lifecycle, therefore, a new framework for
content management needs to be designed to include the complete steps and applying the
roles in the content lifecycle which consist of submission or creating, review, approve and
publishing, with interaction between them and workflow to support editing the content
itself not only the metadata.
2.6 Conclusion:
Based on the conducted literature review, content management system is important for
organization, and it has good facilities in order to make content management easy, effective
47
and efficient.The literature review helped the researcher to extract the following initial
aspects and components of content management system:
-
Improves usability and satisfaction with the user experience.
-
Content can be delivered according to audience, and different needs.
-
The content life cycle can be managed.
-
Duplicate and contradictory content are minimized.
-
Authoritative sources of content can be owned.
-
Publishing from a more reliable content repository.
-
Faster content development.
-
Support content re-use and re-purpose.
-
Quick, global updates.
-
Data (content and metadata) management.
-
Security management.
-
Capability to ingest content.
-
Capability to process content.
-
Capability to classify content.
-
Retrieve data (metadata and content).
-
Allow and control concurrent access.
-
Manage storage space.
-
Allow collaboration on content.
-
Allow definition of content enabled flows.
-
Content can be shared effectively.
-
Support “SSMM”-principle (Single Source – Multiple Media).
48
-
Management of workflow.
-
Managing users and their roles.
-
Capability to import and export content.
-
Individualize the presented content.
-
Archiving content.
-
Publication.
-
Supporting the editorial process.
These initial aspects and characteristics will help the researcher in developing the
proposed framework and prototype.
49
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction:
The main purpose of this chapterexaminethe current content management at the
administrationof Sultan Qaboos University (SQU).
Research methodology can be defined as a set of steps or procedures, ways, methods
and techniques that are applied to capture and gather all relevant data or information for the
research.
Various methods can be adopted to retrieve and collect information from a variety of
sources such as sampling, research and site visit, observation of work environment,
questionnaires, interviews, prototyping and joint requirement planning. Not all the factfinding methods are suitable to adopt. In this research the methods are selected based on the
research purpose.
3.2 Methodology:
This research followed on quantitative research methods, quantitative research techniques,
and modes of analyzing and interpreting quantitative data that emphasis on describing,
understanding the content management system framework.
50
The quantitative methodproposes to measure and analyze causal relationships between
variables within a framework of free values. It is based on the positivism that supports
empirical research since all phenomena can be reduced to empirical indicators that
represent truth. This fact is due to the existence of one truth and is independent of human
perception(Lazaro& Marcos, 2006).
Quantitative research methods work with data in numerical form collected from a
representative sample and analyzed usually through statistical methods. The ultimate
objective is to identify the dependent and independent variables, eliminating inadequate
variables, and in this way reduce the complexity of the problem so that the initial
hypothesis can be confirmed or discarded(Lazaro& Marcos,2006).
Hence, Quantitative, Positivist Research is a set of methods and techniques that allow IS
researchers to answer research questions about the interaction of humans and computers.
These methods and techniques tend to specialize in quantities in the sense that numbers
come to represent values and levels of theoretical constructs and concepts and the
interpretation of the numbers is viewed as strong scientific evidence of how a phenomenon
works(Straub et al., 2004).
The fact-finding techniques that have been selected for this research is a questionnaire.
Survey questionnaire were distributed at the administration of Sultan Qaboos University
(SQU), which included: Deanship Student Affairs, Public Relation and information
Department, Student Counseling Center and Personnel Affairs Department.
51
Once the required information was gathered, a framework was then proposed. After that,
based on that particular framework, a prototype was developed so as to support the
findings. The development of the prototype web based application was specifically done
tosupport the objective of the research.
Figure 3.1 Overall research phases and process
52
3.3The instrument:
The research instrument was a questionnaire survey used by the researcher in this study.
It consists of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering
information from the respondents.
Questionnaire have advantages over some other types of surveys in that they are cheap,
do not require as much effort from the questioners as in verbal or telephone surveys, and
often have standardized answers which make it a simpler way to compile data. However,
such standardized answers may frustrate users.
Questionnaires are also sharply limited by the fact that respondents must be able to read the
questions and respond to them. In this research, the questionnaire (refer to appendix A)
contains a series of questions specifically designed to elicit specific information to meet a
particular need for the research information on a pertinent topic.
From the conducted literature review, data and information about content management
system was analyzed, the researcher used the extracted information to build the instrument.
The survey was distributed to the administration members and some professionals who
involved in the information dissemination. Itwas emphasized into two sections, section A to
gather information about respondent’s background and experience. Then, section B was
emphasized to gather information about the current content creation and dissemination of
the information at the university administration, this section designed with a Likert scale of
53
1 – 5 as the answer. The scale one were used to indicate strongly disagree and 5 being the
strongly agree as perceived by the respondents. The scale three was used to indicate
indifference. The questionnaire contained mostly closed ended questions and a few open
ended questions.
3.4 The sample:
This study was applied at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) administration, where included
in the study all who have relevance with content management lifecycle's roles ( creating,
reviewing, approving and dissemination of information on bulletin boards), from various
departments, which included: Deanship Student Affairs, Public Relation and information
Department, Student Counseling Center and Personnel Affairs Department
3.5 The sample process:
The sampling technique that used to distribute is purposive sampling. A copies of the
questionnaires handed to the head of each department, center, or faculty, then, they
distributed it to their members, to content creators, reviewers, approvers and publishers, this
is to be sure that, the distribution going to the right person or participant. The following
table showing the distribution of the questionnaire:
54
Table 3.1 questionnaire distribution
Population
Number of
distributed
Number of
retained
Not valid
Valid
SQU
administration
member staff
and some
professionals
150
86
0
86
3.6 Data collection:
Data collection is a crucial stage in the planning and implementation of a study. Therefore,
we should concentrate all possible efforts on developing appropriate tools, and should test
them several times(Carman, 2004).
Data collection techniques allow the researcher to collect information about objects of
study (people, objects, phenomena) and about the settings in which they occur.
In addition to the initial data wasextracted from the conducted literature review,below
are the techniques that have been selected for the data collection in this study:
3.6.1 Survey questionnaire:
A questionnaire was used by the researcher in this study as a research instrument, discussed
previously.
55
3.6.2 Document review:
Brief reviews of this research data was analyzed on the documents such asinternational
public administration journals, books, articles, periodicals and list of web sites.
3.7 Conclusion:
To conclude the chapter 3, the researcher selected the quantitative method as a research
methodology, and survey questionnaire as the instrument for this study. The primary data
and initial data from the conducted literature review are used to provide the characteristics
and the aspects of the proposed framework for the content management system for the
university administration.Further discussions, on the data analysis and findings, will be
given in the next chapter.
56
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS
4.1 Introduction:
The researcher used different sources during the data gathering, as document review,
internet search and survey, the fact-finding method used in this study was a questionnaire
survey. The questionnaire was distributed at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU)
administration to various departments, which included: Deanship Student Affairs, Public
Relation and information Department, Student Counseling Center and Personnel Affairs
Department. It divided into two section, section A, was to elicit the respondents
demography and background, the second, section B, was to investigate the current
management of the content, the respondents in this survey, was from those who are
involved in content management lifecycle.
In this chapter further clarification and conclusions are made based on the results and
findings obtained from the survey.
4.3 The sample response rate:
150 copies of the questionnaires were distributed to potential respondents, and only 86
