Learning Technology May 2001 Page 1

Contentspage 1 The Edinburgh Student Portal

Learning Resources at SCRAN

page 2 SELLIC: Science and Engineering

page 3 Slides to Web and CLIVE

page 4 SCOTCIT

page 5 QuestiON-LINE?

pages 6,7 Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

page 8 News and EventsCompiled by Nora Mogey, MALTS. Graphic Design byRachel Ellaway, Learning Technology. Thanks to Nick andEUCS BITS team for their help, and to all contributors.

5Welcome to the fifth occasional supplement to BITs and the lastfor this academic session. We hope this issue gives a feel for therange of learning technologies in use around the university, alongwith pointers to useful external resources, particularly from externalprojects such as ScotCIT and SCRAN. In addition to the tools andresources highlighted here, readers are reminded of the two virtuallearning environments, IVLE and WebCT which are available foruse throughout the university. News of activities or events in yourdepartment for inclusion in future issues is always welcome.

LearningTechnologyBITs Learning Technology SupplementNumber Five : May 2001

The Edinburgh StudentPortal - ESP

The Edinburgh Student Portal project ispart of a wider 2 year SHEFC fundedproject called SCWEIMS (Student CentricWeb-based Educational and InstructionalManagement System). Three otherhigher education institutions are involvedUniversity of Abertay, University ofPaisley and Queen Margaret UniversityCollege. The SHEFC funded project islooking at how to provide a core set ofon-line facilities for each individualstudent. These facilities will enable thestudent to navigate through data that aredirectly relevant to them and their life ateach of the institutions. As this initiativeis multi-institutional the end productneeds to be able to work against any ofour respective data providers (e.g.Registry, Library etc.)

At the heart of ESP are data from registry.Using this information the student canview their records as held by registry. Wecan also provide them with a list of courses

upon which they are registered, throughthis list the student is able to gain accessto any on-line materials that may beavailable for any given course or module.In addition to links to departmental, facultyand stand alone course web sites we arealso exploring connections through toother, more structured, on-line learningenvironments such as WebCT or the IVLE.Our aim is to rationalise the mechanismby which a student gains access to an ever-increasing proliferation of electroniccourse resources.

While the focus is on guiding the studentthrough to on-line resources the systemalso provides a list of results. Access toexam times and locations is also beingdiscussed and is implemented in theprototype.

Although registry information is key to thesystem we have been investigating theprovision of some on-line facilities suchas an address book, links organiser andmemo p.a.. We are also looking to buildin connections through to other facilities

Learning resources at SCRAN

Copyright can be a real minefield whenyou’re looking for resources to use in yourteaching. A solution is at hand however -if you’d like to find high qualitymultimedia materials already copyrightcleared for educational use, then pay avisit to SCRAN at www.scran.ac.uk

SCRAN is a publicly funded project thatbrings together materials from museums,galleries, media organisations andarchives. Over 600,000 text records, and100,000 images, audio files, video clipsand virtual reality objects relating to awide range of subjects are now online,with new materials being added daily.These can all be downloaded directlyfrom the SCRAN website. You are free to

use them in lectures, tutorials, handouts,course websites and as the basis for allkinds of activities and interaction betweenstudents. Students can use SCRANresources in presentations, assignments,portfolios and for private study.

Full access to SCRAN is automatic whenyou log in from any computer within theUniversity of Edinburgh domain. TheSCRAN site has just been extensivelyredesigned and many new features willbe added over the coming months,including a range of support material forusers in HE.

Further information available from theSCRAN Tertiary Education Officer, ElaineMowat on 662 1211 or elainem@scran.ac.uk

around the University. At present theseconnections are loose, being little morethan a basic link, in the longer term wewould hope to tighten these connectionsto take the user from their own space inESP to their own space in another systemseamlessly.

We have currently got a fully functioningprototype ready for testing and hope touse this testing phase to build inimprovements over the summer.

For more details about SCWEIMS and ESPcontact Rob Sands, Rob.Sands@ed.ac.uk Tel651 6542

Learning Technology May 2001 Page 2

SELLIC: Faculty of Science and Engineering

Question Banks

SELLIC is offering support for staff inFG4 wishing to create ‘question banks’for Computer-Aided Assessment (CAA),using the Questionmark Perceptionsoftware available through MALTS.

