Cover Sheet for Proposals
(All sections must be completed)
Capital Programme
Name of Capital Programme: Repositories and Preservation Programme
Bid for Calls : (Please tick ONE BOX ONLY, as appropriate)
Discovery to Delivery and Interoperability Demonstrators (Strand C)
Call I – Interoperability
a) Interoperability demonstrators
Demonstrators
Repository Start-Up and Enhancement (Strand D)
Call II – Repository
Start-Up and
Enhancement Projects
a) Repository start-up projects
: b) Repository enhancement projects
c) Rapid innovation projects: enhancing repository content
Digital Preservation Across the Lifecycle (Strand H)
a) Digital preservation across the lifecycle
Call III – Digital
Preservation Across
the Lifecycle
Name of Lead
Institution:
University of Derby
Name of Proposed
Project:
POCKET: Project on Open Content for Knowledge Exposition and Teaching
Name(s) of Project Partner(s):
The Open University, University of Bolton, University of Exeter
Full Contact Details for Primary Contact:
Name:
Julie Stone
Position:
Business Development Manager
Email:
[email protected]
Address:
School of Flexible and Partnership Learning
University of Derby
Kedleston Road
Derby DE22 1GB
Tel No:
01332 591385
Fax No:
Length of
Project:
18 Months
Project Start
Date:
1 September 2007
Project End Date:
28 February 2009
1
Total Funding Requested from JISC:
£200,000
Funding Broken Down over Financial Years (Mar – Apr):
Sep07 - Mar08
Apr08 – Mar09
£100,000
£100,000
Total Institutional Contributions:
Outline Project Description
The OpenLearn initiative at the Open University is a £5.65m investment which is creating a major repository
of Open Content learning resources. This project is designed to leverage this investment to extend Open
Content activity to other universities. It will adopt and adapt the systems developed by the OU and create
substantial additional amounts of HE-level quality assured Open Content learning resources.
By making content immediately accessible to any search engine the project will support the independent
learning strategies identified as the norm by the JISC LXP Student Experiences of Technology project,
namely that students seeking learning resources search the global Internet in preference to the limited
resources of their own institutions.
The project will also examine some technical issues such as the rendering of XML encoded resources to
suit various VLEs and seamless interoperability with other non-Open Content repositories.
I have looked at the example FOI form at
Appendix A and included an FOI form in
the attached bid (Tick Box)
YES
I have read the Circular and associated
YES
Terms and Conditions of Grant at
Appendix B (Tick Box)
NO
9
NO
9
2
POCKET
University of Derby and partners
POCKET: Project on Open Content for Knowledge Exposition and
Teaching
A proposal for a project under the JISC Capital Programme (Repository
Enhancement Projects) led by the University of Derby and partnered by the Open
University, the University of Exeter and the University of Bolton
1
Introduction
1.1
The JISC LXP Student Experiences of
Technology project * examined
undergraduate learners’ behaviour with
respect to their use of technology. It found,
in each of the disciplines studied, that
learners use public Websites and services
when seeking to meet educational needs in
preference to any facilities provided by their
host institution. The learners demonstrated
highly effective independent learning
strategies. Most UK educational institutions
have so far done little to support such
strategies, preferring instead to keep all the
learning resources they have developed in
private locations accessible only to their own
students.
1.2
The Open University has however taken a
†
major step towards Open Content through its £5.65m OpenLearn initiative. Through it the OU are
offering free-standing educational resources, developed from their existing portfolio of courses. These
are being made accessible to all under a Creative Commons licence which allows free noncommercial use but restricts commercial exploitation. To date more than 900 hours of quality assured
learning materials have been published on OpenLearn with 4000 further hours due to be published by
March 2008. Half-a-million people in 160 different countries have so far made use of OpenLearn.
1.3
The University of Bolton has for some years allowed free access to the content from some modules of
its MSc programmes in Advanced Microelectronics and Electronic Product Development, however
course content is presented in the context of the programme modules and not as free-standing
educational resources.
1.4
We believe that learners at HEIs across England and the rest of the UK would benefit from more
stand-alone educational resources designed for HE study that can be freely accessed. In addition the
creation of new courses, whether campus-based of distance learning, could benefit from an enlarged
pool of Open Content HE-level resources.