questionnaires were accepted and replied by the respondents, which gives a response rate
57.33%.
57
4.4 Respondents background information:
Based on findings from the survey questionnaire, most respondents were male, where they
accounted 78 (90.70%), and females were only 8 (9.30%) of the total respondents.Majority
of the respondents were aged 31 to 40 years old, as representing a rate of 54.56%. And then
followed by the age group 21 to 30, where they accounted for 25.58%. Age group from 41
to 50 represents 18.60%. In this study, only 1 (1.16%) of those over the age of 50 years
and. The table 4.1 and the figure 4.1 in the following showing the respondents age groups.
Respondents age groups
%1 %0
%19
%25
Less than 20
21-30 years
31-40 years
%55
41-50 years
50 years and above
Figure 4.1 Respondents age groups
According to the educational level, the findings indicate that most respondents were degree
holders, representing 58.14%, and followed by master’s holders 23.26%, while diploma
holders comprise 17.44%, and only one of the respondents holding a doctorate.
58
The findings state that most respondents were staff members, and they represent 69
(80.23%), then managers (head of department) 9 (10.47%), professionals (academic) 3
(3.49%), and 5 (5.81%) from other occupations.
Respondent’s role in the content management lifecycle one of the important variable in
this study, based on the finding from the survey, 32 of the respondents were creators, and
28 of them were reviewers and approvals represent 14and only 12 from the respondents
were publishers. The following table and figure describing the roles percentage for the
respondents:
Table 4.1 Respondents roles
Role
Frequency
%
Creator
32
37.21%
reviewer
28
32.56%
approver
14
16.28%
Publisher on the board
12
13.95%
Total
86
100.00%
59
Respondents roles
Publisher
14%
approver
16%
Creator
37%
reviewer
33%
Figure 4.2 Respondents roles
The respondents of this survey have a good experience in their own field, data analysis
indicates most of them 67.44% or 58 respondents have experience from 5 to 10 years,
followed by the respondents who have the experience more than 10 years and they
representing 18.60%, while those who have experience from 1 to 5 years about 12.79%,
and only 1 of the respondents has experience less than a year.
Most of the respondents are aware of IT, based on the findings, most of them 67.44% or 58
respondents are using computer from 5 to 10 years, followed by those who are using the
computer for more than 10 years they are account 26 or 30.23% of the total respondents,
and only 2.33% or 2 of respondents are using the computer from 2 to 5.
As well surfing the internet, survey analysis stated that, 62 from the respondents surfing
the internet from 5 to 10 years, and about 17 surfing for more than 10 years and only 7
respondents are surfing the internet for less than a 5 years.
60
4.5 Investigation on the current content management system
The aim of the questions in the second section of the survey is to investigate and elicit a
clear picture of what the respondents view were about current content management. These
questions were emphasized in terms of the following questions and criteria:
4.5.1 Investigation criteria:
In order to build the criteria, the researcher used the extracted aspects and characteristics
of content management system from the conducted literature review in chapter 2:
Table 4.2Investigation’s criteria
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
criteria
Using manual system
Difficult to review
Difficult to edit
Wasteful of human resources
Lack of collaborative
Not efficient for un urgent
Content is very limited(on board)
Lack of attraction
Drains the resources
Doesn't support content re-use and re-purpose
Difficult managing the content storage
Lack of content sharing
Prone to contradictory
No authoritative sources
Difficult managing content lifecycle
No efficient collaboration
Duplication of content
Communication gaps
Lack of standards
No database
Consuming natural resources
Prone to destruction(the boards)
Prone to content missing
Difficult to source some content
Not easy for students to announce all over campus
Not efficient for daily activities (such as news, events )
61
4.5.2 The current content management at SQU
The previous criteria was built in 26 close-ended questions for the survey and measured
in 5 points scale: 1-strongly disagree, 2- disagree, 3 -indifferent, 4- agree and 5- strongly
agree. Data summarized of the findings described in following table.
Table 4.3 investigation on the current system at administration of SQU
No
Criteria
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Using manual system
Difficult to review
Difficult to edit
Wasteful of human resources
Lack of collaborative
Not efficient for un urgent
Content is very limited(on board)
Lack of attraction
Drains the resources
Doesn't support content re-use and repurpose
Difficult managing the content storage
Lack of content sharing
Prone to contradictory
No authoritative sources
Difficult managing content lifecycle
No efficient collaboration
Duplication of content
Communication gaps
Lack of standards
No database
Consuming natural resources
Prone to destruction(the boards)
Prone to content missing
Difficult to source some content
Not easy for students to announce all
over the campus
Not efficient for daily activities (such as
news, events)
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
N
Valid Missing
86
0
86
0
86
0
86
0
86
0
86
0
86
0
86
0
86
0
Mean Median Mode
3.58
3.27
3.59
3.57
3.72
3.94
3.78
3.71
3.98
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
86
0
3.86
4
4
86
86
86
86
86
86
86
86
86
86
86
86
86
86
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3.90
3.90
3.71
3.57
3.78
3.74
3.76
3.28
3.59
3.85
4
3.76
3.79
3.78
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
86
0
3.65
4
4
86
0
3.87
4
4
62
Based on finding of questions, mode for all questions are 4 which means that, the
respondents are agree about most issues about the current content management included in
the questions.
In SQU administration, notice boards are still used for the most critical information, this is
approved by 62(72.09%) of the respondents. As the present system is relying heavily on a
manual processes.
The current system also offers no option for reviewing content that has been published in
the past as stated by 44 (51.16%) respondents. Reviewing published content is important,
such as to identifying flaws in previous content creation and publishing and can really help
in improving content creation and publishing in the future. Reviewing critical content,
published in the past via the current system is difficult because dozens of notices are put up
on notice boards or taken off each day.
Any information that is targeted towards the masses must have an option of instantaneous
edit or changes. This is very important because it is not necessary that the information
which was ascertained to be correct at the time of content creation remains so after the
content has been published. There are a lot of variables and information that can change
drastically owing to the change in circumstances. 54 (62.79%) respondents are believe that
the current system offers no such option to the administration. in order to make changes;
the content publishers have to go through the entire information life cycle again. This is
very time-consuming process.
63
Based on findings the present content management system is causing inefficiencies
because it requires excessive use of human resource. And collaborative content creation is
the mantra of the present digital age. In the environment of a university, collaborative
content creation assumes high importance because everything, from preparing one page
notices to doing projects spanning over months, require people as well as whole
departments to collaborate.
The present system functions more like a routine, where
collaborative content creation means that a single document sometime would circulate
through several departments before being finalized for publishing. Given the current stress
on process efficiency and the time constraints facing the administration, this system is not
going to support the ambitions of the university.
The majority ofrespondents (79.06%)are agreed that, in the current system, to announceor
disseminateinformation on the billboards, it will take a long time and process until it
reaches the bulletin boards if they are in a very limited time constraints.
Based on data analysis, 62respondentsagreed that, the content on the board is limited to
the size of the bulletin board, and enables the problem in that if you have an announcement
you want to put on the board and all the current ads on the board are criticle, and you
cannot move anyone.
62.79% respondents support the new technology which is, to digitally change
information and create a multimedia presentation that can grab attention much easier than
paper posters and bulletin boards crammed with out-dated paper flyers.
64
Based on the data, the respondents 70 (81.39%) indicate that the current system drains
University resources, such as papers, printers, inks and posters.
Content re-use process, is to forgo hours of manual work, quickly reconfigure already
existing content, automate the updating and versioning process, and create multiple
announcement for multiple purposes using the same content. This option is not available in
the current system as stated by 67 respondents.
Based on data analysis, in the non-managed content, the content (such as papers,
posters) wastage the storage and it is difficult to retrieve past announcement, this is because
it is unorganized and unsorted content.
The current system at SQU administration is lack of shared information as proved by 64
respondents. And it resulted in creating and recreating the same content for different
purposes, sometimes with complete duplication of a single document by multiple authors.
A good system will allow documents to be shared, tracked and used in multiple locations
from one central archive.
