Case Studies
EGRET
The EGRET project successfully institutionalised Talks.cam, a user-generated content and events syndication system. Talks.cam was designed as a clearing house of user-generated event information, to help academics easily publicise seminars they organise, and to learn about intellectually stimulating events in Cambridge which they might be interested in. From its origins as a grassroots software experiment created by academics, but with potential value to the whole institution, Talks.cam now has been successfully and completely absorbed into CARET, an innovation unit within the University which supports teaching, learning and research activity.
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Katapila
The Katapila project developed and deployed a web-based timetabling system to manage timetable information relating to courses of study, assessment schedules, examination programmes and other time-bounded resources. The Katapila system is now the institutional tool for assembling and modifying curriculum data at Kingston College and is a key part of their integrated online environment.
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REACh
The Researching Emerging Administration Channels (REACh) project sought to harness emerging communication channels for administrative purposes, providing personalised announcements to students at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). Open-source software was developed to enable announcements placed on a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to be delivered via RSS feeds and through text messaging to the student’s personal mobile device. In addition the project has evaluated both student and staff attitudes to these newer forms of communication channel.
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Only Connect
To serve the needs of the University of Bolton’s diverse student body, the Only Connect project created a new, open communications environment with the aim of strengthening the bonds between individual learners and the university through the provision of better support and learning information. The project developed a message brokering service to deliver information about timetable changes to students via their preferred channels, whether email, SMS, RSS or through widgets and gadgets. The new communications environment, based on the institutional eCommunications and engagement strategy, is part of a wider university change programme, trying to use new technologies and person centred approaches to address some of the challenges of the changing student body and curriculum.
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Quali-R
The Quali-R project implemented a small-scale platform enable better tracking and management of Quality Assurance and Quality Enhancement processes. A web-service client was developed to extract actionable items from the narrative documents used in quality processes to create time-delimited actions and tasks. The extracted items we’re made available as RSS feeds (for progress) and iCalendar feeds (for task deadlines), allowing syndication and aggregation using both institutional and user-owned systems.
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DIVAS
The DIVAS project developed a web-based repository for submission, storage and retrieval of validation outputs to make documentation more accessible to staff within and across institutions and to facilitate intelligent reuse in new validations. Staff support for this process was facilitated through a community of practice (CoP) based in an externally hosted social network (Ning). This CoP included academic practitioners, administrative staff and learning development staff from the institution and affiliated institutions.