Aims of POCKET
1.5
POCKET aims to build upon the OpenLearn approach by extending it to other HEIs. Specifically it will:
•
capitalise on the investment in OpenLearn to build a wider pool of quality assured HE-level Open
Content
•
provide support for learners adopting independent learning strategies
•
explore the potential of Open Content for HEIs, both as providers of it and as users
•
promote effective mechanisms for converting existing course materials into stand-alone
educational resources
•
determine the cost of creating Open Content from existing course materials
•
develop a module from scratch with all materials created for it designed as Open Content
*
Final report: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/lxp_project_final_report_nov_06.pdf
†
See: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/
1
POCKET
1.6
University of Derby and partners
•
demonstrate seamless interoperability between Open Content and other repositories
•
add a significant resource to JORUM.
The materials published by POCKET will all be stand-alone, that is to say there will be no
dependencies on other materials. This independence will be important for ensuring they are relevant
both to individual learners who discover them following a search and to course creators who require
resources that can be used in a variety of contexts.
The POCKET partnership
1.7
POCKET brings together four HEIs each with a unique contribution to make to the project.
1.8
The University of Derby has more than 20 programmes that it currently offers via Internet-based
distance learning. It recently won the 2006 Times Higher Education Award for “Most imaginative use
of distance learning” * with its Learning Through Work programmes in which each learner is able to
negotiate a personal curriculum that reflects their needs and interests. Open Content learning
materials will be prepared from several of its online programmes including the Foundation Degree in
Hospitality Management, the BSc in Applied Psychology and the LLM in Commercial Law. Derby has
a large and highly skilled Centre for Educational Development & Materials which will provide the
technical base for the project.
1.9
The Open University has, through its OpenLearn initiative, established a significant repository of Open
Content learning “units” derived from its huge archive of distance learning courses. These units, each
representing 3 to 15 hours of study, can be freely accessed (no registration required) in the
LearningSpace. A second site, LabSpace, provides an environment for collaborative work on learning
content with tools that include online presence and instant messaging, discussion forums, Web-based
video conferencing and knowledge mapping. POCKET will be able to exploit the investment in
OpenLearn to establish very rapidly the tools, techniques and environment that it requires. For the
OU, POCKET will act as a pilot which will help identify strategies for extending the development and
use of Open Content across HE once it has been firmly established within the University.
1.10 The University of Bolton has been offering wholly Internet-based accredited courses for almost ten
years. The MSc in Advanced Microelectronics was first offered in 1997 and has since been joined by
the MSc in Electronic Product Development. Both programmes were developed with significant
involvement from the electronics industry and it was as a result of advice from industry representatives
†
that a decision was taken to make much of the content of both programmes open access. POCKET
will rework materials from these two programmes to create free-standing topic-based resources and
will also take the opportunity to increase the use of non-text media. The University of Bolton is also
the home of the Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards (CETIS) which will
be providing support and advice to the project on standards and technologies.
1.11 The School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Exeter is one of the largest in the
UK with a wide range of programmes and research projects. The School is home to the Pedagogy
Strand of the EU 6th Framework Argunaut Project ‡ which is working on innovative solutions to improve
learning in communities of practice. The Argunaut Project will be preparing a new postgraduate level
module on e-Facilitation and will create it entirely using materials designed to the POCKET Open
Content format (if POCKET is funded). In addition further learning resources, drawn both from
undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, will be reworked as Open Content.
1.12 In the final six months of the project four further HEIs, or FECs delivering HE, will be invited to join the
project and will be supported in creating Open Content from their own course resources.
2
Appropriateness and Fit to Programme Objectives and Overall Value to the
JISC Community
2.1
The project will contribute to the programme outcomes by substantially increasing the amount and
range of quality-assured HE level Open Content available to the sector. Perhaps even more
*
See: http://www.thes.co.uk/Awards/2006/
†
The open access course content can be viewed at: http://www.ami.ac.uk/courses/
‡
The Argunaut Project Website is at: http://www.argunaut.org/
2
POCKET
University of Derby and partners
significantly it will promote the concept of Open Content learning resources in HE and provide insight
into the process of preparing Open Content that can then be shared. The inclusion of a collaboration
space for Open Content development will help extend thinking about effective mechanisms for the
support of repository asset creation and also address some of the issues raised by the e-Learning
strand of the Capital Programme call.
