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SOCRATES PROGRAMMEApplication Form for Full Proposals

E-LEN : A network of e-learning centers

Ref num: 101421-CY-2002-1-CY-MINERVA-MMP

SECTION 1 - IDENTIFICATION

1. Project / network title

Please use a maximum of 12 words; start with an acronym or abbreviation, if applicable.

E-LEN : A network of e-learning centers

2. Summary of the project / networkPlease identify clearly, in a maximum of 200 words, the following aspects of your project / network : Objectives (including thematic area for networks), Target groups, Main activities and Expected outputs.

If your application is successful, this summary will be used as the description of your project / network and will therefore be part of your contract.

It may also be used in an official SOCRATES compendium and for other information purposes. You are therefore kindly requested to formulate it very carefully.

If you do not fill in your application on-line, please enclose a floppy disk with this summary in Word 97 for Windows or RTF format.

This project aims to create a Network of E-Learning Centers and leading organisations in the learning technologies. The E-LEN network will support a diverse constellation of learning centres around the world, have a strong capacity for developing and delivering pedagogically-informed technology for effective e-learning experiences and disseminate these experiences to other institutions. The main objectives of the project are:

to establish the necessary infrastructure and organisational structure for the network of e-learning centres,

to identify and gather best practices, “design patterns”, research roadmaps on e-learning and to enhance the dissemination of such results

to produce guidelines for establishing learning centers.

The primary activities of this project include the survey, analysis and evaluation of existing e-learning centres, the establishment of the E-LEN network, the design and development of a portal for the gathering and exchange of e-learning resources and expertise and the evaluation of the project’s achievements.

E-LEN’s outcomes will interest people from academia and industry, policy makers and e-learning developers seeking guidance and feasible solutions to advance the effectiveness of e-learning.

The expected output consists of the E-LEN portal itself, as well as a number of reports and guides on various organisational, pedagogical and technical issues related to e-learning and e-learning centers. The dissemination of these results is of high priority to this project.

3. Duration and languages

2 SOCRATES PROGRAMMEApplication Form for Full Proposal

Please indicate the total duration for which you are applying for a grant. The contractual period is likely to start on 1/10/2002.

Duration

12 months 24 months 36 months

Language in which you would like the grant contract to be issued

1st preference

DE EN FR

2nd preference (language in which you would like a translation of the contractual package)

DA DE EL EN ES FI FR IT NL PO SE

Language in which you would like correspondence with the Commission to be conducted

(to facilitate cooperation with your partners, you are advised to enter the language most commonly used for communication within the partnership)1st preference

DE EN FR

2nd preference

DA DE EL EN ES FI FR IT NL PO SE

4.- Financial support from the European Community

Has the proposal, or any aspect thereof or any larger project / network to which it may belong, already been supported in the past by the European Community ?

No

Yes. Please specify the programme, date, type of activity (e.g. preparatory visit) and, if possible, contract number(s) :

Is this proposal, or any aspect thereof or any larger project/network to which it may belong, currently being supported under the SOCRATES Programme or some other European Community programme ?

No

Yes. Please specify the programme, date, type of activity (e.g. preparatory visit) and, if possible, contract numbers :

Is this proposal, or any aspect thereof or any larger project/network to which it may belong, currently the subject of any other application for support from the European Community ?

No

Yes. Please specify the programme(s) and provide details under section 2 Table 2.


5. Coordinating institution ( = Participating institution 1 ):

To fill in this part, please use the type of institution codes, country codes and region codes indicated in Annex 1.

5.1 Legal Representative

Full legal name of the institution in the national language ΠΑΝΕΠΙΣΤΗΜΙΟ ΚΥΠΡΟΥ

Acronym of the institution, if applicable

Full name of the Institution in English (formal or informal translation) UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS

Country code CY Region code

Type of institution code EDU.4 Erasmus ID code, for Higher Education Institutions only

Homepage http://www.ucy.ac.cy

Legal representative of the institution:Last nameFirst name

ELPIDA KERAVNOU-PAPAILIOU Title (optional)(e.g. Prof., Dr, etc.) PROFESSOR

Department/Unit DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

Official function within the institution VICE RECTOR Sex M (Male)

Legal address of the institutionStreet & Street NumberPost code & townCountry

75 Kallipoleos Street P.O.Box.20537 CY-1678 Nicosia CYPRUS

Phone (including country and area code) +357 / 2 / 892237

Fax (including country and area code) +357 / 2 / 892237

E-mail [email protected]

5.2 Coordinator

The address provided will be used for the acknowledgement of receipt and all further correspondence relating to the project / network.

Coordinator:Last nameFirst name

RETALISSYMEON

Title (optional)(e.g. Prof., Dr, etc.) LECTURER

Department/Unit DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

Official function within the institution LECTURER Sex M (Male)

Correspondence addressStreetPost code & townCountry & region

75 Kallipoleos Street P.O.Box.20537 CY-1678 Nicosia CYPRUS

Phone (including country and area codes) +357 / 2 / 892246

Fax (including country and area codes) +357 / 2 / 339062

E-mail address [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]

6. Other participating institutions

To fill in this part, please use the type of institution codes, country codes and region codes indicated in Annex 1.

Please group partners by country in the same order as in that indicated in Annex 1. Check the minimum number of partners required (see Guidelines for Applicants).Add copies of the following pages if necessary .

Participating institution Nr 2

Full legal name of the institution in the national language Lancaster University

Acronym of the institution, if applicable LancsErasmus ID code, for Higher Education Institutions only, if available

Full name of the Institution in English, if possible Lancaster University

Department/Unit CSALT – The Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology

Type of institution code EDU.4 Country code UK Town / City LANCASTER Region

code UKD4

Contact personFunction: PROFESSOR……………. Male (M)□

Family name : GOODYEAR First name : PETER

Phone (including country and area code) ( +44 1524 ) 594373

Fax ( +44 1524 ) 592914


Homepage http://csalt.lancs.ac.uk/csalt


Full legal name of the institution in the national language A Priori Limited

Acronym of the institution, if applicable APErasmus ID code, for Higher Education Institutions only, if available

Full name of the Institution in English, if possible A Priori Limited

Department/Unit

Type of institution code SER Country code UK Town / City Cartmel Region

code UKD1

Contact personFunction: DIRECTOR Female (F)□

Family name : BARTOLUZZI First name : SONIA

Phone (including country and area code) ( +44 15395 36218 )

Fax ( +44 15395 36120 )


Homepage http://www.apriori.ndirect.co.uk/



Full legal name of the institution in the national language Maastricht McLuhan Instituut – Universiteit Maastricht

Acronym of the institution, if applicable MMIErasmus ID code, for Higher Education Institutions only, if available

Full name of the Institution in English, if possible Maastricht McLuhan Institute – University of Maastricht

Department/Unit Maastricht Learning Lab

Type of institution code Edu.4 Country code NL Town / City Region

code NL 42

Contact personFunction: DIRECTOR (a.i.) Male (M)

Family name : PROF. RONTELTAP First name : FRANS

Phone (including country and area code) ( + ) 31-43-3883456

Fax ( + ) 31-43-3252930


Homepage http://www.mmi.unimaas.nl


Full legal name of the institution in the national language Open Universiteit Nederland

Acronym of the institution, if applicable OUNL (Otec)Erasmus ID code, for Higher Education Institutions only, if available

Full name of the Institution in English, if possible Open University of the Netherlands

Department/Unit Educational Technology Expertise Centre (Otec)

Type of institution code Edu.4 Country code NL Town / City Heerlen Region

codeNL42 (?)

Contact personFunction: FULL PROFESSOR EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY . Male (M)x

Family name : KOPER First name :ROB

Phone (including country and area code) ( + )31 455762657

Fax ( + )31 455762800


Homepage http://www.ou.nl


Full legal name of the institution in the Noregsnettet med IT for Open Læring


http://www.mmi.unimaas.nl/


national language

Acronym of the institution, if applicable NITOLErasmus ID code, for Higher Education Institutions only, if available

Full name of the Institution in English, if possible Norway-net with IT for Open Learning

Department/Unit Dept. of ICT (Information and Communication Technology)

Type of institution code ASS.3 Country code NO Town / City Stord Region

code NO05

Contact personFunction: PROFESSOR , Male (M)

Family name : HAUGEN First name : HARALD

Phone (including country and area code) ( + )47 53 49 13 76

Fax ( + ) 47 53 49 14 01


Homepage http://hugin.hsh.no/lu/inf/nitol


Full legal name of the institution in the national language Universitetet i Bergen

Acronym of the institution, if applicable UiBErasmus ID code, for Higher Education Institutions only, if available

Full name of the Institution in English, if possible The University of Bergen

Department/Unit InterMedia

Type of institution code EDU.4 Country code NO Town / City BERGEN Region

code NOO2

Contact personFunction: PROFESSOR, Scientific Leader Female (F)□

Family name : WASSON First name : BARBARA

Phone (including country and area code) ( + ) 47 55 58 41 20

Fax ( + ) 47 55 58 41 07


Homepage http://www.intermedia.uib.no


http://hugin.hsh.no/lu/inf/nitol


Full legal name of the institution in the national language EΘNIKO METΣOBIO ПОΛΥΤΕХΝEIO

Acronym of the institution, if applicable ΕΜΠ (ΝΤUA)Erasmus ID code, for Higher Education Institutions only, if available

Full name of the Institution in English, if possible NTUA – National Technological University of Athens

Department/Unit Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS)

Type of institution code EDU.4 Country code GR Town / City ATHENS Region

code GR3

Contact personFunction: PROFESSOR Male (M)□

Family name : SKORDALAKIS First name : MANOLIS

Phone (including country and area code) ( + ) 301 7722487

Fax ( + ) 301 772 2519


Homepage http://www.softlab.ntua.gr


Full legal name of the institution in the national language Oscail, the National Distance Education Centre

Acronym of the institution, if applicable OSCAILErasmus ID code, for Higher Education Institutions only, if available

Full name of the Institution in English, if possible Oscail, the National Distance Education Centre

Department/Unit

Type of institution code EDU.4 Country code IE Town / City DUBLIN Region

code IE021

Contact personFunction: DIRECTOR Male (M)

Family name : BANCROFT First name : DENNIS

Phone (including country and area code)

( + ) 353 1 700 8828

Fax( + ) 353 1 700 5740


Homepage http://www.oscail.ie


Full legal name of the institution in the national language POLITECNICO DI MILANO



http://www.softlab.ntua.gr/


Acronym of the institution, if applicable POLIMIErasmus ID code, for Higher Education Institutions only, if available

Full name of the Institution in English, if possible Politecnico di Milano

Department/Unit HOC- Hypermedia Open Center at the Department of Electronics and Information

Type of institution code EDU.4 Country code I Town / City Milano Region

code

Contact personFunction: PROFESSOR . Female (F) X

Family name : GARZOTTO First name :FRANCA

Phone (including country and area code) ( + ) 39 02 23993505/3623

Fax ( + ) 39 02 23993411


Homepage http://hoc.elet.polimi.it/inglese/home.html


Full legal name of the institution in the national language

Institut für Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft (IfMK); Technische Universität Ilmenau (Thüringen)

Acronym of the institution, if applicable TU ILMENAU/IfMKErasmus ID code, for Higher Education Institutions only, if available

Full name of the Institution in English, if possible Institute for Media and Communications (IfMK); Ilmenau Technical University

Department/Unit Design of Multimedia Systems

Type of institution code EDU.4 Country code DE Town / City Ilmenau Region

code DEG

Contact personFunction: PROFESSOR, CHAIR . Male (M)X

Family name : NIEGEMANN First name : HELMUT M.

Phone (including country and area code) ++49 /3677/69.4733

Fax ++49 /3677/69.4695


Homepage http://www-ifmk.tu-ilmenau.de/mk


http://hoc.elet.polimi.it/inglese/home.html)


SECTION 2 - BUDGET

General instructions Before completing this section, please read carefully the Explanatory note on Budget in Annex 2. The budget should cover the entire period of the SOCRATES grant (one, two or three years). Note: Erasmus 3 networks have a

one year budget only. The budget should be coherent with the work plan in Section 4. All amounts should be provided in euros. Please adhere strictly to the format provided in the tables, and check carefully the figures provided (applications containing

calculation errors will be penalised in the selection process).

Table 1 : Overview of expenditureType of costs Costs ( € )

1. Staff costs 797500

2. Direct costs

2.1 - Travel and subsistence83300

2.2 - Equipment and materials

21500

2.3 - Sub-contracting, consultancy and other external services2.4 – Other costs 19400

Subtotal for Direct costs 124200

3. General costs 63800

TOTAL(identical to the total in Table 2)

985500

Table 2 – Overview of incomeSources Amounts ( € )

1) Grant requested from the SOCRATES programme (50%) 492750

2) Contribution from the regular budget of the participating institutions (50%) 492750

3) Support expected from other European Community programmes provided specifically for this project / network

4) Support from public (national, regional, etc) sources, provided specifically for this project / network

5) Support from the private sector or foundations, provided specifically for this project / network

6) Other sources

TOTAL(identical to the total in Table 1)

985500

Specification for Table 2If income is indicated under 3), please specify the Community programme in question, identify the nature and duration of the activities which are being supported in this way, and provide a reference (if possible, the date and official reference number) to the grant / application contract concerned.If income is indicated under 4), 5) or 6), please specify the source and amount envisaged.


