EMREX General Assembly in Göttingen 31 May 2022

The 2022 EMREX Annual Assembly was held on May 31st. This year it was held as a physical meeting in the historical city of Göttingen in Germany with courtesy of Georg-August Universität. The yearly report from 2021 was presented and accepted, just as the yearly plan for 2022. The election of the Executive Committee resulted in some new faces so now the EC consists of:

• Igor Drvodelic, Croatia, • Tor Fridell, Sweden, • Janina Mincer-Daszkiewicz, Poland, • Jan-Joost Norder, the Netherlands, • Kimmo Rautio, Finland, • Geir M Vangen, Norway, • Arn Wassman, Germany.

One agenda item was changes in the statutes, demanded by the decision last year to move the EMREX Registry (EMREG) into the EWP Registry. Some parts became obsolete by this and some editorial changes were needed. At the meeting the following new members were welcomed into the EMREX User Group:

• Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, • Pedagogische Hochschule Ludwigsburg, Germany, • Pescheck, the Netherlands, • Supratix, Germany.

All documents can be found at https://zgfreestyle.hr/emrex/documents/.

ELMO Workshop in Göttingen 31 May 2022

On 31 May 2022 the EMREX Executive Committee hosted an hybrid ELMO workshop at the University of Göttingen. In a very intensive and long session we discussed many changes and additions to the ELMO standard. The discussion showed that it is not easy to find common ground easily with a standard that is being used in so many countries nowadays. At the end of the day we could only agree on one issue out of 7 proposals. Does this mean that it was a bad workshop? Not at all, because it showed us again how valuable and important it is to talk with experts about the proposed changes. And we agreed that we need invest more time and research in the proposals. For example a standard template, so we can more easily discuss the necessity of a change. We would once more want to say thank the University of Göttingen for their hospitality. All discussed issues are available in GitHub in the EMREX repository. Please visit: https://github.com/emrex-eu/elmo-schemas/issues/

Onsite participants of the ELMO workshop at Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen

EMREX at EUNIS 2022

EMREX was represented at the 2022 EUNIS conference. After two years of online meetings it was held physically in Göttingen, Germany. EMREX held a presentation titled Interoperability of educational data demands standards which highlighted the problem that there are competing standards for educational data in Europe and in the world. It was interesting in that way that it was not the only presentation the stated this fact. There seems to be an awareness that we should work together more and not create own solutions for everything. EUNIS presentation and a full paper issued in European Journal of Higher Education IT (issue 2022-1) can be found here: https://www.eunis.org/eunis2022/sessions/interoperability-of-educational-data-demands-standards/.

ELMO in GitHub

In 2022 EMREX organization has transitioned its documentation to a unified GitHub account which hosts the ELMO schemas and EMREX standard with examples. The new front page features a summary of all the repositories with direct links. The sample implementations of EMP and EMC have been updated to reflect the new naming scheme and the presentations from previous seminars and meetings have merged into the presentation’s repository. The new GitHub page is now verified which helps increase its visibility in search engines and a contact e-mail has been added as well. The changes have also been extended to the standard description, glossary, and implementation guide, which now all include extensive descriptions about the EMREX protocol and all the necessary information, which new implementers need to get started. This novel approach provides the community with a sole source of all code and documentation while at the same time providing the traceability of changes in the EMREX standard as it continues to evolve and adapt to new usage scenarios. Visit EMREX repository in GitHub: https://github.com/emrex-eu.

ELMO in GitHub

On 25 July 2022, the ELMO and ELM technical teams had a fruitful meeting during which they confirmed a comprehensive alignment between ELMO and ELM v.3 (recently published for feedback on Github). It was determined that all ELMO fields can be mapped to ELM fields with the following exceptions:

• Attachment fields: These do not exist in ELM at the moment but will now be included for the final version of ELM version 3. • Diploma Supplement fields: ELMO uses simple string fields here, ELM mostly controlled-list fields. If the string fields are not filled properly, these fields might not be mapped in the ELM controlled list fields.