2.2
At a technical level the project will explore interoperability between the OpenLearn platform and other
repositories and also the exposure of the repository data and metadata to federated search services.
Even though the Open Content model removes the need for authentication and authorisation, work is
needed to ensure that Open Content repositories can be seamlessly integrated with restricted
collections for which the individual has specific rights.
2.3
OpenLearn content is currently published to a Moodle VLE platform. POCKET will support rendering
to other VLE platforms as well as optimising for inclusion in JORUM. This will be facilitated by an IMS
Common Cartridge publishing tool that is being developed by the OpenLearn team.
2.4
The fit with the aims of the programme are summarised below.
2.5
Programme Aim
Project fit
Stimulate the
population of
existing
repositories
At present the OpenLearn repository is populated with content from the OU alone.
POCKET will extend this to include materials from seven further institutions. It will
establish a network of institutions who are likely to become committed to the creation
and use of Open Content.
Enhance
interoperability
The project will work closely with CETIS and relevant JISC repository projects such as
TETRA and CURVE to deliver seamless interoperability with closed content
repositories. It will also address VLE interoperability, including through support for IMS
Common Cartridge.
Embed repositories
within institutional
working practices
POCKET will be exploring course design built on Open Content and anticipates having
a significant impact on the way partner institutions approach course building. This in
turn is likely to stimulate use of repositories more widely.
Support
establishment of
sustainable
repositories
OpenLearn has been established as a project. POCKET, by demonstrating the value
and viability of Open Content repositories will support the transition of OpenLearn to a
permanent service and will build support for repositories within the partner institutions.
None of the projects funded by JISC to date has explored the issues raised by Open Content
repositories. POCKET will be able to use the outcomes of much previous JISC-funded work to
address this increasingly important area.
Fit with e-Framework and the Information Environment
2.6
POCKET is keen to work with the e-Framework and regards Service Genre such as List Resources
and Manage Content as particularly relevant. In addition there may be opportunities to submit new
Service Genre arising out of the OpenLab collaborative tools work.
2.7
OpenLearn already largely adheres to the Information Environment Architecture including elements at
the provision, fusion and presentation layers.
The benefits of POCKET
2.8
Open Content has been given a major boost in the UK by the creation of OpenLearn but most HEIs
remain uncertain about embracing it. POCKET provides an opportunity for several HEIs to gain first
hand experience of Open Content, both as suppliers of it and users. Many more HEIs will be able to
benefit from the outcomes of the project which will help them to form their own Open Content policies.
The core members of POCKET are all poised to adopt Open Content more widely should POCKET
succeed in proving fears of a downside to Open Content groundless.
2.9
By linking POCKET to the high profile OpenLearn initiative exposure to its outputs will be enhanced.
Visitors to OpenLearn will become aware of the additional materials available from POCKET.
2.10 POCKET will also stimulate the use of Open Content learning resources, together with other
repository-based resources that can be used by UK HEIs.
3
POCKET
University of Derby and partners
2.11 POCKET will help to embed effective processes for the systematic development of Open Content into
the partner HEIs.
2.12 POCKET will support the independent learning strategies identified by the JISC LXP Student
Experiences of Technology project by providing more relevant HE-level learning resources that can be
discoverable directly from Google.
2.13 POCKET will add quality-assured resources to JORUM.
2.14 POCKET will assist the OU in planning its long-term strategy for OpenLearn and will help inform
national policy with regards to Open Content.
3
Quality of Proposal and Robustness of Workplan
Phase 1: Process development
3.1
POCKET will take the OU’s existing OpenLearn repository system (http://openlearn.open.ac.uk) and
enhance it to facilitate use by other HEIs. The OU system uses the proprietary Content Management
System Documentum to underpin the content reworking process. POCKET will implement a similar
workflow but substitute an Open Source product in place of Documentum. The project will prepare all
content in XML based on the OpenLearn XML schema. A guide to using this schema is included as
Appendix B.