Table 3 – Specification for Contribution per participating institution

The reference numbers (Nr 1, 2, 3, etc.) of the participating institutions must correspond to those used in section 1, question 5 and 6 of the application and be grouped by country in the same order as that indicated in Annex 1. Add copies of this present page for the additional participating institutions, if necessary.Networks (Erasmus 3, Comenius 3 and Grundtvig 4) may wish to present aggregated figures for each country participating, instead of figures per individual participating institution. In this case, please replace the reference numbers by the country codes, in the same order as that in Annex 1).

All amounts in euros Total

(equals amount in table 2, point 2)

Coordinating institution

(=Participating institution Nr 1)




Contribution from the regular budget of the participating institution

492750 49710 48520 40900 42850

All amounts in euros Participating institution Nr 5






48520 56100 42850 42850 34750

All amounts in euros Participating institution Nr 10



42850 42850

Explanation for allocation of grant per participating institution

On what basis do you intend to distribute the SOCRATES grant among the participating institutions?


The allocation of the grant will be done in installments, in accordance to the way that the EU grant installments will be deposited to the coordinator’s account. The transfer of the EU grant will start as soon as each partner has signed the partnership agreement with the co-ordinator.

Concerning the reasoning behind the budget allocation to the participation institutions, NITOL will need more resources since it is a consortium of four participating institutes. The co-ordinator will also need more resources than the other participating institutions, due to (i) the demanding duties as project manager which will require the involvement of specialized personnel for this task and (ii) the increased travel cost for performing its co-ordinating duties, e.g. participation to Miverva co-ordinating meetings. The co-ordinator will also be the central partner for advertising the achievements of the E-LEN project to other project consortia during EU funded project gathering events.

All the other participating partners will share the resources almost equally, since they will devote almost the same time for the needs of the project (different person effort to different work packages according to the expertise of each partner). OU-NL and CSALT/Lancaster have a central role in the accomplishment of the project’s aims and will get slightly more resources than the rest.

Concerning the allocation of the budget into direct and indirect costs:1) The costs for technology /equipment (21.500 in 2 years) will cover software and hardware components for installing the E-LEN portal along with possible mirror sites, video conferencing equipment for organizing electronic seminars and electronic project meetings, some PC peripherals, etc.2) The other costs will cover the expenses for the publication of the E-LEN book, for the advertisement and organization of workshops, the printouts of reports, brochures, etc. (19400 in 2years)3) General costs are less than 7% of the total budget


Table 4 : Specification for Staff costs

The reference numbers (Nr 1, 2, 3, etc.) of the participating institutions must correspond to those used in section 1, question 5 and 6 of the application and be grouped by country, using the same order as in Annex 1. Add copies of this present page for the additional participating institutions, if necessary.Networks (Erasmus 3, Comenius 3 and Grundtvig 4) may wish to present aggregated figures for each country instead of figures for each individual participating institution. In this case, please replace the reference numbers by the country code, using the same order as Annex 1.

All costs in euros Total Coordinating institution (=Participating institution Nr 1)

Participating institution Nr 2 Participating institution Nr 3 Participating institution Nr 4

Staff by category (*) : Total number of days

(a)

Average cost per

day(b)

Total staff cost(axb)

Total number of days

(a)

Average cost per

day(b)

Total staffcost(axb)


(a)

Average cost per

day(b)



(a)

Average cost per

day(b)



(a)

Average cost per

day(b)

Total staff cost

(axb)

Staff Category 1(*) 150 60000 150 400 60000

Staff Category 2(*) 1925 603000 210 300 63000 230 350 80500 175 320 56000

Staff Category 3(*) 579 119000 75 200 15000 70 200 14000

Staff Category 4(*) 131 15500 35 100 3500

Total 2785 797500 320 81500 230 80500 150 60000 245 70000

(*)Please refer to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) as described in Annex A of the Explanatory note on the budget (Annex 2).

All costs in euros Participating institution Nr 5 Participating institution Nr 6 Participating institution Nr 7 Participating institution Nr 8 Participating institution Nr 9

Staff by category (*) : Total Average Total Total Average Total Total Average Total Total Average Total Total Average Total

13 SOCRATES PROGRAMMEApplication form for Full Proposal

number of days

(a)

cost per day(b)

staff cost(axb)

number of days

(a)

cost per day(b)

staffcost(axb)

number of days

(a)

cost per day(b)

staff cost(axb)

number of days

(a)

cost per day(b)

staff cost(axb)

number of days

(a)

cost per day(b)

staff cost(axb)

Staff Category 1(*)

Staff Category 2(*) 210 350 73500 220 300 66000 200 300 60000 150 300 45000 150 300 45000

Staff Category 3(*) 95 200 19000 50 200 10000 125 200 25000 50 200 10000

Staff Category 4(*) 56 125 7000 40 125 5000

Total 266 80500 355 90000 250 70000 275 70000 200 55000

All costs in euros Participating institution Nr 10 Participating institution Nr 11

Staff by category (*) : Total number

Average cost per

Total staff

Total number

Average cost per

Total staff


of days(a)

day(b)

cost(axb)

of days(a)

day(b)

cost(axb)

Staff Category 1(*)

Staff Category 2(*) 180 300 54000 200 300 60000

Staff Category 3(*) 64 250 16000 50 200 10000

Staff Category 4(*)

Total 244 70000 250 70000


Tables 5 : Specification for Direct costs

For each subheading under “Direct Costs” in Table 1 which exceeds €10.000 per year on average, please provide details in the table format indicated below:

5.A - For “Travel and subsistence” :

Purpose of journey Number of return journeys

(a)

Average costs per journey (€)

(b)

Total cost(axb)

Project meetings (2 per year, per partner) 11*2*2 1200 52800Workshop/Conference participation for dissemination (1 per year, per partner)

11*2 1200 26400

Miverva co-ordinators meetings (2 per year) 4 1025 4100

Total identical to line 2.1 in Table 1 € 83300

5.B - For “Equipment and materials” : In the case of purchase of hardware costing over €1.000 per item, please indicate the depreciation rate. Before completing read carefully section C.2.2 of the explanatory note

Description Number of items Cost of purchase or rent (€)

Usage rate%

Depreciation rate%

Total cost

Video conferencing toolkit

11 700 100 7700

Web server 1 3050 100 60 (30% per year) 1820PC upgrades 11 500 100 5500laptops 4 2700 100 60 (30% per year) 6480

Total identical to line 2.2 in Table 1

€ 21500

5.C - For “Sub-contracting, consultancy and other external services”

Subcontract Task description number of person days (a)

Cost per day (€)(b)

Other costs(€)(c)

Total cost(axb)+c

Subcontract 1Subcontract 2Subcontract 3

Total identical to line 2.3in Table 1

€

5.D - For “Other costs”

Description Number of items(a)

Cost per item (€)(b)

Total cost(axb)

E-LEN brochure/ workshop leaflets 500 0,4 200E-LEN book 400 39,5 15800E-LEN report on R&D agendas and roadmap 120 10 1200Postage expenses 2200

Total identical to line 2.4in Table 1

€ 19400

16 SOCRATES PROGRAMME

Application form for Full Proposal

Table 6 : Subdivision of costs according to workplan

Please use below one of the subdivisions indicated in your workplan table in Section 4.

Indicate here the type of subdivision you choose

Staff Costs (€)(a)

Direct Costs (€)(b)

General Costs (€)(c)

Total(a+b+c)

1.

1st year, N0-N11

398750 62100 31900 492750

2. 2nd year, N12-N23

398750 62100 31900 492750

3.

Total

(identical to the total of table 1)€ 985500



SECTION 3 - DECLARATION

To be completed by the person legally authorised to sign on behalf of the coordinating institution.

"I, the undersigned, certify that the information contained in this application, including Section 4 (description) is correct to the best of my knowledge.

The appropriate authorities of all the participating institutions have confirmed in writing their agreement with the application as submitted.

For Comenius 2.1, Grundtvig 1, Lingua 1, Lingua 2 and Minerva only:I am also sending by 1 March 2001 a copy of the present application to the appropriate National Agency in my country (together with a translation of Sections 1.2 and 4 in the language of this National Agency, if it is not the same as the language of the present application). I have arranged for each of the other participating institutions to send to the appropriate National Agency in its country a copy of the present application, together with a translation of Sections 1.2 and 4 in the language of the National Agency concerned.

Place: Date / / (day/month/year)

Signature Stamp of the coordinating institution

Name and position in capitals



Checklist

All questions have been answeredEach page has been numberedThe budget is indicated in euros and checked for calculation errorsThe original application has been signed by the legal representative of the coordinating institutionThe original and 4 copies thereof are being sent to the Socrates, Leonardo & Youth Technical Assistance Office before the closing dateIf this application has not been filled in on-line, a floppy disk with an electronic version of the Summary (Section 1.2) is enclosed with the application paper copiesFor Comenius 2.1, Grundtvig 1, Lingua 1, Lingua 2 and Minerva only :The necessary copies and translations are being sent to the National Agency in the country of each of the other participating institutions before the closing date



SECTION 4 - DESCRIPTION



MINERVA: ODL AND ICT IN EDUCATION

Please describe the following aspects of your proposal, and make sure to answer the relevant questions. Please provide your answers on numbered sheets, using the same order and numbering as given in the list of questions.Please respect the maximum length of text indicated, excluding supporting documents.When referring to languages please use the codes mentioned in Annex 1 of this form.

1. TypologyPlease tick the appropriate boxes.

Please indicate the sector addressed by the project: General Public European Associations Pre-school Primary school Secondary school Vocational & further educat ion Higher education, undergraduate Higher education, postgraduate Adult & continuing education Youth Other. Please specify: Educational Industry

2. Rationale, Objectives, Target Groups (maximum 2 pages)

2.1 Explain the rationale of and background to the project (current situation in the countries involved, previous or preparatory work, the results of any needs analysis undertaken, etc.). You may attach appropriate but succinct supporting documents.

The E-LEN project aims to create a Network of E-Learning Centres and leading organizations in the learning technologies. The E-LEN network will support a diverse constellation of learning centres around the world, and will have a strong capacity for developing and delivering pedagogically informed technology for effective learning experiences. The practical application of research results is absolutely key to the E-LEN vision; we aim to disseminate hands-on learning and teaching experiences and to produce “e-learning design patterns” as well as research roadmaps that can be spread to other institutions, to decision makers, to the educational industry and to the teachers.

For better understanding, the definition of a learning centre is the following:A Learning Centre is established for serving the learning needs of students, faculty and staff of an educational/training organisation, for the deployment of innovative curriculum pedagogy and state-of-the-art learning technology in real courses, and for the development of new learning technology guided by theory and validated by observation of practice1.

A learning centre can offer the following services: Produce new knowledge and define requirements for best learning practices and individualized learning approaches to help

universities maintain leadership positions. Provide pedagogic and technical solutions suitable for innovative use in a variety of university settings. Help universities build

next generation learning tools and services for its core residential and extended education environment.

Through several national and international projects, including Socrates projects (e.g. EONT, MECPOL, Do ODL, DEMETER, Euro-Competence, SHARP), the partner institutions of E-LEN have acquired deep experience and knowledge in the field. Above all, the ex-perience of close, product- and service-focused collaboration between academic institutions, is a valuable asset for meeting the E-LEN goals and objectives. At a national level there have also been initiatives and experiences along the same lines which largely par-allel EU policy about E-Europe and its action lines about E-Learning. Experiences from such initiatives are generally positive and have led in some countries to the creation of sub-nets or national e-learning centers, which can contribute to the establishment of interna-tional networks. NITOL and NVU (the Norwegian Networked University, http://www.nvu.no), or the UK’s eLearning Network (http://www.elearningnetwork.org/) which is an organisation consisting chiefly of private companies working in the learning technology busi-ness, are examples of such national sub-nets for the promotion of e-learning.

1 E-Learning is the systematic use of networked multimedia computer technologies to empower learners, improve learning, connect learners to people and resources supportive of their needs, and to integrate learning with performance and individual with organisational goals.


There are emerging needs that justify the project’s rationale:o Need to learn the know-how, best practices, rules of thumb of implementing e-learning when new organizations, enter the e-

learning field. Despite the progress that has been made in the last five years in the use of information and communication technology in education, many institutes/organisations that think of taking the step to implement electronic learning environments, face the problem of not knowing where to start from and what to do. Instead of re-inventing the wheel they could take advantage of the expertise and know-how of existing e-learning centres.

o Need to identify, share and disseminate the know-how, best practices, rules of thumb of e-learning between various organizations, already involved in e-learning. E-learning is currently a growing market and a field of rapid continuous development throughout the world. (According to the market survey by Urdan & Weggen the e-learning market is expanding from $550 million in 1998 to $11.4 billion in 2003, an annual growth rate of over 80% .2) It is expected that the labour market requirements of the new knowledge economy will force higher educational organisations to extend the skills of students in respect to knowledge work, “information handling” and information and communication technology (ICT) skills. To make effective use of e-learning methods, and to meet these changing educational needs, groups of universities and other educational and training organisations will have to find ways of identifying and sharing best practices, collaborating in the exchange of competence, experiences, ‘lessons learned’, tools and materials, etc.

o Need to better disseminate e-learning R&D results through ICT technologies. Till now, the main dissemination media for R&D results (at national and international levels) are conferences, workshops, journals, project reports, etc. It is high time to make better use of ICT to find new ways to support serious collaboration between high quality research and development teams in the field of e-learning in order to take an active and targeted approach to dissemination of results, good practice, information and consulting services on e-learning.

o Need to establish more e-learning centres and enhance the existing ones. Higher educational institutes and training centres have started to establish learning centres to serve the learning needs of students, to aid faculty and staff in the deployment of innovative curriculum pedagogy and state-of-the-art learning technology in real courses, and to develop new learning technology guided by theory and validated by observation of practice. This is happening in each of the member states, and in all of the countries of Europe, though at very different rates of progress. There is an explicit need to create more of these e-learning centres in each education institution, corporate company or other organization in order to serve the ever-increasing demands of the new economy. Furthermore existing e-learning centres need to be changed for the better by adopting best practices form their peers, in order to enhance and adapt to the changing e-learning demands.