60 (69.97%)respondents are agreed that sometimes there are some contradictions in the
content on various boards all over the campus, and this is will bring the audience to
confuse, then, would be difficult to differentiate between the correct one and the wrong.
65
As will there is no reliable content repository, One of the important goals of content
management system is to own the authority of the content, but based on the findings the
respondents indicate that, authoritative sources of content cannot be owned.
In the content life cycle many people are involved, when using the manual system this
reveal to difficult managing the content lifecycle.
Content management systems should reduce the content duplication while sharing for
saving time and effort,based on findings, this is not support by the current system, and
resulted more redundancy. There is a communication gaps within the SQU administration
and this is lead to the same content being created multiple times. The current system also
results in a massive duplication of resources. Different sections of the administration are
often creating content that is quite similar and this thus results in redundancy.
Lack of standards is another issue, 57 respondents indicate that, some content being created
was often inconsistent in tone and format, making reuse difficult and content tracking a
burden.
The database is one of the cornerstones of information technology and any system, its
ability to organize, process and manage information in a structured and controlled manner
is key to many aspects of modern business efficiency. Based on findings, 74.41% of the
respondents state that, there is no database in the current system.
66
Thomas (2010) indicates that, using a database is considerable. Without them, would be
hard-pressed to find a decent system of keeping and managing information. And he stated
the following reasons:
-
Databases save time:
Dealing paper files held in a file folder is a burden work, let alone when searching
for a specific file or folder, alternative, the database more efficient in storing,
retrieving and search data or information in less time.
-
Databases aid communication:
The existing of a centralized database that means all institution users can accessed
the same database, so any data has been added or edited can be view by all users at
the same time, thus will create a collaboration environment and kind of
communication within the institution by using only one database.
-
Databases are more secure:
In a comparison between file cabinets and database, the cabinets is easily can be
reached by any one and it is prone to loss, stolen and destroyed. While database in
addition to be save in a remote facility with high level of safety it is protected by
username and password, so not any can login to the information to prevent
unauthorized users from viewing a sensitive data.
-
Databases are inexpensive managers:
67
Database can be a long term investment for a small businesses even if they spend a
lot at the beginning, that is through, after a long time the efficiency of all employees
will be improved, which means saving money.
69(80.23%) of the respondents are supporting and aware about the global trend to preserve
the environment through reducing the use of natural resources, and they are agree to reduce
printing and save the environment. This question has the highest mean value (4) in the data
analysis as shown in the table below:
Table 4.4 the highest mean value
N
No
Criteria
Mean Median Mode
Valid Missing
21
Consuming natural resources
86
0
4
4
4
Most of the respondents state that bulletin board needs more protection from destruction to
keep the content save, and they also indicate that, sometimes the administration would not
realize that the notice or announcement is missing unless somebody points it out.
The content on the board should clear with sourcing information, but based on finding,
63(73.25%)respondents indicate that, sometimes the audience at SQU need to get further
information about content on the board, but there is nothing indicates to the source.
68
The students are the main audience and target of the announcement and adverts, at SQU
students are facing difficult to announce over several areas at SQU administration if they
lost items, this is as stated by the majority of the respondents (67.44%). From their point of
view, that will take very long process.
Based on the data analysis, 63 (73.25%) respondents, they believe that, in the current
system it is burden to put up the daily university’s news, events, activities, all over the
campus, this will lead to print too much of papers and requires many people to do that.
4.6 Open-ended questions:
Two questions were open-ended question included in the survey; most of the respondents
skipped these questions. The following table showing the frequency of open-ended
questions:
Table 4.5 frequency of open-ended questions
Question
Frequency
Frequency%
Q1
7
8.13%
Q2
3
3.48%
total
10
11.61%
69
4.6.1 Question 1:
Q1- Do you have any comments regarding the current system?
Based on the data, the respondent'scomments are noted in following table:
Table 4.6respondent’s comments regarding the current system
No
Response in verbatim
1
Using computerized system instead of manual system
2
Change to more professional one
3
Current system not effective
4
Very old system
5
Improve e-services
6
We need more special
7
Everything should be on e-system
4.6.2 Question 2:
Q2- Do you have any suggestion?
Only 3 out of 86 respondents responded to this question, the following table shows their
comments:
70
Table 4.7 respondent’s suggestions
No
Response in verbatim
1
Utilized automated system
2
To use more technology as it quick and cheap.
3
Computers are very helpful. To improve the system.
Based on the data from question1 and question 2, it is clear that, respondents are on the
strong interest in technology and they are willing to improve the current system by using
more sophisticated and efficient systemwith new technology, to enhance the overall content
management, believing that this will facilitate them a lot of tasks and reduce the time, effort
and cost. And any content creation and information dissemination system must take into
account the future needs of the university and the growing complex nature of information.
Hence, SQU administration should take necessary steps to set up new IT facilities, to
develop more effective and reliable content management system, through the use of latest
technologies for CMS.
4.7 Conclusion:
Based on the analysis of the data, it is revealing that, the current content management at
SQU administration has the following flaws and drawbacks:
71
-
No Streamline and not automated content administration.
-
Lack of collaboration and internetworking, within and between departments and
centers.
-
There is no distribution of content management responsibilities and not easy to
control.
-
It doesn’t allow users to create reusable content repositories:
So content that are created once cannot reused asneeded throughout SQU.
-
Workflow management not automated. GoodCMS enables good workflow
processes.In the most workflow system,three different individuals create,approve,
and
publish
a
piece
of
content.
Also,workflow
system expedites
the
timelypublication of content by alerting thenext person in the chain when anaction
is required. It also ensures thatcontent is adequately reviewed andapproved before
publication.
-
Not sophisticated content access andsecurity. CMS allows for sophisticated control
of content access,both for system administration and forusers.
-
Content management is not database-driven. The database is the key toCMS and
becomes the central repository forcontent, templates, graphics, users,and metadata.
-
It doesn’t support archiving and version control. Enterprise systems must
providemechanisms for storing and managing revisions to content. As changesare
made, the system must storearchives of the content and allowreversion of any page
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to earlier versions.
-
Not efficient for content lifecycle functions (creating, reviewing, approving and
publishing).
Based on the findings, SQU administration should take further step to overcome all the
current system’s flaws, and move to a system with high efficiency to improve the
management of content.
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CHAPTER 5: PROPOSED FRAMEWORK AND PROTOTYPE FOR UCMS
5.1 Introduction:
This chapter proposes a framework of university content management system (UCMS),
which can be used as a guide for the administrationof Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), in
order to enhance and improve the efficiency of the current system. The researcher
developed this framework with a regard to the needs and requirements of SQU
administration based on comprehensive survey findings, as well, with help of the conducted
literature review.
Moreover, in this chapter included the developing a prototype of the university content
management system as an implementation for the proposed framework.
5.2 Identifying factors for a proposed framework:
Through the finding from the survey, researcher gained and extracted a wide range of
content management factors to consider or propos the university content management
framework, furthermore, from the conducted literature review, the researcher gathered the
initial information to propose a framework. In the following, these factors are highlighted:
1) Managing content creating, reviewing, updating and publishing:
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In the current content management it is difficult to review or edit published content;
moreover there no mechanism to update published content, therefore it needs to be
replaced.
2) Content sharing:
There is no one database to store the content in, which leads to lack of information
sharing and communication gap within SQU administration.
3) Content and information security:
SQU administration relies on a manual content management, which means files and
file folder, there is no security in place and easyto reach any file.
