Academic Summit

How Drupal is Bringing Value to Academia Research

Drupal is becoming a powerful research tool that relieves faculty and researchers from working on creating and managing databases and user interface tools and allows them to focus on actual research topics. We will use four sites to demo how tools built with Drupal support faculty in research, career advising, book publishing and more

• SLA - legal research tool

  The Securities Litigation Analytics group at Stanford Law School is a research group that tracks the public and private enforcement of federal securities laws. Examples of data collected include named plaintiffs and defendants, case outcomes, settlement monies, insurance contributions and attorneys’ fees collected. The data is useful to academics and practitioners alike for predicting case outcome and settlement costs.

  Historically, data was collected in a FileMaker database, which limited the nature of the data collection, permitting only “static” snapshots of a case at its resolution and forcing researchers to rely heavily on a DBA already stretched too thin. Two years ago, SLA began the process of developing a new, more organic, database that would allow continual tracking of cases in a real-time, even-driven environment. After a couple development stumbles, SLA discovered Drupal and is near to beta-testing an all-new Drupal-based application in less than 3 month. In addition to a much deeper level of analysis, the new system also allows more flexibility for the researchers to add, remove variables and alter the data collection workflow independently of a developer with a minimal level of training. This flexibility has allowed the scope of research to expand greatly, while freeing up more time for actual data collection.

• SLSNavigator - course and curriculum guide https://slsnavigator.law.stanford.edu/

  This ever-evolving tool is designed to help law students get the most from their experience at Stanford Law School. If you know what kind of law you want to practice, or even if you don't, SLSNavigator can identify specific courses that can move you toward any goal.

• Railroaded - how Drupal helps in research book publishing http://railroaded.stanford.edu/

  The Spatial History Project (SHP) at Stanford University uses technology to examine and refine our understanding of history; Taking what we already know about the past, charting these clues in the context of place and time, and displaying the results visually in order uncover hidden historical trends and patterns. As the Railroaded website explains, “One of the ways this project operates outside of normal historical practice is by using visualization as a way not simply to illustrate conclusions, but a means of doing research.”

  The Spatial History Project, The Jasper Group, and OpenSourcery are proud to make the infrastructure for the Railroaded companion site available for others in the open source and scholarly communities to use, for free. By doing so we hope that other authors – of monographs, dissertations, theses, and of purely digital publications – can implement this unique infrastructure of modules to present their own scholarship.

• Drupal for Online learning http://www.tv411.org/

  TV411 is the companion website to the Emmy-award winning PBS television show of the same name. Like the show, the website was created as a teaching tool for undereducated adults interested in broadening their reading, writing, math and science skills. With an online presence established, TV411 was able to create a more interactive learning opportunity for its users.

  Prior to calling on OpenSourcery, TV411 was experiencing a number of issues with their flash-based site. Our firm was hired for a complete redesign. Building on a preexisting module, we were able to expand the customization of their teaching tools while improving the site's overall performance. The new TV411.org allows users to take lessons or quizzes and track their progress, creating a seamless learning experience over any period of time.