From the above, it is evident that there is an emerging need for close collaboration among experienced researchers, developers and educational managers in order to exchange and present their experiences, to disseminate expertise and guidance about best practice and to advise educational/training organisations as well as the educational industry on how to effectively and efficiently use new technologies. Furthermore the circulation of this knowledge must be improved by benefiting from new and innovative ICT methods. Finally more e-learning centres must be established, and existing ones must be improved to align to the results advocated above.

2.2 Define the concrete aims and objectives of the project and describe the ways in which the situation set out under 2.1 above will be changed and the needs set out in 2.1 addressed by the project.

The E-LEN project has four complementary aims : to create bridges and strong collaborative bonds among existing e-learning centres, educational organisations and high

quality research and development teams in the e-learning field. to disseminate all the above results using a plethora of existing and new ways. to create initiatives for establishing a close co-operation with learning centres/labs and networks in North America,

Australia, and so on, for closing the gaps between the research and development agents that exist among Europe, North America, Australia, etc.

to attract the interest of public and private organisations in financing further E-LEN initiatives and activities, as part of a strategy for continuing the E-LEN network after the end of the Minerva funding. This sustainability plan will also include the development of a shared research agenda about open issues about e-learning. Based on this agenda, collaborative R&D project proposals will be submitted in the 6th framework. Finally the project intends to “open” participation in the E-LEN consortium to a wider range of European partners, after having created and documented the membership registration process

Project ObjectivesIn order to achieve the aims of E-LEN, this project has the following intermediate objectives: To establish the necessary infrastructure and organisational structure for E-LEN, both in terms of human resources

and technology, so as to build a sustainable network of e-learning canters and experts in the e-learning field. The cornerstones of this structure and infrastructure are:

o The human actors (i.e. leaders in e-learning) involved in this projecto the E-LEN portal where mechanisms for easy online access to E-LEN resources, news and for communication,

will be integrated. o a memorandum about the scope of this network and the participating/membership rules

2 Urdan, T. and Weggen, C (2000) Corporate e-learning: exploring a new frontier, WR Hambrecht & Co


to identify and gather best practices and to enhance the transfer of know-how, expertise and research and development results to educational institutions and training organisations across Europe, and also to the educational industry and public. In order to achieve that a survey on best practices on e-learning will be conducted, which will cover issues like pedagogy, technology, major e-learning content and service providers, results from research and development projects, (most of them have already been published) so as to gather, evaluate, filter and cataloguing them using meta-data for building an e-learning database

to propose e-learning “design patterns” and to present research roadmaps on e-learning which will be very valuable for the Academic community, the policy makers, the educational market as well as the European Union which tries to make new call for research project proposals.

to show the administrational, technical, research and development characteristics of a learning centre and to provide guidelines to all interest parties in forming their own learning centre in a systematic way.

2.3 Explain what you consider to be innovative about the project (in relation to each of the participating countries, if the situation is different in each of them).

This network will be the first of its kind in Europe. It will offer a unique opportunity to spread combined knowledge and experience within the educational industry, within Academia, to new e-learning centres, to governmental bodies, etc.Another central innovative aspect of the E-LEN project is the synergy effect caused by combining the R&D activities, results and products from several leading e-learning centres and sub-nets around Europe into one joint pool of experiences and competence. The challenge from the other side of the Atlantic requires larger units and networks, based on collaboration and joint European efforts, in order to be on the leading edge of flexible and well thought through e-learning developments. E-LEN will offer opportunities for the acquisition of new insights, views or opinions and research roadmaps about e-learning based on mutual experiences and “lessons learned” over the years.Finally, the E-LEN project will provide guidance for the systematic building of e-learning centers that is both a need and the current trend in higher education.

2.4 Indicate, if applicable, the main pedagogical and didactical approaches and concepts which will be promoted by means of the project.

The project will prioritise innovative e-learning methods that combine the best and most up-to-date pedagogical insights from the learning sciences with an understanding of the capabilities of current and emerging Internet technologies. Among other things, this will result in the proposal of well-defined methods and patterns for

designing open and learner-centered on-line educational material; identifying new forms of education-focused synchronous and asynchronous collaboration and cooperation among

learners, among learners and teachers, etc. experimenting in the area of collaborative learning, problem-based learning and hybrid learning models; evaluating the usability, utility and learning effectiveness of e-learning tools and learning environments.

2.5 Specify the categories of persons who will directly use the results or implement the outputs from the project, both among and beyond the participating institutions (e.g.: decision makers, school managers, teachers, etc.).The potential beneficiaries and clients of the best practices and design patterns will be:

The academic community consisting of key staff and students in universities and colleges, and to a lesser extent K-12 school teachers.

The technical systems communities consisting of companies and others that design, develop and market the content, services, software, hardware and networks for e-learning services.

Workplace training providers and users; managers responsible for in-company training systems and performance improvement

The potential beneficiaries and clients of the research and development roadmap will be: Policy and decision makers requiring information about actual or potential investments in e-learning Commercial organisations that are actually or potentially involved in the education market

The potential beneficiaries and clients of the guide on setting up e-learning centres will be: The educational institutions wishing to set up an e-learning centre

2.6 Specify the nature and size of the sections of the population (target groups) which the project is ultimately designed to benefit, i.e. the specific groups of learners in the participating countries (and other countries, if relevant) whose learning opportunities will be directly or indirectly enhanced as a result of the project (e.g.: handicapped persons, primary pupils, adult learners in remote areas, autonomous learners, etc).The main target audiences of this project are:

(a) the higher education sector (because new learning centers will be established with the aid of the existing ones and faculty members will be informed about R&D trends, best practice etc in the e-learning field); and


(b) large companies and public sector organisations which are setting up their own e-learning centres, in order to support greater and better use of e-learning for internal training and performance improvement purposes.

In addition, E-LEN partners will help inform decision makers concerned with the use of new technologies in education. A variety of resources will be available for a wider public audience to read about “lessons learned” in the e-learning field, guidelines in applying pedagogical methods and using instructional techniques for e-learning, etc. The size of these sections of the population is quite difficult to estimate. The potential target audience of higher education practitioners across Europe is over 1 million persons.

3. Envisaged outputs (maximum 2 pages)

3.1 Describe precisely the envisaged outputs of the project (reports, surveys, guides / manuals, codes of good practice, assessment or certification tools, data bases, websites, pilot didactic materials or modules, etc.). Specify in each case the nature, volume, structure, content and language envisaged (using the language codes listed in Annex 1 of this form).

E-LEN project will offer solid outcomes that will enhance the distribution of knowledge and expertise on e-learning and the setting-up of e-learning centers. Such outcomes will be the following: The E-LEN portal, which will incorporate facilities such as:

o Information about the E-LEN mission, consortium, activities & events;o A pool of resources, catalogued using meta-data, consisting of reports, educational tools, evaluation studies, a

series of ‘lessons learned’ from the application of e-learning, etc.o Communication and collaboration workspaces (discussion fora, mailing lists, on-line chat, round tables, etc.);o On-line help desk with moderators about technical and non technical issues on e-learning.

A set of organizational, pedagogical and technological implementation ”design patterns” on e-learning. Research and development roadmaps on e-learning. A roadmap is a map of the presumed future and anticipated changes

in a field. It includes illustration and market trends/needs, environmental changes and technology trends, linked together into tangible plans. A roadmap also comprises a number of levels on a time-based chart.

A guide of best practice for an e-learning center. It will include:o A survey of existing e-learning centers, their philosophy and organisation.o Guidelines for installing and running an e-learning center covering administrational, managerial, technical issues.

Dissemination activities about the E-LEN achievements:o Advertising actions for attracting the attention of potential E-LEN beneficiaries (E-LEN brochure, an on-line

newsletter, etc) A book about e-learning R&D agendas and the e-learning centres. This will incorporate the main outcomes of the E-LEN

project and an evaluation report on the quality and effectiveness of E-LEN and its activities.

Moreover, additional project’s outcomes that will come up from special actions are the following: Small scale workshops on specialised topics for exchanging expertise and validating the E-LEN achievements by

researchers and practitioners. Seminars for training groups that are willing to establish e-learning centres. Short courses for consulting the education industry, policy makers and practitioners about using new technologies

effectively and efficiently. Research project proposal on open issues about e-learning.

Output (content)* Content Nature Language

A guide of best practice that will include: This guide will include a survey of existing e-learning centers and Guidelines for the systematic establishment of a learning center

Text/online EN

E-LEN portal WWW gateway to resources, information about the project and its progress, communication tools and discussion fora

WWW EN

Resources like a series of ‘lessons learned’ on e-learning

technical reports, white papers, review publication, project deliverables, EU action plans, standards, etc.

Online material and references to published material

Multilingual (in the language of its origin) with meta-data in EN

E-learning “design patterns” Best practice guides on various issues on e-learning such as learning management systems, e-learning content management, etc.

Text/online EN

Research roadmaps on e-learning A roadmap is a map of the presumed Text/online EN


future and anticipated changes in a field. It includes illustration and market trends/needs, environmental changes and technology trends, linked together into tangible plans.

Workshops, paper presentations, training materials

EN or native language for national wide events

E-LEN book It will contain the main outcomes of the project emphasising the “design patterns” and the e-learning centers guide

Text EN

E-LEN Conference International event International event

EN

Evaluation report about the effectiveness of E-LEN project

It will contain results from analysing the quality of the E-LEN outcomes and the project’s impact to its target audience

text/online EN

* The exact volume and structure of the outputs cannot be estimated at this point

4. Evaluation and dissemination (maximum 2 pages)

4.1 Describe how the progress and functioning of the project will be monitored.The E-LEN project will assess its progress using a number of internal and external control procedures. Quality Planning and Control (QPC) will allow maximum flexibility while maintaining a clear distinction of roles and responsibilities among all partners involved. To this end, the project will establish appropriate mechanisms and procedures, involving all partners. QPC procedures will include project meetings at regular intervals (either face-to-face or via digital media), project reviews and audits as well as a quality plan that will be drafted at the kick-off meeting. This quality plan will be based on the assessment of the specific outcomes of the project, as well as the project’s impact on the international committee (emphasising the achievement of the objectives, the realisation of the needs of end-users, and the project impact concerning the EU Policies and the European activities). QPC will consist of the collection, analysis and interpretation of information about any aspect of the project as part of a recognised process for judging its effectiveness, efficiency, and impact in general. It will be a planned, systematic and open endeavour.

4.2 Describe the evaluation strategies to be carried out during the project period. Explain whether this evaluation will be carried out internally by the project-partners or by an external evaluator. Specify the focus of this evaluation.There will be a specific committee for monitoring the progress of the project as well as for formatively evaluating the interim deliverables during the project’s lifecycle. Small scale, narrow focused workshops on specialized topics on e-learning will be organized with invited relevant experts and stakeholders, in order to validate the progress of the E-LEN deliverables (and especially the R&D agendas and roadmaps), as well as to achieve a large consensus on the outcomes from the e-learning community.The evaluation strategy focuses on activities that will meet the needs and perspectives of the partners, highlight organization (managerial) and technical implementation processes, as well as the effectiveness of the plan for exploitation of E-LEN outcomes. The evaluation will proceed in two stages: a) evaluation of the resources gathered/produced after research and collaboration among partners during the various stages of the project and which will be stored in the E-LEN portal, and b) evaluation of field testing, which implies:

b1) analysing the effectiveness of specific E-LEN outcomes such as the guides for setting up new e-learning centresb2) assessing the acceptance and evaluating the quality of the resources that will be stored in the E-LEN portal concerning

various aspects of e-learning (pedagogy, technical infrastructure, administrative issues, etc) b3) measuring the impact of the E-LEN dissemination activities to educational industry, academia, the VET sector, decision

makers and the research community.

The criteria for the evaluation of the E-LEN resources and their impact will be: Criterion of appropriateness: the resources and their delivery mode are appropriate to the users for which they are

intended; Criterion of engagement (the users find the E-LEN outcomes useful, interesting, challenging, flexible, etc.); Criterion of European added value; Criterion of Behavior, which is concerned with measuring how actual workplace performance of the target audience

has changed as a result of the project dissemination activities, and more specifically:o To what extent has the core idea of the project been transferred to workplace performance? o To what extent has workplace performance improved as a result of the project's initiatives?


4.3 Describe how the experiences and outputs of the project (process and product) are to be disseminated in the countries participating in the project and, if applicable, beyond.We see dissemination as being integral to the project: not a bolt-on activity that can be left to the end. We also believe that it is necessary to see dissemination as an active and targeted process. It is more concerned with effecting change than distributing information.