This software makes it verystraightforward to create web-basedquestions which can be automaticallymarked and provide appropriatefeedback. Questions can be assembledinto tests which can be freely availableor time-restricted, as meets the needsof any particular course. CAA hasmoved beyond the checkbox-stylemultiple-choice questions we are allfamiliar with (although of course thesestill have their uses) and Perception candeal with filling in blanks, rangeanswers, free text and graphic‘hotspots’ as well.

SELLIC can advise on when it might beappropriate to use such tests, onmatching content with appropriatequestion and test types, and on buildingthese into the curriculum. A ‘bank’ ofsuch questions can be re-used andadded to over time to form a growingresource for a lecturer or department.

A short example of a Perception test canbe seen on the MALTS website at http://ivle001.malts.ed.ac.uk/qm/perception.dll

Type username test and leave thepassword blank.

Learning TechnologyPresentations

One of the core aims of SELLIC is topromote and support the use ofLearning Technology in the Faculty. Akey part of this is to disseminateinformation about what others aredoing in this field, and advise on howdepartments and individuals mightdevelop their use of new technologiesfor teaching and learning. Now, inaddition to the regular LearningTechnology Forum meetings, we areoffering to come and present lunchtime

seminars to groups of staff withindepartments.

These informal meetings will allowSELLIC staff to present some of theresources available, and to stimulatediscussion on their relevance and usefor particular courses or groups ofstudents. If you are interested in hostingone of these informal meetings pleasecontact Wilma Alexander, emailWilma.Alexander@ed.ac.uk, Tel 507409.

Project ANGEL

Through SELLIC, Edinburgh UniversityLibrary is participating in a JISC-fundedDNER Project called ANGEL(‘Authenticated Networked GuidedEnvironment for Learning’). Ourinvolvement in this project hasadvanced recently with theadvertisement of a post of SystemDeveloper. This new member of SELLICstaff will develop the authentication andauthorisation systems for ANGEL,which will be built to conform to JISC’splans for Sparta, a new accessmanagement system for UK HE and FE.

Management of authentication andauthorisation issues are seen as keyissues to be addressed in the racetowards providing students with aseamless and user-friendly interfacewith the whole range of resources theyrequire for their course. Authenticationdeals with identifying users andauthorisation deals with managingtheir access to the appropriateresources. Within the library licensingand copyright agreements require theUniversity to control and track users,sometimes at present requiring a rangeof usernames and passwords to accessreference databases and otherelectronic resources. ANGEL aims toresolve some of the problems toprovide a more user-friendly interface.The project is part of the wider DNERinitiative. The DNER is the recentlyestablished Distributed NationalElectronic Resource, a managed

learning and information environmentfor UK HE and FE, which hasestablished a Programme Office atKing’s College London.

ANGEL has begun its initial evaluationwork, holding focus group meetingsand interviews in partner institutions.Two structured interviews were held inEdinburgh on 7th March 2001,conducted by Nicole Harris from SouthBank University. The aim of theinterviews was to establish whatacademic staff and students want froma ‘guided environment for learning.’The SELLIC team is very grateful for thevaluable contribution made bymembers of academic and library staffon the day, and ANGEL can now reporton findings from the interviews.

Developers are in place at the LondonSchool of Economics and De MontfortUniversity, and are currently drawingup the system specification accordingto the findings of the report.

There may be an opportunity forANGEL to integrate with the SCWEIMSsystem currently being developed by aconsortium including MALTS for theUniversity of Edinburgh. For furtherinformation see the ANGEL website athttp://www.angel.ac.uk

ANGEL Project: Avril.Conacher@ed.ac.uk

Digitisation at EdinburghUniversity Library

At a recent Academic / Library Forum onElectronic Information (ALFEI) meetingorganised by SELLIC, Richard Ovenden,Sub-Librarian for Collections, gave apresentation on the Library’s digitisationwork and plans. The Library is involvedin a major SCRAN project and hasrecently established a digitisation Unit.Richard’s slides from this presentationcan be found on the SELLIC website.

