3.7.1. Mechanism for Dissemination
Having gathered information of relevance to your MLE development and analysed the results it is important to give careful consideration of how and where to report on the findings and to map potential audiences and stakeholders. City University found that 'A comprehensive communications strategy is vital to an implementation project of this scale. It needs to encompass both formal and informal mechanisms fo communication and to work to address concerns as well as promoting the service'. There are a variety of dissemination mechanisms and outlets, from peer-reviewed academic journals through to presentations and oral reports. The table below lists potential dissemination outputs and suggestions of when they might be used.
| Dissemination vehicle | Function |
| Report | Project progress or summary reports about a particular aspect of the work. |
| Web site | Information about the MLE development, progress, project outputs such as survey results or guidelines developed. |
| Email or mailing list | You may consider setting up one or more mailing lists for those involved in your MLE development. One might be for the steering group and be used essentially to provide updates on progress. Another might be used by the project working group to discuss specific project issues. In addition you may want to email individuals or other institutional mailing lists about particular aspects of the project. |
| Presentation | Verbal presentation sometimes supported by a report/Powerpoint presentation or summary notes/overheads. Can be used both for in-house meetings (departmental, project, etc) and external meetings (conferences, workshops, etc.). |
| Workshop | Workshops can have a variety of purposes; as a mechanism for gathering information, for dissemination or as a means of staff development. |
| Verbal presentations | Verbal presentation or update or results, may be used in a range of forum, from informal one-to-one, through departmental meetings or at more formal steering group or external meetings. |
| Peer-reviewed journal | Detailed research-orientated structured report/paper. |
| Newsletter | Regular update of project outputs and short news stories. |
| Conference Presentation | Presentation of findings at a conference, usually adapted/tailored towards aspects of the conference theme and networking with others who are carrying out similar projects. |
| Promotional leaflet | Short summary guide or dissemination paper-based format. |
| Press release | Semi-formal summary of main findings usually for a targeted audience. |
| Poster | Used primarily at conferences. Usually consists of a series of A4 or A3 laminated sheets. |
