Enigma Project Part of JISC SWaNI programme Partners – Perth College, Lauder College Inverness, Sabhal Mhor, Lews Castle UHI, SFEU Capita, WebCT, Learnwise

Why Enigma? The Aspiration… The aim of the project was to develop a data transfer engine to allow course and student information to flow freely between existing virtual learning environments and existing student records systems used by the Academic Partners to create the beginnings of a managed learning environment. ‘Vanilla’ middleware product not hard coded to specific systems and vendors – a true code breaker and paradox

The Compromise The aim of the project was to prototype a data transfer engine which has been developed by Capita to allow course and student information to flow freely between existing virtual learning environments and existing student records systems used by the Academic Partners to create the beginnings of a managed learning environment. Enhance the functionality of Capita MLE Exporter

Project Issues Scope refinement for vendor involvement Learning curve of technical and user group Terminology and structural differences – college:college, CETIS: technical:vendor, vendor:vendor Vendor commercial priority and timescale Headroom of key project members within college commitment

User Issues Successful interoperability requires cultural, operational and business process shift Student, lecturer, support, admin and marketing advantages Consultation, cross college and vendor involvement at an early stage vital – practitioner involvement Interoperability required inter as well as intra institution level

Outputs and Impacts Bid, funding and project management experience further enhanced Cross college and vendor cooperation Internal understanding of wider organisational issues of interoperability Technical knowledge of processes

Outputs and Impacts MLE Exporter as enhanced in place and working in Lauder this year as part of E Learning strategy. Data from Capita DITA to Learnwise. UHI has now changed SIS to SITS, and is planning to develop an open source VLE The knowledge, learning and network remains!

Dawne Hodkinson Community Learning Manager Perth College Programme Manager - SWaNI

Banff & Buchan Project Engaging with Skillnet Aims – To populate Skillnet directly from SITS – To make existing Skillnet content available to selected groups – To make existing intranet content available to selected groups via Skillnet

Banff & Buchan Project Outcomes/outputs – Project work continuing until at least Xmas “Automatic” access to Skillnet content for identified learners – Improved web interface of Skillnet Still to come …. – Access to externally produced content within Skillnet NLN Home grown content

Banff & Buchan Project Benefits – Vastly increased awareness and technical expertise – In a position to make demands on suppliers from an informed position – Access to pool of resources and expertise nationally – Confidence to apply for future funding

The long term view at Perth College Eyes wide open – Increased awareness leads to increased demands for interoperability All mainstream college systems Many specialist systems

Mainstream systems Linking to external bodies – Funding council(s) – SQA – Learndirect Scotland – ILA (if and when ……) – BCS – HMI – Standards bodies

Specialist internal systems Distance learning – Tracking systems – Booking resources – Paying tutors Learning Centres – Booking resources – Tracking systems VQ work Training for Work

Mainstream systems Internal systems – Finance – Property – Personnel – Student services – Quality

What’s stopping the sector at large? Operational imperatives Funding models Lack of understanding Lack of expertise Lack of experience

Further Information n.nsf n.nsf Pam Wilson Peter Falconer Dawne Hodkinson