Website: http://www.sellic.ed.ac.uk

Learning Technology Projects:Wilma.Alexander@ed.ac.uk

Learning Technology May 2001 Page 3

The Learning Resource Centre (LRC) in the mainUniversity library and the Graphics and MultimediaResource Centre (GMRC) in JCMB both provide a do-it-yourself facility with good quality equipment and staffon hand to offer basic instruction and general advice.The LRC webpages (http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/fmd/car/)provide information and advice about what scanningresolution is likely to be appropriate for differentapplications. The GMRC has two Nikon 35mm slidescanners, both capable of resolution up to 2,700 pixelsper inch to extract fine detail from the 24x36mm frame.They can scan positive and negative images, eithermounted or in strips. For more details about GMRC lookat their website http://www.graphics.ed.ac.uk/graphics/gmrc/index.shtml or phone 650 4965.

If you do not feel confident about scanning slides yourself,MALTS can now offer a digitisation service where thewhole process is carried out on your behalf. This serviceis increasingly in demand, and is not promised on a while-you-wait basis, but please e-mail malts@ed.ac.uk if youwould like to explore making use of it.

A number of faculties also have a dedicated facility where staff canaccess scanners and other graphics equipment on either a DIY or amanaged service basis. Staff are advised to speak to yourdepartmental or faculty support staff for more details of what mightbe available at a local level.

Apart from needing to have a good idea about how you plan to useyour digitised images so that the process is effected at anappropriate resolution, there are a few other considerations thatyou might need to think about before you blow the dust off allthose old slide boxes and bring them in to be digitised :

• scanning some slides could be an infringement of copyright, soit may be necessary to seek permission from the copyrightholder.

• building an efficient catalogue of digitised images is by no meansa trivial task and should be allocated an appropriate resource.

There are also outside agencies who provide a wide range of adviceand resources to support staff in the HE community engaged indigitisation : e.g. TASI - the technical advisory service on images -which provides on line training materials, workshops and suggestsbooks and journals about issues in digital imaging http://tasi.ac.uk/

Have you been wondering how you might arrange to transfer your 35mm slides into a digital format? There are a numberof options you could explore:

From 35mm slides to web images?

CLIVE in Macedonia

The European Commission’s Tempusprogramme provides funds to enableformer Eastern bloc countries to bring theirinstitutions up to western standards withthe help of European Union institutions.The veterinary school in Skopje,Macedonia has secured a Tempus grantand CLIVE will contribute materials andtraining in electronic learning resources.

All CLIVE programmes can be viewedfrom a Windows computer on EdLANthrough\\Vet-lab0\cal\cal1\ pc\menus\index.exe.Further information from Gill McConnell,650 6113, email gmcconnell@ed.ac.uk

Be Safer with Horses

A CD-ROM produced in collaborationwith Warwickshire College, “Be Saferwith Horses” covers essentialinformation about safe practices andaccident prevention for all who workwith horses. We are also working withWarwickshire on “Equine Anatomy”.

Diagnostic Procedures

The fourth CLIVE dermatology CD-ROMto be sponsored by Virbac Internationalhas been completed. “DiagnosticProcedures in Canine and FelineDermatology” by Professor RichardHalliwell with Professor David Lloyd(London) and Dr Didier Carlotti (France)covers thirty-six conditions and eightspecial diagnostic procedures, islavishly illustrated and includes videosequences taken in the University’sHospital for Small Animals at EasterBush. It is published in English andFrench language versions.

Learning Technology May 2001 Page 4

Mini-engines

http://w3.abdn.ac.uk/generictools.

This project is building and disseminatinggeneric programming modules to enablethe rapid construction of web basedinteractive Computer Assisted Learningapplications. It has developed a seriesof ‘mini-engines’ which are Java,JavaScript and Dynamic HTML codeunits and are effectively programmodules, using object orientatedprogramming and a modular design. Themini-engines can be mixed and matchedas required, hence most disciplines areable to use the mini-engines to constructweb based CAL.

The mini engines can be combined indifferent ways and embedded in webpages. Full details and examples areavailable on the project website alongwith a demonstration of the use of theMini-Engines. Within Scottish HigherEducation the mini-engines and theirassociated documentation can be freelydistributed.

INSIDE - IntegratingNetworked Simulationsin Distributed Education

http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/inside/

The INSIDE project aims to encouragethe use of simulations in learning andteaching particularly in the disciplineareas of Astronomy, Business Studiesand Nursing. It uses the MultiVersetoolkit which was originally developedwith funding from TLTP (Teaching andLearning Technology Programme), andprovides a set of tools for the rapiddevelopment of simulations for use inteaching. A version of the MultiverseUser Environment is available, free, toany member of staff at a ScottishHigher Education Institution. Theenvironment is entirely visual, meaningthat no programming experience isrequired and a tutorial is available tohelp users create simulations.

