JISC

Start date: 1 September 2000

End date: 31 August 2002

Funding programme: Building MLEs in Higher Education

Project website: http://ribble.dmu.ac.uk/mle/

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.

Background/Context

De Montfort University is a large, distributed, multi-campus institution that has gone through substantial growth and change over recent years. The major support groups and services are being revised and new support and administration systems put in place. With developments in Web-based course materials, the national trend towards wider access to learning and the need for better organised and integrated systems, the time is right to begin to join up key functions into integrated Internet services.

Aims

The overall aim of the MLE project is to bring together a variety of learning resource and support tools into a single, personalised learning environment, including online modules, assessments, timetables, conferencing and email systems, individual performance records and contact information, plus access to a wide range of generic student support services selected to support effective learning in the widest sense. The issues, difficulties and results, at each stage in the project, will be disseminated to the UK education community.

Objectives

Specific objectives are:

• To demonstrate how virtual learning and information support systems can be brought together to provide a seamless student-centred approach to service provision
• To ensure the effective, secure, robust and extensible delivery of these information resources through systems design, building and prototyping
• To assess the technical, legal and organisational feasibility of integrating multiple technologies into a single Managed Learning Environment (MLE)
• To develop a model of integration capable of generalisation to different institutional contexts
• To develop customisable guidelines on interface design and performance for use by other institutions
• To develop mechanisms for disseminating this model widely to the UK HE community both during and beyond the funded period of the project

Project Design

The MLE project is interested in developing real solutions to real problems. Research will focus on identifying current institutional structures and practices; existing electronic resources; learning, teaching and training aids; hardware and software tools; and good practice in Web interface design. While working in a fast moving Internet environment, the project will develop single-point access to multiple distributed resources, giving the user a consistent and supportive environment. This model will allow for greater integration over time, as further support is added for additional systems and services.

Implications/ Deliverables/ Stakeholders

The project focuses on the needs of students, but in the process addresses issues for academic and administrative staff, such as providing duplicate information in multiple formats to different departments; time-wasting processes; Web site maintenance; re-usable learning and teaching information and tools. There is a strong emphasis on the dissemination of findings, which will be designed to help other institutions to follow the MLE model.

A members' page is accessible if you join the Interest Group mailing list (mle-interest@dmu.ac.uk)