DIVA is the Digital Information Virtual Archive, a web-based file management solution for use by faculty and researchers in higher education. DIVA provides always-on storage, organization, recovery, version-tracking, and sharing/dissemination capabilities for campuses across the CSU.
The Digital Information Virtual Archive (DIVA) is an electronic faculty support initiative designed and built at San Francisco State University. DIVA takes a decidedly different approach to faculty support tools in several ways:
DIVA supports the broad range of faculty activities including teaching, research, and service.
DIVA supports the broad range of file types and the tasks faculty perform around those.
DIVA supports the broad range of academic disciplines and can be a powerful tool for encouraging interdisciplinary interaction and activity.
DIVA combines a content and file repository with a wide range of services to create what we call a "living repository" embedded the authentic work tasks of faculty and those that support them.
DIVA believes in open academic technology systems and is designed for open access of its repository and well-suited for the range of integration projects we are planning.
Campus Silos Are Not Working
The distributed organization and management of resources at institutions is increasingly antithetical to emerging digital work patterns of faculty and those that support them. In addition to resource management, faculty themselves lack effective means to collaborate. This is especially true across disciplines. Campuses lack standardized means to share digital resources and connect faculty together. Information Technology, Academic Technology, Library Services and distributed IT units are also grappling with these issues.
San Francisco State University Users
DIVA is launched and available to all faculty and staff at San Francisco State University to support their teaching, research, and service. As part of this, the DIVA team provides phone and email support and conducts regular workshops on campus. The DIVA team is also involved in a number of digitization projects across the campus to help bring important to the campus community.
We are also in the planning stage with Academic Technology to integrate DIVA with iLearn, (the campus Learning Management System running on Moodle). We will provide more information on release dates for that work when it is available. We also hope to work with the Library so that DIVA Collections are listed within the Electronic Resources listings and conversely, Library resources are listed in the What's Related section of individual files (yes, there is a world of resources outside of DIVA!).
DIVA is designed to bring distributed digital resources into a single repository while accounting for individual collection needs in the areas of visibility, permissions, organization, and syndication to external websites. After completing a year-long launch at San Francisco State University, we believe DIVA can provide massive opportunities for systemwide sharing of digital resources.
DIVA is designed in ways to fit within the types of diverse technology environments in place on campuses across the CSU. The system is modularly designed with open API's and the DIVA team has integration plans for Learning Management Systems, Library Systems, Institutional Repositories, and Research and Scholarly Activities Profile systems.
We are currently planning pilot projects on individual CSU campuses for Fall 2008. These would typically take place within an individual department or discipline and provide an opportunity for faculty in those areas to use fully-functional DIVA accounts. We are in discussions with Visual Resource oriented departments or disciplines. We are also beginning a systemwide collaboration with the Social Science and Instructional Council (SSRIC) which includes representatives from all campuses so departments or disciplines focused on the use of quantitative or qualitative analysis and methods would potentially fit in well with that initiative. We are open to all inquiries about pilot projects from any CSU campus. Prior to any pilot project implementation, we will contact and coordinate with all relevant resource areas including Academic Technology related campus-wide units, local technical staff, and campus Library representatives.
Digital Files and DIVA
The DIVA initiative views the digital file as the atomic-level of faculty activity. It’s the core unit from which faculty tend to build and distribute their learning or research materials. By providing core support for the digital file and building tools around those, you are able to better support faculty within their authentic workflows.
DIVA supports the full gamut of digital files including:
• Documents: MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF’s or raw text files are included in this category. • Images: We support a full range image file types. DIVA will automatically convert “TIFF” and “BMP” formatted files into web-viewable file types. DIVA includes tools to annotate and crop images directly within the interface. DIVA also includes a Slide Show Builder for arranging image-based presentations. • Video: DIVA provides special support for video that allows any common format to auto-play within the DIVA interface. When video is uploaded into DIVA, we automatically transcode a Flash version of the file so it can play in the browser just like YouTube. • Audio: DIVA also provides special support for audio, auto-converting common formats into MP3 so it can be played directly in the DIVA interface. • Datasets: DIVA supports quantitative datasets. Our unique support for multiple file bundles allows us to store various data formats (.por, .dta, .csv, etc.) and include the codebook under the same file wrapper. • Miscellaneous: A catch-all category.
