Working Together in the Northwest

to Enhance e-LearningMoira Massey and Steve Rogers (EDINA)

JISC RSC Northwest Annual Conference 2003Friday 27 June 2003

To all of you …

Lectu rers I T / Sup port S taff Learn in g R esou rces S taff

M an agers

We hope that you enjoy our presentation today and find something in it of interest

to you!

Themes of Presentation

How EDINA, MIMAS and NW RSC, and St Helens College and EDINA, are working together (with others too) in a number of JISC-funded ventures to provide:

• Infrastructure to support e-learning• Support for re-purposing of learning materials• Content creation using VLE and data services

– For the enhancement of e-learning– Increasing the expertise available in the NW of

England in strategically important areas for FE

Infrastructure to support e-learning

The JISC Vision

• The JISC Information Environment (IE) is key aspect of JISC 5-Year Strategy to 2005“… to build an on-line information environment providing secure and convenient access to a comprehensive collection of scholarly and educational material”

• Key parts of this vision are:– Undertaking requirements work to scope a national

repository for online learning materials (the JORUM) in the JORUM+ Project

– Provision of infrastructure and support for repurposing of extant content into reusable learning objects (the Exchange for Learning (X4L) Programme)

JISC’s Exchange for Learning Programme

• Exploring the re-use and re-purposing of existing content, not just from JISC, but also other sources such as NLN and NGfL

• 22 content-producing projects funded from FE and HE

• 3 infrastructure projects, JORUM+ (hosting in database repository software systems), Reload (tools for authoring and transferring learning objects and lesson plans) and TOIA (online assessment tools)

• In compliance with emerging IMS and IEEE learning technology specifications and standards

• http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_x4l• http://www.jorum.ac.uk• http://www.reload.ac.uk• http://www.toia.ac.uk

The JORUM+ project • Provisional collecting

repository supporting X4L FE and HE content-producing projects (to Jul 05)

• Requirements analysis (due to be sent to the JISC Dec 03) for a long-term repository service

• Partners: EDINA and MIMAS

• Consultants: CETIS

• RSCs and colleges will be requested to participate in requirements work

• http://www.jorum.ac.uk

EDINA and MIMAS

• JISC-supported data centres

• 24/7 servers and service providers

• Provide access to a variety of online data services to F/HE

• Free at the point of use

• Many are subscription services at institution level; some free

• Hosting and support for delivery of National Learning Network materials

Locations

• EDINA: based in University of Edinburgh

• Has office (3 staff) at St Helens College, Merseyside

• http://edina.ac.uk

• MIMAS: based at the University of Manchester in Manchester Computing

• http://www.mimas.ac.uk

Edinburgh St Helens College

Manchester

CETIS

• Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards

• JISC-funded service offering FE and HE support with L&T interoperability issues

• Provides consultancy to the JORUM+ project and support for the JISC’s Exchange for Learning Programme

• http://www.cetis.ac.uk

e-Learning Repositories

• Offer the same facilities as a library i.e. search, browse, locate, preview and borrow

• Offer additional facilities e.g. upload and publish, myLibrary and may package learning objects into assemblies or content packages

• Support all file formats for L&T and will deliver objects in those formats, or will deliver packaged objects directly to a VLE

• Host any digital asset that can be used to support teaching and learning• Can provide “virtual objects” that reference materials (on and offline) held elsewhere

Hierarchy of learning objects

Learning episode: the learner sees

Metadata

Learning objectives

ObjectsAssets

Metadata

Learning objectives

Learning units

Explanation

Exercise

Image/Video clip

Assessment

Objects/AssetsMetadata

Learning assembly: the tutor prepares/selects/re-purposes

JORUM+ Provisional Repository

• intraLibrary from Intrallect– http://www.intrallect.com

• Xtensis from Xtensis eLearning Ltd– http://www.xor.ltd.uk/xtensis

• The products are different in focus

• This enables the projects we are supporting to use different repository systems and feed back to us and JISC on their experiences

• http://jorum1.edina.ac.uk/intralibrary/index.jsp

intraLibrary

Xtensis Portal

Xtensis Control Station

Object found via intraLibrary Browse

Objects found via the Xtensis Browse

Interoperability specifications: JORUM’s Area

administration

learning resources

competencies

registry/authority course

delivery system /

vle

student

pedagogy

tests & assessmentactivities

dialogueteacher

repository

Original diagram by C. Duncan

repository

Progress so far: long-term JISC repository

• Work starting now• Stakeholders identified • Online questionnaire under way• Briefing to RSCs will follow and request for involvement • Focus groups October• Interviews• Report to the JISC by end of December 2003• Procurement and service 2004?

**Please talk to Steve and/or Moira today if you are interested in taking part in this requirements work, or respond to our invitation via the RSC when it comes to your college**

Report to include/address:

• User requirements• Functionality of repository service• Metadata/classification schemes• Models for long-term repository service• Review of available repository systems• IPR and digital rights management• Who is allowed to deposit• Metadata creation• Interoperability with the rest of the JISC IE• Preservation/archiving

The NLN projects

NLN Content Development

• NLN Materials Team • Phase 1 complete• Phase 2 up to July 2003• Phase 3 up to July 2004• Reports to NLN

Programme Board

NLN Materials Delivery

• NLN-MT, RSCs, EDINA, MIMAS, Granada Learning

• Phase 1 materials complete

• Phase 2 under way• Project reports to JISC • JISC reports to BECTa

NLN Delivery User Support Model

User

College in-house teams

RSCs

Helpdesk 1 - filter + monitor queries

Helpdesk 2- technical

T&L Officer- outreach

NLN-MT- Content

Level 1

Level 3

Level 4

Level 2

Support for re-purposing

NLN Materials

• Now beginning to deliver Round 2 materials• Round 1 materials – Internal Navigation