The dissemination strategy has six main elements:1. To disseminate information and advice and, at a certain level, to influence practices.2. The use of an innovative web site — the E-LEN portal — which will incorporate, among other facilities, an on-line

forum and evolving repository of WWW resources, to bring together multidisciplinary teams of people who are responsible for managing and implementing information and learning strategies and designing and managing e-learning centres. This approach can be seen as an extension of the ”roundtables”, pioneered by TLT in the United States, which are intended to build bridges and more effective working relationships between key academics, administrators, senior managers and support staff. We see this approach as both an on-line staff development programme and the site for an accumulation of documented experience and useful, shareable resources. It has been tested by one of our partners in on-line staff development programmes at the national level.

3. The E-LEN portal will also play the role of a demonstrator web site holding examples of, or links to, e-learning tools and products, well-proven rules of thumb on e-learning, examples from conferences, discussion groups etc. Parts of it will highlight recent advances in the educational use of e-learning technologies.

4. The production and targeted distribution of more conventional dissemination products: brochures and handbooks, guidelines and policy briefings, a newsletter and (finally) a book on e-learning and e-learning centres.

5. A series of workshops for novice and more experienced practitioners and for policy-makers. 6. Consultation activities to/from the standardisation bodies/groups in the e-learning field (Prometeus, IMPS, IEEE LTSC,

etc.). Members of these bodies will be invited to provide input as well as to validate the E-LEN deliverables. 7. An international conference about E-learning Centres, aiming to raise awareness about these centres among

European practitioners, policy makers and industry; raising the international profile of E-LEN initiatives and strengthening the e-learning R&D community.

Finally, a specific activity will be aimed at making the educational industry more aware of E-LEN’s existence since E-LEN wants to offer consulting services to industrial partners.

5. Partnership composition and contribution

5.1 Provide for the coordinating institution and each of the other institutions participating in the project, the following information: type of institution (legal status in national language accompanied by an approximate translation into English, French

or German, if possible; short description of main areas and types of activity); size of institution in terms of the total number of (a) personnel (absolute numbers and full-time equivalents) and (b)

learners and the number of personnel directly involved in ICT for learning, ODL or in educational multimedia (use full-time equivalents) ;

expertise of the institution in the field covered by the project and experience in cooperation at local, regional, national and trans-national level (Socrates and other). Indicate experience both in content and project organisation and a short bibliography of readings in the field. If possible, provide a short C.V. of core participants ;

the specific tasks to be assigned to this institution within the project; number of personnel (in absolute numbers and as full-time equivalents) expected to be involved in the project.

P1: The University of Cyprus (Πανεπιστήμιο-University)

The University of Cyprus is clearly a research-oriented academic establishment. With the establishment of the University of Cyprus in 1989 (its first students were admitted in 1992), a long-awaited goal in the educational development of the country was achieved. The main objectives of the University of Cyprus are twofold: the promotion of scholarship and education through teaching and research; and the enhancement of the cultural, social and economic development of Cyprus. In this context the University believes that education must provide much more than simply accumulation of knowledge. It must also encourage students' active participation in the process of learning and acquisition of those values, which are necessary for responsible and active involvement in the community.The Department of Computer Science is one of the most active Departments of the University of Cyprus. The Department is very active in the areas of information technology and communications and networked learning. The Department has been currently actively participating in over 20 projects funded by various frameworks of the European Union (ACTS, ESPRIT, INCO-DC, SOCRATES, LEONARDO DA VINCI, etc.) as well as other local and international sources. It plays a major role in the development of Information Society, not only in Cyprus but also in the whole Mediterranean region. Members of the Department participate in committees at both the national and international level, such as the National Government Committee on the development of Information Society in Cyprus, the Aldana Group, etc.

Size


CS-UCY: 15 faculty members, 200 students, 11 PhD candidates, 7 research assistants, 6 technical and administrative staffExpertiseSince early 1995 the Department of Computer Science, recognizing the importance of building networking infrastructure for the academic and research community of Cyprus has been actively pursing this goal. Lately, these efforts have started paying off with a number of activities reaching maturity, including:

o An Integrated Services Pilot network has been established together with the Cyprus Telecommunication Authority (CYTA) to allow experimentation with new services and protocols.

o Leading a consortium of Mediterranean Academic and Research Networks currently preparing a proposal (MedNet) to be submitted to EUMEDIS for interconnecting the Mediterranean within itself, as well as with TEN-155. The minimum link speed is at 2 Mbit/sec. Cyprus is expected to act as a hub of the Eastern Mediterranean, linking the Med with TEN-155.

o Since 1995, it has been acting as the technical consultant to the government of Cyprus on networking issues. Projects substantially involved include the ATM based government data network (GDN) and the Government Internet, Intranet and Extranet Service (GIS). Both projects are crucial for the computerization of the government of Cyprus.

o Active participation in the discussions for the next generation academic and research network for Europe. A consortium (GEANT) has already been formed and is currently preparing its proposal under RN1 action of the IST program. The backbone network is expected to be at Gigabit link speeds. Finalisation of the proposal, the technical evaluation, and the contract signing with the European Commission are expected in April 2000.

Moreover, CS-UCY is a member of the MENON Network which is a European organisation providing information, evaluation and support services to the education multimedia market. MENON supports education communities in the effective implementation and integration of multimedia and the Internet, and supports the multimedia industry to improve the quality of education multimedia and the successful production and distribution of products to a European and international market.

Dr. Symeon Retalis, LecturerDr. Symeon Retalis is Lecturer at the Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus. He holds a diploma of Electrical and Computer Engineer from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering studies, National Technical University of Athens, Greece. In 1995, he gained a MSc degree in Information Technology-Knowledge Based Systems from the Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1998 he was awarded with a PhD from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece. His PhD thesis was entitled “CADMOS: A web-based courseware development methodology for Open Learning Systems”. He has worked as research assistant and tutor at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. His research interests lie on the development of Web-based courseware and learning environments, hypermedia systems design, the use of artificial intelligence in education and portal technologies. He has participated in various European R & D projects. He serves in the editorial board of international journals and participates to special interest groups about the learning technologies and web engineering such IEEE LTSC, ACM Web Engineering.

Associate Professor George A. PapadopoulosGeorge A. Papadopoulos (Ph.D.) holds the (tenured) rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science. He has participated in a number of international and national projects (namely ESPRIT, MED-CAMPUS, INCO, LEONARDO DA VINCI, etc.), both as a researcher or partner, and as a (co-)coordinator. He has been involved in the organisation and Program Committees of many international conferences and workshops, including serving as the Technical Program Chairman in the EURO-MED NET 98 conference (http://www.euromednet.ucy.ac.cy) whose purpose was to establish a strategy for forming an Information Society in the greater Mediterranean region. He is also one of the coordinators of the I.T. Node on Electronic Commerce in Cyprus and the coordinator of the Technical Consultancy team for the ISPO ESIS-II project for Cyprus and Egypt (http://www.ispo.cec.be/esis). Professor Papadopoulos' research interests include modelling and design of multimedia systems, use of multimedia for developing web-based distance learning and training environments, parallel programming and high performance computing, electronic commerce, workflow management and CSCW. He has published over 50 papers as book chapters or in internationally refereed journals and conferences and he serves in the Editorial Board of 5 international journals.

TasksProject management, joint development of E-LEN portal, liaison with educational industry, exchange of know-how and R&D initiatives, and evaluation of the effectiveness of E-LEN

Number of personnel: 2 researchers (2fte), technical staff (0,5 fte), 1 administrative staff (0,15 fte)

P2 : Lancaster University, Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning TechnologyHigher Education Institution (EDU.4)

size Lancaster University employs 2200 staff, of whom 700 are engaged in teaching and research.Involvement in ODL: approximately 100 staff are involved in ODL activities. Over 90% of staff make use of ICT in their teaching activities. CSALT has around 30 members of whom 9 are based in the Department of Educational Research.

expertise


http://www.ispo.cec.be/esis

CSALT - The aim of CSALT is to provide a focus for research in advanced learning technology (ALT), a field in which Lancaster University has a well-established international reputation. The Centre is multi-disciplinary. Its members bring a variety of research perspectives to bear on the complex issues surrounding the design and use of learning technologies. Its members have expertise in education, computing, psychology, management, instructional design, courseware production methods and evaluation. The Centre carries out basic and applied research. Its members are also closely involved in the education and professional development of workers in the ALT industry, and in consultancy.Recent CSALT projects in the area of eLearning have included a major study, funded by JISC, of Students’ experiences of networked learning in UK higher education; a BT-funded project on the use of networked learning methods to improve access to higher education opportunities; EU-funded projects on the use of networked multimedia technologies to enhance the acquisition of complex skills and ESRC-funded projects on technological support for group-based experiential learning and on interactive web-cast lectures. Other current nationally-funded projects are the pedagogical evaluation of the DNER (the UK’s Distributed National Electronic Resource) and the evaluation of the UK Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN). CSALT staff have been involved in the following EU projects in recent years: SHARP, MECPOL (both Socrates ODL projects), ETOILE, A-TEAM, JITOL, NECTAR, DisCOURSE, OSCAR, INDIOS, TOSKA, NATLAB and SAFE/Simulate. Further information about the Centre’s work can be found at http://csalt.lancs.ac.uk/csalt

Peter Goodyear is Professor of Educational Research at Lancaster University. He has been conducting research into the uses of new technology in higher education for the last 20 years and has published four books and sixty research papers. In recent years he worked on the team (led by Peter Ford) which produced the book Managing change in higher education: a learning environment architecture (Open University Press, 1996); he was a founding member of the executive committee of the Association for Learning Technology, co-ordinator of the Learning and Instruction with Computers SIG of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, and is editor of the international journal on learning and cognition, Instructional Science. He was the founding director of Lancaster University's Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology (CSALT) and in 1989 set up one of the country's first postgraduate courses to make extensive use of e-learning technologies (the MSc in IT & Learning). He was the co-ordinator of the Socrates ODL project SHARP, which investigated the use of asynchronous multimedia conferencing for continuing professional development programmes. With Vivien Hodgson and Christine Steeples, he has also just completed a major two year study of Students’ experiences of networked learning in UK higher education. He is particularly interested in understanding systemic approaches to the design and management of e-learning environments in HE, and has been developing a framework that draws on perspectives from human factors/ergonomics and user-centered systems design. He has given invited keynote talks about this approach at international conferences in Bergen, Ireland, Malaga, Maastricht, Leuven, Twente and Perth (Australia) in the last three years. He is currently project manager for the evaluation studies of the DNER and LTSN, mentioned above.

Christine Steeples is a lecturer in the CSALT team at Lancaster University. She directs Lancaster's eLearning programme – the Advanced Learning Technology Programme - and also convenes the course team for the Lancaster on-line course on Networked Learning. She was a principal investigator on the BT-funded Computer Mediated Communications in Higher Education project (1992-1994) and on the EU-funded JITOL and SHARP projects. She has also been funded by the UK Economic & Social Research Council to carry out research on multimedia support for collaborative learning. She has published more than 20 papers on aspects of e-learning in the last ten years. She has recently edited a book (with Chris Jones) on Networked Learningpublished by Springer Verlag in 2002.

Chris Jones is a Research Lecturer in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University and teaches on the Advanced Learning Technology MSc programme and the Networked Learning Programme short course. He has just completed two years field research, which is part of the JISC/CALT funded Students’ experiences of networked learning in higher education project. He is an Assistant Lecturer with the Open University tutoring on the course THD 204, Information Technology and Society, which uses networked learning support for distance learners. His Ph.D. was completed in 1998 and was an ethnographic study of the use of computer conferencing using cooperative and collaborative learning strategies. He has published a number of conference papers, journal articles and book chapters on ethnography, evaluation and situated learning. He was a contributor to the Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative 'Evaluation Cookbook' which is available online in publications at: http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi. In the last three years he has presented papers on his research at conferences in Bristol, Manchester, Maastricht, Atlanta Georgia and at the CSCL conference at Stanford University. His book on Networked Learning (with Christine Steeples, published by Springer Verlag, 2002) is repidly becoming recognised as a key text on the subject.

P3: A Priori LimitedA Priori Limited is a private company working in the service sector (SER). A Priori Limited is an SME, which currently employs five staff. It does not itself offer courses to learners, but offers design and consulting services to companies, universities and other training and education providers. All of A Priori’s staff work with ICT for learning, in ODL and with educational multimedia.

Expertise A Priori Limited provides a range of services to support the development of effective learning resources, including paper-based materials and e-learning environments. The company provides a complete 'one stop' service for the entire lifecycle as well as specialist support for key phases in learning resource development. A Priori has expertise in: Project management; Design, writing, editing and production of text-based materials, especially learning resources; Research and evaluation; Design of computer-mediated learning environments: simulations, Internet; Advice on organisational strategies for the use of learning technology; Requirements engineering for learning/training systems; Organising state of the art reviews and seminars. A Priori Limited was a partner in the Socrates ODL project SHARP (Shareable Representations of Practice) from 1997 to 2000. In the past five years, A Priori staff have also carried out consultancy, editorial, project evaluation and materials development work for the


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

http://csalt.lancs.ac.uk/csalt

following organisations: BT (UK); Glaxo (UK); ICL (UK); Kluwer Academic Publishers (NL); Lancaster University (UK); Learning Materials Design (UK); London University (UK); University of Bergen (NO); University of Twente (NL).

