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news.euromain.net

EUROMAIN
FUNCTIONAL
ldshake.euromain.net
SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS
learning.euromain.net

Contact and funding

IJIE Integrated Journalism in Europe is an Erasmus Lifelong Learning Project reference
number 5228057-LLP-1-2012-1-ES-ERASMUS-FEXI. This project has been funded with
support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the IJIE
consortium and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made
of the information contained therein.

For more information:

News Website and professional simulation platform for the EUROMAIN

network: http://news.euromain.net
Educational and assessment platform for the students network of
correspondants: http://ldshake.euromain.net
Website
with
thipsheets,
model
courses,
and
more:
http://learning.euromain.net
Project website for the IJIE project: http://integratedjournalism.upf.edu
Document authors:
Radu Meza (meza@fspac.ro), Jonathan Chacn (jonathan.chacon@upf.edu),
Davinia Hernndez-Leo (davinia.hernandez@upf.edu),
Pablo Abenia
(pablo.abna@gmail.com)

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PROBLEM STATEMENT

Professional simulation in integrated newsrooms in the context of Journalism

education requires a web platform that can manage content, publishing as
well as student progress tracking, evaluation and feedback from instructors.

SOLUTION
SOLUTION
Linking the Professional Simulation Layer with the Educational Layer
The

EUROMAIN platform integrates an open

source

web content

management system and flexible publishing frontend powered by Newscoop

with a blended learning system LdShake (Hernndez-Leo, Moreno, Chacn, &
Blat, 2014). Our approach is to have the professional simulation layer
separated from the educational layer so that the editorial process in the
integrated newsroom can include roles and processes assimilated to the
workflow of real newsrooms unhindered by the roles and processes
associated to journalism education. However, the educational layer supported
by LdShake will reflect student activities in the Newscoop side, allowing
instructors to observe, evaluate and provide feedback on students individual
involvement in the production process of different content types in different
roles over the duration of the professional simulation.

Figure 1. Integration of professional simulation in integrated newsroom with educational layer

TARGET USERS
This integrated platform is meant to be used by instructors and students as
part of the professional simulation educational process taking place in
journalism schools. The content produced in the professional simulation of the
integrated newsroom is published online and made available (possibly in
several different languages) to local or global audiences.

MAIN FUNCTIONALITIES
The Professional Simulation Layer (NEWSCOOP)
The platform used to support professional simulation needs to offer the
functionalities associated with a full-fledged Web Content Management
System, but also support the workflows associated with integrated
newsrooms.

Functionalities:

Defining content types

Defining display templates for custom content types

Defining user roles and permissions

Defining authorship types

Content creation, management and publishing

Support for translation management

Support for multiple authorship

Support for newsroom workflow (drafting-editing-publishing)

Support for media management (for photo and documents)

Integration with media-sharing platforms (for video and audio)

Integration with location services (Google Maps)

The Blended Learning / Educational Layer (LdShake)

The blended learning platform needs to offer functionalities associated with
the educational needs of a production-oriented higher education practical
course in journalism.
Functionalities:

Predefined student and instructor Roles

Support for resource management (Manuals, Tutorials, Links)

Support for discussion and comments

Support for evaluation (Grading) of online and offline activities

Support for individual and group feedback

Support for tracking the publication process of articles

Support for tracking authorship/contributions over multiple articles

Integrated functionalities
Integration of the two layers in the EUROMAIN platform will be done by first
configuring the blended learning system to map users in the Integrated
Newsroom Web Content Management System, according to their respective
roles in the educational layer (student / instructor). Users will be able to use
the same authentication data in each of the two systems. Also, the main
integration point will be the retrieval of content (embedded articles), authorship
information (which student contributed in what way to each content item),
newsroom workflow data (timestamps for first submission of each element,
submission of final draft, editing and publishing) and statistics about the
published content (page views, unique visitors, likes, comments etc.).

USER TYPES
The two layers of the EUROMAIN platform handle the same user base
mapped to different user types, according to the specific functionalities of
each platform.
The Professional Simulation Layer (NEWSCOOP) will use user types
associated with the management of a medium-sized newsroom:

Unauthenticated users (can only browse published content)

Authenticated users
o Administrator - full authorization (technical staff)
o Chief Editor - has the right to create and delete issues (instructors)
o Editor - limited to basic article management and editing (students)
o Author - can create articles, but not delete them (students)
o Section editor can manage sections in issues (students)

Author usertypes will be associated in the context of each article and at

system level with one or more of the authorship types defined:

Author (generic default)

Writer

Photographer

Editor

Columnist

Video editor

Reporter

Infographic designer

Photo editor

Video operator

Audio editor

Illustrator

Animator

Researcher

This approach supports crediting collaborative work in the context of an

integrated

newsroom

professional

simulation

practical

course.

