JISC

Start date: 1 September 2000

End date: 30 September 2003

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

Project website: http://virtualnorfolk.uea.ac.uk/

This project is part of the museum content project cluster in this particular programme. The main focus for projects in this cluster is on the development and digitisation of museum collections for learning and teaching.

Background

The Virtual Norfolk project is creating a website providing full text access to original historical documentary and image material, plus commentary directed toward HE History learning and teaching, in close collaboration with the Norwich and Norfolk Record Office (NRO). The importance of using historical documents as a core element in teaching history has long been recognised. However, research and development is needed to address problems of providing wide student access to such materials and to investigate the potential for learning and teaching in light of recent educational and technological change. Up until the end of the eighteenth century Norwich was one of the pre-eminent cities in England and for much of that period was the ‘second city’ after London. The resources for this period archived in the NRO are unparalleled outside the capital, permitting student exploration of the major themes of historical study. Furthermore, the documents housed in the NRO are a resource of interest to scholars both nationally and internationally. The problems in utilising these rich materials are exacerbated by Norwich’s comparative geographical isolation, hence electronic access is ideally suited to the project’s purpose.

Aims and Objectives

The overall aim of the project is to create a Web-based learning and teaching resource for the discipline of History that can expand its provision to other areas of the educational sector, export its structure to other future projects and encourage collaboration between HE institutions and regional record offices. The specific objectives are to:

• Produce original and transcribed primary material, images, maps and contextual commentary within themed learning and teaching packs
• Collaborate with end user institutions and individuals over best use of the portal and tailor the portal in response to feedback from end users
• Investigate and suggest best practice guidelines for the application of Web-based delivery systems for learning and teaching within higher education
• Bring the portal to state of relative autonomy and approach other archives in East Anglia and elsewhere with a view to future expansion
• Produce and disseminate a report on the project explaining and evaluating the experience of providing electronic access to primary historical sources for learning and teaching
• Disseminate the synergistic possibilities of collaboration between HE History departments and local record offices and encourage similar initiatives in other regions

Project design

The research is broadly qualitative in its focus. It involves the creation of multiple teaching packs comprising primary source material, commentary and contextual essays and other background material and will be capable of delivering this content to students and tutors in innovative ways. Each pack will focus upon a theme or issue and will be suitable for use as either an individual seminar or as providing the foundation for a complete module. Individual packs will be combined to create module pathways for Pilot tutors and will be made available for public use. Alternatively, students and tutors will be able to create their own pathways through the teaching packs to suit their individual learning or teaching requirements. The database foundation of the site will be fully searchable and will therefore provide a flexible learning and teaching resource capable of delivering primary materials to students and teachers of history across a broad spectrum of the educational sector.

Outcomes

The findings will be cycled back into the design of the teaching packs and web site in an evolutionary process of development through a series of evaluative reports derived from the end users and annual workshops involving Pilot tutors. The findings will also be disseminated more broadly to users via specified pages on the Web site, conference papers and presentations and a national conference in the third year of the project, the proceedings of which it is intended to publish. The project will yield valuable data and experience of delivering high quality learning and teaching material via the Web and creating collaborative networks between local, regional and national archives and university history departments. Although initially designed for use within the university sector, the project addresses the interests and needs of students and teachers of history in all educational sectors by providing primary documentary material in a readily customisable and accessible form.