4) Managing content roles (workflow):
Content lifecycle should be managed through defining the role of each user and
setting the rules.
5) Re-use and repurposes content:
In the current system the same content created many times by multiple users.
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5.3 Proposed framework:
The proposed framework consist of a range of topics, collaboration, content control,
administration, the figure 5.1 below illustrate the university content management system
(UCMS) framework:
Figure 5.1 Proposed University Content Management System (UCMS) framework
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5.3.1 Content management:
5.3.1.1 Collaborative content creation:
The automated system is most beneficial in a collaborative work environment(Souer et
al., 2007). It would eliminate the need for circulating a single document through multiple
departments. It also, would ensure that each department can simultaneously draft a
document. As the results of the survey questionnaire clearly show, there is a strong
requirement for a CMS that simplifies collaborative work. Most of the information that is
published by the administration is the result of collaborative work. All users would have a
user id. These users would have access to the system depending upon their requirements
and authority. For example, if a schedule has to be made, and this requires input from
different members of the administration, each user would have the ability to simultaneously
log on to the system and create/edit the information(Hodgson, 2004).
5.3.1.2 Content review:
In an academic environment, often there is a requirement to review the content that
has already been published. Reviewing content that has been published in the past is very
useful as it enables content publishers to see what worked and what did not. There are so
many events which do not change on a year-on-year basis. If there is an option to review on
which dates those events were held, how people responded, it would be very useful to those
who want to do the same event in the future.
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As well as it would be very easy to retrieve content that has been published in the past.
The information that is stored by the system is organized in a proper manner, with data
sorted according to date and type of content. If there is a need to retrieve content that has
been published in the past, the user would have to input the relevant date and search in the
relevant type of data.
5.3.1.3 Smooth update of published content:
The CMS should take an entirely different approach which would make it very easy to
incorporate changes in content that has already been published. As soon as those who have
published the content feel that there exists a need to change the content, all they would have
to do is log into the system, make the changes and republish the content. This would be a
highly efficient process as the change would be incorporated in a very short time frame.
5.3.1.4 Efficiency:
Human resource is a very scarce resource, and its use must be in the most efficient and
productive manner. In the automated system, there would be no need for administrative
personnel from different departments to leave all their work just to draft notices. They
would be able to manage that from their offices. The respective personnel would use their
pre-assigned user IDs and passwords to log into the system, collaboratively draft the notice
and within short time of finalizing it, they would be able to publish it on the information
display screens. This would leave them with much more time to focus on other work. With
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increased efficiency, the administration which at present is overwhelmed by the quantum of
work would be able to handle its tasks much more quickly.
5.3.1.5 Storage:
According to Seadle (2005) he stated that, a content management system (CMS)
offers a way to manage large amounts of information. Currently the content is usually lost
after being published because the present system offers no facility of storing such a large
quantum of information. The proposed framework in real terms offers a huge storage
capacity. The system would maintain an entire database which would hold content once it
has been created/ published.
5.3.1.6 Easily scalable:
Easy to plan for the future needs of the university as well as implement those plans. The
system administrator would first make a projection of the future needs of the university.
Once this is done, the present capacity utilization of the servers must be checked. Once the
capacity utilization reaches unsustainable levels, it would be advisable to enhance the
server capabilities of the system. By checking the system on server, the administrator can
look at several variables such as the average response time, traffic, system downtime, in
order to judge the performance of the system. When either of these variables shows an
increasing trend, the administrator would know it is time to increase the capabilities of the
system.
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After projecting the future needs of the system, there would be a requirement to
implement the proposed changes. In terms of hardware, there would only be a requirement
to add to the existing server capacity, and if needed, the number of information display
screens would have to be increased.
5.3.1.7 Reduction of human error:
The CMS would drastically reduce the probability of error because it reduces the
dependence upon humans for functioning. Validating inputs from system’s users would
ensure that the information that has been input in a specific field matches the objective of
the field. In case of incorrect input, the system would not accept the entry. Thus, this would
greatly reduce the need for changes in content that has been published.
5.3.1.8 Consistency and no redundancy:
The duplication of resources should be completely eliminated. Prior to creating content,
content creators would be advised to search the entire database of the system for content
matching their requirements. This is a very fast process and with just a few clicks, the
desired content can be found as well as published.
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5.3.2 Workflow:
A workflow is a model to represent real work. It consists of a sequence or a reliably
repeatable of connected steps. It is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as
work of a person, a group of persons, an organization of staff, or one or more simple or
complex mechanisms (Csegndec, 2010).
The capability of a workflow, through allowing users to collaborate efficiently access,
review, and edit content through checkpoints. As well reducing the editorial process
timeline and ensuring that, all steps are completed.
5.3.3 Administration:
5.3.3.1 Manage users:
These different publics (various department at the administration) not only have
different needs, they also have different access requirements. The CMS must ensure that
information is viewed only by the person it is intended for. A security breach is completely
unacceptable for some critical information.
The system cannot be used without proper identification. Each user has a unique login
ID and password. These measures reduce the possibility of unauthorized access (Arnaiz et
al., 2009).
All the work done through CMS, nobody would be able to view documents they are not
authorized to view. The system would also give users the option to set passwords of their
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own choice. In this way, not even those who control the system would have access to their
passwords.
5.3.3.2 System configuration:
For any university, the nature of the information flowing through its system as well as
the diverse nature of its users makes it imperative to offer some degree of control over the
system.
System configuration is the role of System Administrator, and who is responsible of the
system at all. System administrator would have the authority to restrict access of each user.
The administrator would have the authority to define the rules of access for each user, the
duration for which a user can remain logged into the system as well as the ability to change
these rules for special needs.
Through the system, administrator can also track the flow of work on the system.
With a complete record of what everyone has been doing, how active people have been in
devising effective content, the administration can easily identify who is performing well
and who is not.
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5.4 Developing a prototype:
5.4.1 Objective:
The researcher developed a prototype as an implementation of the proposed framework,
and to support an objective in this study. Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) administration
can use this prototype as a guide to build a full system, with a complete functionality.
5.4.2 Methodology used:
It is important, for developing the prototype to select an appropriate methodology, in
order to build an effective and efficient system prototype.
There are many development methodologies available in order to develop an information
system; the researcher selected the prototyping methodology to develop the system, “Over
the last decade prototyping has become a very valuable technique in software development
methodologies” (Robert, 2005).
According to Boris (2009) state that, the basic idea of prototyping is to get the
representation of a system based only on the validated requirements so far on which users
can observe GUI layout, system behavior and hopefully propose new requirements that will
then be added to the prototype.
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Prototyping is an effective way to gain understanding and validating the requirements,
reduce the complexity of the problem and provide an early validation of the system design
(Kang el al., 2004).
This methodology has been selected due to several reasons (Sommerville, 2000):