3.2
The completed POCKET learning units will be stored in the LabSpace of OpenLearn. The OpenLearn
system renders the XML into content for the Moodle VLE and the LearningSpace section of the
OpenLearn Website is built on top of Moodle. POCKET will also use a Moodle-supported platform,
however in addition it will develop techniques for generating content in a format suited to the VLEs in
use in the partner HEIs (BlackBoard and WebCT). This will benefit not only users of POCKET
materials but also those who use the OU’s OpenLearn content on VLEs other than Moodle.
3.3
All content prepared by the project will also be mounted on JORUM. We will seek the advice of the
JORUM Team at the outset of the project to establish what modifications to the OU’s tagging and
metadata will be required to conform to the JORUM Application Profile.
3.4
POCKET will make extensive use of the OpenLearn LabSpace to facilitate collaboration between
partners in the production of Open Content materials. LabSpace allows teams to work in areas that
can be temporarily closed while content is being worked on.
3.5
The technical development will be undertaken by Derby and Bolton with input advice from the other
two partners. The project will be advised by CETIS on standards issues
Phase 2: Development of Open Content learning resources by core partners
3.6
The exact amount of Open Content that will be developed will depend on how successful the project is
in streamlining the process of repurposing existing content. Establishing just how much effort is
required to create fully tagged XML-formatted stand-alone Open Content from existing materials is a
significant aim of the project. We anticipate that it will be possible to prepare between 250 and 600
hours of materials representing perhaps 50 to 120 distinct “units”. A breakdown of costs, and how to
estimate them in advance, will be included in the final report of the project.
3.7
The University of Derby will be developing Open Content from three programmes. While the final
selection will be made at the start of the project it is anticipated that, as a minimum, the majority of
content from three 15 credit modules will be converted. The modules are likely to come from:
•
Foundation Degree in Hospitality Management
•
BSc in Applied Psychology
• LLM in Commercial Law
This selection will provide a range of levels and types of material.
3.8
The University of Bolton will be drawing on materials from both its MSc in Advanced Microelectronics
and its MSc in Electronic Product Development. It will redevelop, as a minimum, two 10 credit
modules into Open Content learning resources. In addition it plans to enhance some of its existing
materials through the addition of more Flash-based interactive elements.
4
POCKET
3.9
University of Derby and partners
The University of Exeter will be developing a new Masters-level 15 credit module in
e-Facilitation. It will create the learning materials required to support this module entirely as Open
Content. We believe that creating Open Content instead of dedicated course materials will add only
slightly to the cost of production but the project will put this theory to the test. The main costs of
authoring the module will be born by the University of Exeter with POCKET funds being used only to
support any additional work due to the choice of the Open Content format. In addition Exeter will seek
to create some further Open Content drawn from existing undergraduate and postgraduate courses in
education.
3.10 Subject specialists in each university will be commissioned to rework the materials into the required
format. Post processing to create the XML version will be conducted by specialist staff at Derby or
Bolton. The Open Content materials developed in this phase of the project will be published
incrementally starting in September 2007 and continuing through to the end of the project.
3.11 Each partner will also explore using Open Content from OpenLearn, POCKET and other Open
Content repositories to build courses and to provide enhanced support for students on various
courses.
Phase 3: Development of Open Content learning resources by additional partners
3.12 In June 2008 a workshop will be held to showcase the first outputs of the project. This event will also
be used to recruit four additional partners, either HEIs, or FECs with a significant amount of HE
activity. These Phase 3 partners will be offered help and support from the POCKET team to adapt or
create their own Open Content materials. We anticipate that the benefits from participating will be
sufficient to create strong interest. We anticipate that a further 60 to 120 hours of materials will be
created by Phase 3 partners.
3.13 During this phase the core partners will explore the contribution Open Content can make to the design
of new courses. POCKET staff will work with one or two course teams to identify relevant Open
Content and assist with its incorporation.
3.14 A final workshop will be held in February 2009 to share experiences and promote the Open Content
approach.