So, the current status is the following:

• ELMO is mappable to ELM version 3 in the current version without change under the above restrictions. • ELM data could be mappable to the EWP and EMREX ecosystem via an appropriate ELM schema (the schema would still need to be created). • Regarding an information from DG EMPL on SDG, ELM should become part of the SDG data model for structured education data. The DGs of the European Commission are in exchange there. • Thus, we have defined a European data standard consisting of ELM version 3, which is largely compatible with both ELMO and SDG (regarding SDG under the restriction that SDG will use ELM).

During this meeting, a mapping table was produced: its clean and finalised version will be circulated in the course of August. As this is a significant achievement, DG EMPL calls for a meeting with EMREX and ELMO key stakeholders as well as relevant Commission colleagues to discuss the following:

• Any pending questions regarding the technical work for the alignment of the two data models (the mapping table will be circulated in advance). • Communication actions regarding this milestone. • Agreement to start a policy discussion on the two data models.

Regarding dates, DG EMPL suggests such an online meeting on 5 September 2022, 16.30-17.30 (Brussels time).

Visit us at the EAEI Poster presentation

On Wednesday 14 September 2022 from 14:30-16:00 EMREX will be present at the EAIE conference in Barcelona. We will give a poster presentation about the achievements of EMREX in the last five years. The use of EMREX has grown over the last years and also its potential. It has proven to be very useful in several uses cases, such as admissions, recruitment and data exchange between universities. Next to that we will also give an outline of the future plans. Don’t miss it!

EMREX at EAEI conference in Barcelona

The Groningen Declaration Network Annual Meeting

EMREX is represented at the 11th Annual Meeting that will take place on 12-14 October 2022 in the birthplace of the GDN, the beautiful city of Groningen, The Netherlands (and also online). The themes of the 2022 meeting are Learner Centricity – Interoperability – Lifelong Learning which highlights the interdependence of three key issues that have to be met to make digital learner data portability a global reality. That is, a focus on the pivotal role of learner centricity as starting point, requiring interoperability so as to ensure seamless learners’ access to their data. This is almost exactly the same focus as the EMREX network and we are therefore very glad to be present. Our presentation will focus specifically on the different standards for educational data and a suggested way forward. The Groningen Declaration Network is an international, non-profit and voluntary network that supports academic and professional digital credential mobility so that citizens worldwide are able to consult and share their authentic educational data autonomously, with the expectation of fair recognition. Link to the conference site: https://www.groningendeclaration.org/2022-am-groningen/

EMREX Data Access Points in the EWP Network and Discovery 6.0.0

EMREX Data Access Points are already present in the EWP Registries, both in DEV and PROD Networks. To check if your manifest file is properly handled by the Registry, please visit:

• https://dev-registry.erasmuswithoutpaper.eu/status  • https://registry.erasmuswithoutpaper.eu/status.

Bare in mind that we still use the new EMREG, which reads the XML catalogue file from the EWP registry and translates it to the JSON format expected by the EMREX clients. The EMREX clients switched from the old EMREG and now send requests straight to the new EMREX. The old EMREG has been removed. That means that EMPs are now registered only in the EWP registry but the EMREX clients can still get responses in the old JSON format.

EMREX clients send requests directly to the new EMREG which translates EWP catalogue file from XML to JSON format

Eventually we will delete the new EMREG. The EMREX clients will send requests directly to the EWP registry and will accept the catalogue file in the XML format. Inform your client about this requirement!

EMREX clients send requests directly to the EWP Registry and read catalogue file in XML format

The other important news is that the EWP Network switches to the Discovery 6.0.0. Soon earlier versions will become obsolete. All EMREX Data Access Points should change the manifest files accordingly.

You can find the example here: https://usosweb.demo.usos.edu.pl/api/manifest.php.

There is a new mandatory element: <ewp:admin-provider>MUCI (USOS)</ewp:admin-provider>. There is a new namespace:

xmlns="https://github.com/erasmus-without-paper/ewp-specs-api-discovery/tree/stable-v6" <discovery version="6.0.0"> <url>https://usosweb.demo.usos.edu.pl/api/manifest.php</url> </discovery> 

Get in touch

To contact us write to info@emrex.eu. To get support write to support@emrex.eu.