Reduces the time of development.

Reduces the cost of development.

Requires user involvement in the lifecycle.

Facilitates system implementation since users know what to expect.

Results in higher user satisfaction.

Exposes developers to potential future system enhancements.

Misunderstandings between software users and developers are exposed

Missing services may be detected and confusing services may be identified

A working system is available early in the process

The prototype may serve as a basis for deriving a system specification

The system can support user training and system testing
5.4.2.1 Prototype development stages:
A high level of involvement on the part of the user is required in the development stage
of system prototyping. Moreover, in the development stages of system prototyping, define,
84
construct, and iteratively refine a working prototype until it satisfies the user's needs. The
iterative process will cease once the user agrees that the prototype represents an accurate
statement of their requirements (Matthews, 2004).
Matthews (2004) described the prototype development stage activities in the following
figure and sections:
Figure 5.2 prototyping development stages
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5.4.2.1.1 Requirements gathering:
The purpose of requirements gathering or rapid analysis in system prototyping is to
learn enough about the problem to enable the construction of a good initial prototype. Some
tasks should be performed during requirements gathering are similar to those performed in
traditional structured systems analysis, such as review existing system, interview users to
establish needs, determine security and control requirements and identify key data sources,
intermediate storage devices, and interfaces.
In this stage, the researcher has been identified and gathered the initial needs and
requirements of system prototyping from the conducted survey questionnaire.
5.4.2.1.2 Build Prototype:
The initial prototype should demonstrate the prototyping, from developer’s
understanding of the core system requirements. It also should emphasize functional content
rather than performance optimization.
The prototype should include enough of the core functions to ensure ongoing user interest.
The initial prototype must be a working entity that demonstrates parts of the system such as
menus and screens and the user/system interface.
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5.4.2.1.3 Prototype Demonstration and Review:
The purpose of this stage is to develop new and revised requirements, or approve an
enhancement, as a result of having all necessary users’ critique, and experience the model.
Prototype can evolve either continuously or in a succession of discrete releases with stepby-step prototyping.
5.4.2.1.4 Prototype Refinement:
The purpose of prototype refinement is to implement the requested changes and
modifications as a result of the prototype review, moreover, thoroughly test all changes and
modifications, ultimately bringing the prototype in line with user expectations. Prototype
refinement is performed after each demonstration and review until final acceptance from
the users is obtained, signifying that the prototype reflects the user's requirements for the
production system.
5.4.2.1.5 Completed prototype:
After the initial prototype is demonstrated, a milestone concurrence is signed and upon
acceptance of the prototype by the user representative, the final prototype is delivered.
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5.4.3 Tools used:
Ensuring efficiency and effectiveness of the prototype, it is important to use strong and
reliable tools. The researcher used C# and Microsoft SQL Server for developing the
system. The motivations of proprietary systems are more secure and have a better and
robust technical support system (ITwerks, 2005).
5.4.3.1 C# (Csharp):
C# (pronounced "see sharp") was developed by Microsoft within the .NET initiative. It
is intended to be a simple, modern, general-purpose, object-oriented programming
language. It is a multi-paradigm programming language encompassing imperative,
declarative, functional, generic and component-oriented programming disciplines. C# is
one of the programming languages designed for the Common Language Infrastructure
(Microsoft, 2007).
The researcher has selected C# due to following benefits (Microsoft, 2007):

C# supports effective and reusable components.

C# borrows concepts from Java and C++, adopting only the good bits from those
languages and eliminating overly confusing and error prone features, which are the
major sources of bugs in a code.

C# is portable at the same time it is cross language compatible for all Microsoft
Windows based languages and programs specifically targeted to that particular
platform can be coded to interoperate with the code of other languages.
88

C# implements the modern programming concept of Object Oriented Programming
(OOP)which enables the developer to produce secure data centric applications and
take the user to the next level of experience.

C# programs can be written in as simple as a text pad and a command line which
are common to any operating system provided the developer has installed the CLR
and the framework priory.

C# RAD tools gives the developer the power to produce “One click install”
application, where the user needs no prior software experience and can install and
use C# applications like any other windows program.
5.4.3.2 Microsoft SQL server:
Microsoft SQL Server is a data storage backend, the version of SQL Server used in this
study, SQL Server 2005, it supports different varieties of data: XML, file, document,
spatial, as well as perform search, query, analysis, sharing, and synchronization across all
data types. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 aims to make data management self-tuning, selforganizing, and self-maintaining. It also includes support for structured and semi-structured
data, including digital media formats for pictures, audio, video and other multimedia data.
In current versions, such multimedia data can be stored as BLOBs (binary large objects),
but they are generic bit streams. Intrinsic awareness of multimedia data will allow
specialized functions to be performed on them (Microsoft, 2005).
According to Microsoft (2005), MS SQL 2005 has the following features:
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
SQL Server 2005 provides businesses with a high performance database platform
that’s reliable, scalable, and easy to manage

Protect your valuable information with flexible, transparent data encryption for
databases, data files, and logs files. SQL Server 2005 data encryption helps
organizations secure data from unauthorized users without having to change the
underlying application.

