JISC

Start date: 1 April 2001

End date: 31 March 2003

Funding programme: Building MLEs in Higher Education

Project website: http://plus2ext.sunderland.ac.uk/smile/

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

The SMILE project is the JISC funded element of the University's PLUS 2 project . SMILE is the development project for the University's Managed Learning Environment, the other parts of Plus 2 being the Student Administration System and the Virtual Learning Environment, which are partly HEFCE funded.

The University of Sunderland has been at the cutting edge of progress in terms of initiatives to support learning, and has pioneered many new approaches to the delivery of information. These developments will be greatly enhanced by the application of a means of seamless access to various learning materials through a single user system. JISC funding is enabling us to facilitate this development by means of a Managed Learning Environment (MLE). The subsequent process of implementation of the MLE will also act as a test case for the applications of the MLE within the academic environment generally, results of which will be disseminated widely across the academic community.

Aims and Objectives

The overall aim of the project is to facilitate the creation of a single system through which a variety of support services will be presented to our users. A further objective is for the University to act as a test case for the application of MLEs within the Higher Academic Environment and to disseminate our results as widely as possible.
The overall aim of the project is to:·

• Raise awareness of the potential of integrated and virtual learning environments
• Provide a pedagogical evaluation model in a real life setting
• Highlight issues and benefits for the process of staff development and training
• Facilitate a culture change in terms of learning support
• Improve services and the provision of information for on-campus and especially for distance learners

Project Design

The project will begin with an evaluation of current VLE packages and progress to the eventual implementation of the software which is most relevant and applicable to our needs. We intend to disseminate widely within the Higher and Further Education environment. We will be using profiles to ensure that the MLE is individualised to each student to avoid information overload.

Implications/ Deliverables/ Stakeholders

There will be a toolkit of transferability in place to ensure that the findings are cycled back as widely as possible within the academic community. The project will yield finite information about the efficacy of MLEs and VLEs in terms of the integration of support services and information vital to our users, both distant and on-campus. The creation of a single portal for user information, which will be comprehensive and extendable, will bring together information sources which were previously disparate. In so doing, will save student time and simply more effectively focus the process of learning by making access to support services much easier.