Learning Technology May 2000 page 1

Metadata for your web siteMetadata to describe printed resources hasexisted in the form of bibliographic records inlibrary catalogues for many years, allowingsearches through a variety of access points,such as title, author and subject. With theemergence of Dublin Core (More details athttp://ukoln.bath.ac.uk/metadata/resources/dc/ ) asthe standard for describing web resources,metadata can also be embedded in the headerof a web site. Search engines can improveresource discovery by searching across thesedefined metadata tags, which contain accuratedescriptions of site content, rather thansearching across the full text of a site, whichfrequently results in a large amount ofirrelevant information being retrieved.

The adoption of Dublin Core as a standard fordescribing multimedia resources is based onseveral important characteristics:

1) Simplicity. Designed for use by non-specialists, it should be an efficient way ofcreating records for an ever increasing numberof online resources. Similarly the use of genericelements should aid searchers from a range ofdisciplines to locate target material.

2) International Scope. Development of theDublin Core has involved participants fromacross the world, ensuring that it takes accountof the international nature of electronicinformation and is adopted as a globalstandard.

3) Extensibility. The Dublin Core recognises theuse of metadata outside the traditional role ofresource discovery and description in the libraryarena and allows for extensions to coveradoption in different disciplines and for a rangeof purposes.

Work has been progressing on metadatacreation in SELLIC using the tools provided byour membership of the Online ComputerLibrary Centre (OCLC) Cooperative OnlineResource Catalog (CORC) Project. Metadatarecords for Science & Engineeringdepartmental web sites have been incorporatedinto Edinburgh University Library’s Voyagercatalogue, available via Library Online at http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/. Have a look for the record foryour departmental web site, and let us knowwhat you think. If you are interested inobtaining Dublin Core metadata for embeddinginto your departmental or course web site,please contact the SELLIC Metadata Editor,Zena Mulligan, at mulliganz@srv4.lib.ed.ac.uk .

Welcome to the second Learning Technology Supplementto BITs. This occasional newsletter aims to bring younews of projects and activities across the whole universityassociated with the use of technology to enhancelearning. We would welcome news of any initiatives thatyou know about or are engaged in, and contributions toforthcoming issues would be welcome.

A Virtual Learning Environment for EdinburghA learning environment is the term usually used to describe a software tool de-signed to assist the creation of on-line or web-based courses. Most learning envi-ronments, often called virtual learning environments (VLEs), will combine someadministrative tools (such as student registers) alongside pedagogical tools (suchas quizzes and discussion fora). In the last Learning Technology supplement therewas a description of the Edinburgh Electronic Medical Curriculum (EEMeC) andAlastair Bruce described an implementation of the WebCT environment to createlearning materials for Physics1Ah (Copies available from http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/resources/index.shtml if you missed it).

VLEs use the web to allow the students to access the information, and are thereforeplatform independent and they provide tutors with a selection of tools that will beuseful when designing courses but which do not require any knowledge of html.Hence the tutor doesn’t generally need to have more than a basic competence inworking with computers (but they may need to have considerable instructionaldesign skills). Producing an on-line course is not simply a case of converting a setof existing materials into an electronic format, there are many issues that shouldbe considered. Moving towards the use of a VLE should be looked upon as anexcellent opportunity for revising and enhancing the current course.

MALTS staff have been working with EUCS and the University of Singapore toprovide an Interactive Virtual Learning Environment for use to support any univer-sity course. This system is now installed and is being tested with dummy informa-tion. We are seeking partner departments or courses who would be interested inimplementing the IVLE on a pilot basis, from the start of the next session. The IVLEwill make it easy for staff to create on-line materials to support their courses - it iseasy because the system is entirely forms driven so no knowledge of html is re-quired - but you can link to existing web pages or other electronic resources if theyare available to you. The IVLE includes optional discussion fora - already filled withthe information about which students are registered for the course - and easy tocreate quizzes with different question types and lots of feedback possibilities.

Web ConferencingAn alternative to the discussion forum in IVLE is WebBoardwhich has been purchased by MALTS for use throughoutthe university. WebBoard is arguably the leadingconferencing software and is widely used in other highereducation institutions. WebBoard is accessed through astandard web browser. Unlike email the messages arenot ephemeral, since the discussion board is able to ar-chive them for long periods, and they are not chaotic,since the messages on a discussion board usually followthreads, each message following on from another, withthe sequences visually represented.

Full details of the system, including a demo board can befound on their website at http://webboard.oreilly.com/ .