As the MultiVerse tools are written inJava, simulations produced areplatform independent and can be easilyintegrated with existing web basedteaching materials. Simulations can beused individually, or by pairs/groups ofstudents working collaboratively,providing opportunities forsophisticated role playing.

The INSIDE website includesinformation about how to obtain themultiverse toolkit (follow the resourceslink), and examples of simulationscreated using it (follow simulations).

ScotCIT was set up by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC)in 1999, as successor to the to Use of MANs Initiative, to promote furtherdevelopment of the use of C&IT in Learning and Teaching at Scottish HigherEducation Institutions, and to establish appropriate use of C&IT as part of thenormal working practice of staff.

ScotCIT has funded projects in three areas: Generic Webtools, Intranets, andStaff Development. Full details of all projects can be found on the ScotCITwebpages at http://www.scotcit.ac.uk/index.html

More details about the SHEFC C&IT Programme are available from FionaHartree, the Programme Administrator Tel: 0131 455 6114 Emailf.hartree@scotcit.ac.uk

SCOTCIT

TOOLCIT

http://www.toolcit.scotcit.ac.uk/

The aim of the toolcit project is to support lecturers by providing tools andmaterials that will help them select and use C&IT more effectively in their work asteachers and supporters of learning.

Toolcit has been designed for use in a variety of ways e.g. individuals wanting totry something new or improve their own skills or course leaders who want toexplore new possibilities with their course and want to consider all the implications.The tools, which are available on paper or on-line, are grouped under the headings:audit tools, action tools and advice tools, plus a decision node.

OTIS -Online Tutoring Skills

http://otis.scotcit.ac.uk/

The OTIS project is a staff-developmentproject aiming to support on-line tutorsto make effective use of C&IT andparticularly to become effectivefacilitators and motivators of theirstudents’ on-line learning. Drawing onthe experiences of staff already workingin the general area of on-line learning,the OTIS team has developed an on-linee-tutoring book which is freely availableon the project website. Although it is notyet quite complete, the book includesdiscussion and examples on most areasof on-line learning. In addition tochapters on topics such as 'the tutor'srole' or 'building an online community',there is 'culture & ethics' which offerssome interesting suggestions aboutcharacterstics of on-line communicationand explores where these may bedifferent in different cultures worldwide.The text is also illustrated with plenty ofwell indexed case studies and links toother useful resources.

Learning Technology May 2001 Page 5

QuestiON-LINE?

A computer based assessment systemis not just a piece of software to enablethe design and delivery of multiplechoice questions. For course tutors itoffers a range of different questionstyles, and quick and detailed analysesof results promoting detailedinterrogation of student understanding,while for students it offers thepossibility of immediate and supportivefeedback.

There are different computer assistedassessment options available to you.On page 7 one approach taken inmedicine is described, where they havecreated their own on-line assessmenttool, tailored to discipline specificneeds. On page 2, the SELLIC teamintroduces their intention to developquestion banks for delivery through aweb interfacing using software calledPerception. Other departments makeextensive use of optical mark reading(OMR) where students sit an exam in aconventional setting, but the papers areelectronically processed.

Of course there are both pros and consto computer assisted assessment incomparison with traditionalassessment methods. Computers offertruly objective marking, eliminating anyvariation due to fatigue, proximity orother factors. Marks can be availableto staff and students (if desired) withinminutes of the test ending, feedbackcan be tailored, and both test andfeedback can (if desired) be flexible interms of time and/or location. Althoughthe range of questions available isrestricted in almost all computer based

systems, they do offer the opportunityto incorporate multimedia such asimages, video and audio.

Question types such as multiple choice(pick one from a list); multiple response(pick several from a list); true/false;selection & association (match itemsfrom two related lists) can all bedelivered on paper and marked by OMRas well as seeking input from a mouseor keyboard. Hotspots, text matchingand questions generated usingparameters would all require acomputer for input.

Introducing a new assessment strategycan cause anxiety for some students,especially if it is computer based, andthis should not be ignored. Studentscan be supported by providing samplequestions on the network to try beforethe “real thing” (this has the addedbonus of letting you try a few thingsout as well!). These sample questionscan be used to try out the introductionand instructions that you plan to usefor the test as well.