Also,

information about authorship types will be retrieved and aggregated by the

educational layer to provide instructors and students an overview of the level
of integration of media in content items and multi-media production
experience of students.
The Blended Learning Layer / Educational (LdShake) will use just
authenticated user types associated with the learning process:
o Administrator - full authorization (technical staff);
o Instructor add course resources, read, evaluate and provide
feedback on content, workflow and integration information for
individual students or content items;
o Student see overviews of personal activity in the professional
simulation, see grades and feedback;

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROFESSIONAL SIMULATION LAYER

The Newscoop 4.2 Web Content Management System was used to
implement the Professional Simulation Layer (news.euromain.net). Below is a
diagram of how different types of media can be integrated in a content item.

Figure 2. Integration of media types in the content items

produced by the integrated newsroom

Other than, the default news and page content items, we used plugins for the
debate and poll content types and configured two custom content types
longform and chapters.
The Educational layer is implemented in LdShake (ldshake.euromain.net).

Figure 3. Final development plan and task distribution

for the EUROMAIN platform

The final version of the development plan also included adding teaching
resources resulted from WP3 and WP4 to the EUROMAIN platform as model
courses and tips (learning.euromain.net).

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL LAYER

LdShake is a web platform originally designed for asynchronous co-edition
and sharing of educational materials within a social network of teachers
(Hernndez-Leo, Moreno, Chacn, & Blat, 2014). These materials developed
by the various authoring tools on the platform are called Learning design
Solutions (LdS). LdShake acts as a repository where users can manage their
LdS and allows the collaborative creation of these LdS using different
authoring tools: a rich text editor and two other editors for the specific design
of educational materials and activities.

The main five sections of LdShake are:

New LdS for the creation of a new LdS

My LdS where educators will find the LdS created or shared with
them with edition rights

Browse where educators will find the LdS created in the platform
with, at least, with viewing rights
Community for viewing the list of members in the community and a
messaging icon for sending private messages to other members in the
platform

Figure 4. Assessment page in LdShake Euromain

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The objectives of the IJIE project included having a platform to allow the
reviewing, feedback and final assessment of journalistic articles created by
teams of students. In the context of the project, the LdShake platform has
been adapted to meet IJIE requirements. As described previously, a set of
functionalities has been added to LdShake:
Initially LdShake had two roles: admin and teacher roles. For the
project we included and managed the inclusion of a new role student in
the platform for allowing students to view the grades and feedbacks of
their instructors (teacher role already present in LdShake)
Support for evaluation (Grading) of online and offline activities
Support for individual and group feedback
Support for articles progress tracking
Moreover, as the creation of material is being carried on Newscoop and not in
LdShake, the New LdS option has been limited to rich text editor only,
allowing teachers the creation of a single type of material in the platform. This
option was decided to be maintained (in addition to the documents directly
imported from Newscoop) to allow teachers the creation of extra material in
LdShake for example for evaluating purposes.
The LdS documents structure has been modified to meet teachers
requirements. Previously, every LdS document on the platform was
composed of two documents: the main document where the activities are
defined; and the support document for adding any extra information related to
the activity, such as material or resources needed. Now, any LdS is initially
composed by three documents: the first one for the articles draft with the
document created in NewsCoop by the students (as the article to be
published in the Euromain platform); the second one for the teachers review
that will include an initial assessment in language and writing, content and
sources, page design, structure and multimedia elements; and a third one for
adding comments or to discuss about the review. Once students received the

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feedback and modified the article in Newscoop they re-publish the article.
Once students re-publish the article, LdShake add two new sections to the
LdS document for the final assessment: the pre-reviewed version (draft), and
after introducing the suggestions from the teacher, a final version from the
article. Instructors then can compare the draft version with this one to see if
students applied all the suggestions. To assess the final version, a new
document with a set of competences and indicators that evaluators may
follow, will appear to grade the final version of the article.
Finally, the backend of LdShake has been adapted to allow sharing users and
roles between LdShake and NewsCoop. Due to this implementation, users
can have the same username and password to login in both platforms.
Furthermore, and extension of LdShake was implemented to process the data
produced by Newscoop. Thanks to this extension, LdShake is became able
to import articles and users related in the writing process in Euromain News to
LdShake. Once there, instructors can assess and grade the article.
The LdShake platform can be accessed at http://ldshake.euromain.net/
asking for a username and password to the project manager.
Reference
Hernndez-Leo, D., Moreno, P., Chacn, J., & Blat, J. (2014). LdShake
support for team-based learning design. Computers in Human Behavior.

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