Want to know more?Staff seeking more details about the IVLE, WebBoard orWebCT should contact Nora Mogey in MALTS. Tel 6516163 or e-mail Nora.Mogey@ed.ac.uk

LearningTechnologyBITs Learning Technology SupplementNumber Two : May 2000

Contents

page 1 VLEs, Metadata andWeb Conferencing

page 2 SELLIC, CLIVE andLearning Technologyreports

page 3 Computer BasedAssessment, LTSN

page 4 Bulletin Board

Compiled by Nora Mogey, MALTS.Graphic Design by Rachel Ellaway,Learning Technology. Thanks to Nickand EUCS BITS team for their help, andto all contributors.

Learning Technology May 2000 page 2

SELLICSELLIC has established two specialinterest groups which act as channels forcommunication within the Faculty and theUniversity as a whole. The Faculty Group4 Learning Technology Forum is open toall staff of the Science and EngineeringFaculty with a teaching involvement. Theforum meets once each term, with invitedspeakers on selected topics and time forquestions and debate. In April the LTFmeeting was devoted to the theme ofvirtual learning environments, examiningWebCT in particular.

SELLIC is also leading the Academic /Library Forum on Electronic Information(ALFEI), bringing together staff with aninterest in electronic publishing. The firstALFEI meeting, held in February, was onthe topic of network publishing ofscholarly articles. On 4th May a secondmeeting will consider Internet searchengines.

Reports on the mneetings and forumdiscussions are available on the SELLICwebsite http://www.sellic.ed.ac.uk For furtherinformation contact the SELLIC LearningTechnology Officer, Wilma.Alexander@ed.ac.uk,tel 650 7409.

To join the mailing list for either of these groupssend an email to majordomo@lists.ed.ac.ukwith the message:

subscribe fg4-ltf [your email address]

subscribe alfei [your email address]

SELLIC Online PrototypeIn March the prototype for the SELLICOnline Learning Environment was com-pleted for SELLIC by Dynamic Blue Ltd.The prototype is available at http://www.sellic.ed.ac.uk/prototype/prototypeintro.htmlor follow the link from the SELLIChomepage.

In view of the recent developments in vir-tual learning environments (VLEs) in theUniversity as a whole, the SELLIC Advi-sory Board took the decision not to pro-ceed with the development of the back-end of SELLIC Online. Nevertheless, theprototype was commended, and the de-cision not to proceed with it is no reflec-tion upon the efforts of its developers, theformer SELLIC Programmer and the Dy-namic Blue team.

SELLIC development effort will nowswitch to concentrate on the developmentof tools of specific use to the Faculty ofScience & Engineering and to VLE inte-gration with library systems. Meantime,we hope that staff will spend some timeexploring the SELLIC Online prototypeenvironment and tell us what they like anddon’t like about it.

Medicine andVeterinaryMedicineLearning Technology Section

New St John’s MicrolabOne of the major problems facing theFaculty of Medicine is to provide anacceptable level of learning support tostudents on clinical attachments inhospitals outside the central Edinburgharea. A pilot project involving the FacultyGroup Learning Technology Section,Computing Services, Napier University andthe NHS Trust will expand the Universitynetwork to St John’s providing medicalstudents with a range of on-line learningsupport materials (email, the Internet,Microsoft Office, reference services) andteaching packages. The project was fundedjointly by the Faculty, EUCS MicrolabExtension Fund and the NHS Trust and usesTrust accommodation in the St John’slibrary leased by Napier University toprovide Learning Information Services toundergraduate Nursing students and staff.

The new facility is located alongside theNapier University facility with each of the18 PCs having the potential, through a dual-booting facility, to connect either to EdLANor Napier’s network. The two networksremain entirely independent of each otherand while a student is connected to onethere is no means of access to the other.Edinburgh University benefits by havingPCs installed in secure, well-lit andcomfortable surroundings, NapierUniversity by having access to more PCs.The project uses existing telecommuni-cations between St John’s Hospital andEdinburgh City centre and both Universitiesare part of EastMAN so although the StJohn’s data circuit terminates at Napier datadestined for Edinburgh University caneasily be routed to us without any additionaltelecommunication lines having to beleased. The project will go live in May andif evaluation demonstrates that the solutionis viable we will seek to provide similarlearning support facilities at other hospitalslike Borders General Hospital at Melrose,and Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy.