Other reasons offered for not usingcomputer assisted assessment include“What happens if the networkcrashes?” “How do you know it is theright student logged on?” and “ Youcan only test simple recall of facts”.Nevertheless computer assistedassessment is now used routinely inmost UK universities for bothsummative and formative tests. Thereare examples of rigorous examinationprotocols and extensive risk analyseswhich provide strategies to minimise

MALTS offers an Optical Mark Reading service. Typically it is used where studentssit a multiple choice exam, in a traditional setting, but instead of writing answersfreehand, they mark their choice onto a specially pre-printed paper, which canthen be marked automatically. Standard University of Edinburgh answer formsare available allowing for a maximum of 75 questions each with up to five possibleanswers. The software used to mark the papers is adjustable, and is usually setto query any unusual papers, e.g where two responses have been marked to onequestion, or where an unusually high proportion of the questions have not beenmarked. The software provides detailed analyses of results, including a fullquestion by question item analysis, allowing exploration of the quality andperformance of individual questions.

risks such as the first two questionsabove. Effective question design canbe time consuming, but there areexamples on-line of many interestingcomputer based tests which clearlydemand much more than simple recallfrom the students. The TRIADS systemdeveloped jointly by the Universities ofLiverpool, Derby and the OpenUniversity is a good example. Thereare demonstration questions availableat http://www.derby.ac.uk/assess/tridf/tridfgo.html (but you need an Authorwareplug in - contact MALTS if you needsupport with this). The TRIADS systemis being used by the School ofEuropean Languages and Cultures(SELC) who have on-line tests inPortuguese, Italian and Spanish.

Other examples of on-line assessmentsthat you may like to explore are http://www.glg.ed.ac.uk/courses/minerals/ orht tp : / / f lex- learn .ma.hw.ac .uk/demo/index.html .

Question Mark Perception is a web-based assessment tool which is nowavailable to any interested staff. Somedemonstration questions are availablea t h t t p : / / i v l e 0 0 1 . m a l t s . e d . a c . u k / q m /perception.dll (use the username “test”,no password). Tests can be fullycustomised, contact MALTS for moreinformation about Perception.

But there is no chance of computerassisted assessment of essays - or isthere? You could look at the “IntelligentEssay Assessor” http://LSA.colorado.edu/IEA2/IEA2.html (we are making no claimthat this really is the future though!)

Learning Technology May 2001 Page 6

Medicine and Veterinary Medicine

The role of mannequins and simulatorsfor the purposes of clinical skills traininghas become commonplace in mostmedical and some nurse traininginstitutions. Their uses have beentracked as far back as the 16th centurywhen mannequins, or "phantoms" asthey were called, were developed as ateaching aid for obstetrics to help reducethe infant mortality rates. In the 1960s,"Resusci Anne" became a familiarmember of the family to most nursesand doctors undertaking basic andadvanced life support training. Today,such adjuncts have extended to includealmost every part of the human bodyand play an important role in clinicalskills training for undergraduate doctorsand aspiring student nurses.

Simulators are technologicallyadvanced mannequins, which areextremely expensive, as most requirehighly advanced computer software.They can be regarded as interactivemodels and fall into three categories: PCbased simulation software such as"Gasman" and "Body" aim to recreateelements of reality in pictorial form oncomputer screen. These devicesprobably confer minimal practical skillsbut enable a deeper insight into theconceptual theory underlying clinicalpractice.

Virtual reality trainers are gainingpopularity, especially amongst surgicaltrainees. They have been described as "offering a bridge from the inanimateworld of the textbook to the threedimensional world of real patients."These are relatively cheap to run onceinstalled.

Mannequin-based simulators come invarious degrees of complexity. They allinclude a physical representation of thehuman body and a continuous outputto monitors of basic observations suchas ECG, BP and Pulse Oximetry. These

are by far the most popular of their typeas they create enough elements ofreality to allow the acquisition of skillsthat are transferable back to the clinicalenvironment.

In Edinburgh, both hospital trainingvenues (the Clinical Teaching ResourceCentres at the Royal Infirmary and theWestern General) provide the studentwith a well-equipped clinical skillsroom, used for both formal andinformal teaching of various clinicalskills. Each has mannequins for a widerange of skills involving intravenoustherapy, physical examination andresuscitation skills. A medicalemergencies course at the WGH has theadded attraction of a trip to StirlingRoyal Infirmary where a medicalsimulator takes the students throughtheir assessment and treatment skillsfor a whole day. In the MedicalEducation Centre, a new arrival, by thename of 'Harvey', has been donated bythe British Heart Foundation and is setup to simulate the bedside findings oftwenty-seven cardiac diseases. A self-assessment slide programme for eachdisease is provided in addition to acomputer assisted interactiveinstruction curriculum.