Biology• Round 2 – Re-purpose materials

Materials Testing, Performing Arts

• Give practitioners the opportunity to mix and match, delete and add – “Build New Materials”

Content Packaged Objectsimsmanifest.xml

manifestmetadata

organizationsorganization

resources

item

item

item

item

resource

resource

manifest

metadata

file

resource

imsmanifest.xml

Re-Purposing

Organisations sectionAdd, delete and modify items

Resources Section

Examples of Re-purposing

• Performing Arts

Original NLN material

- Adding and deleting items- Material Re-purposed for photography

• Environmental Surveys and Frequency Analysis

Merging sources of material“Frequency Analysis”

X4L Example

• Coleg Llandrillo in Wales• Project Communication skills• Using Tools and developing Re-Usable

Learning Objects• Uploading materials to a repository project

(JORUM)Punctuation and Grammar

Punctuation and Grammar

Objects manifest files dictates navigation

Can add to or extract from this learning object

Resources displayed in the main window

.a

Content creation – using Blackboard VLE

and data services

JUBILEE

• JISC-funded research project in its 4th year• University of Northumbria• Investigating and evaluating use and/or non-

use of Electronic Information Systems by staff and students within UK F/HE

• Reviewing subsequent impacts upon learning and teaching

• St Helens College participating in the research

– http://online.northumbria.ac.uk/faculties/art/information_studies/imri/rarea/im/hfe/jub/hfjubilee.htm

Aim of JUBILEE research in St Helens

• To promote the use of the EDINA Digimap service to academic staff, with the ultimate aim of embedding Digimap into teaching and learning and subsequently encouraging student use of the resource

EDINA Digimap• Digimap is a web-based mapping service, offering

access to a range of Ordnance Survey digital map data products, from large to small scale

• Can use it to generate maps online or download data and use in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) or graphics packages

• National service, now serving FE as well as HE

• NW RSC ran an awareness raising workshop prior to the service becoming available to FE

Methodology

• Interested academic staff recruited by the Centre for ICT Developments

• Academic staff participated from Sports Studies, Health and Social Care, Animal Management, Construction and HE Capability and Foundation Degrees

• Focus groups to discuss research and content production

• Training session provided by Bernadette Hilditch, Curriculum Online Co-ordinator at St Helens

• Academic staff given time to prepare content (funded by JUBILEE project)

• Content production under way• Second set of focus group meetings to discuss findings

Training Session

• Three hour session (but two members of staff prolonged to five!)

• Provided practical examples of use and applicability of Digimap to learning and teaching

• Academic staff worked through a number of exercises in Blackboard VLE, followed by short test and evaluation exercise

Digimap Training in Blackboard VLE

Assignments

The Bridge

• The Bridge

• Take a look at the short video clip to find the location of the bridge (clip taken from Education Media Online service)

• Type this place name into the search facility in Digimap• Create a DISTRICT view map and save it to your Map

Chest• Navigate around the map to find the actual bridge, create

a LOCAL view of the bridge and save it to your Map Chest

• http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/service/main_js.cfm

“District View”

“Local View”

National Diploma Animal Management

• Unit 14 Ecology & Conservation– Assignment 2 Small Mammal Trapping

"In order to build up a true picture of a habitat we need to monitor an area to establish which species are present.

We will be carrying out a small mammal trapping exercise to establish which species are present in Sankey Valley Park.

Once we have established which species are present, we can carry out research to hypothesize which other species may be present and why. We can also identify which species are absent and develop a plan to conserve the area for biodiversity.

Once the results are compiled using Blackboard, complete the trapping assignment."

The Trapping Assignment

• Tutor has re-written an assignment to utilise Digimap and link to Key Skills

• Students track an area for small animals to establish which species live on the site

• Use Digimap to plot their discoveries• Map is saved as an image file and opened in Microsoft Paint

so that the students can overlay information

“I have put a full assignment on Blackboard and it can go into all the different tasks and I can ask them to produce different maps and actually take those maps off. In tutorials, I’ve had them playing about on it and they’ve really enjoyed doing it.”

The Trapping Assignment in Blackboard

Other Programme Areas• Surveying and Construction: using Digimap as a resource to explain

map-reading, co-ordinates etc in NC Construction, HNC Construction and Foundation Degree in Construction and Civil Engineering

• Foundation Degrees/capability: students plan their journeys to art galleries in Liverpool and Manchester using Digimap and a variety of other online resources e.g. train timetables. They plot their routes and provide directions on how to get there using Digimap to look for landmarks on the way

• Sports Sciences: understanding map reading and how to read variations

• Hairdressing: students establish the addresses of Andrew Collinge salons in the NW from yell.com, find the salons using Digimap and explain why they were located in these sites from a business point of view

If you want to know more …

About repositories, re-purposing, JORUM+, NLN Delivery …

• Please talk to Moira Massey or Steve Rogers at the EDINA stand

About content creation at St Helens College using Blackboard and Digimap

• Please talk to Marianne Green at the St Helens College stand or Moira Massey at the EDINA stand

About Digimap or Education Media Online

• Please talk to Peigi McKillop or Moira Massey at the EDINA stand

Contacts

Moira.Massey@ed.ac.uk01744 623079

Steve.Rogers@ed.ac.uk01744 623079

EDINA UK National Data CentreSt Helens OfficeICT Centre, St Helens CollegeTown Centre Campus, Brook StreetSt Helens, MerseysideWA10 1PZ