Courseware Development‘Respiratory Anatomy’ is the latest CALproduct from the MVM Learning TechnologySection. Designed to teach the basicanatomy and mechanical function of therespiratory system to year 1 MBChBstudents, it consists of a series of tutorialscovering the respiratory system and itsfunction. The package is fully illustratedthroughout with diagrams, dissections andanimations as well as a comprehensiveindex and a ‘note taking’ feature. RachelEllaway, 511749, email Rachel.Ellaway@ed.ac.uk

”Interactive Cases in Small AnimalMedicine”, a simulation of clinicalconsultations with ten initial cases waslaunched on CD-ROM at the Congress ofthe British Small Animal VeterinaryAssociation in April. Like the earlierEquine Case Studies the case details areexternal to the program. Additional casescan be added to the menu from the Webor other media. We are hoping to findresources to make a web-based versionof the program which would be applicableto human as well as veterinary medicine.

The benefits of sharing CAL programsbetween the six UK veterinary schools arenow spreading as (so far) sevenUniversities in Europe, Africa and Asiahave become Associate Members. CLIVEparticipation in the European VeterinarySchools’ SOCRATES project, producing 3major CD-ROMs in several languages, hasnow been funded for a fourth year, aimedat dissemination. The LEONARDOprogramme has just awarded the CLIVEteam 144,559 Euros to develop a majorCD-ROM on Skin Biology, with relevancefor Biological Science, Medicine andVeterinary Medicine. European partnershave been contracted for evaluation andtranslation into French and German.

Converting Course Materialsfor Use in a VLESELLIC has been awarded a Small ProjectGrant from the University of EdinburghDevelopment Trust to convert FG4 coursematerials for use in a VLE. This will allowSELLIC to employ a small number of spe-cialist postgraduate students to work onthe necessary programming. The timeta-ble is to identify suitable materials andcourses within the Faculty by late June,and work on preparing materials over thesummer, so that they can be piloted dur-ing the next Academic Year. The require-ments for conversion will be specified byacademic staff working with SELLIC’sLearning Technology Officer, Wilma Alex-ander. If you have any ideas for convertingmaterials for your courses, please contactWilma Alexander for advice. Tel 507409,email Wilma.Alexander@ed.ac.uk

Learning Technology May 2000 page 3

The Computers in Teaching Initiative (CTI)was started in 1984 and supported until1999 by the Higher Education FundingBodies. The Learning and Teaching SupportNetwork (LTSN) is the successor, with abroader remit, not restricted to computer-based initiatives. The purpose is topromote high quality learning and teachingin all subject disciplines by sharinginnovation and good practices including theuse, where appropriate, of communicationsand information technology (C&IT). LTSNincludes 24 Subject Centres and a GenericLearning and Teaching Centre; these arenow establishing themselves. Initiallyfunding has been committed for three yearsbut there is an expectation that this will beextended to five and then beyond, followingan independent review in year three.

The University of Edinburgh did not bid tohost a Centre, but are partners in the

Medical Teaching SymposiumLTS ran a workshop on computer-basedassessment at the recent Faculty GroupTeaching Symposium. The workshop fo-cused on two case studies: 1. the anatomy‘spot’ exam which utilises high qualitydata projection facilities to test Medicalstudents knowledge of anatomy. This hasprovided an extremely cost effective so-lution to the very time consuming prob-lem of examining anatomy using dis-sected materials; 2. A databank of self-assessment questions to aid student-cen-tred learning and revision. Although cur-rently at a pilot stage this databank willcontain questions covering the whole ofthe curriculum and offer an extremelyversatile and powerful learning resource.A simple interface has been developed toallow tutors to add new or edit existingquestions, create specific tests and applyone of several marking schemes, addquestions containing images, sound,videoclips. It can be viewed at http://lts.mvm.ed.ac.uk .

Computer Assisted Assessment

Optical Mark Reading (OMR)We have recently invested in new soft-ware which offers a complete examina-tions system, integrating data entry, scor-ing and reporting for different types ofmultiple choice exams. Using an OMRsystem to process objective tests canvastly reduce the time spent marking testswhile simultaneously providing themeans to analyse both student responsesand the effectiveness of questions. Thenew system is fully customisable allow-ing the user to define their own gradingscheme (which may include credit forpartially correct responses) and analysisby sub-test within the overall exam. Thecomprehensive selection of reports in-clude graphical and text output, and canbe exported to other packages. Guidelinesand rules for use of the MALTS OMRexam system can be found at http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/learning/index.shtml

For enquiries or further information contactNora Mogey, Nora.Mogey@ed.ac.uk Tel: 651 6163