The Clinical Teaching Resource Centresat the Royal Infirmary and the WesternGeneral Hospital are the responsibilityof the Learning Technology Section.

Contact Gail Forrest (WGH ext 31388 orGail.Forrest@ed.ac.uk) or MargaretMarshall (WGH ext 31073 orM.Marshall@ed.ac.uk)

Resuscitation training at the MedicalEducation Centre at the Western General

From Phantoms to Harvey: mannequins andsimulators in clinical education

Edinburgh students using the StirlingSimulator

The Stirling Simulator mannequin

The Harvey mannequin

Learning Technology May 2001 Page 7

PathCal: PathologyTutorials on the Internet

PathCal is a web-based set of computer-assisted learning programs (formerlywritten in ToolBook) designed to helpstudents to understand the basicpathological principles of disease. Thehighly visual and highly interactivetutorials were developed by Dr SandyReid from the Pathology Department inthe Medical School in conjunction withLTS. Module 1 is now being delivered toMBChB students and comprises: CellInjury and Adaptation; Inflammation &Healing; Thrombosis & Embolism;Neoplasia; and Genetic Disease.

It is aimed at students of medicine, dentalsurgery, veterinary medicine, andbiological sciences and could be useful forprimary learning by students new to thesubject or for self-assessment. Evaluationstudies have demonstrated a high degreeof student satisfaction with them.

PathCal is delivered over the web usinga generic courseware engine developedby LTS. We decided to produce our owndata-driven solution to onlinecourseware delivery because existingquestions database systems (such asQuestionMark Perception) were found tolack the flexibility and power that projectslike PathCal needed. A number ofquestion types that we thought would bemost appropriate for both this and otherLTS projects were developed and adatabase was designed in MicrosoftAccess and then upgraded to MicrosoftSQL Server. The functionality of thequestions was developed using Allaire'sCold Fusion. There are also generic pagetypes which can be used forintroductions, conclusions andexplanatory materials including the usualtypes of media which are acceptable forweb pages.

A tutor interface is in development thatwill allow anonymous tracking of

The Learning Technology Section

answers. The tutorials are open to staffand students of the University ofEdinburgh and to staff and students ofother subscribing institutions. http://webdb.ucs.ed.ac.uk/lts/pathcal/

The MBChB ElectronicPortfolio

The MBChB course has several integratingvertical themes, running throughout thefive years, which address topics which areimportant in clinical practice irrespectiveof clinical speciality e.g. disability, pain,nutrition, communication, evidence-based medicine, ethics, life cycle, publichealth, pharmacology & therapeutics,legal issues and personal development.The Portfolio enables students to addressthese topics by drawing simultaneouslyon several cases (or projects) fromdifferent specialities. Throughout the 5years students submit 21 items forassessment and the Portfolio forms thebasis of the oral examination in the finalyear. Management of the Portfolio isthrough a committee chaired by ProfessorArchie Young. Thus each student on thecourse (220 per year) submits 21 piecesof work (each at least 8 A4 pages +diagrams etc). 10 of these are marked andmust achieve a ‘pass’ standard before theycan be accepted into the portfolio. Thusthe Portfolio comprises ~30,000 pieces of

work plus markers comments and themarks themselves.

The challenge for LTS has thus been tocreate a web-based Electronic Portfolio(MEP) document management system forthe 21 portfolio case reports and itemsprepared by each student on the MBChBcourse during the 5 years of their study.Access for staff or students is via theirunique EEMeC login. Students submittheir work electronically using a speciallydesigned web form as a MS Worddocument. MEP automatically datestamps the item and converts it to read-only (PDF) format. Staff examiners(including authorised external examiners)can mark the item on screen (or print itoff) adding their comments. Students canaccess their own PDF files (fromanywhere) but cannot change them. Theycan print them, see the markerscomments, access their marks at any timeand check deadlines for new items to besubmitted. Replacement files cannot beadded unless the original is cleared by anauthorised Portfolio administrator.Authorised staff (academic and

administrative) may view the portfoliosand edit certain aspects of them - forexample if a failed piece of work neededto be resubmitted or a deadline extensionwas agreed. In particular it allows for freshnew copies of the documents to be madeavailable for the oral examination at theend of the course.

