EBS CRM used by New College Swindon

• Task type Managing Relationships / Awareness & Communication

Elluminate used by University of Huddersfield, Birmingham Metropolitan College & the BCE CT Project

• Context Lifelong Learning Network / Health Academy / Project updates and training
• Task type Online Meetings / Webinars / Online Communities
• Cost License depends upon number of potential users
• Ease of use Good (BMC, Project) / Poor (Huddersfield)

Comments

Change of context of use is not always easy for users.

Large bandwidth required so can be very slow at times.

Works well for project updating between partners and also for training and sharing of practice eg Video production.

Email used by Northumbria University

• Context Discussions with overseas business collaborative partners / Learning and teaching
• Cost N/A
• Ease of use Excellent

Comments

Limitations with size of files that can be attached. This might prevent distribution of larger files. Circulated information only accessible to those to whom an email addressed to.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) used by Northumbria University

• Context Discussions with overseas business and student collaborative partners / Learning & Teaching (Design)
• Cost N/A
• Ease of use Excellent

Comments

Currently not allowed on University network so students used external system.

Required for sharing large multi-media files.

Huddle used by the BCE CT Project

• Context Within Project Management team / Within project / With external evaluation team
• Task type Project Management

Comments

Worked well for Project Management but not used by Trial Partners.

Instant Messaging used by Northumbria University

• Context Discussions with overseas business collaborative partners / Learning & Teaching (Design)
• Cost N/A - MS Commander licence purchased by the University
• Ease of use Good

Comments

Short, sharp not in-depth discussions.

May have potential security problems (major issue for business partners).

KHIS 2.0 used by Knowledge House

• Context Collaboration between group of universities and external business partners
• Task type Managing Relationships

Comments

Bespoke system for Universities of the North East.

Moodle used by Birmingham Metropolitan College

• Context Health Academy
• Task type Online Communities
• Ease of use Excellent (reliability important, allowed through NHS firewall)

Comments

Reliability important.

Partners found Moodle very easy to use.

Allowed through NHS firewall.

Ning used by The University of the Arts

• Context Community of Practice (CoP) of Photojournalists / Teaching & Learning
• Task type Online Communities

Comments

Excellent as main site for the CoP. Archived Wimba presentations viewed directly from site.

Plone used by Northumbria University

• Context Discussions with overseas business and student collaborative partners / Learning & Teaching (Design)
• Task type Collaborative Spaces (co-design, co-creation) / Online Communities
• Cost N/A
• Ease of use Good

Comments

Product not designed as collaborative tool so imaginative use required.

Very different to other familiar products so steep learning curve. The students found the navigation particularly problematic.

Not really suitable in Design context as strips custom made HTML codes. Becomes too slow (or even locks down) if more than one person trying to access same file.

Short Messages Service (SMS) used by Northumbria University

• Context Discussions with overseas business and student collaborative partners / Learning & Teaching (Design)
• Cost N/A, personal cost
• Ease of use Excellent

Comments

Excellent for short messages. Users very familiar with the tool.

Sossoon used by The University of Leeds

• Context KT 2.0 - Collaboration within a university and between a group of universities
• Task type Managing Relationships / Online Communities

Comments

Limited with regard to customisation.

Working very well in this context.

Teleconferencing used by Northumbria University

• Context Discussions with overseas business collaborative partners / Learning and teaching
• Task type Online meetings
• Cost The cost of the calls via BT unaffordable without sponsorship from external industrial partners
• Ease of use Reasonable

Comments

The cost of the teleconference calls via BT unaffordable without sponsorship by external industry.

Voice only. Wired teleconferencing unit can be only used where ports were enabled by the university's IT services. Enabling ports takes time to arrange. It also means that only rooms with enabled port can be used.

Videoconferencing used by Northumbria University

• Context Discussions with overseas business collaborative partners / Learning and teaching
• Task type Online meetings
• Cost Initial setup cost of equipment may be prohibitive
• Ease of use Poor - Not every institution might have the Initial setup cost of the (e.g. Polycom)

Comments

Experienced a number of problems with connection and at times were unable to make connections with industrial and university partners.

Good for body language when receiving feedback on design.

VoIP (eg Skype) used by Northumbria University & Birmingham Metropolitan College

• Context Discussions with overseas business collaborative partners / Learning & Teaching (Design) / Discussions within West Midlands Health Academy
• Task type Online meetings
• Cost £150 for 10 webcams
• Ease of use Excellent

Comments

Only two participants can use the video facility at any time. Poor video resolution.

Blocked by some educational and business partners (eg NHS).

Wiki pages used by Northumbria University & The University of the Arts

• Context Discussions with overseas business and student collaborative partners / Learning & Teaching (Design) / Project Management
• Task type Collaborative Spaces (co-design, co-creation) / Project Management
• Cost N/A
• Ease of use Poor

Comments

Poor editing interface.

WordPress used by Northumbria University & The University of Glamorgan

• Context Discussions with overseas business and student collaborative partners / Learning & Teaching (Design) / Working with local SMEs
• Task type Collaborative Spaces (co-design, co-creation) / Online Communities / Managing Relationships / Awareness & Communication
• Cost N/A
• Ease of use Excellent

Comments

Designed for blogging so needs to be creatively adopted for collaborative purposes.

Interface similar to other familiar products so not daunting for users and shallow learning curve.