New Publication : Computer-AssistedAssessment in Higher Education EditorsSally Brown, Joanna Bull & Phil Race. Partof the SEDA series from Kogan Page£18.99 http://www.kogan-page.co.uk

SCAANThe Scottish Computer Assisted Assess-ment Network (SCAAN) is funded throughthe SHEFC WebTools initiative to encour-age the use of web-based assessment inScottish Higher Education. The projectteam are trialling a number of differentassessment engines within the sector, andevaluating the results of these trials. It ishoped that this will help other institutionsto implement web-based assessment andparticularly to overcome some of thedifficulties that might otherwise arise.Details of the SCAAN dissemination work-shops are on their websitehttp://www.scaan.ac.uk .

More details of the other WebToolsprojects can be found athttp://www.scotcit.ac.uk/Projects.html

The Computer Assisted Assessment cen-tre at Luton is funded as part of the Teach-ing and Learning Technology Programmeto provide information and guidance onthe use of computer-assisted assessmentin higher education. They have a mail-ing list and a detailed website http://www.caacentre.ac.uk/index.shtml

Contacts for other TLTP projects are athttp://www.ncteam.ac.uk/projects/tltp3.html

Question Mark PerceptionPerception is the web-based version of the robust and reliable Question Mark softwarewhich several institutions have successfully integrated into their summative assessmentstrategy. It is now available to departments and courses within Edinburgh. Objective test-ing will not be appropriate for all situations, but Perception offers a range of nine differentquestion types including graphical hot-spots, text matching and a variety of ranking andsorting options. Audio and Video can be embedded into questions just as easily as text orgraphics. As with other computer assisted assessment systems feedback can be providedto the students, tailored to the response they have given and making it a very powerfulformative tool. Question Mark have some demonstration tests on their website at http://www.qmark.com/perception/online_examples.html or contact MALTS for more information.

Subject Centre for Medicine, Dentistry andVeterinary Medicine, led by the Universityof Newcastle upon Tyne. Our role is tosupply the expertise in Veterinary Medicine,a discipline not represented in Newcastle.The third partner in this Centre is the RoyalCollege of Physicians of London, reflectinga commitment to lifelong learning as wellas University learning and teaching. Staffare currently being recruited, including asenior Learning and Teaching DevelopmentOfficer for Veterinary Medicine, who will bebased in Edinburgh.

Apart from the widened remit, what are theother new features? LTSN will be a moredirected programme with regularmonitoring against objectives and atimetable of visits and reports. Centres willcollate information, promote anddisseminate models of best practice,provide advice and guidance, and alsoinitiate and support research anddevelopment in learning within our subjectareas. We shall ask the constituencies whatour priorities should be through an early“needs analysis”, and include subject

associations and professional bodies inadvisory boards. What we do will dependto a large extent on what you want us todo. There is to be a “Scotland Launch” ofLTSN on 30 May at Heriot-Watt University,aimed at Vice Principals for Learning andTeaching and Staff Developers. Speakersare Cliff Allan, the LTSN ProgrammeDirector, and Donald Spaeth who heads theCentre for History, Classics and Archeologyin Glasgow. Panel discussions will focus on:how Centres can ensure service to ScottishHEIs; identifying Scottish specific issues onlearning and teaching: identifying issues forthe Generic Learning and Teaching Centre;and how the impact of Subject Centres onScottish HEIs can be measured.

An interim LTSN website, with contactdetails for Centres, is http://www.ilt.ac.uk/ltsn/index.html (the definitive address will be http://www.ltsn.ac.uk/). The Subject Centre forMedicine, Dentistry and VeterinaryMedicine is at http://www.ltsn-01.ac.uk/. Aretrospective view of CTI is at http://www.cti.ac.uk/

LTSN

Learning Technology May 2000 page 4

BulletinBoard

Forthcoming LT EventsALT-C 2000 The Association for Learn-ing Technology’s annual conference, atUMIST 11-13 Sept 2000 http://www.umist.ac.uk/alt-c2000/

The First Northumbria CreativityConference: Wednesday 30th August -Friday 1st September, 2000University of Northumbria at Newcastle,Longhirst Campus Enhancing students’creativity - Creating the creative univer-sity http://hswe.unn.ac.uk/cahe.htm

4th International Computer AssistedAssessment (CAA) Conference21st and 22nd June 2000 - LoughboroughUniversity, UK Programme and registra-tion details are available here:http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/fli/flicaa/conf2000/index.html

Developing and Enhancing LearningOpportunities in Tertiary Education(Key speaker: Professor Diana Laurillard)Saturday 3rd June 2000 JordanhillCampus,University of Strathclyde.

