JISC

Start date: 1 August 2000

End date: 31 May 2003

Funding programme: Learning and Teaching (5/99) programme

Project website: http://www.iconex.hull.ac.uk/

This project is part of the Enhancing JISC data services for Teaching and Learning project cluster in this particular programme. Projects in this cluster are aimed at improving access to and accessibility of JISC resources in support of learning and teaching.

Background

The growth of web-based technologies in learning and teaching has limited the availability of the rich interactive content associated in the past with Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) environments. The increased availability of interactive software components over the recent period has begun to redress the balance in this area. This proposal addresses the issue of the provision, location, exchange and use of client-side interactive components within the DNER and how these client-side interactive elements might be appropriately connected to managed and virtual learning environments in a meaningful manner.

Aims and Objectives

The aims of Iconex are to:

• Establish the key role for interactive content across all disciplines
• Produce interoperable interactive content as learning objects
• Provide a brokerage for the exchange/sale of interactive learning objects
• Provide a first place for academics to find out about interactive content

The specific objectives are to:

• Establish a Web-based repository of interactive content which will be browsable, searchable by standard metadata and include containers for documentation
• Populate this repository with a set of exemplar interactive content
• Disseminate the outcomes via the project Web site, publication of case studies and presentation of papers at national and international conferences and meetings

Project design

Iconex will investigate the key issues surrounding the identification, description, location, use and integration of interactive content through technical development, national consultation and exemplar aggregation. It will establish a repository of interactive learning content. This content will be accompanied by metadata descriptors to enable retrieval and Application Programming Interface (API) documentation to facilitate incorporation into learning systems. The repository will act as an enabler or brokerage for exchange, trade, or, outside of the UK FE and HE community, sale of interactive content thus stimulating use of rich interactive content in UK FE and HE learning and teaching. Specific metadata descriptors to inform and facilitate the evaluation of content by providers and potential users will be proposed as a result of the project.

Outcomes

The target user communities will be directly and actively involved in the development, testing and refinement of the repository with a particular focus on functionality, usability and viability. The three distinct but overlapping communities of interest are likely to be:

1. The academic user of interactive content who will be engaged through presentations at key conferences, invitation to a national workshop and online review and forum.
2. The academic creator of interactive content who will be engaged partly through ALT (Association for Learning Technology) but more specifically through the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) Subject Centres and Generic Centre. A national workshop for this community will be organised in conjunction with the LTSN and will focus the community on the distinction between what are generic and discipline-specific issues in component development and the possibilities inherent in the repository for explicit cross-fertilisation of development activities between disciplines.
3. The commercial creator of interactive content who will be engaged by presentations to such bodies as the UK Multimedia SIG (Special Interest Group) where the potential interest from the commercial providers in brokerage and e-commerce will be assessed. Commercial providers will be approached at an early stage in the project with a request for exemplar content.