1. UK eUniversities: eLearning Research Centre Professor Paul Bacsich Professor Grainne Conole

2. Research Centre Aim (PR of 2 Sep 03) “to establish a leading Centre of Excellence, with an international reputation, to support the enhancement of learning within the HE sector” Prefigured in HEFCE 21/2003: “We propose to support an e-learning programme in UKeU and partner HEIs to explore insights from that project and other aspects of e-learning” “[this] may also support the work of UKeU’s Committee for Academic Quality…”

3. Structure and staffing University of Manchester Dr Jim Petch, Head of Distributed Learning Two researchers University of Southampton Professor Grainne Conole, Professor of Educational Innovation in Post Compulsory Education Two researchers UK eUniversities Worldwide Limited Professor Paul Bacsich, Director of Special Projects Research Centre Project Manager In association with Evaluator and eLearning Quality Coordinator

4. Core research aims Manchester: mainly HEI-facing Models of learning programme development and delivery For both UKeU and other large-scale eLearning systems Southampton: mainly student-facing Evaluation of UKeU programmes Focus on multi-cultural aspects of student learning UKeU Project management and coordination Standards (FP6 project will help) Dissemination of results Including earlier HEFCE research and the “Impact of the Internet” studies

5. Additional research aims Growth via EU and other grants Partnership model with other Centres of Excellence world-wide Topics under discussion: T-learning M-learning Conformance testing Multi-lingual eLearning systems