Enable DBAs to quickly unpack applications, and distribute them with new wizards
in SSMS. Automatically identify application requirements and match them with
servers that meet those requirements for a more reliable and consistent deployment
experience.

Optimize resources – Quickly identify consolidation opportunities with dashboard
viewpoints, data and log file utilization rollups, and utilization trends through
adjustable capacity policies—helping eliminate underutilized servers.

Improve efficiencies – Accelerate deployments and upgrades through a new
concept, a single unit of deployment that packages database schema (database,
tables, stored procedures) with deployment requirements and can be extracted from
existing applications or created in Microsoft Visual Studio helping reduce
deployment trial and error.
5.4.4 Software and hardware requirement for the system:
The minimum software and hardware require for using the system are follows:

733 MHZ Pentium or higher

256 MB RAM
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
100 MB Hard Disk Space

Windows 2000, Windows XP, Win NT

Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or higher.

Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer.
5.4.5 Components of the system:
The system is web based application and consist of several components, by using three
tiers application, the following figure illustrate the system component architecture:
Figure 5.3 System components architecture.
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5.4.5.1 Interface:
The interface is referred to as the “client” layer. It consists of components that are used
to present data to an end user. Examples of components on this layer might include edit
boxes, labels, text boxes, grids, buttons, Web forms, or more.
5.4.5.2 Content management:
Content management includes the main component or functions of the system, these
functions described in the following:
5.4.5.2.1 Security:
This component for allowing only authorized users throughout the university can access
the content with their unique IDs and passwords.
5.4.5.2.2 System administration:
System Administrators or Specialists are responsible for providing support and
technicaldirection for the content management and for monitoring system’s operation and
performance; moreover managing access and read/write execute permissions.
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5.4.5.2.3 Create:
Through this component, content creators or authorscancreate and developthe content
relevant to the target audiences for the purposes of informing. They can also maintain
current and accurate content items by systematic and timely writing, as well as forwarding
the content for approval to Content reviewer or approver.
5.4.5.2.4 Review:
Users or reviewer can check thecontent to ensurecurrency, relevancy, quality,
compliance with standards and consistency. They can also approve or reject all content
developed by content creator for further enhancement.
5.4.5.2.5 Approve:
The approver can review the content first before approving, then he can reject it to edit or
forward it as approved content to publisher for publish.
5.4.5.2.6 Publish:
Content can be quickly repurposed and delivered to different media channels, optimize the
product creation and deployment process at a lower cost.
93
5.4.5.2.7 Search:
This component allow users to search the content, it well help the creator to search for a
specific content before creating a new one, as well the reviewer.
5.4.5.3 Database:
This is the database back-end, and MS SQL Server 2008 as a selected DBMS (Database
Management System) for the system.
5.4.6 System testing:
System Testing refers to the testing performed by the system builder to ensure that system
should perform as expected and as required. The researcher tested the system using a local
system test environment server through protocol such as Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP/IP), Hyper Text transfer Protocol (HTTP), to ensure that the system works unit by
unit and also as a whole. System Testing included the functions, ensuring that each function
of the system works as expected. Moreover, ensuring that interfaces for export and import
routines, function as required.
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5.4.7 System screen shots:
5.4.7.1 Content Management:
Figure 5.4 Content Management.
This is content management page and the menu will displayed based on the user role/s in
the content lifecycle.
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5.4.7.2 Creating content:
Figure 5.5 Creating content
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5.4.7.3 Content review:
Figure 5.6 Content review
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5.4.7.4 Content approves:
Figure 5.7 content approve
98
5.4.7.5 Content publishes:
Figure 5.8 Content publish
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5.4.7.6 Published content:
Figure 5.9 Published content
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5.5 Prototype testing by users
For system testing purpose, eighteen users from different content production roles (creator,
reviewer, approver, publisher and system administration) participated in the evaluation of
the University Content Management System (UCMS) prototype. The evaluation includes
three parts of questions:
-
System functionality.
-
Collaboration.
-
Design and opinion.
Based on the evaluation results, about the system functionality and usability, 83 % of the
respondents stated that, the system does help users to create, review, approve and publish
content in quick and easy way effectively. Total 84% of the respondents found that the
system was useful and easy to use, and any end users can use this system without facing
any problems. 80% of respondents agreed that the system was clear and readable. Most of
respondents agreed that, the system support collaboration in content production and provide
reliable security.
Majority of the respondents suggested adding an extra function, and their recommendation
given was, to provide the option to include sending the content by email to both, system
users and the audience if needed.
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Most the respondents was not satisfy about the design of the system, So much that they
even suggested more graphic should be included in the interface to enhance the beauty
hence increases the mood for using the system.
5.6 Conclusion:
In this chapter, the researcher has described the proposed framework for University
Content Management System (UCMS), and has developed the system prototype, based on
the initial requirements gathered from the conducted survey questionnaire, with the help of
content management system aspects extracted from the conducted literature review. Next
chapter is the conclusion of this study and recommended future work.
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CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION
6.1 Introduction:
This study aimed to propose a framework of University Content Management System
(UCMS), for the administration of Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) which include:
Deanship Student Affairs, Public Relation and information Department, Student
Counseling Center and Personnel Affairs Department, that would help to easy managing
the content, through create, review, approve and publish content, in order to disseminate the
information around the SQU administration area. This chapter will discuss and include the
result based on the previous chapters especially the findings in Chapter 4 and the proposed
framework and system prototype on Chapter 5.
6.2 Discussion on research questions
Question 1: What is the current content management system at the Sultan Qaboos
University?
Based on the findings from the conducted questionnaire survey,traditionally, SQU
administration relies upon manual content management, which relies manually to the
processes involved in content creation, content storage, content retrieval, content review,
content update and content publishing.Hence, the entire information cycle, from content
creation to content publishing is a cumbersome process.
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Based on the answer to Question 1, the researcher can positively confirm that the Research
Objective 1; “To investigate the current content management at the administration of Sultan
Qaboos University” has been successfullyascertained.
Question 2: Is it catering to the current needs of the university?
Based on the data analysis on survey questionnaire conducted as part of this research, the
current content management at SQU administration is not catering their needs for managing
and controlling content production effectively and efficiently, because of the following
flaws:
-
The work in SQU administration is collaborative in nature and the manual content
management system is non-supportive of collaborative work. Most of the notices
which are published on notice boards go through a content creation process which