Sonia Bartoluzzi will be the member of A Priori staff responsible for work on the E-LEN project. She is a director of the company and was the principal member of the company working on the SHARP ODL project. She has a background in Engineering (BSc University of Durham, UK) and has an MSc in Information Technology & Learning from Lancaster University (UK). She has many years experience as a technical writer and editor of open learning materials. Before A Priori, she worked for BT (British Telecom), IEE (the UK Institution of Electrical Engineers), ACCA Open Learning, Associated Book Publishers, Communiqué Information Design Ltd and Wolverhampton University Business School. She also spent four months working on media selection methodologies for an educational technology research lab in Milan (IT), where her clients included IBM.

Tasks A Priori will play an important role in order to:

o develop initiatives for improving E-LEN’s knowledge and understanding of the needs of industrial/commercial organisations that are involved, or plan to get involved, in the education market

o engage in carefully focused efforts for transferring E-LEN knowledge and know-how (about e-learning) to industry, academics and policy-makers

o provide a series of ‘lessons learned’ from the applications of e-learning and to create a set of organizational, pedagogical and technological implementation ‘design patterns’.

o interest organisations in the commercial world in financing further E-LEN initiatives and activities, as part of a strategy for continuing the E-LEN network after the end of the Minerva funding.

Number of personnel: 1 person (absolute numbers)

P4: The University of Maastricht (MMI)The university of Maastricht has a long and international accepted tradition in educational innovation. Twenty five years ago problem based learning was chosen as the basic didactical method to be used. At first in the new medical school that started in 1976, and later also in the new starting faculties as Health Sciences, Law, Economics, Knowledge Engineering, Psychology and Cultural Arts and Sciences. That gives the University of Maastricht a broad expertise in the implementation of learning methods in which students are responsible for their own learning process (self directed learning, learning to learn), of a thematically oriented curriculum in which the content is arranged by problems and not by disciplines and where students experience collaborative learning in small groups. These principles are still actual, particularly in the integration of new learning technologies. For that purpose the Maastricht Learning lab was founded as part of the MMI. The Maastricht Learning Lab supports the faculties of the University of Maastrichtwith regard to innovation and integration of their curricula using information and communication technology. The focus of the Learning Lab is creating electronic learning environments and tools especially for learning in a problem oriented and collaborative learning setting. The Learning Lab realises this mission in collaboration as well as through partnerships with other higher educational institutes and enterprises. The Learning Lab identifies three core tasks:

To develop and initiate policy for ICT innovation in the educational system of the Universiteit Maastricht for the near future. To design, develop and implement together with faculties "learning tools" for curricula. This will be done through explorations and experiments involving three areas of educational collaborative learning:

o Problem-Based Learning curricula for regular students;

o Other models such as project-based learning and dual learning for regular students;

o Collaborative learning in the workplace.

To develop and disseminate expertise among faculty and staff of the MMI founding organisations.

Size MMI: 19 persons / 17,1 fte, Learning Lab: 10 persons / 8,6 fte

Expertise:

Educational sciences

Educational psychology

Cognitive Psychology

Informatics

Engineering

Tasks:The MMI takes the lead in the stage where new R&D initiatives can be supported and proposed by the provision of learning “design patterns” and training materials. The MMI participants will collect and adapt materials about pedagogical theories that are relevant for the design and evaluation of learning tools. A model of e-learning is used that covers three interrelated layers in e-learning practice: 1. variables in the curriculum where students learn (learning principles), 2. interactions of and between learners in the environment (learning behaviour) and 3. learning mechanisms that are affected by those interactions. This model has two dimensions, it can be used in the design process as well as in the evaluation of the applications.


Frans Ronteltap is associate professor in the Department of Educational Research and Development of the University of Maastricht and is affiliated to the Learning Lab, a division of the Maastricht McLuhan Institute. At this moment he is temporary director of the Learning Lab. He studied Educational Sciences and wrote a doctoral thesis about psychometric and cognitive studies on the use of knowledge in problem solving by learners. His research interests are collaborative learning and the facilitation of it by the use of learning tools. In his career he was involved in the development of evaluation of computer based training, multimedia, simulations and web based learning environments. Professor Ronteltap is an active member in the Dutch Educational Research Association (VOR), the European Association for Learning and Instruction (EARLI) and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Recent activities in his work are the membership of the organization committee of the first European Computer Supported Collaborative Learning conference in Maastricht, invited speaker on a symposium of the Dutch Association for Medical Education about the use of computers in education and an invited seminar about the use of ICT in problem based learning at Stanford University.

André Koehorst holds a major in psychology (cognitive sciences) and has been working in the field of educational technology since 1989. He started as a researcher at the Research Institute for Knowledge Systems, where he worked on several experimental authoring tools for educational systems. The educational scope of these systems was wide and ranged from intelligent tutoring to collaborative knowledge building. He was involved in the development of an assessment system for project based learning at the Faculty of General Sciences of Maastricht University and held a position as lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine of Maastricht University, where he was responsible for the daily coordination and the educational tasks (design, evaluation) in a task force on the use of media and technology in the medical curriculum. In 1999 he joined the Maastricht Learning Lab, where he works on the development of learning tools for problem based learning. He is currently contributing to a project involving the large scale implementation of electronic study guides (ROBBES) and a project on computer supported collaborative learning (POLARIS2).

Gaby Lutgens completed her study on Educational Psychology at the Brabant University in Tilburg in 1996. Gaby joined the Learning Lab of Maastricht McLuhan Institute in 1999, focusing on creating and implementing electronic learning environments and tools especially for learning in a problem oriented and collaborative learning setting. In 1997 she started to work at Wageningen University (Education Group) as a junior researcher and focused on the topic of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL). In several national and international conferences she presented findings on this topic. Next to this she put effort in creating several new courses for higher education on the topic of education and pedagogy and lectured both on giving presentations and practical implications of CSCL in education (based on her research).

Number of personnel involved in this project: 3 persons / 0,7 fte

P5: The Open University of the Netherlands (OUN)The Open University of the Netherlands (OUN) will participate with The Educational Technology Expertise Centre (OTEC). OUN is an independent government-funded institution for open higher distance education, established by law in 1985. The Dutch government's purpose in founding the Open University was to make higher education accessible to anyone with the necessary aptitudes and interests, regardless of any formal qualifications. The Open University charter identifies two further aims: to create a more cost-effective form of higher education, and to encourage innovation in higher education, in terms of both the curriculum and the teaching methods. OTEC has established itself as the leading center of its kind in the Netherlands. The OUNL is a leading partner in the recently established Dutch Consortium Digital University.

ExpertiseThe mission of the Open University of the Netherlands is twofold: to offer students an alternative form of higher education by means of guided independent study, and to encourage innovation in higher education. Such innovation demands expertise of a specific kind. At the Open University of the Netherlands, that expertise is channelled through the Educational Technology Expertise Centre (OTEC). OTEC is responsible for designing new methods and technologies in higher education and for developing the related applications. Activities are centered around four groups: Research, Development, Implementation and Schooling. Staff totals about 100. To guarantee internal integration and flexibility, OTEC organises its work around projects. The project-driven approach makes it possible for OTEC to explore the latest insights in its field, both inside and outside the Open University of the Netherlands. OTEC groups its projects into the following categories:

Consortium projects Spearhead and priority projects Faculty-related projects Internal projects Research into educational technology

One of the outcomes of OTEC’s R&D activities is the development of the Educational Modelling Language (EML) which is accepted by IMS as the basis for a future standard on learning design.

Professor Dr. Rob KoperHead of the R&D programme on learning technologies within OTEC.Degree in optics and educational psychology, PhD in educational technology (computer supported adaptive tutoring)


- Was director of company in professional training (70 employees/trainers). Until 1990 project-leader of different innovation projects related to the use of ict in education (mostly cd-rom based at that time)

- 1990-1998, head of ict application development (e-learning infrastructures, educational software development, etcetera). - 1998: Professorial chair in educational technology, specifically in e-learning technologies/director of the R&D team into learning

technologies.- Dozens of publications in different Dutch/English journals. Congress organisation; programme committee's. Project lead of

dozens of different innovation projects. Chair of several national ict boards/initiatives. Several years active in EADTU (e.g. as secretary of the group on Media, Methods and Technologies).

- Responsible programme manager for R&D into Educational Modelling Languages, personalised instructional, web-based learning environments, XML based authoring environments (design, editing, content management), pedagogical meta-models and new generative models for building personalised curricula.

- Standards: IMS technical board member; Prometeus steering committee member; in CEN/ISSS WSLT active on EMLs.

TasksOTEC is particularly interested in the following aspects, to which it could make a significant contribution:

specification of learning technology requirements in the areas of ubiquitous learning, personalization, re-usability of content, media-neutral delivery, and accessibility. exchange of know-how on establishing of R&D and e-learning centres production of resources, such as courses on the didactic aspects of e-learning and on standardization in e-learning technologies; set up R&D initiatives on e-learning for at least three areas: design patterns on e-learning platforms, evaluation of e-learning programmes, new pedagogical methods for e-learning

Number of personnel: 3 researchers (total 0,5 fte) , 1 “technical staff” ( 0,15 fte)

P6: NITOLAssociation (Ass.3) of four universities and colleges in Norway, formally established in 1994 for collaborative R&D purposes, all partners being involved since the early 80’ies with pedagogic and technical development related to ICT in education. The main focus has been on Open, Flexible and Distributed Learning (ODL). From minor groups within each institution the activity has over the years spread to larger parts of the staff, and is now, in 2001, a central part of each institution’s overall strategic plan.

SizeThe 4 institutions have a total of around 3 500 academic staff members, of whom around 370 are directly involved with ICT for learning, and out of these again about 150 with ODL activities.

ExpertiseNITOL existed as a dual project until 1999, trying to focus both on R&D activities and on delivery of courses to students through ICT based ODL. When the student population had reached a level of 3 – 5000 course registrations per term, it was time to re-organize. NITOL now remains as a collaborative R&D forum, while the NVU (NettVerksUniversitetet, i.e. the networked university) is responsible for course delivery, student administration etc. and has been extended to include 5 more (i.e. a total of 9) institutions. NITOL, as an E-LEN partner, thus has access to 2 different fora for development and testing of new ideas.

Harald Haugen, Assistant Professor1966-84 Lecturer in sciences at Stord College of Education1985- - Assistant Professor in Educational Computing, Stord Coll. of Ed. (now: Stord/Hgsd. College)1989-91 Director of Coordination Group for computers in education, Ministry of Ed. & Research1991 - -In charge of higher degree studies in Educational Information Science, U. of Bergen1992-99 Project manager for several national and European projects on IT for Open Learning

Experience in strategic planning, political issues, integration of IT in education, training of teachers and software designers. Teaching experience from USA (1964/65), Tanzania (1969-71), Kenya (1975-76) and Canada (1986). Assigned responsibilities for international projects, conferences, white papers etc. by OECD, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Norwegian Ministry of Education, Research and Church Affairs. Numerous presentations at international and national conferences and seminars.

Thorleif Hjeltnes, Assistant ProfessorWork Experience: Lecturer Sør-Trøndelag University College, in Computer Science, 1979 – 1998.Assistant Professor, S-T UC, 1998 – todayHead of Computer Science Department, 1980 – 1997.Member of board, Faculty of Technology, 1995 – 1997Pro-vice Chancellor of S-T university College, 1997 – 2000.Chairman of the board and part time Managing director of the research foundation TISIP, 1985 – todayProjects:Development of customised Systems and Software for the use of Internet services in the field of ODL. Experimental Noteeditor developed in 1994 as a product of the JITOL project (DELTA). A system called FLINK – Flexible Learning through Internet gives


New Knowledge developed with support from the Norwegian Research Council. Research on using Standard Internet services for a Networked Virtual Learning Institute in the Socrates projects MECPOL, Do ODL and EuroCompetence.Role in projects: WP-leader in the JITOL project. Project leader for FLINK, Partner representative and WP-leader in the MECPOL project. Contract partner and Project leader of the Do ODL project and of the EuroCompetence project.

TasksNITOL will contribute with expertise both within technology (software and networks), pedagogy/didactics, learning environments and activity, and ODL-organization and economy.

Number of personnel 4-6 Researchers, 4 assistants and 1 'technical staff'

P7: University of BergenThe University of Bergen is a medium-sized European university. It is an urban university, with much of its campus close to the city centre of Bergen. The University of Bergen is both a teaching and research institution in most subjects, organized in seven faculties and some 90 departments and specialized centres. The University of Bergen also forms part of a global network of students, researchers and academic institutions. The University is a meeting-place and a gateway to other sources of expertise, local, national and international. Our focus on international relations since the mid-eighties has profiled the University of Bergen as an international university in Norway, in line with the traditions of the city. The University of Bergen’s students make up over 10 per cent of the population of the city. The University itself, the Norwegian School of Management and Business Administration, Bergen College, the Chr. Michelsen Institute, the Marine Research Institute, the Nansen Centre and Haukeland Hospital are the city's most important academic institutions. In the course of the past few years, the University of Bergen has developed and formalized its cooperative efforts with other colleges of higher education in Western Norway, from Møre in the northern part of the region to Agder in the south. Together with the three other Norwegian universities, the University of Bergen is a node in the national network of institutions of research and higher education

Size: about 25,000 students and more than 2 500 staff

ExpertiseThe Department of Information Science at the University of Bergen is a national centre for research and education in information science, and several staff members play central roles within their international research communities. The department cooperates widely on an international level, with almost half the scientific staff originally coming from countries other than Norway. The department has a large influx of talented and motivated students. The current projects underway are substantial and address a variety of issues and problems in the general area of technology enhanced learning and instruction. The expertise now available represents a broad range of disciplines and specialties, including collaborative learning, courseware authoring, database development, educational research, instructional design, medical informatics, and web design.