EMREX 1st place winner for Network Technology at PESC

At the PESC 22nd annual best practices competition EMREX has been awarded with the 1st place for Network Technology. “The level of commitment and attention to detail, undertaken by the EMREX Executive Committee to build a multi-national, interoperable, digital network, is unparalleled,” states Michael D. Sessa, PESC President & CEO. “The EMREX Executive Committee is a best practice itself in open, transparent software development and deployment. In being such a major achievement, EMREX serves as a best practice model in network technology for other countries, other networks and other communities.“ The EMREX Executive Committee presented the EMREX solution at PESC’s Data Summit on the 21st of October 2021. The committee is thrilled to have won this price and as said many times before, the solution is not bound to the European borders and we are always looking to expand our network. It can be used before, during and after studies, from educational to employment purposes. It would be very interesting to explore the North American continent for new collaborations. The full text of the message can be found on the PESC website.

EMREX Workshop 23-24 November 2021

The EMREX User Group held a two-day workshop in November 2021. It was held as a hybrid meeting with participation onsite at Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, Germany and online.

Onsite participants of the EMREX workshop at Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen

The topics ranged from discussions about strategies for the future to hands-on technical details. There were presentations about for instance security, blockchains, student Ids and use cases about EMREX and ELMO. One presentation was about readiness of HISinOne for EMREX. HIS is a supplier of Student Information System with a large customer base in Germany so this is good news for the community. Changes in the ELMO-format were discussed which lead to inviting to another workshop for all stakeholders (see separate article). More information including all presentations can be found at the EMREX portal.

News about the ELMO-format

ELMO is public domain (available in Github) and all stakeholders are free to suggest changes. At the meeting in November 2021 the EMREX network opened up a process for making extensions and alterations to the ELMO-schema. A first workshop was held in December 2021 with the goal to continue with more workshops during the spring and have a final workshop in summer. The workshops will discuss changes in detail and make decisions of incorporation into the standard. The EMREX community plans a final workshop as a pre-conference item at EUNIS 2022, at June 1-3 in Göttingen, Germany. It is still possible to give suggestions to changes to ELMO! It is done online in Github as issues in ELMO repository.

ELMO/EMREX goes SSI via IDunion (contribution by Patrick Herbke, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany)

As part of the German IDunion project, research assistants and students work in multiple working packages in the context of Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) solutions. In the education working package it is planned to make existing ELMO documents usable in SSI infrastructures as it provides functionality that the current ELMO structure does not intend to cover. In the SSI context, all documents are stored by the students themselves in full sovereignty and can be verified and combined with proper authentication. Currently, SSI networks use JSON(-LD) data exchange formats exclusively to exchange verifiable credentials, attestations, and presentations. The need for educational credentials leads to the development of an ELMO to JSON(-LD) converter to lower the barrier of importing existing and newly issued diplomas and certificates into the SSI ecosystem. The Dutch project ovrhd created an ELMO-converter that can be accessed via API, e.g.

curl -d "@example_elmo_certificate.xml” -H “Content-Type:text/plain;charset=utf-8” -X POST https://duo.ovrhd.nl/api/elmo/sovrhd | jq

In contrast to this project, the IDunion converter is focused on the conversion from ELMO to JSON-LD format for use as a verifiable credential later on. Furthermore, the IDunion converter considers different ELMO schemas for educational certificates. Schemas describe the profile, including data structures and semantic definitions, of the data used in EMREX. The IDunion ELMO converter contains a schema mapping from an existing ELMO schema to a recently published education schema by the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI). The converter automatically adapts the EBSI schema based on a given ELMO certificate (transcript of records, bachelor/master certificate or upper secondary school certificate) and returns JSON-LD formatted content. Currently the IDunion converter offers the following functionality:

•  Conversion of ELMO certificates into JSON(-LD) file format based on the published EBSI schema.
• Publicly available API for testing purposes.

