JISC

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The project's aim has been to promote the use of new collaborative technologies to enhance teaching and learning practice. This has involved working with four main stakeholder groups in the Bloomsbury Colleges: students, teachers, researchers and administrators. In particular, the project aimed to bridge the technological divide between these users by implementing a simple, step-by-step approach to adopting new tools. As part of this process, new methodologies in learning, teaching, research and administration were developed.

Executive Summary

A survey of staff and students within the Bloomsbury Colleges was conducted to collect baseline data on their use of technology; this provided the project team with a better understanding of the user groups. By creating generic user profiles to represent the Bloomsbury stakeholders, preferences for various technologies were identified. This helped to illustrate the gaps between stakeholders; for example between academics and undergraduates, administrators and researchers, postgraduates and support staff.

The project team then established and worked with seven demonstrator projects located in the Bloomsbury Colleges. Each of these demonstrators included a number of the principle stakeholders who were encouraged to work together using online collaborative tools, such as Google Docs. The Project Officer supported each demonstrator by providing training and guidance to enable the users to adopt and integrate new approaches to their work. Project monitoring and evaluation indicated that users found these collaborative approaches enhanced their working practices.

As a result of these pilots, a number of second generation initiatives have started. This arose partly as a result of dissemination work carried out by project staff but also in some cases spontaneously through personal recommendation by demonstrator participants. For example, the work with collaborative documents has triggered a major new development within the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) where students are developing and sharing clinical cases material using simple Microsoft PowerPoint tools. The Benefits Realisation development of collaborative research environments is another successful example. This reflects the value and relevance of applying the Users & Innovation Model (UIDM) to develop and disseminate good practice.

The project team has also been involved in a wide range of other activities to support research and development into online collaboration. This has included working closely with demonstrator leaders and participants to explore perceptions of existing technologies and to identify their needs for potential or future uses of technology. A range of training materials and videos have been developed to support the project and made available via the project website. Regular blog posts and background information were added to the website to keep stakeholders, the Bloomsbury and JISC Emerge communities and the wider world up-to-date with project developments.

Report available electronically only