Work plan
3.15 The project will run over 18 Months starting September 2007.
Date
Action
Description
Output
September to
November
2007
Phase 1: Prepare detailed
project plan with
dissemination and
evaluation plans
A plan will be prepared in accordance with
JISC’s Project Management Guidelines. See
following sections for more detail on
dissemination and evaluation.
Project plan; evaluation plan;
dissemination plan
November
Project Board meetings
(four monthly)
The Project Board will include representatives of
all stakeholders and will be responsible for
oversight, policy and high level planning.
Oversight and planning
November to
December
Conduct needs and
technical analysis
The requirements of the project will be defined,
including standards to be followed, and the
systems required to support them identified.
Requirements document
November
Start of evaluation
Start evaluation and gather baseline data
Baseline data set
December
Project Website
Launch project Website
Project Website
December to
January
Prepare content
development kit
Build development kit (tools and procedures)
and project area on LabSpace in OpenLearn
Process guide
December
Phase 2: Commence
content development
(Exeter) and content rework
(Derby and Bolton)
Start re-editing of existing content, tagging and
conversion to XML; also commence building of
new course content for e-Facilitation module.
Draft content
March 2008
Start of Open Content
publication
Publish initial collection of Open Content from
Derby, Bolton and Exeter (continues to February
2009)
Project content on OpenLearn
platform
5
POCKET
University of Derby and partners
May
Commence upload of
content to JORUM
Upload initial collection of Open Content
(continues to February 2009)
Project content on JORUM
June
Workshop run in conjunction
with ALT and/or JISC
Present project to HE community and invite
expressions of interest to join Phase 3
Workshop
September
Phase 3 project partners
join
Provide support for up to six additional partners
(continues to February 2009)
Additional Open Content
materials on OpenLearn and
JORUM
October to
December
Work with course teams on
Open Content incorporation
Explore issues relating to use of Open Content
materials in courses
Evaluation data
February
2009
Completion of evaluation
Completion of project evaluation.
Evaluation report
February
Workshop run in conjunction
with ALT and/or JISC
End of project dissemination workshop
Workshop
February
Final Report
Submission of final report to JISC and
publication of lessons learnt
Final Report and Lessons
Learnt publication
Quality assurance
3.16 All materials produced by the project will have been through normal university QA procedures as part
of the course production process. All resources published by the project will however also be subject
to a checklist process before being signed off by a designated quality officer. This checklist will cover
technical aspects (correct tagging, adherence to accessibility guidelines, etc) and also editorial
aspects (no references to other parts of the course, etc).
Accessibility
3.17 The Open University’s policy is to achieve W3C WAI Priority 2 level with all its Websites. OpenLearn
had been developed to this standard. All materials published by POCKET will also seek to adhere to
this standard. This will include text descriptions for all images and transcripts for audio and video
material.
Risk analysis
3.18 A detailed risk register will be prepared at the outset and reviewed every two months. The main risks
identified at this stage are shown below.
Risk
Probability
Impact
Action to mitigate
Lack of skilled staff (including
staff leaving)
Low
High
Base project in group with a large highly experienced staff so
that cover can be provided by existing staff
Failure to manage project
effectively
Low
High
An experienced project manager will be seconded to the
project from elsewhere in the University should difficulties be
encountered
Insuperable technical difficulties
encountered
Low
High
Fallback positions are in place involving greater use of existing
systems
Scope of project too ambitious
Low
Medium
Project outcomes focussed
primarily on needs of partners
Medium
Low
While the project is aiming to create a lot of material, most
project outcomes can still be achieved with smaller volumes
Partners represent a range of types of HEI and will be
augmented half way through project
Intellectual Property Rights
3.19 All content published by POCKET will be licensed for use under the Non-commercial Creative
Commons Licence that has been adopted by OpenLearn. * All the partners named in this bid have
agreed to this. The project will seek to follow JISC’s Policy on Open Source and make available as
Open Source any tools or other artefacts, such as schema, created by the project.
*
See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ for the Licence used by OpenLearn
6
POCKET
University of Derby and partners
Evaluation plan
3.20 Evaluation of the impact of POCKET will form a significant part of the project. A detailed evaluation
plan will be established early in the project with a view to assessing:
•
Who used the Open Content materials and for what purpose?