Professor Konrad MorganProfessor Konrad Morgan is director of the Educational Information Science and Technology Programme (EIST) and the acting chair of the Information Science Department at the University of Bergen, Norway. Prior to these current appointments he held positions at Bermuda College, Bermuda (1996-1998), the Information Science Department of the University of Portsmouth, England (1989-1996) and the Psychology Department at Edinburgh University, Scotland (1986-1989). He has also been visiting professor at the computer science department at Uppsala University, Sweden (1994-1995) and visiting professor of information systems and multi-media at the computer science department of Linkoping University, Sweden (1995). Dr Morgan has lead, and been involved with, international research collaborations with universities and leading international companies in England, Europe, America, Asia and Russia. Senior author of over 60 refereed technical papers and articles in human computer interaction, psychology and human factors. His research interests include : (i) The possible effects of individual differences on computer system preference and performance; (ii) Technology attitudes as a predictive measure of successful technology usage and (iii) The viability of computer interface design methodologies. (iv) Information Science in criminal intelligence analysis

Tasks To develop initiatives for improving the E-LEN knowledge and understanding of the industry that have or tend to get involved in the

educational market To make a concentrated effort for transferring the E-LEN knowledge and know-how in e-learning to industry, academics and policy

makers To provide a series of lessons learned from the applications of e-learning, and some organizational, pedagogical and technological

implementation “design patterns” To attract the attention of the commercial world in financing E-LEN initiatives/activities on the use of technology in education and

training

Number of personnel 3 researchers (1,2 fte), 1 technical staff (0,2 fte), 2 research assistants (0,2 fte)

P8: National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) - ICCS) (Ινστιτούτο-Institute)


The Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS) is a university research institute, associated with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (DECE) of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). ICCS carries research and development activities in the fields of telecommunication systems, computer systems, software and hardware engineering, automatic control systems and biomedical engineering.One of the several laboratories of ICCS is the Software Engineering Laboratory, which is one of the partners in this project. This laboratory is engaged in teaching, development and research in the areas of Software Engineering (SE) and Courseware Engineering (CE). Its research interests span areas of SE with emphasis on software development methodologies, man-machine interfaces, software configuration management, distributed computing, software quality assurance, testing, design patterns, and software architecture. Its research interests also span areas of CE with emphasis on courseware development methodologies, web-based learning environments, courseware authoring tools, evaluation of courseware and learning environments, educational hypermedia conferencing, tele-education and tele-training.

Sizea) Presently, ICCS has 40 members of faculty of DECE/NTUA, 20 additional senior researchers and 100 research students, all full-time.b) Currently, there are 150 learners, two professors, four PhD students and three senior researchers directly involved in ICT for learning, ODL and educational multimedia.

ExpertiseICCS has expertise in developing, using, and evaluating courseware in Web-based learning environments. Additionally, it has expertise in the development and use of tools useful to educators. It has taken part in several EU projects like MECPOL, EONT and SHARP as well as national funded projects. ICCS is now in the process of experimenting with the introduction of ODL as a method to complement the conventional teaching of some courses

Emmanuel Skordalakis is a full professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He currently teaches two undergraduate courses (Software Engineering, and Compilers) as well as two postgraduate courses (Object-Oriented Software Development Methodologies, and Internet Publishing). He is the head of NTUA-ICCS Software Engineering Laboratory, which also numbers four post-doctoral associates, four postgraduate and several undergraduate students, conducting research in the scientific fields of software engineering and courseware engineering. Professor Skordalakis has served as coordinator in several research projects in the aforementioned research areas.

Nikolaos S. Papaspyrou is a lecturer at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He received a B.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the NTUA and a M.Sc. in Computer Science from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. In 1998 he was awarded with a PhD from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the NTUA. His doctoral research focused on the denotational semantics of programming languages and its relation with the software development process. Other research interests include intelligent software agents, distance learning and educational software. Dr. Papaspyrou has worked in several European Commission and National funded R&D projects as a primary researcher and has made several literature contributions that appear in international journals and conferences.

Paris C. Avgeriou received his diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). After graduating (1999), he joined the Software Engineering Laboratory research team of the NTUA as a Ph.D. candidate. He has worked as a researcher in several nationally funded projects. His research interests lie in the field of Open and Distance Learning combined with hypermedia engineering methodologies and CASE tools that support them. He is also interested in new technologies for the web, like new mark-up languages and open platforms for dynamic web site development. He is a member of the IEEE Learning Technologies Standardisation Committee (LTSC).

Tasks Design & development of E-LEN portal;

Liaison with educational industry;

Set-up R&D initiatives on e-learning (with emphasis on Design patters on e-learning portals and evaluation of e-learning programmes).

Number of personnel: 2 professors, 3 researchers, 1 technical staff.

P9: Oscail, the National Distance Education CentreOscail – the National Distance Education Centre was established in 1982 with the aim of widening access to programmes of study leading to qualifications at diploma, degree and postgraduate level. The National Centre has a dedicated budget provided by the Higher Education Authority for the provision of distance taught programmes throughout Ireland. A co-operative approach to course development and teaching within a single integrated national programme is a unique feature of the distance teaching strategy. Oscail draws on the support of other universities and third level colleges in the development and presentation of its programmes.Size : At present there are around 3,500 students studying with Oscail. 31 members of staff are currently working at Oscail.

ExpertiseThe Centre has an active research programme and participates in a range of transnational projects. Research areas are identified in the context of Oscail’s strategic objectives and the research interests of Oscail’s staff. Therefore project participation has focused on:


- Economics and cost-effectiveness of distance education;

- Cost-effectiveness of the use of media in distance education;

- Applications of educational technology in distance education;

- Effectiveness of innovative course delivery systems (e.g. Internet);

- Development of innovative course materials (e.g. multimedia);

- Teaching mathematics and science at a distance;

- Evaluation systems;

- National and international co-operation in distance teaching

Dr. D. M. R. BancroftDirector of Oscail, The National Distance Education Centre@ Dublin City University, Ireland (September 1999 – present)Professional Information Chartered Psychologist (No 11415), Practising Certificate (Current Certificate expires 31 01 2002)External Academic Activities (i) Graduate member of the British Psychological Society and member of the Developmental and Cognitive sections of that society.(ii) Member of the British Psychological Society’s Graduate Qualifications Accreditation Committee.(iii) Member of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction.(iv) Member of the Board of the European Association of Distance Universities (EADTU).(v) Member of EADTU Programme Committee for ‘Wiring the Ivory Tower’, EADTU Millennium Conference, Paris, September 2000(vi) Chair of the Languages Network EADTU September 1999 – September 2000(vii) Member of the EADTU Programme Committee for the forthcoming EADTU conference London, December 2001.(viii) Member of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), Standing Conference of Principals (SCOP)(ix) Member of the International Programme Committee for the 20th world conference of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), Dusseldorf 2001.(x) Member of cross border panel evaluating UFI (Learn Direct) initiative (Aug 2000).(xi) External assessor for proposed single honours degree in Applied Psychology, Leeds Metropolitan University, July 2000.(xii) External Examiner for Psychology courses, Staffordshire University, School of Social Sciences. October 2000 – September 2004.Research Activities Over recent years my research interests have changed from earlier interest in children’s reasoning about time to issues related to the effective learning via distance education.

Kay Mac KeoghSenior Lecturer – Humanities Programme, Oscail, National Distance Education Centre, Dublin City University, Ireland, responsible for the management of a national programme involving six universities, and over 1000 students taking modules towards the distance education Bachelor of Arts programme. Experience In-depth knowledge and experience of current developments in European open and distance learning, from a practical and theoretical perspective. I have coordinated the planning and management of open learning programmes; published reports and papers (see list of publications) on these issues and given papers to conferences and workshops. I have participated as an expert on a number of EU, OECD and Council of Europe committees responsible for developing policy in this area, I acted as National Coordinator in Ireland for the Socrates ODL action 1995-2000. In this capacity I have advised the Irish Ministry for Education on current and proposed developments. In addition, I have participated in the biannual coordinators’ workshops in Brussels, acting as rapporteur on a number of occasions. I have also directed a number of European funded projects such as Euroform, and Jean Monnet, produced the Report on ODL in Ireland for the Task Force on Human Resources, Education and Youth, and have participated in DELTA, COMETT, and Socrates projects on issues of cost effectiveness and the new technologies. I am currently director of a Minerva funded research project examination issues on access, expertise and attitudes to ICTs in education on a transnational basis. I have been responsible for providing strategic ODL input in a number of projects based in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia (Tempus – FLACE and NEPOLD, CEFES2000), and the first Phare Multi-Country Training the Trainers project (1995-1996). I have also contributed to workshops and seminars related to ODL in Slovakia Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic. I was part of the evaluation team which produced the evaluation of the Phare Multi-Country Distance Education programme in 1999 and am currently engaged in the final evaluation of the Phare Programme on behalf of the European Training Foundation aimed at providing input for a working paper on implementation of e-learning and lifelong learning policies in the candidate countries.

TasksThey will participate in: Advertising actions for attracting beneficiaries attention for E-LEN (E-LEN brochure, an on-line newsletter, etc) Surveys on national activities & initiatives in the e-learning field for the purpose of registering the best practices in the field at a

European Level


Evaluation studies about the effectiveness of e-learning and its social/organizational impact. Dissemination of the E-LEN achievements and showcases of the E-LEN activities

Number of personnel 2 researchers, 1 technical staff, 2-4 research assistants

P10: Politecnico di MilanoSince its foundation in 1863, Politecnico di Milano has grown up to become the largest Italian University specializing in technology and one of Europe’s ten leading technical universities. To confirm its vocation as power-house of cultural, technological, scientific and economic development nationwide, Politecnico has launched an policy which aims at a strong and stable cooperation with individual companies, the worlds of industry and finance, local bodies and central government, and also other universities, centers of education and research, and cultural associations, with a well developed plan of technological innovation, technology transfer, and development of applied research. Increasing development of this strategy and the growing need for integration with the territorial environment has lead to a decentralization of the Politecnico structure, creating a regional university named Politecnico Net - with two large campuses in Milano and branches in Como, Lecco, Cremona, Mantua, and Piacenza.

Size a) Absolute numbers

o current students - engineering faculties: approx. 27.000o current students - architecture faculties: approx. 27.000o current professor - engineering faculties: approx. 500o current students - architecture faculties: approx. 200o current full time researchers - engineering faculties: approx. 200o current full time researchers - architecture faculties: approx. 100

b) Directly involved in ICT for learning, ODL or in educational multimediao current students of "traditional" classes in computer science, working on multimedia projects for education: o engineering faculties: approx. 30 o architecture faculties: approx. 50o current students of "traditional" classes in computer science, using regularly ITC facilities for accessing educational

material or interacting with teachers: o engineering faculties: approx. 200 o architecture faculties: approx. 90

o students attending the On-line degree (started on Sept. 2000): 185o current professors/researchers involved in research and project in ITC for education, or using e-teaching facilities:

o engineering faculties: approx. 15o architecture faculties: approx. 10

Expertise Politecnico di Milano will participate in the project with the team of HOC- the Hypermedia Open Center at the Department of Electronics and Information, involving nearly 20 people. From a technological perspective, the research and development activity of HOC (see also http://hoc.elet.polimi.it/inglese/home.html) focuses on various areas of on-line and off-line hypermedia, multimedia, and WW technology: modeling and authoring, usability evaluation, dynamic navigational interfaces to data bases, tools for web cooperative navigation, requirements engineering, as well on development of real-life applications. Among the most relevant scientific achievements of HOC we can mention the following: the definition of HDM – historically, the first model for designing hypertext/hypermedia applications proposed in the international community; a software architecture for interfacing navigational applications with relational data bases; an editorial platform for multimedia publishers; a systematic methodology for evaluating the usability of hypermedia applications; J-Web, a set of HDM-based tools for hypermedia design and fast prototyping of web applications; VRML-Talk, an innovative architecture for 3D cooperative visit of web sites. The main application domains investigated by HOC are education, technical documentation and industrial training, cultural heritage and museums, tourism, and e-commerce. The HOC group has developed over twenty hypermedia applications – on CDROM or WWW. The results of these researches have been published in international journals, books, and have been presented in several national and international conferences both as papers (over 90) and as tutorials (over 20). Many of the scientific and development results of HOC has been achieved within European projects in which the group has been or is currently involved: INDOC, SUPERDOC, HYTEA, MINERS, HIFI, HYPERTOUR, SITMOON, SIMOS, DELOS, UWA, VNET5, OPENDRAMA, all in the areas of electronic publishing, multimedia development tools, hypermedia design, education and training.

