Abstract

CAMEL is short for Collaborative Approaches to the Management of e-Learning and was a project funded by the HEFCE Leadership, Governance and Management programme. It set out to explore how institutions who were making effective use of e-learning and who were collaborating in regional lifelong learning partnerships might be able to learn from each other in a Community of Practice based around study visits to each of the partner institutions.

This short publication highlights some of the things CAMEL participants found out about e-learning and about each other. One of the most interesting aspects of the project was, however, the model itself. We believe the CAMEL model could have widespread application for many types of people wanting to share experience and learn from one another.

The model is discussed briefly here and you can order a free accompanying CD-ROM that provides a Do-It-Yourself guide to setting up a CAMEL network.

Although CAMEL started out as an acronym we found the name summed up certain things about what we were doing. Camels are versatile animals and can operate in the harshest of conditions, surviving on the poorest vegetation and through extremes of temperature. They produce milk for nutrition and dung for fuel as well as providing transport. There are a lot of parallels with the versatility of e-learning in making learning happen in places where it wouldn't otherwise be possible and we saw some examples of this in the project. There is also a resonance with the nomadic element of the project as our groups travelled to a location to share a meal together, network and show their wares.