Author: G. Skelly, gordon.skelly@ncl.ac.uk

Author: P.R. Kyle, p.r.kyle@newcastle.ac.uk

JISC e-Learning Activity Area: Technology-enhanced Learning Environments

Higher Education Academy Subject Centre: Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine

This case study illustrates...use of specialist software, an effect on learning, an effect on exam results, an effect on student personal development, student satisfaction with e-learning, innovation in learning and teaching, an influence on educational research, staff satisfaction with e-learning, staff personal development, a positive effect on recruitment, a positive effect on retention, an influence on policy, use of resources, modifications to learning spaces, management of learning assets, an effect on social equality

Lessons Learned

Summary and Reflection

The LSE has been a massive success. It has unified the distributed staff and students providing them with the information and resources that they require 24/7. It has achieved this without altering the pedagogical aims of the course, instead providing a framework to realise and evaluate those aims.

In a world where change is constant, it was an essential design philosophy of the LSE to be sufficiently flexible to support this. Any similar system must be able to provide both historical and current information in their relevant context. The system must meet the everyday, microscopic objectives of staff and students alongside the pedagogical data. In our experience this is best achieved via a portal page.

In the future we will be focusing on a reusable portal objects ("portlets") approach in order to provide a customised experience for the user. (Including Web 2.0 integration technologies, ATOM publishing and RSS feeds and aggregation.)

Project planning has benefitted hugely from the introduction of a new LSE focus group. It consists of staff (administration and teaching), students and software developers. In an attempt to reduce administration costs (both time and money) we will continue to develop tools to empower people to manage their own material.