•
How did contributing HEIs benefit or lose out from making their materials available as Open
Content?
•
To what extent did POCKET change opinions of Open Content and lead to new policies?
•
What were the experiences of partners in trying to use Open Content materials in their own
courses?
•
Is it a good strategy to develop materials for new courses as Open Content?
3.21 The evaluation of POCKET will be conducted alongside the overall evaluation of OpenLearn with
shared use of instruments. In this way the project will benefit from the significant investment in the
research strand of OpenLearn (12% of the OpenLearn budget).
Post-project transition plan
3.22 POCKET is designed to establish the costs and value of Open Content both to individual HEIs and to
the wider HE sector. If the value to member HEIs proves strong enough we would anticipate support
for Open Content development continuing as a core institutionally-funded activity. If, on the other
hand, the project identifies the benefits of Open Content being largely to individual students or
institutions other than the provider of the Open Content, then there will be a strong case that the
project will be able to put to funding bodies, such as JISC and HEFCE, to consider rewarding
institutions that make their materials available in this way. The Project Board (see Section 4) will be
charged with considering options for the future of the project one year before funding is due to end.
Each member institution is committed to continuing to support the POCKET repository for at least two
years following completion of the project.
4
Engagement with the Community
4.1
There is already tremendous interest in OpenLearn from across the HE and FE sectors. POCKET will
engage enthusiastically with this ad hoc interest group In addition the project will seek to build
directly on the substantial amount of relevant work on repositories that has already been undertaken
and the involvement of CETIS in the project will greatly assist this networking and information
gathering.
Dissemination
4.2
A full dissemination plan will be prepared at the start of the project. For maximum impact the priority
for activities will be to participate in as many national and regional events as time permits rather than
running more than a couple of project-specific workshops. The dissemination plan will include:
•
A workshop, organised in conjunction with ALT and/or JISC at the mid point in the project to
engage the sector and garner interest from potential Phase 3 partners
•
Participation in conferences and other relevant events, especially those organised by JISC and
CETIS
•
A project Website with direct access to all deliverables and timely provision of materials for JISC
and JISC service Websites (eg e-framework.org)
•
A project flyer (for handing out at conferences, etc)
•
Articles in newsletters and papers for journals
•
An end of project workshop run in conjunction with JISC and/or ALT
•
Final report detailing experiences and lessons learnt
7
POCKET
5
University of Derby and partners
Budget
Note
Sept 07 –
March 08
April 08 –
March 09
TOTAL £
Non-Staff
OpenLearn systems development
1
138,000
12,000
150,000
Content reworking
2
12,000
15,000
27,000
Freelance editing
2,000
2,500
4,500
Training, travel and expenses
2,500
4,100
6,600
Hardware/software
2000
1000
3,000
750
2,000
2,750
400
600
1,000
Dissemination
Evaluation
Staff recruitment
2500
2,500
Total Directly Incurred Non-Staff (B)
160,150
37,200
197,350
Directly Incurred Total (A+B=C)
209,007
115,189
324,196
37,887
60,475
98,362
Total Project Cost (C+D+E)
246,894
175,664
422,558
JISC Contribution
100,000
100,000
200,000
Institutional Contributions
146,894
75,664
222,558
JISC
Partners
Total
47%
53%
100%
3
Indirect Costs (E)
Percentage Contributions over the life of the
project
Notes:
1) This is a conservative estimate of the value to the project of the investment in OpenLearn during
the life of POCKET. The full cost to the project of creating the required systems and processes
from scratch would be considerably greater than this figure.
2) This sum is for buying out academic time to rework content.
Institutional contribution
Directly Incurred
Staff
Total Institutional Contributions
Sept 07 – April 08 –
March 08 March 09
165,959
8
57,499
TOTAL £
222,558
POCKET
University of Derby and partners
6
Previous Experience of the Project Team
6.1
The project will be supervised by a Project Board which will meet every four months. The Board will
be composed of relevant senior staff members from the University of Derby, one or two
representatives of each partner and a representative nominated by JISC. A Project Team group will
meet approximately monthly to deal with operational issues. The University of Derby operates a
project management process loosely based on PRINCE II. A Project Consortium Agreement, closely
modelled on the JISC template agreement, will be used to define the nature of the consortium of
partner institutions.