involved sometime input from cross-functional areas. All content created has to be
approved prior to getting published. Thus the manual content management system is
reflective of a bureaucracy where everything follows a pre-determined process.
-
In an academic environment, the ability to review content that has been created or
published in the past can be a very useful asset. The manual system doesn’t offer any
such option and thus the SQU administration is deprived of a potentially informative
asset.
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-
Manual content management system offer no efficient means of making changes in
published content. The only way to make changes is to go through the entire
information processing cycle again which is a highly inefficient process. Similarly, if
there is a requirement to update the content, the content creators would have to go
through the entire information processing cycle. This usually is a time-barred
process and thus changes need to be incorporated quickly.
-
Another issue associated with manual system is their tendency of duplication of
resources. In an academic environment, there is a very high possibility that content
that is being created by one department might also be created by another department
simultaneously. Manual systems give no option to view whether content has already
been published on a subject of interest and thus content creators have to create
content from scratch although the content might have already been created by
someone else. This duplication of resources is a wasteful use of scarce human
resources.
-
It is an established fact that content that is published by SQU administration can be
of very sensitive nature and thus its security is essential. Thus it is essential that
there is a stringent mechanism in place to ensure that critical information is secure.
The manual system has a very weak security infrastructure. This is partly because of
its reliance upon humans to maintain security.
Summarization of flaws:
-
No Streamline and not automated content administration.
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-
Lack of collaboration and internetworking, within and between administration
departments
-
There is no distribution of content management responsibilities and not easy to
control.
-
It doesn’t allow users to create reusable content repositories:
So content that are created once cannot reused asneeded throughout SQU
administration.
-
Workflow management not automated.
-
Not sophisticated content access andsecurity.
-
Content management is not database-driven.
-
It doesn’t support archiving and version control.
-
Not efficient for content lifecycle functions (creating, reviewing, approving and
publishing).
Question 3: To what extent can UCMS facilitate the management of content?
The conducted literature review, it provided the researcher the aspects of content
management system, then, with help of findings in chapter 4, the researcher was able to
propose UCMS framework. Based on the following features and aspects in the proposed
UCMS framework, it would completely enhance the management of content at SQU
administration through eliminating the flaws of the current content management system:
-
In the proposed University Content Management System (UCMS) there is one
database for the content, which let different users among various departments to
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work on same content at same time, which eases the content creation work and lets
collaborative work flourish, moreover, UCMS has a content workflow to manage
the complete roles in the content lifecycle.
-
The UCMS has a storage and retrieval system. If there is a requirement to review
content that had been published in the past all that would be required is that the user
would have to go through the archive, select the date and all the content that had
been published on that day would be retrieved. Similarly, search can also be done
just be selecting the subject of interest. This is very useful as people would know
how things were done previously, what went right and what requires improvement.
-
Editing facility is included in the proposed UCMS, all the user need to do is, search
for the content that needed to be modified and make the requisite changes, and
republish it again.
-
The re-use facility that provided in UCMS makes easy to search for content before
creating a new one, it might need small changes and republish it again. This entire
process can be completed in negligible time when compared to the legacy systems.
This saves time and improves efficiency.
The above answer of this question, it is included the achievement of the Research
Objective 2, which is: To develop a framework of University Content Management
System (UCMS) for the administration of Sultan Qaboos University (SQU).
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Question 4: To what extent the information in UCMS can be safe? Is UCMS easy to
use than current system?
Based on findings from chapter 4, SQU administration relies upon manual content
management;and the manual system has a very weak security infrastructure because it
relies on human. And based on the findings from system evaluation survey on chapter 5,
the respondents agreed that, UCMS system has a reliable security, because, the chances of
unauthorized access are nearly eliminated. The only way to use the system is to log in to
the system using the specific user ID and password allotted to the user. The system
administrator can assign different rules to different users. And most of the respondents
stated that the system is easy to use by end user.
From above answer it is clear that, the research objective 3 has been achieved, which is:
To develop a prototype of the UCMS.
6.3 Recommended future study:
As an enhancement to UCMS it would be perfect system, if there is an option for the
students, that allow them to communicate with the University Content Management System
(UCMS) through possibility of downloading some announcement to their mobiles, for
example: if there is announcement about exam timetable or classes timetable displaying on
the screens, with unique ID for each announcement, the only require from the student is,
sending the announcement ID to specific Number provided by the system through SMS,
then, the system will send that announcement to the mobile, this will ease the getting of
timetables instead of rewriting it on a piece of paper.
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6.4 Conclusion:
To conclude this chapter, the researcher has achieved the intended research objectives; the
investigating on the current content management at the administration of SQU has been
done in chapter 4, UCMS framework and the prototype of the system has been done in
chapter 5. And answered all the research questions, SQU administration would use the
prototype as guide for developing full functionality university content management system.
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APPENDIX A: Questionnaire survey
University Malaya
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology
Research questionnaire for“University Content Management System
(UCMS) Framework”
Dear Respondents;
Thank you for accepting to participate in this questionnaire. This study attempt on
thetransferring ofthe manual bulletin board ( paper based) advertising system to an
automated system which will be includes electronic display screens - such as LCD or
Plasma screens - connected to centralized Content Management System. CMS enables
various departments or faculties to simultaneously create and publish content at several
locations with the help of the display screens.
This questionnaire investigates the current content management system at SQU. I seek
your kind cooperation and indulgence todonate to this questionnaire few minutes of your
precious time.Your experience in relation to the above issue is of great importance to my
study and I truly appreciate your time and effort in participating in this research.
Thank you once again
Yours sincerely,
Khalid Dhiyab Said Al Rubaiey
Master of Computer Science
Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology
University Malaya
Kuala Lumpur
Supervised by:
Assoc. Prof. SalimahMokhtar
Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology
117
University Malaya,
Kuala Lumpur
Section A: Participant background:
This section deals with the details of respondent’s background and experience. Please tick (√) on
the boxes that, best, describe your background and experience.
1. What is your age?
Less than 20
21-30 years
31-40 years
41-50 years
50 years and above
2. What is your gender?
Male
Female
3. What is your highest tertiary education level?
None
Diploma
Degree
Masters
Doctorate (PhD) or equivalent
4. What is your occupation?
Manager
Employee
professional
other
5. What is your role in content (announcement, advertisement, reporting) lifecycle (the steps
from creating the content to publishing it on the board)?
Creator
reviewer
approver
Publisher on the board
6. How many years of experience (on your own field) do you have?
