JISC

Background / Context Project Final Report

As students entering Higher Education institutions spend an increasing amount of time online, there is a perceived need for support through online community spaces.  Creating personalised profile pages allows for self expression and social networking online may reconfirm individual and group relationships offline. Creating new ways for classmates to communicate with one another can in itself act as a learning resource, as course topics can be discussed among peers, planning of assignment work is encouraged, and these plans can be reflected upon.  Additionally, using a Personalised Learning Environment allows students to design how they learn, using tools that they choose, and which are therefore more likely to be useful and meaningful to them. 

Aims and Objectives

The overall aim of the project is to help provide a more personalised learning experience by developing a user owned web based portal/mashup service that can be integrated with institutionally owned educational systems. Central to the project will be to support the management of artefacts created by learners through the use of mashup technology where content can be created in and gathered from external sources, to create Student Personal Learning And Social Homepages.   

The specific objectives are to:

• Produce student homepages which will be linked in with university MIS and LDAP systems but will be further developed and maintained by the student in order to aid the fulfilment of personal priorities and needs
• Enrich users’ understanding of each other’s, and their own, learning processes and personal development
• Construct objectives for best practice when working with open-source community software and when bringing in content from external sources in a mashup
• Present users with tools they may be familiar with, but which work together within a community environment to create new opportunities for learning and development.
• Create guidelines for the application of new (web 2.0) technologies to pre-existing HE or FE learning environments
• Use mashup technology to help to breakdown the current barriers of a VLE/LMS based system where content is contained within the institution

Project Methodology

The project will use a Web 2.0 methodology where both existing content and new content can be used in a way that is not institutionally bound or controlled in a modular course driven way.  The project will focus on both social and learning aspects of the student experience and will pilot with the Student Union Gender Society, students on the Foundation Degree in Community Studies programme, and students studying Product Design.  Some new programming development work will be undertaken but this will be limited in favour of using existing external sources.  The project will be documented and all files made available with the intention of establishing the project as a blueprint, which will be flexible enough for other institutions to adapt and develop further. 
The project will be managed using a Prince 2.0 approach.

Implications/ Deliverables

• The findings will be cycled back as a case study outlining the key stages and experiences of the project
• Findings will include usability reports and feedback from the project team and users
• The findings will also be disseminated more broadly to users via the Student Union Communications Officer and through Student Union meetings and contacts
• The project will yield a blueprint for implementing a highly personalised learning and social environment using user owned tools facilitating content creation and management
• Detailed documentation will help illuminate the processes needed by other institutions to deploy a similar or adapted service for the creation of the above
• Ultimately, the project addresses the need to make use of the latest web technology trends by HE and FE institutions
• The interests and needs of students, teaching staff and indeed support staff alike will be tended for, by providing new spaces and opportunities for community (peer) support, learning, and socialising

Stakeholders

• Students
• Lecturers
• Potential Students
• Alumni
• Teaching and Learning Development Unit (TLDU)
• University of Sussex Student’s Union
• Communications Division