Activity 11: Tool enhancements

Activity name	11. Tool enhancements
Participants	Newcastle	Aims Covered: 4
Timescales	July 05 - Sept 07
Background	Support tools are the approach whereby support for our activities can be appropriately and effectively provided. ALiC, because of the computing skills of the team, has available a significant number of support tools which can be utilised to support the change process. These tools include the Newcastle E-learning Support System (NESS), Leeds Student Information Service (SIS) and Durham's Automated Questionnaire Management system. Current support for group- and project-work and for students with disability is rather limited in these systems.
Activity	This activity will merge/adopt/enhance these tools to provide functionality for the support of the activities of other CETLs and in particular those relating to group- and project-work. Specifically there is a need to design appropriate interfaces for staff and students, and to support the communication mechanisms. Concurrent with this is the need to define the repository of information received (design diagrams, formal specifications of software, etc.) that is available to students to support their work, as well as to staff for the purposes of assessment. Further adaptation to these tools will also be necessary if they are to be employed more fully by consortium members in order to reflect the inevitable variations in practice that exists at each site.
Evaluation	Regular automatically-collected feedback from students and partners (via the tool itself) on the effectiveness of the work.
Expected outcomes	Identification and later incorporation of key features in student learning-environments that support AL activities. Adaptation of the tools within the consortium followed by roll-out in other areas.
Risks	Transfer to other sites - since most development expertise is currently concentrated at Newcastle. Mitigation: ensure that the development expertise is disseminated across the consortium.