Permissions and Visibility: All digital files uploaded to faculty workspaces are private to that faculty member. By default, file abstract information can still show up on searches and browses to public users, however they cannot access the file. When uploading a file, you can indicate the file to be totally hidden from all searches and only visible to you.
File Nomination: We include a procedure called “Nomination” by which private files found on searches and browses within the system can be requested to be made public or shareable. The file owner must approve “Nomination” and then DIVA staff will prep the file by checking digital rights, applying appropriate permissions and adding appropriate metadata.
Metadata: All DIVA files are wrapped with standards-compliant metadata. Metadata is information that describes the file. For faculty uploading files, only a simple title, description and keywords are required. Digital files in the repository area are wrapped with full Dublin Core and an additional layer of file-specific metadata. This helps ensure descriptive information about the file is consistent across collections and helps ensure DIVA is compliant with other repositories.
Tagging: All DIVA files can be “tagged” with keywords describing the file. These tags help create relationships between files. You can see this on a file detail page which will include “related files”.
Version Control: DIVA supports full version control for all files. This means that files can be updated with newer versions (saved over the top) while preserving earlier versions of the files. This is particularly useful in Groups areas where faculty are collaborating on files.
Copyright, Fair Use: Faculty are to follow campus and CSU copyright and fair use policies with respect to digital files they upload to their private workspace. It is faculty-duty to maintain compliance in this area. Only materials for which copyright has been obtained should be uploaded. The DIVA team has future plans to build a “Fair Use Wizard” into the upload process to help apply guide faculty. All digital files in the repository have been reviewed for digital rights. DIVA will also implement Creative Commons licensing for faculty uploading original works with an intent to share them.
Campus Collections Go Digital
In too many cases, campus learning and scholarly resources languish in storage, bound as physical objects. Slide collections, audio and video works, museum-quality objects, or rare art pieces are unknown or inaccessible to the broader campus learning community. These objects are inefficient to manage and prepare for learning situations as they are and difficult for faculty to use in the classroom. Digitizing these items liberates them from their physical boundaries and provides amazing new opportunities for these treasures to be discovered and used but faculty, students or researchers.
DIVA: Repository and Services Diagram
A chart showing how files migrate from faculty private areas and from collection sources throughout institutions.
Teaching With DIVA
DIVA Course Area Screen Shot
DIVA has an array of tools that support online teaching in unique ways. Many of those tools are included within the DIVA Course area. Faculty can easily create a course area, provide descriptive information on it, and password-protect it quickly and easily.
Courses in DIVA are totally informal and not tied to the University scheduling system so faculty are free to setup courses according to their need. You can create one course for perpetuity or a separate instance for each semester you teach. You can create one course for multiple sections or individual instances. It’s a faculty member’s choice.
All Course areas have a permanent URL or web address. You select the friendly shareable id which is the end part of the web address (typically “http://diva.sfsu.edu/users/yourname/shareable_id”).
Courses include the following areas:
• Assignments (DIVA Web Documents): the area currently called “Assignments” is soon to become the unique “DIVA Web Document Builder”. This is where faculty can create web pages where they can add video, audio, images and RSS feeds that enliven learning materials for students. • Course Files: Faculty can add any relevant files for their course. • Slideshows: Faculty can create image-based slideshows. • Podcasts: Faculty can create Podcasts. • More? Based on your feedback...
Research and Service Support Within DIVA
DIVA provides support for faculty who conduct research and need a method for sharing and distributing files with research colleagues and assistants. This same function can also be used to share files and collaborate within committees, working groups, or informal teams.
The DIVA Groups area is the primary area for this support. Faculty can quickly create a New Group with a click and invite members to join the group. As mentioned, members can be other DIVA users or can be non-DIVA users who need only an email account. Invitees will receive your invitation via email. Once accepted, your Group will automatically appear in the Groups list for other DIVA users. Non-DIVA users will be invited to create a limited DIVA account that only provides access to your group.
Group areas allow members to share files. Versioning control can be used to collaborate on files.
A full-redesign is planned to this section for early Fall based on faculty feedback. Additional features will also be added including a Document builder for online document creation and editing.
