JISC

Start date: 1 September 2000

End date: 31 August 2002

Funding programme: Building MLEs in Higher Education

Project website: http://celt.bangor.ac.uk/CoManTLE/index.html

This project is part of the Joined up System for Learners project cluster in this particular programme. Projects in this cluster will develop a learner-focussed Managed Environment by linking their Virtual Learning Environments to other student support systems.

This project has completed and has produced :

• Final Report -'A Socio-technical Approach to the Design of Institutional Systems for E-Learning in Higher Education (March 2003)
• Technical report  on linking Colloquia (VLE) and the University of Wales (UWB) Student Information System  using the IMS Enterprise Specification

Context

The CoMantle project will investigate issues around the adoption of learning technology and learning management systems in a single university, using methodologies grounded in systems science to uncover the concerns and requirements of lecturers, students, managers and service departments. It will attempt to realise these requirements by extending and adapting the University of Wales at Bangor's proprietary learning management system to provide new functionality and appropriate interoperability with administrative systems. The result will be published as a case study, and provide insights into the process of learning technology adoption within universities

Aims

The overall aim of the project is to integrate learning management systems into university operations by achieving interoperability with administrative systems using open technical standards. The process of doing this will allow us to explore the organisational obstacles to the adoption of learning management systems in universities and to build a rich picture of the concerns and requirements of all stakeholders regarding integrated technical systems supporting learning.

Objectives

The specific objectives are:

• To perform an extensive requirements gathering process that will also involve some education of target groups as to the teaching and learning possibilities afforded by performing the integration
• To provide lecturers, students and management staff with a means of leveraging data captured by the MIS system for teaching and learning purposes that would not otherwise be possible
• To specify, implement, test and evaluate extensions to Colloquia, the university's proprietary learning management system
• To specify functional aspects that require interoperability with administrative systems, in particular the new Student Record System and how these might be achieved by using open technical standards, in particular those produced by the IMS consortium
• To achieve this interoperability by adapting the learning management system or by producing separate interfacing software modules

Project Design

The research is broadly qualitative in its focus. Work on the project will be split into three strands: requirements gathering (i.e. what do stakeholders want from an integrated system?), technical work (i.e. specifying the technical issues involved in integration), and dissemination (recording and reporting of findings). For the requirements gathering process a focus group approach will be used, both to educate the stakeholder groups and to evaluate their responses. Extensive use of journal-keeping on the parts of the participant / researchers will be used as a means of capturing information, as well as observation, interviews and questionnaires.

Implications/ Deliverables/ Stakeholders

The primary outcome of the research will be a case study of an institution moving toward the widespread use of learning technology integrated with supporting information systems. Learners will be able to browse, choose, study and be assessed on modules within an integrated environment. Lecturers will be able to design, resource, publish and manage the learning on module within the same environment. Managers will be able to provide global information on students, courses and resources to learners and lecturers (as appropriate) and gather information on learner achievementand course success, to integrate with other systems.