EducatiON-LINE funded by JISC as partof the electronic libraries programme in-cludes a detailed listing of education con-ferences http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/

Do you know about...?CIT INFOBITS : published by the Centerfor Instructional Technology at the Uni-versity of North Carolina to support staffwho are exploring the use of Internet andvideo projects. Each month sites are se-lected from a number of informationtechnology and instructional technologysources and brief notes describing theseare circulated to subscribers. To sub-scribe to INFOBITS, send email tolistserv@unc.edu with the message: SUB-SCRIBE INFOBITS firstname lastnamesubstituting your own first and lastnames. INFOBITS is also available onlineon the World Wide Web site at http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/infobits.html

The UK Higher Education (HE) fundingbodies together with the Further Educa-tion Funding Council (FEFC) and the Uni-versity for Industry (UfI) commissioned astudy into the use of communications andinformation technology (C&IT) materialsfor learning and teaching within UKhigher and further education. One out-come of the study was that data on trans-ferable C&IT material developed by UKHE and FE institutions were collected inan online database called CITADEL data-base, with data being directly entered byinstitutions. The CITADEL database canbe accessed at http://www.ilt.ac.uk/citadel/search.html

SCRAN - The Scottish Cultural ResourcesAccess Network. Funded by the MillenniumCommission, SCRAN is working with projectpartners such as museums, galleries, ar-chives and universities to digitise selectedparts of their collections. Via the web SCRANthen provides access to all these materials,which include text, images, video & audio.Access to the resources is available underlicence only, the terms of which restrict useof the material for no profit, no proliferationuse in education. The University of Edin-burgh is licenced to use SCRAN and au-thorization details are available from the li-brary’s website at http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/lib/resources/collections/scran.shtml

SARA - Scholarly Articles Research Alert-ing Taylor & Francis currently publish over500 academic peer-reviewed journalsacross a variety of disciplines. SARA is aservice designed to deliver by email, ta-bles of contents for any issue of Carfax, E& F N Spon, Psychology Press, Routledgeor Taylor & Francis journals to anyone whohas requested the information. This serv-ice is completely free of charge. Details athttp://www.tandf.co.uk/sara/

The Classical Literature Library is athttp://www.selfknowledge.com/index.htm

Videoconferencing atHolyroodThe new ISDN videoconferencing suite atHolyrood is now operational and is lo-cated in room LG2 within Paterson’s Land.The suite can comfortably seat eleven andhas the following audio visual resources:

• AMX Touch Screen Control System

• Two Cameras with Pan and Tilt Control andnine Pre-set Positions

• Visualiser/ Document Camera to displayDocuments and 3D Objects SVHS/VHS VCRPC with radio keyboard, mouse and Data Pro-jector to facilitate Data Sharing Applications

Exploring VideoconferencingMeet with colleagues in Australia without having to visit an airport.

Teach a class located in a Glasgow lecture theatre without having to leave Edinburgh.

EUCS & MALTS are holding a series of videoconferencing sessions spread across threeof their studios to enable all members of staff to explore this very useful facility. The firstof these sessions will be held on Thursday 8th June from 0930 to 1300. These sessionsare free of charge and are open to all members of staff.

Participants at each of the venues located at Kings Buildings, George Square and MorayHouse, Holyrood Campus, will be given a brief outline of what videoconferencing can beused for and everyone will also get the chance to take part in a group videoconferencebetween the three venues. Further details of the programme and a registration form canbe found at http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/exploringvc.htm or contact John Martin 650 6743(EUCS) or Nora Mogey 651 6163 (MALTS).

MALTS goes digitalAs part of a long term strategy, MALTSare in the process of migrating theirproduction services equipment from ana-logue to digital. This will see a significantinvestment in both cameras and editingfacilities and will ensure that video pro-duction will continue to be of the highestpossible quality. This can be used inassociation with the streaming mediaservice provided by EUCS. Staff inter-ested in creating videos for teaching orother purposes should contact NormanSmith Norman.Smith@ed.ac.uk or tel 651 6024

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

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

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

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

A Web based simulation of the AMX con-trol system is on line at http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/audio_vis/simulation/General information on videoconferencing and the booking proceduresfor all University of Edinburgh video-conference suites can be found at http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/nsd/vidconfuoe.html