JISC

Region: East of England

Overview

The project aims to deploy and pilot an East of England Educational Resource Network (EERN). The EERN solution is based on the JISC funded DELTA system that utilises the power of the semantic web in the searching of educational resources located in distributed repositories. By adopting EERN HE and FE Colleges in the region can share, deposit and annotate a full range of different types of learning resources. Sharing these resources not only improves efficiency but also has the potential for teachers to reflect and improve on their practice. A less tangible benefit arises from a greater sense of community that can result from sharing and critically, evaluating each others learning resources. DELTA adopts a web service architecture. However DELTA needs to be extended to create EERN through its integration with VLE’s, authoring tools, and an authentication system (Shibboleth). DELTA is also pedagogically advanced in advocating and supporting a number of different types of courseware, including the concept of ‘growing context’ and vicarious learning. Users of EERN will not only be able to share repositories but also to author quality materials, and to collaborate in creating innovative courseware to serve the region.  

The EERN will require collaboration between the Universities of Essex, Hertfordshire, Luton, Suffolk College and their FHE partners to produce regional repositories of e-learning materials and case studies discoverable via the DELTA system.  It will produce two specific archives: core skills (led by Hertfordshire) and teaching case studies (led by Essex). Less specifically it will interface with a VLE (WebCT) thus gaining access to further resources, particularly those used to support work-based learning (led by Suffolk College).   

Aims and Objectives

The overall aim of the project is to pilot an enhanced version of DELTA within the East of England Region that will benefit practitioners and learners alike and will contribute to the building of a community of practice within the region. To realise this aim the pilot must demonstrate the following quality characteristics:

• Validity: EERN must be able to meet a wide range of valid user requirements (including organisational as well as pedagogical ones)
• Reliability: the EERN system should be robust and simple to maintain
• Usability: the system should be easy to use and with the required level of performance
• Acceptability: the deployment and use of EERN needs to be acceptable to a wide range of stakeholders (including teachers, learners, trainers, managers etc)

In addition to these pilot specific objectives there is also a regional agenda that needs to be addressed. Of particular relevance are the East of England Development Agency’s (EEDA) priorities, which include:

1. Ensuring strong links between regional universities, research institutes, and the private sector in part by establishing close ties between the SME community and the research base to ensure maximum exploitation of intellectual property.
2. Maintaining and building upon the quality of research establishments in the region in part by promoting the strengths and distinctive roles of the region’s universities and research establishments to the UK business community.

Three Pilots have been designed to meet the above aims and objectives. Each Pilot involves an HEI and partner organisations. The HEI will own the repositories and the partner organisations will be the main users of the repositories.  

Project Methodology

The project is divided into three phases. Phase 1 will result in the integration of tools onto the DELTA system to create EERN. Phase 2 will be the deployment and evaluation of the EERN system on three pilot sites. The sites were selected to reflect an emphasis on tool use and type of courses being taught and/or pedagogical approach being adopted. There will be three pilots: A – led by Suffolk College with an emphasis on the VLE integration (WebCT) for work-placed learning courses. Pilot B – led by the University of Hertfordshire with an emphasis on using JSMIRK for authoring and annotating courseware addressing core skills. And Pilot C – led by the University of Essex with an emphasis on case studies of effective teaching particularly to support Foundation Degree courses. Each pilot site has a set of associated H/FE Colleges or partners.  

Phase 3 is the evaluation of EERN, led by the University of Luton. It will address technical, pedagogical and organisational acceptability, and will adopt different approaches to each. The technical evaluation will, for example, look at system performance and reliability issues as well as usability using traditional HCI methods (e.g. logs, videos, interviews etc). The pedagogical issues will look at the impact of the system on teaching/learning methods and outcomes. Claims derived from the use of EERN in terms of organisational benefits (e.g. increased efficiencies, improved outreach, higher morale) will be derived as well potential costs for the organisation (e.g. staff development, system maintenance and administration).

Implications/ Deliverables/ Stakeholders

There are three major types of stakeholders who will all have an interest in the evaluation results from the Pilot sites. First there is the teachers and learners within HE/FE Institutions Units who will have easier and more effective access to key educational resources resulting in higher quality teaching. The interests of these stakeholders are usually represented in the Institutions by Teaching and Learning Quality or Service Units, and nationally through the HE Academy and the Teacher Training Agency. Secondly there are Organisations concerned with improving standards and introducing new technologies (eg QCA, JISC and Becta). And finally, there are e-Learning researchers and developers who will be interested in the technology and its performance, and the pedagogy and its effectiveness.

Lead institution

• Chimera (Institute of Socio-technical Innovation & Research), University of Essex

Project partners

Main partners (associate partners)

• University of Essex (Writtle College and South East Essex College)
• University of Hertfordshire (Hertford Regional College, Oaklands College and North Hertfordshire College)
• University of Luton (Terry Mayes)
• Suffolk College