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Less than 1 year
1 - 5 years
5 – 10 years
More than 10 years
Background of your IT Proficiency
6. How many years have you been using the computer?
Less than 1 year
1 - 2 years
2 – 5 years
5 – 10 years
More than 10 years
7. How many years have you been surfing the World Wide Web?
Less than 1 year
1 - 2 years
2 – 5 years
5 – 10 years
More than 10 years
Section B: Current system
This section investigates the current content creation and dissemination of the information at the
university, through your experience, please answer the following questions.
Please use the following five rating scale to indicate the most applicable description to your
experience:
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Indifferent
4. Agree
1
5. Strongly agree
2
3
4
5
1. The university (SQU) still uses the bulletin or notice board
for announcing and advertising (manual system)
2. There is no mechanism built-in the current system to give
an opportunity to review or change the content that has
been published on a board.
3. To edit or change any piece of information on the board it
takes lots of time and effort.
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1
2
3
4
5
4. It results in a wasteful use of human resources and it is
prohibiting collaborative content creation.
5. The current system is unable to create and disseminate
collaborative content with efficiency
6. If an announcement from university administration for all
departments and faculties requires sending it manually to
all (more papers) they, then have to fix it on the board, this
scenario is difficult for an urgent announcements.
7. In the manual system the content is limited to the size of
the board.
8. The content on the bulletin board lacks attraction and
interactiveness.
9. This manual system drains the university resources (e.g.
printing, ink, papers…)
10. The manual system does not achieve resources or content
re-use and re-purpose (reuse to minimizing the costs of
iterative creating same productions).
11. Manual system (or more correctly “non-management” of
the content) lead to great inefficiencies where “unwanted”
and forgotten content waste storage and where “wanted”
content cannot be found.
12. Content cannot be shared effectively across institutional
reporting lines.
13. Sometime the content on boards is prone to contradictory
content among the departments and faculties in the
university.
14. In some cases there are no authoritative sources of content.
15. In a manual system the quality of content cannot be
improved and the content life cycle not easy to be
managed.
16. Manually there is no efficient collaboration among
departments and faculties in content life-cycle.
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1
2
3
4
5
17. Lack of shared information results in creating and
recreating the same content for different purposes,
sometimes with complete duplication of a single document
by multiple authors
18. Communication gaps: Authors are unaware that content is
available elsewhere within the organization. This lead to
the same content being created multiple times.
19. Lack of standards: The content being created is often
inconsistent in tone and format.
20. There is no database for all content that has been created.
21. Consuming a lot of papers through printing the adverts and
publications, run against the current global trend to
preserve the environment through reducing the use of
natural resources.
22. The manual bulletin boards are more prone to destruction.
23. Sometime the administration would not realize that the
notice or announcement is missing unless somebody points
it out.
24. Sometime it is not that easy for a student sourcing
announcement in case if he/she needs further information.
25. It is not easy for a student to announce on campus lost
items.
26. It is hard for administration to put university’s daily news,
events, activities, every day on boards all over the campus.
121
27. Do you have any comments regarding the current system?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………
28. Do you have a suggestion?
……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………
Thank you for your cooperation.
122
APPENDIX B: List of System Database tables
Table Name: Business_Process
Column Name
Data Type
Allow NULL
Process_ID
int
Not NULL
Process_Description
nvarchar(50)
Not NULL
Table Name: Content_Process
Column Name
Data Type
Allow NULL
ID
int
Not NULL
Process_ID
int
Not NULL
Next_Process_ID
int
Not NULL
Created
datetime
Not NULL
Created_By
int
Not NULL
123
Table Name: Content
Column Name
Data Type
Allow NULL
Content_ID
int
Not NULL
Content_Title
text
Not NULL
Content_Description
text
Null
Created
datetime
Not NULL
Created_By
nvarchar(50)
Not NULL
Content_File
nvarchar(MAX)
Not NULL
Table Name: Locations
Column Name
Data Type
Allow NULL
Location_ID
int
Not NULL
Location_Description
nvarchar(50)
Not NULL
Table Name: Published
Column Name
Data Type
Allow NULL
Content_ID
int
Not NULL
Location_ID
int
Not NULL
124
Table Name: Roles
Column Name
Data Type
Allow NULL
Role_id
int
Not NULL
Role_Description
nvarchar(50)
Not NULL
Table Name: Users
Column Name
Data Type
Allow NULL
ID
int
Not NULL
User_ID
nvarchar(50)
Not NULL
Password
nvarchar(50)
Not NULL
Location_ID
int
Not NULL
Role_ID
int
Not NULL
Email
nvarchar(50)
NULL
125
APPENDIX C: List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
CMS
Content Management System
UCMS
University Content Management System
SQU
Sultan Qaboos University
XML
Extensible Markup Language
LCD
Liquid Crystal Display
DBMS
Data Base Management System
IS
Information System
IT
Information Technology
HTML
Hyper Text Markup Language
ICT
Information and Communication Technology
ERM
enterprise resource management
SSMM
Single Source – Multiple Media
LCMS
Learning Content Management System
VOD
Video on Demand
FTP
File Transfer Protocol
API
application program interface
OPAC
Online Public Access Catalog
AV
Audio/Video
126
GUI
Graphical User Interface
OOP
Object Oriented Programming
CLR
Common Language Runtime
RAD
Rapid Application Development
BLOB
binary large objects
DBA
Database Administrator
MSSQL
Microsoft SQL Server
TCP
Transmission Control Protocol
HTTP
Hyper Text transfer Protocol
127
APPENDIX D:Evaluation form
University Content Management System (UCMS) prototype usability and
features
Dear Respondents;
This survey attempts to discover the effectiveness and the practicality of testing the
University Content Management System (UCMS) prototype as a supporting tool in your
professional work.
I seek your kind cooperation to complete this evaluation by providing your honest and most
accurate response regarding your experience after testing the UCMS. Your response is of
great importance to my study and I truly appreciate your time and effort in participating in
this research.
Thank you
Yours sincerely,
Khalid Dhiyab Said Al Rubaiey
Master of Computer Science
Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology
University Malaya
Kuala Lumpur
Supervised by:
Assoc. Prof. SalimahMokhtar
Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology
University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur
128
SECTION A: GENERAL INFORMATION
1- Your role in the system:
1) Creator
2) Reviewer
3) Approver
4) Publisher
5) System Admin
2- Gender:
1) Male
2)Female
SECTION B: SYSTEM USAGE
1) System Functionality
Please use the following five rating scale to indicate the most applicable description to your
experience
1. Definite No
2. No
3. Maybe
4.Yes
5. Definite yes
1
2
3
4
5
The system makes it easier to create content.
Using the review component was very useful comparedto the
manual system.
The approving component saves approvers time and effort.
Content publication quick and easy to use.
Navigating through the entire system wasrelatively easy.
Navigating through content lifecycle components was easy.
Easy for system administrator to manage users and control the
system security.
The content management screen was adequate inorder to help the
usersusing the system smoothly.
129
Overall, do you think the system was easy touse?
2) Collaboration
Please use the following five rating scale to indicate the most applicable description to your
experience
1. Definite No
2. No
3. Maybe
4.Yes
1
5. Definite yes
2
3
4
5
The systemhelps the collaboration between various parties
(creator, reviewer, approver and publisher)
The systemhelps the collaboration between various departments
and centers involved in a content production.
3) Design and opinion
Please use the following five rating scale to indicate the most applicable description to your
experience
1. Definite No
2. No
3. Maybe
4.Yes
1
5. Definite yes
2
3
4
5
The components of the system were fair enough.
The interfaces of the system wereclear.
130
The screen displayswere readable, logicallyarranged and
pleasingto look at.
Overall, I found the system design is goodfor the users
Do you have any comments or suggestion for University Content Management System
(UCMS)?
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………
Thank you for your cooperation
131