Franca GarzottoFranca Garzotto is Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Computer Science at the Faculty of Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, and Lecturer of Hypermedia at the Faculty of Industrial Design. She is vice-manager of HOC – Hypermedia Open Center. She has a Degree in Mathematics from the University of Padova (Italy) and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Politecnico di Milano. Her research interests focuses on hypermedia and web modeling, design methods, usability inspection techniques, multimedia cultural applications. In these fields, she has published over 60 international papers, she has been co-instructor of nearly 20 tutorials held at international conferences, and she has been involved in 6 European research projects. She was tutorial chair and/or member of the technical program committee of plain several editions of the many international conferences: ACM Hypertext and Hypermedia, ACM Multimedia, ICHIM, WebNet. She served as Program Chair of the International Workshop on


"Hypermedia Design", held in Montpellier - France in June 1995. She served as Co-Chair of the First International Workshop on "Evaluation and Quality Criteria for Multimedia Applications", held in S. Francisco - CA, November 1995. From 1997 to 1999, she was European chair of SIG-WEB (the ACM Special Interest Group on Hypermedia & Web).

Paolo PaoliniPaolo Paolini has a degree in Physics from the University of Milan, a Master and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He is presently full professor at Politecnico di Milano. He is also Lecturer at the School of Communication Sciences at the University of Italian Switzerland (USI)-Lugano. He is the scientific coordinator of HOC – Hypermedia Open Center - a team of Politecnico di Milano devoted to research and development projects concerning methods and tools for multimedia and web applications.He has more than 70 published papers on the following subjects: relational Data Bases, Data Modeling, Abstract Data Types and Data Bases, Views for Data Bases, Automatic generation of documents, Hypermedia and WWW modeling and design, Multimedia implementation, Hypermedia evaluation, Design patterns, Design and Generation of Web Applications, collaborative access to WWW, use of new technologies for cultural applications, use of advanced technologies for education and training. He has been co-instructor of nearly 20 tutorials, in several international events, in the above field. At the University of Italian Switzerland (Communication Science) he is developing a research activity on the communication based upon advanced technology. At the University of Lecce he has developed the Telemedia Lab, active in advanced multimedia technologies and application. The Telemedia Lab currently employs nearly 15 people, and Paolini has kept strong scientific ties with it. He has been Program Committee member of several conferences, and chairman of important scientific events, including the ACM conference on Hypertext (1992-Milan). He is currently Associated editor of TOIS (Transactions on Information Systems), an ACM journal. He has been involved in 10 different European funded projects, and for several of them he has been scientific coordinator. He has been professional active in the areas of Software Engineering, Information Systems analysis and design, Office Automation, Multimedia design and development, WWW design and development, tools for WWW and electronic commerce. He has also managed small companies in the IT area (up to 50 people), and coordinated several multidisciplinary working teams.

TasksPolitecnico di Milano will get involved in the following tasks: E-LEN portal design know how-transfer to industry, research initiatives about educational portal design patterns (in navigation and interaction design, and in cooperation design), systematic assessment of the usability and utility of E-LEN portal and activities

Number of personnel: 1 associate professor, 1 full professor, 1 pedagogy expert, 1 researcher, 1 PhD student, 5-10 students of our classes of Multimedia, Computer Graphics, Web Design

P11: Institute for Media and Communications (IfMK), Ilmenau Technical University (TU-ILMENAU)The Ilmenau Technical University is a research & development oriented University with 5 faculties: Mathematics and Sciences, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Automation, Mechanical Engineering and Economics. The IfMK was founded in 1996; it is part of the Faculty of Mathematics and Sciences and cooperates with departments of all of the other faculties. Main focuses of research of the IfMK are: New Media in Communication, “trust” in the internet (E-Business), social interaction in the WWW and the design of web-based learning environments (e-learning), especially innovative forms of interactivity and usability testing.

SizePresently, IfMK has 7 chairs and 17 senior researchers. Currently 3 professors and 8 researchers are directly involved in two big R&D-projects concerning e-learning in several forms (tele-teaching; web-based; learning. One of these projects are cooperating with professors of the faculties for Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering of the Ilmenau Technical University as well as with partners from the Universities of Dresden, Magdeburg, Oldenburg, Trier and Innsbruck (Austria). Another project cooperates with the University of Lubeck (Dept. of Computer Science for Medical Applications). The number of students at the IfMK is about 400 majoring in “Applied Media Studies”.

ExpertiseThe team of the Chair for Design of Multimedia Systems (MK) at the IfMK has expertise in designing, developing, using, and evaluating computer-based learning (since the 80s) and in Web-based learning environments (since the middle of the 90s). Additionally there is expertise in the field of instructional design theory and in methods of evaluation and usability studies (including special methods like eye-tracking); development and validation of a tool for the assessment of the navigation behavior of learners in hypermedia learning environments (EDASEQ). There is a close cooperation with the Institute for Knowledge Media (IWM) at the University of Tuebingen (successor of the former German Institute for Research on Distance Learning - DIFF).

Dr. Helmut M. Niegemann is Professor of Multimedia Systems Design at the Institute for Media and Communication (IfMK) at the Ilmenau Technical University. He has a Master’s degree in Social Sciences and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of the Saarland University. He has been conducting research into the design, development, integration and evaluation of educational technology in professional and higher education since more than 12 years. 1997 to 2000 he was head of the department for the design of learning environments at the German Institute for Research on Distance Education at the University of Tuebingen. He conducted several research projects granted by the DFG (German Research Council). He developed a


methodology for the analysis and evaluation of learning processes in hypermedia learning environments. He is particularly interested in (a) the promotion of high-interactive learning environments, with e.g. questioning possibilities for the learners, (b) the development of a hypermedia based representation of a technological theory of instructional design (“hypertheory”). He has published more than 80 papers on educational psychology and technology. In the last 3 years he gave talks and presented papers about his research at international conferences in Taipei, New Orleans, Seattle, Goeteborg, Fribourg, Maastricht, San Francisco and San Diego.

Tasks Evaluation

o Designing an evaluation plano Development of tools for the evaluationo Conducting evaluation studies, (especially usability-testing), analysis of resultso Evaluation report

Liaison with Educational Industry (departments for professional education and further education of bigger companies; companies and public institutions offering professional and further education)

Number of personnel: 3 researchers ( 0,5 fte) , 1 “technical staff” ( 0,15 fte)

5.2 Indicate for each activity within the project the partner institution responsible, the other partner institutions involved and the profile of experts from within and outside the partnership.

In the following Table, we present the responsibilities of each partner during E-LEN project:

WP Stage-Workpackage (WP)

Activities WP Leader

Partners involved

WP1 Establishment of a network of e-learning centers and research groups and experts

Surveys of existing e-learning centres Development a methodology and guidelines for

building and managing an e-learning center

P2 P1, P4, P5, P6, P9, P10

WP2 Design & development of E-LEN portal

Needs analysis & Requirements specification Design, Development Evaluation

P6 P1, P2, P5, P7, P8, P10, P11

WP3 Exchange of know-how and production of resources for E-LEN portal

Organisation of working and study groups (SIGs) on various aspects of e-learning (technical, pedagogical, administrative, etc.)

Collection and analysis of reports to be published at E-LEN portal

Revision of the reports for publishing on the E-LEN portal

P5 All

WP4 Production of e-learning design patterns and research roadmaps

Survey of existing documentation Exploration of the relations between this survey and

existing needs and overviews of best practices. Production of the e-learning design patterns Propose research roadmaps on e-learning

P4 All except P3

WP5 Advertisement & dissemination actions

Liaison with educational industry Establishment of a pool of interest groups Workshop(s) and training materials Organisation of a conference

P3/P7* All

WP6 Evaluation the effectiveness of E-LEN

Analysis of E-LEN outcomes and achievements Creation of an evaluation report

P11 ALL except P9

WP7 Maintenance of E-LEN Maintenance of E-LEN portal Membership procedures for “opening” E-LEN to

wide community Initiatives for R&D activities

P1 All except P10

WP8 Project management Reporting, monitoring, administration, etc. P1 ALL

Note:* There will be dual leadership in the co-ordination of the advertisement and dissemination activities. The reason is that this stage of the project is very crucial for the success of E-LEN. Two different sets of action will happen: one that will focus on the educational industry and another on the higher education and training sector as well as decision makers. A Priori will mainly orchestrate the necessary activities for the first target audience whilst Ubergen will co-ordinate the activities for the other user groups. Finally, A Priori will be the leading organization for the creation of the E-LEN book, the brochures and other printed material while Ubergen will collaborate with all partners in finding the most suitable solution for organizing the E-LEN conference


Although it seems that all partners are involved in all activities, the level of implication varies. The allocation of person days to each WP is shown in the following Table (the shading in cells indicates the WP leader).

Allocation of Person days to WPs per partner

Partners Wp1 Wp2 Wp3 Wp4 Wp5 Wp6 Wp7 Wp8 TotalP1 12 10 35 45 43 20 35 120 320P2 105 5 35 45 15 5 5 15 230P3 10 95 5 5 35 150P4 75 0 45 85 15 5 5 15 245P5 10 10 140 25 25 15 15 26 266P6 10 60 40 100 40 60 40 5 355P7 10 115 25 85 5 5 5 250P8 45 65 65 45 15 15 25 275P9 85 35 45 15 5 15 200P10 64 25 35 55 20 30 15 244P11 10 45 85 45 20 20 25 250Total 361 175 600 575 443 180 150 301 2785

5.3 Specify how effective cooperation and communication will be ensured between the partner institutions, the main working language(s) to be used, and the specific arrangements envisaged for resolving any conflicts that may arise between the partners.

Almost all the partners that belong to E-LEN consortium have worked with each other for a number of years under various circumstances, either within EU projects or within other formal or informal research initiatives. This will help greatly in setting up the E-LEN partnership. Four project meetings (2 per year) have been scheduled in order to plan and monitor the project’s progress as well as to resolve any conflict that might arise. During the kick-off meeting, emphasis will be given to sharing common understandings of the methods that will be used to reach the goals of the various key activities.The communication media (e.g. mailing lists, Internet telephony, etc.) will also be used for facilitating the exchange of ideas and for solving any problems during the project’s lifecycle. The E-LEN portal will provide discussion fora for each SIG that will be formed. These mechanisms will facilitate the exchanges of knowledge, experience and expertise on the use of the creative learning methods. Desktop video conferencing facilities will be utilized for real time communication. Some of the participating institutes have video-conferencing rooms, which will be used for better coordination of the activities that some partners will lead. Finally, this infrastructure will be used for organizing electronic seminars on specific topics on e-learning.

5.4 In addition to the formal partner institutions, list any other institutions which will participate actively in the project without receiving support from the Socrates grant (name, address, type of institution, contact person).

All partners have relations with entities who could offer valuable help in the achievement of the E-LEN objectives. At this moment no formal letter of intent has been acquired. In section 6.4, we mention links with other partners and networks.

6. Planning of activities (maximum 2 pages plus table)

6.1 Describe and justify the overall working methods the partnership intends to use when carrying out the project (management procedures, research and pedagogical methods, data gathering, joint design, types of meetings, teleconferencing, etc.).

In order for E-LEN to become successful as a network of e-learning centres, a systematic development and deployment approach must be followed. This approach can be regarded as a series of intra-consortium and extra-consortium activities. Figure 1 illustrates this approach.

The intra-consortium activities will aim at strengthening the bonds among the E-LEN partners as well as an exchange of know-how and experience in issues concerning the organization of e-learning centres and the advanced learning technologies. The partners will form special interest groups (SIGs) that will work on specific topics of the e-learning field and propose design patterns and R&D roadmaps on these topics. It is not reasonable to advocate that E-LEN will provide “design patterns” and R&D solutions to e-learning in general. However, the consortium has complimentary expertise in the following topics for which SIGs will be formed: a) Asynchronous and synchronous learning (CSALT or MMI), b) Learning content management (OU/NL), c) Virtual Universities (NITOL group), c) Learning Technology Systems (NTUA), d) Hypermedia learning material design and evaluation (HOC or IfMK) and e) Quality assurance (NITOL group).


Lessons learned from the past need to be gathered, elaborated and formalised so as to create a repository of “design patterns” in the delivery and “engineering” of e-learning.

Some of the project partners in the consortium have significant experience in being learning centers with great success, while others have established high quality R&D groups/labs within their universities, which could be transformed to learning centers under the proper guidance and supervision. The learning centers that participate in the E-LEN consortium, that is the Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology (CSALT), the Hypermedia Open Center (HOC/Polimi), the Maastricht Learning Lab (MMI), the Educational Technology Expertise Centre (OU/NL-OTEC), and the National Distance Education Centre in Ireland (Oscail), will collaborate in the survey, analysis and evaluation of existing e-learning centres, for the production of the guidelines for establishing e-learning centers.

At the same time, there are E-LEN partners who are involved in R&D in the e-learning field but not at the same level. Thus, there will be a series of activities (meetings, analysis of surveys, exchange of material, etc.) for all the partners to share a common understanding of administrative, technical, pedagogical and ergonomic issues about e-learning centres and the deployment of e-learning. Face-to-face meetings and workshops will be organized along with synchronous and asynchronous conferencing. Helpful material will be exchanged and produced for this purposes. This material will be stored in the E-LEN portal, and it will be used for internal and external purposes according to the maturity of its content. This portal is required to be usable, well-organized, and information-rich, capable of integrating intensely complex information. Design of the portal as well as quality of the material will be of the highest rank in order to fullfil the above requirements.