A current version of the IDunion converter runs as a web service hosted at TU Berlin. It can be reached at 130.149.223.146:8081 and the API is documented on GitHub. An example call via terminal, to receive a verifiable credential, could be:

curl -d @demo.xml -H "Content-Type: application/xml"

http://130.149.223.146:8081/api/xml/convert/verifiableCredential

or without formatting:

curl -d @demo.xml -H "Content-Type: application/xml" http://130.149.223.146:8081/api/xml/convert/

The IDunion ELMO converter takes part in many contexts, for instance, efforts in the EBSI early adopters’ wave 2 projects.

EMREX Data Access Points in the EWP Network

EMREG is a centralized service in the EMREX Network that has to be available to all clients (EMREX clients, EMC in short). It gives a list of all available servers (EMREX Data Access Points, EMP in short), as well as other information necessary to establish communication with each of them. On January 29, 2021, during the technical workshop of the EMREX User Group, it has been decided to move content of EMREG to the EWP Registry. Two first steps of this plan have already been made in the development and production settings. First, all EMPs posted the manifest files in the format specified for the EWP Network, with the dedicated emrex-data-access-point API. The Schema for the manifest file for the EMP is available at: https://github.com/erasmus-without-paper/ewp-specs-api-emrex-data-access-point/blob/stable-v1/manifest-entry.xsd These manifest files have been registered in the EWP Registry (DEV and PROD). The new EMREG has been designed and implemented, which reads the XML catalogue file from the EWP registry and translates it to the JSON format expected by the EMREX clients. The EMREX clients switched from the old EMREG and now send requests straight to the new EMREG. The old EMREG has been removed. That means that EMPs are now registered only in the EWP registry but the EMREX clients can still get responses in the old JSON format. The proper requests to get the list are the following:

• https://emreg.test.usos.edu.pl/emp-list.json (DEV network)
• https://emreg.usos.edu.pl/emp-list.json (PROD network)

The response has the format: {“emps”: …}. Temporarily client can also use links with the old terminology:

• https://emreg.test.usos.edu.pl/ncp-list.json (DEV network)
• https://emreg.usos.edu.pl/ncp-list.json (PROD network)

The return format is: {“ncps”: …}.

EMREX clients send requests directly to the new EMREG which translates EWP catalogue file from XML to JSON format

There is still a step ahead. Eventually we will delete the new EMREG. The EMREX clients will send requests directly to the EWP registry and will accept the catalogue file in the XML format.

EMREX clients send requests directly to the EWP Registry and read catalogue file in XML format

EMREX/ELMO documentation

Due to the latest changes in the architecture of the EMREX Network and the terminology (see section on EMREX Data Access Points in the EWP Network) changes in the EMREX technical documentation are needed. EMREX Executive Committee decided that the best option would be to upgrade documentation but at the same time gather all its parts in one place. This means that technical documentation which is now posted in the emrex.eu website should be moved to GitHub to the EMREX repository. This work will be generously sponsored by the LADOK consortium. We hope that the first results will be available to the community in the coming months.

Vietsch project

EMREX User Group was granted a funding by the Vietsch Foundation in the year 2020. After successful completion of the first part of the project Industrializing the EMREX Registry and reviewing the ELMO standard the main focus was to concentrate on dissemination work and maximizing the value and benefits of EMREX. It soon became clear that due to COVID-19 situation these efforts could not be fulfilled as planned. The Vietsch Foundation agreed to the EMREX Executive Committee’s proposal to prolong the project from the original deadline of June 2021 to December 2021 and to change the scope of the project. Although the situation seemed better for the Autumn 2021 the pandemic took a turn for the worst thus making it impossible to organize physical meetings and to attend congresses on a larger scale. We were happy to arrange one meeting, however, on the support of the Vietsch funding – the workshop in Göttingen, Germany in November. Even though the project funding couldn’t be utilized to the full extent we were able to reach most of the project goals. The EMREX Executive Committee and the whole EMREX User Group would like to thank the Vietsch Foundation for their support and we are looking forward to future cooperation! The end report will be published on emrex.eu website after it has been finalized and delivered to the Vietsch Foundation.

Get in touch

To contact us write to info@emrex.eu. To get support write to support@emrex.eu.