e-learning sessions: questions and answers
11 October 2006 town meeting
HE in FE
Assessment
Technology-supported learning environments
Generic
Admissions
Xcri course description and discovery
Course validation
HE in FE
Do all calls under the e-Learning circular have to be lead by an FE
institution?
No. This does not apply to all calls under e-Learning, only to this
particular call targeting providers of HE in FE institutions.
Is the £60,000 - £100,000 funding budget the total amount to be
committed to each project, i.e. the total inclusive of the JISC and
institutional contribution?
No. The £60,000 - £100,000 contribution is the amount that JISC is offering
towards each project under the HE in FE call, it does not include the
institutional contribution.
The call states that FEIs may work in partnership with HEIs. Can
the HEI lead this partnership?
Only in Wales. Under the HE in FE call, in England the lead project partner
must be the FE institution. In Wales, the lead partner must be an HEI.
We have less than the minimum 100 FTEs required to be eligible for
this call. Presumably the number of eligible FE colleges must be quite
limited. What percentage of FE colleges teaching HE courses are eligible
for this call?
This information is available from HEFCE. The original number of FTEs
on HE course in FEIs was originally set at 400. It was decided, after
investigation, that 100 FTEs would be an acceptable number and would allow
a greater number FEIs to participate in bidding for this call.
You stated that the aim of the call was not to 'reinvent the
wheel' by developing new technologies, but to build on existing
technologies. Can projects build on any existing technologies, or must they
be JISC-funded technologies; or, would proposals building on JISC-funded
technologies be viewed more favourably than those that are
non-JISC-funded?
Project proposals can build on any technologies, however, these
technologies must be used widely and be openly accessible, to enable
take-up by any institution.
Does the funding exclude involving HE students studying overseas on
international top-up courses?
No. These students may be included in the minimum 100 FTE stipulation.
However, successful bids must provide solutions that are transferable and
sustainable
How do you define 'user-owned technologies'? Does this
include systems and software?
'User-owned technologies' refers to technology in its broadest
sense, and includes mobile phones, computers, ipods, and software.
What is a 'service-orientated approach'?
The service-oriented approach means that information can be exposed to
other systems to enable them to consume this information in order to
repopulate another system. The information is not tied to a specific
technology and can therefore be implemented using a wide range of
interoperability standards.
I am part of an FEI that contributes to running foundation degrees,
but these degrees are managed overall by the sector, not the institution.
Does this mean my institution still eligible to put forward a
proposal?
The group of institutions that together make up the foundation degree
providers could be viewed as a consortium putting forward a bid.
How do you define 'being led by…' in terms of one
institution leading the project?
The lead institution would ultimately put forward the bid, receive the
funding from JISC and manage the project overall.
If a project proposal is put forward by a partnership, would the
‘more than 100 FTEs’ be made up of the entire partnership, or just the lead
partner?
The lead (in England) or partner (in Wales) would have to have
more than 100 FTEs.
Is there any facility for allowing joint projects that include work
which fall under a number of calls, i.e. can they be presented and
evaluated as one proposal?
As each project bid is assessed and marked by different evaluators, only
bids for individual whole projects can be accepted. If proposals put
forward under different calls are related, these relationships should be
identified within each proposal.
The call emphasises ‘life long learning’ but this journey takes
more than the 2 years allocated for the project funding. How is this being
addressed?
These projects are working toward exploring the use of ICT to enhance one
part of the lifelong learning journey during the project timeframe. Other
projects are working to explore different parts of the journey. A number of
other JISC projects are working with the HEFCE funded Lifelong Learning
Networks to ensure their outputs are taken up in a wider context, and there
is an emphasis for all projects on embedding and sustainability so that the
resulting developments should not be seen as only lasting for the funding
period.
We haven’t been given a lot of time to produce bids for this call.
How do you justify this?
A number of road shows were held across the country in June 2006
specifically for FEIs providing HE to provide more information on this
call, address issues and provide help on bid writing. The JISC Regional
Support Centres were involved in the road shows and will support FEIs with
bid writing. Prior to this, a roadmap was produced highlighting upcoming
calls prior to the release of the April 06 call, in order to give notice to
potential bidders.
Back to top
Assessment
What if the three tools being asked for under this call are unable
to work together?
The three tools must be able to ‘talk to each other’. They will be
stand-alone, but all based on the IMS QTI standard to enable them to work
together. A technical support strand will be working alongside the three
tool projects to ensure that there is communication and understanding.
Item banking and assessment are closely linked. How do you see the
timescales working for producing these?
During the initial six month phase of technical development, projects will
be expected to work closely together to share their approaches, test
outputs and ensure interoperability between the tools. There will be a
technical support strand running alongside these project to assist in the
re-use of existing work and the implementation of the QTI specification.
The second phase of six month it is intended to pilot and refine the tools
with a wider user group.
Can the tools be platform-specific?
The tools must work on the more popular platforms to enable reusability for
the wider community.
The three applications detailed in the call appear to be very
sophisticated. How can these be developed in 6
months?
Similar technology is already in existence and should be used and built on
by developers, rather than building technologies from scratch.
Back to top
Technology-supported learning
environments
How firm is this call on the idea of integrating Web 2.0 technology
with institutional data? Is there scope for coordinating other activities
to achieve some learning end?
The service provision is supposed to bridge institutional and cultural
technologies.
The call appears to focus on undergraduates, but is there any
reason why research students shouldn’t be
included?
No. Research students can be included under this call, as well as
undergraduates, and practitioners.
How big should the cohorts be for this project?
There should be at least a dozen cohorts participating to make the project
worthwhile, but we are expecting around 20-40 individuals to be involved. A
range of cohorts would probably allow more flexibility but this is
optional.
Back to top
Generic
Is it correct that the word ‘Capital’, used to describe this round
of funding, is not meant in the traditional sense, i.e. inclusive of
buildings, equipment, resources, etc? As the £100,000 of funding
on offer per project would not be enough. Like all of JISC’s previous
programmes of funding, the money is primarily to fund the people carrying
out the development work not for large pieces of equipment, although
requests for equipment essential to the project will be considered.
Are institutions expected to submit project proposals for all
sections of the eLearning call or can only one bid be submitted?
Institutions are entitled to bid for one or as many of the call sections as
they wish, however they should consider the implications on staffing and
resources of receiving funding for multiple proposals.
Can projects be based on proprietary software?
Outputs from all activities must be open source and be accessible to the
whole community, therefore bidders using proprietary software must ensure
that:
-
they obtain sign-up from vendors to enable re-use of the software
-
the software is accessible and can be re-used by the whole community
This is also the case for institutionally developed software. There is an
emphasis on accessibility for the whole community and bidders should take
into consideration that every infrastructure varies from institution to
institution using the same software.
Will there be a disadvantage to institutions using proprietary
software in their proposed projects, when it comes to marking
Bids will not be marked down for using proprietary software, however they
will be marked down if they do not offer accessibility to other
institutions, either because they are not open source or enable re-use, or
are home-grown systems designed only for use within that institution. Tools
and systems must be reusable.
Back to top
Admissions
The calls states that a simulation is required as part of the
project. Would a simulation of the eportfolio aspect of the admissions
system be acceptable?
Yes. An eportfolio would provide a suitable simulation.
Back to top
Xcri course description and discovery
How do you see this linking with the Hero TQI site?
This is an area that would require further investigation, however, the Hero
TQI site is currently frozen and under redevelopment.
Back to top
Course validation
Will domain maps require the use of UML specification
Technologies already in existence vary in their specification language.
Some use very strict UML, whilst others use less formal technologies. The
use of UML is not a stipulation of the call.
Back to top