6.2
A half-time Project Manager (James Eaglesfield) will be allocated to the project from within the
University of Derby. This will ensure a prompt start to the project. The technical input to the project
will come from two part-time appointments, one in Derby and the other Bolton, however it may be
possible to fill either or both through internal redeployment. A half-time technical evaluator post will be
created in the Open University starting September 2007. This post will probably be filled through
secondment and will act as technical liaison with the OpenLearn systems as well as conducting the
evaluation for the project.
6.3
Individuals who will play significant roles in the project are detailed below.
Project personnel
Neil Williams Derby Project Director and Project Board Member
Neil is Head of e-Leaning and IT Development at Derby University. At the IT multinational ICL (now part of
Fujitsu), he undertook roles in software and hardware development, becoming Global Director of Server
Marketing, Business Development Director and Director of UK Customer Services. Neil’s career has included
leading roles at Research Machines (RM) and NCC Education.
James Eaglesfield Derby Project Manager
James is an experienced project manager responsible for delivering IT based projects at the University of Derby.
James is currently working on the creation of a new University of Derby campus and the JISC funded project eAPEL.
Christine Whitehouse Derby System Development Manager
Christine has thirty years experience in the computing field. She has 10 years of commercial experience as a
project manager and analyst, and has worked in the area of technology and learning for the last fourteen years.
She is Head of the Centre for Educational Development and Materials (CEDM). Christine has recently worked on
the JISC funded Project ‘ITT: e-Assessment: Case Studies of Effective and Innovative Practice in the area of Eassessment’ with the Open University.
Dave O’Hare Derby e-Learning Adviser
Dave is the Senior Teaching Fellow (e-learning) in the School of Flexible and Partnership Learning. He has over
12 years experience in utilising technology in teaching, learning and assessment and has been involved in a
number of national projects such as the HEFCE funded TRIADs project. He has published his research in both
the national and international arena and is an enthusiastic advocate of Open Source initiatives.
Andrew Haldane Derby Project Board Member
Andrew has, for the last 20 years specialised in research, consultancy and implementation in the field of Flexible
and Technology Enhanced Learning and on projects concerned with widening participation. During the 1990s he
served for six years as Chair of BAOL (British Association for Open Learning). From 2001-2004 Andrew was
Vice-chair of the PROMETEUS European expert network in e-learning.
Julie Stone Derby Project Board Member
Julie currently works as the principal business developer for the School of Flexible and Partnership Learning and
has overall responsibility for coordinating and developing all bids and projects within the school. She has a wide
range of expertise and experience in developing links between academia and business and developing
successful projects and consortia.
Maggie Gale Derby Project Board Member
Maggie is a Faculty Teaching Fellow for e-learning in the Faculty of Education Health and Sciences and a Senior
Lecturer in the Psychology Department. She has a particular interest in the development and delivery of blended
and pure e-learning. Her expertise in e-learning has been recognised by the University with 3 awards for
excellence in Teaching and Learning. She has been invited to speak at a variety of Teaching and Learning
conferences, and is an enthusiastic exponent of the use of online collaborative teaching tools to promote student
learning.
Chris Poole Derby Project Board Member
Chris has spent 35 years in undergraduate and postgraduate Law degree education including experience as
Head of Department, Course/Programme Leader, External Examiner, External Validator and Mentor. After joining
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Derby in 1994 he has during the last 5 years been involved in the pioneering of e-learning postgraduate education
in Law at the University. He is currently the Programme Leader for the LLM in Commercial Law, and has led the
development of the LLM in Information, Arts and Media Law to be introduced in January 2007.
Lis Perry Derby Project Board Member
Lis is the Programme Leader for Hospitality Studies at the University of Derby Buxton. Her qualifications include
a Masters in International Hospitality Management and she is a member of the HCIMA. She has extensive
experience of teaching across a range of disciplines within the Hospitality industry and was involved in the writing
of some of the original e-learning materials. Lis has always been a keen advocate of flexible learning which
meets the needs of learners and sees the use of various forms of technology as an ideal vehicle for widening
access opportunities to learners.