The extra-consortium activities will aim at making E-LEN beneficiaries (faculty members, educational managers, policy makers, educational industry, standardisation bodies) aware of E-LEN and the services it can provide as well as the dissemination of E-LEN expertise to the wide community. These beneficiaries will probably seek: for guidance in how to use e-learning technologies in a pedagogical and cost effective way; for setting up new initiatives in the e-learning field, for establishing methods of evaluation for e-learning, for drawing new action lines in the e-learning at a regional, and/or national level, etc. There will be well-defined procedures for providing services in order that E-LEN will work transparently and in full co-operation among its members.

Moreover, E-LEN partners will contact interested parties to collaborate on innovative projects (either research, or development, or deployment) on the e-learning field, thus creating a pool of interested parties to E-LEN activities and e-learning in general. Such parties will be content providers, companies on learning tools, R&D groups, and other learning labs.

Figure 1. Approach for developing and deploying the network of e-learning centers

6.2 Indicate the working methods envisaged in order to produce each of the outputs listed in question 3.1.

E-LEN is a project of tremendous potential future impact. Therefore, project management will be given a high priority and attention. A distributed working scheme has been employed for managing the development process. Project operation is to be carried out by using the following roles or groups:


Project Manager, who will collaborate with the project co-ordination Committee - comprised of contact persons of each partner and the workpackage leaders - in order to monitor the progress of the project;

Technical Leader, who will co-operate with the Project Technical Committee (technical leaders of the participating partners) in order to develop the E-LEN technical infrastructure which must be of high usability;

Project Exploitation/Dissemination Committee (research staff of each partner), who will make all the proper arrangement for accomplishing the goals of the dissemination and exploitation workpackage;

Project Evaluation Committee (staff of the participating in the task partner specialised in project progress quality assurance), which will collaborate in organizing the user trials, gathering and analyzing data and in presenting the evaluation report.

Strong emphasis has been put on the way that the following outcomes will be produced:

1) A pool of resources on e-learning best practices in terms of pedagogy, technology and services;2) E-learning “design patterns”;3) A research and development roadmap on e-learning.

Two different workpackages deal with these products. To start with, the workpackage leader with the aid of the participating partners in the task for creating the pool of resources on e-learning best practices will form special interest groups (SIGs) for the exchange of know-how and resources in order to cover various aspects of e-learning (as explained in section 6.1).Taking into account the collected material these SIGs will continue their work on proposing, on the one hand, e-learning “design patterns”. On the other hand, they will correlate the achievements so far with the current needs and trends in e-learning for suggesting research and development roadmaps. The people that will take part in the SIGs will not only be personnel for the E-LEN partners but researchers and practitioners that will be called to share their knowledge and expertise. In order to attract such participants, the E-LEN consortium will join forces with other EU initiatives. Current European and International initiatives in the areas of e-learning technologies will be assessed on their commitment to standardisation and open-source contribution. Present standardisation initiatives such as IEEE LTSC LOM, CEN/ISSS WS-LT, Prometeus, IMS, as well as emerging trends will feature prominently in the R&D agenda and roadmap to be developed under E-LEN. In section 6.5 a number of potential contributors are mentioned. Finally, concerning the production of the guide on setting up e-learning centers, the workpackage leader, who is such an e-learning center, will be assisted by other similar partners-centers. Together they will analyse and compare their modus operandi, will exchange knowhow with other centers that exist in North America and will propose a set of guidelines of how to establish such an e-learning center in a systematic and cost effective way.

6.3 Justify in overall terms the duration of the Socrates support (one, two or three years), in relation to the nature and number of the outputs envisaged.

This project will be the starting point for developing a European policy in organizing e-learning centers and in bringing together various high quality R&D groups. The duration of the project is two years. It is envisaged that it will be enough time to share common understanding in the e-learning field, in exchanging experiences and know-how and setting up joint R&D initiatives that will strengthen such collaboration, which is expected to endure after the completion of the project. Moreover, the time is quite adequate (the more the better) for setting up user trials for validating the E-LEN strategy in establishing new learning centres. It is expected that within this project the E-LEN consortium will make liaisons with educational industrial partners for guiding them in using e-learning technologies efficiently and effectively.

Finally, the time for creating such a network is ideal. E-LEN will provide an R&D roadmap for large projects within FP6, which would outline an approach for bringing Europe to a world leading position in e-learning. Such a project will offer the necessary resources and motives for the sustainability of E-LEN.

6.4 Describe any plans or intentions you may have for establishing links with other projects and / or networks, within Socrates or beyond.

The E-LEN project will make use of the results from several European and national projects (such as MECPOL, SHARP, EuroCompetence, etc). In addition, E-LEN partners are involved in projects particularly relevant for the project.

HOC is involved in a project called "TECHNOLOGIES AND METHODOLOGIES FOR VIRTUAL CAMPUS", sponsored by MICROSOFT and starting Spring 2001.This project envisages the development of a virtual campus where students and educators are provided with a terminal such as a PDA, a notebook, or even just a cellular WAP phone properly equipped to be connected to a wireless network. Such kind of projects will offer input for both “design guidelines” and “R&D agendas.

Members of the consortium are involved in projects under the FW5 programme, such as the European Training Village (http://www.trainingvillage.gr). Furthermore, some of the E-LEN partners participate in a project called “MENU: A Model for a European Networked University”, co-funded under the e-learning programme. Some of the deliverables within the MENU project (e.g. report on virtual universities, quality assurance policies) will offer valuable input to the E-LEN.

Finally, E-LEN will collaborate with the only one big network of e-learning centres that has been developed since 1999. The E-learning Network of Centres of Excellence is a huge Canadian achievement, which embraces all the leading universities, training organisations, research institutes and industrial partners. 80 faculty members from 24 Canadian universities are evaluating the effectiveness of new learning models, analyzing the cost-benefits and social impact of implementing tele-learning, and creating new educational technologies. URL: http://www.telelearn.ca/g_access/front.html.


6.5 Indicate how, if at all, you intend to extend the project partnership / network during and beyond the period of support from Minerva, for example in terms of the participating institutions and countries, the themes and target groups addressed, etc. (development strategy).

E-LEN will seek active members -rather than passive listeners- to join the broader E-LEN consortium. These members will have interest in applying E-LEN’s outcomes and they will report about their quality. The E-LEN partners named in the proposal have already in mind some such potential members.

Lancaster University’s CSALT group has just completed a major study of networked learning on behalf of the UK university funding councils. Part of this work involved the specification of a national advisory service with respect to networked learning in UK higher education. CSALT has now been asked to develop proposals for carrying out similar work in the VET sector. Through these national initiatives, CSALT will link E-LEN to additional partners and networks at the national level. This is particularly relevant given e-learning initiatives underway in the UK such as LearnDirect and the e-University.

The University of Maastricht is an active member in different co-operations. For several years the ALMA-consortium exists in which 4 universities in the Euregion work together (Liege-Belgium, Diepenbeek-Belgium, Aachen-Germany and Maastricht-Netherlands). (http://www.alma-emr.nl/) Recently the decision was made to start (September 2002) a new Transnational University Limburg (TUL), a comprehensive cooperation in which new faculties will be founded (Life Sciences and Knowledge Engineering), new curricula will be developed and new research projects will start. In all those activities the use and study of new technologies are obvious. The Maastricht Learning Lab is connected to those developments and will explore the possibilities to extend the partnerships in this project. Other relevant partners of the University of Maastricht are the international networks of faculties as Economics & Business Administration (Edineb : http://www.fdewb.unimaas.nl/edineb/) and Medicine (Network of Community-Oriented Educational Institutions for Health Sciences http://www.network.unimaas.nl) with collaborative activities that range from consultations at the individual level to externally funded, longitudinal, multi-institutional co-operative projects. Finally the Maastricht Learning Lab is an affiliate partner in the Wallenberg Global Learning Network (Stanford University) where new learning activities and environments are designed, which activate the learners, and learning outcomes are assessed (http://www.wgln.org).

A Priori Limited is a member of the UK’s e-Learning Network (http://www.elearningnetwork.org/) which is an organisation consisting chiefly of private companies working in the learning technology business. A Priori Limited will act as a conduit between E-LEN and the UK e-Learning Network to ensure that some of the benefits of the E-LEN activity will flow beyond the boundaries of the initial E-LEN partnership.

NTUA-ICCS participates in a network of universities, training organization and companies concerning the usability of learning technologies products. Their involvement has shown that there is great demand in Greece for guidance on how to apply new technologies in education and training. Finally, University of Cyprus is active in the area of euro-mediterranean research, through active collaborations in the context of the EUMEDIS programme. Therefore, participation to the E-LEN project will enhance the dissemination of results and products to the scientific community of the Eastern-Mediterranean region.

6.6 Set out any strategy you may have for seeking to ensure that the activities conducted by the network can be continued when the financial support from Minerva is reduced or phased out completely (sustainability strategy).

The Maastricht Learning Lab and CSALT, as well as the Universities of Maastricht and Lancaster in general, are involved in many (international) activities related to research and development in educational innovation related to problem-based learning and other innovative pedagogies. These contacts offer a platform to focus attention on the existence of this e-learning initiative and to explore possibilities of new sponsors for the future after evaluation of the outputs. Moreover, the E-LEN network having created research roadmaps and agendas will submit collaborative R&D project proposals in the 6th framework with good possibilities in getting funding. Finally, the consortium will try to imitate the NITOL’s and the Norwegian Virtual University’s paradigms which now continue their activities without external support and funding (they both started as research projects).

6.7 On the basis of the above, provide an overall work plan using the table format given below. To this end, please: Divide the project into relevant stages (such as needs analysis, collection of materials, drafting, editing, testing,

production of material, publication, dissemination, organisation of training, etc.) which you envisage in order to produce the project outputs identified;

Show within each stage, what activities the partnership will undertake, which partner(s) will be responsible for each stage, how many persons (person / days or person / months) each activity will require and by when each activity will have been completed.


Work PlanIn order to meet the aforementioned goals, a concrete workplan is needed which is shown in Table1.

Table1. Workplan of E-LEN project

Stage Output Activities WP Leader Partners involved

Schedule Time input (days)

WP1: Establishment of a network of e-learning centers and research groups and experts

A survey of existing e-learning centers

Guidelines for development and implementation of a new learning center

Surveys of existing e-learning centres

Development of a methodology and guidelines for building and managing an e-learning center

Establishment of new e-learning centers

Validation of guidelines

P2 P1, P4, P5, P6, P9, P10

N0-N6 361

WP2: Design & development of E-LEN portal

E-LEN portal with private and public space as well as with a pool of resources

Needs analysis & Requirements specification

Design, Development Evaluation

P6 P1, P2, P5, P7, P8, P10, P11

N0-N8 175

WP3: Exchange of know-how and production of resources for E-LEN portal

Resources, i.e. technical reports, white papers, course material

Organisation of working and study groups on various aspects of e-learning (technical, pedagogical, administrative, etc.)

Collection and analysis of reports to be used for E-LEN

Revision of the reports for publishing using meta-data description on the E-Len portal

P5 NO-N14 605

WP4: Production of e-learning design patterns and research roadmaps

e-learning design patterns research roadmaps on e-learning

Survey of existing documentation

Exploration of the relations between this survey and existing needs and overviews of best practices.

Production of the e-learning design patterns

P4 All except P3 N8-N18 575


Propose research roadmaps on e-learning R&D initiatives

WP5: Advertisement & dissemination actions

Workshops, paper presentations, training materials

Consultancy to educational industry E-LEN book E-LEN Conference

Development of training materials

Liaison with educational industry

Establishment of a pool of interest groups

Workshop(s)

P3/P7* All N6-N24 443

WP6: Evaluation the effectiveness of E-LEN

Evaluation report about the effectiveness of E-LEN project

Analysis of results from E-LEN test cases

Evaluation report

P11 ALL except P10

N20-N23 180

WP7: Maintenance of E-LEN

Maintenance of E-LEN portal

Membership procedures for “opening” E-LEN to wide community

Maintenance of R&D activities

P1 All except P10 N22-N24 150

WP8: Project management

Yearly reports Reporting, monitoring, quality assurance, administration, etc.

P1 ALL N0-N24 296

* As explained in §5.2.


7. Contribution to transversal policies (maximum 1 page)In terms of (a) the impact of the project on the target group (section of the educational community ultimately addressed), and (b) participation in the project itself, please specify where applicable how and to what extent the project will actively:

7.1 promote equal opportunities between women and men;7.2 promote equal opportunities for disabled persons;7.3 contribute to the fight against racism and xenophobia;7.4 promote social and economic cohesion7.5 promote language learning and teaching.

Distribution through the Internet is an important factor to ensure equal opportunities to men and women, to disabled persons and other groups of disadvantaged people. The learning is available to all, independent of place and time, provided the technology and language barriers can be overcome. E-learning helps to bridge the gap between East and West, North and South, between populations near and far from universities and other learning centers, and between generations. In all of these considerations it is important to take into account the social exclusion which can be exacerbated by gaps in access to ICT. However, we agree with the policy perspective that sees a longer-term potential for ICT usage to act as a tool for breaking down barriers to social inclusion - especially those based on disability, regional location, family commitments, etc.

8. Other aspects (maximum 1 page)Please state any other aspects of the proposed project which you feel the Commission should take into account when assessing your proposal.


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