The system also allows an audit of usersbehaviours such as whether particularitems are marked consistently high or low,whether particular markers are assessingat a level well above or below the medianor how often students miss the deadlinesset for handing work in. Contact RachelEllaway 511749 rachel.ellaway@ed.ac.uk

Learning Technology May 2001 Page 8

News and Events

MALTS55 George SquareTel: 650 4097Email: malts@ed.ac.ukhttp://www.malts.ed.ac.uk

Medicine & Veterinary MedicineLearning Technology Section (LTS)Hugh Robson Link Building,Tel: 651 1564Email: d.dewhurst@ed.ac.ukhttp://www.lts.mvm.ed.ac.uk

SELLICDarwin Library, KBTel: 650 6702Email: john.maccoll@ed.ac.ukhttp://www.sellic.ed.ac.uk

CLIVER(D)SVS, SummerhallTel 650 6113Email: clive@ed.ac.ukhttp://www.clive.ed.ac.uk

Forthcoming LT Conferences

The First DIVERSE International Conference on Video and Videoconferencingin Further and Higher Education takes place July 2-4 at Derby. http://www.derby.ac.uk/diverse/conference.htm

The 5th International Computer Assisted Assessment conference is being heldat the University of Loughborough July 2-3 2001. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/fli/flicaa/conf2001/

The 9th Improving Student Learning Symposium “Improving Student LearningUsing Learning Technologies” is being held at Heriot-Watt University 9-11September 2001. http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsd/1_ocsld/isl2001.html

The 8th Association for Learning Technology Conference (ALT-C) “ChangingLearning Environments” is being held at the University of Edinburgh 11-13September 2001. http://www.ed.ac.uk/altc2001/

CSCL (Computer Support for Collaborative Learning) 2002 is an internationalconference to be held near Boulder, Colorado, USA, on January 7-11, 2002.http://www.cscl2002.org Submissions by 1 June 2001.

ASCALITE, the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in TertiaryEducation 18th Annual Conference - Meeting at the Crossroads 9-12 December2001, The University of Melbourne, Australia http://www.medfac.unimelb.edu.au/ascilite2001/ Submission of papers due June 8th

Workshops & other events

Fast Forward to streaming video : A one-day workshop from the Associationfor Learning Technology. This workshop will take you through the stages ofdeveloping and delivering online presentations or ‘virtual elements’ combiningdigital video, PowerPoint slides and other web elements. The workshop isbeing held at UMIST on 21 May 2001 (10am - 4pm) Cost £70 More details fromalt@brookes.ac.uk

The Netskills team regularly provide workshops on a range of internet relatedtopics, at Universities throughout the UK. Typical cost £115. Full details offorthcoming workshops, topics and venues are available from http://www.netskills.ac.uk/

SARA - Scholarly ArticlesResearch Alerting

Taylor & Francis currently publishesover 540 academic peer-reviewedjournals across a variety of disciplines.SARA delivers by email, tables ofcontents from journals selected bysubscription, immeidately prior topublication. There is no charge forsubscribing to SARA and you canunsubscribe at any time. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/ Click e-mailcontents to make or alter subscriptions.

The Distributed National Electronic Resource

The Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) is a managed environmentfor accessing quality assured information resources on the Internet which areavailable from many sources. These resources include scholarly journals,monographs, textbooks, abstracts, manuscripts, maps, music scores, still images,geospatial images and other kinds of vector and numeric data, as well as movingpicture and sound collections. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/

Part of the DNER provides a number of electronic resources, services anddevelopment projects aimed to meet the needs of those working and studyingwithin higher and further education. These are brought together on their websiteas Subject Guides under a number of subject headings.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/subject/general/

MERLOT

MERLOT - the Multimedia EducationalResource for Learning and On-lineTeaching - is a free and open resourcedesigned primarily for staff andstudents in higher education. With acontinually growing collection of onlinelearning materials, assignments andreviews, MERLOT aims to help staffenhance instruction by enrichingteaching and learning experiences.

On-line resources are catalogued bydiscipline area, and displayed alongwith a readily accessible summary ofthe resource, including its type, itsauthor, date of inclusion, and so on.There are some really useful things inhere - take a look!

http://www.merlot.org/Home.po