Roy Attwood Bolton Project Board Member
Roy Attwood is a senior lecturer and co-ordinator of Bolton University’s online MSc programmes in electronics
(www.ami.ac.uk). He is joint co-ordinator of the EPSRC collaborative masters programme CEESI which has
established a “pool” of distance learning modules from ten universities (www.ceesi.ac.uk). Roy is a Board
member of Bolton’s JISC funded middleware project on extending Shibboleth authentication to students
accessing applications software remotely. He is a chartered electrical engineer and has an MBA from
Manchester Business School. With colleagues, Roy recently contributed a case study to JISC describing a
“practical approach to IP protection”. This informed the text of the new edition of the HEFCE good practice
booklet “IPR in e-learning programmes” published in July 2006.
Oleg Liber Bolton (CETIS) Project Board Member
As the University of Bolton’s Professor of eLearning and co-founder and director of CETIS, Oleg has the
responsibility for the oversight of CETIS activities and its strategic direction. Within CETIS he contributes to
discussions on the pedagogic aspects of standardisation and wider e-learning developments.
Patrick McAndrew OU Project Board Member
Patrick is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Studies in Educational Technology (CSET) within the Institute of
Educational Technology (IET). Currently he is Director of Research and Evaluation for the OpenLearn initiative.
He has been active in evaluation focused on the gathering of formative data from students and the evolution of
course materials, investigating the use of Knowledge Management as a way to support the sharing of information
and development of a Knowledge Network, and researching the reuse of materials and software for learning.
Jonathan Darby OU Project Board Member
Jonathan has been involved in computers in education since the pre-micro 1970s. He established the
Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning programme at Oxford University and was the principal founder of the
Association for Learning Technology. He has extensive experience of e-learning research and evaluation, most
recently in the JISC LXP project which is investigating learner experiences of e-learning and other technologies.
At the OU he directs the OU National Role Project.
Rupert Wegerif Exeter Project Board Member
Rupert has researched and published widely in the field of learning with ICT and teaching thinking. His books
include Thinking and Learning with ICT: Raising achievement in Primary Classrooms’ (Routledge, 2004: written
with Lyn Dawes) and Radical Encouragement (Imaginative Minds, 2006: written with Steve Williams). He is now
working on the fundamental theory of teaching and learning with ICT in a book called Dialogic, Education and
Technology: Expanding the Space of Learning due out in 2006/7 with Springer. He is also currently Pedagogical
Director of the EC Argunaut project investigating tools to support computer supported collaborative learning and
lead editor of Thinking Skills and Creativity, an international journal with Elsevier.
Maarten de Laat Exeter e-Facilitation Course Leader
Maarten is a principal researcher at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning at Exeter University. He
conducts research on e-learning in both
educational and organisational contexts.
User scenarios
His work covers, networked learning,
CSCL, ICT, communities of practice,
Brenda has a course on social psychology she is preparing. One
social learning, work related learning,
assignment is a group project on anti-social behaviour. She is
and knowledge management. In his
putting together a resource pack and is mounting it on her
PhD on networked learning he studied
university’s VLE. She tries Google and finds a couple of helpful
how participants of communities of
Open Content items. Because of their Creative Commons licence
practice learn and coach each other in a
she is able to modify them before uploading them to the VLE.
collaborative learning environment in
Jake has an assignment on optoelectronics. He needs to get a
both the workplace as well as in higher
better understanding of the topic and makes use of his university
education. He is currently involved in a
library’s federated search engine. This throws up a number of
three year European project called
papers in journals that the university subscribes to but also, more
ARGUNAUT, which is aimed at
helpfully, some Open Content designed for students working at his
developing awareness and feedback
level. He starts with these and then finds he has enough
mechanisms for moderating eunderstanding to get something useful from the journal articles also.
discussion environments.
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Appendix A: Letters of support
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Appendix B: Using the OpenLearn Generic XML Schema
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