Biannual Report Template for the X4L Programme
February 2004
Section One
Grant Statement
Title of project: SURF X4L – Repurposing Content for Reuse in VLEs
Project Manager: Prof Mark Stiles
Lead Institution: Staffordshire University
Project Partners: Stoke on Trent College, Shrewsbury College of Art and Technology, Royal National
College for the Blind
Duration of Award:09/02-09/04
Total award: £194,000
Period of Report: 09/03-02/04
Total co-funding: £200,000
Confirmation Statement
I confirm that the project development is being conducted under the terms agreed in the initial contract
with JISC.
Note: Extension agreed with programme manager – see 4) – Project Management
1. Aims and Objectives
As a result of the very positive results gained from the integration of parts of reload into COSE and
work on metadata labelling for re-use under the 05/03 ICE project, it is felt that further exploitation of
the RELOAD work in COSE forms a major opportunity within the scope of SURF X4L. To
accommodate this, the review by the University of tools and content will not be so wide-ranging,
although this should be more than compensated for by work in this area by the College partners.
2. Overall Approach
The import of content, use of SCORM and interoperability with other tools and content remain the
priority, but the ICE project has given technical input to project a new slant. Whereas we have been,
and continue to be concerned with re-use in terms of interoperability, ICE has re-inforced the idea of
re-use within a system by (standardised) metadata labelling. Another possibility is of developing work
to link COSE to other eResources using reusable reference objects, and so re-use/repurpose them.
The conclusions from the ICE report show that there are non-trivial issues, including emerging
specifications (VDEX, RLI) which were initially out of scope for X4L, which will impact on further work.
While ICE presents interesting opportunities in line with SURF X4L objectives, it is not intended to
detract from the original project goals, but rather enhance them.
At Shrewsbury and Stoke Colleges, the approach to the project has followed that outlined in the
project plan.
3. Workpackages
The current status of Workplan components as listed in Project Plan is shown below, detailed
discussion where appropriate is given in section 2 of the report.
2
Those shown in italics indicate where slippage has occurred – please see 4 – Project Management for
explanation and proposed solutions.
001
002
003
Dissemination
Evaluation
Staff Development 1
Supporting
Supporting
Reuse/Repurposing
004
005
006
Preparation for Pilots 1
Tools Investigation
Systems Investigation
Reuse/Repurposing
Technical
Technical
007
Imports to COSE
Technical
008
009
010
011
012
013
Year 1 Outputs
Pilots -1
Staff Development - 2
Pilots - 1
COSE Updates
SCORM Investigation
Supporting
Reuse/Repurposing
Reuse/Repurposing
Reuse/Repurposing
Technical
Technical
014
015
016
017
018
Technical
Technical
Reuse/Repurposing
Technical
Reuse/Repurposing
Reporting
Reporting
In planning stage
In planning stage
021
Content Repository Work
Production of scos
Pilots - 2
Tools Investigation 2
Roll-out to other SURF
Institutions
Practice Guide
Pedagogy and Cultural
Change Report
Accessibility
Active
Active
Complete but IPR work carried
forward
Near complete
Done
Done with some issues
continuing
Done in “first phase”, but work
is on-going as a result of Strand
B outputs
Done
Ready
On-going
On-going
Continuous
Behind plan but progressing –
plan to exploit RELOAD outputs
On-going
Done but testing on-going
To start on Sept 04
On-going
In planning stage only
Supporting
022
Exploitation of ICE Work
Technical (New)
Continuous – but RNCB work
not really started yet
On-going
019
020
At Staffordshire University:
Overall progress has been good, detailed updates on progress at the University were provided to X4L
cluster meetings (September '03 and January '04), submitted / posted to the X4L-WALES-MIDLANDS
JISCmail file store and included on the web site for SURF X4L - http://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE/X4L/.
These show how content generated as SCOs in COSE can be imported to other VLEs: Learnwise
Olympus, TekniCAL, Blackboard (and WebCT) as well as to RELOAD and the (JORUM) Intralibrary
Repository. These are seen as significant developments which go a long way to achieving re-use
between systems. Material was submitted for X4L the programme website http://www.x4l.org/, One
Year On promotion and distributed by CD to FE colleges nationwide (October '03). Feedback
returned on intraLibrary repository version 2.0 and JORUM+ functionality document for scoping study
(October '03).
Following work on the Staffordshire ICE project (an 05/03 project - report submitted in Feb '04) which
provided interesting lessons in integrating RELOAD code for IMS system metadata conformance, use
of UK LOM Core metadata tagged reference objects and possibilities for future COSE developments
in linking to eResources, the on-going work in these areas continues as an internal project and an
additional workplan component on exploiting this work has been built into the project. The integration
of RELOAD code into COSE continues and should further benefit other aspects of the SURF X4L
project. Work continues work with other tools and content relevant to SURF X4L (including e.g. NLN
material). The next phase will begin work with the RELOAD SCORM player in parallel to developing
the import of third party IMS packages into COSE.
At Shrewsbury College:
3
The partners at Shrewsbury College have investigated content package creation, the re-purposing of
existing materials and assembly with tools for use within their X4L project courses. This has included
using Reload and LRN 3 to content package learning materials and the uploading of various outputs
to different learning platforms such as Teknical’s ‘Virtual Campus’. They have also used Coursegenie
as a tool to create, assemble and package content successfully to various VLE platforms. (More
detailed findings are available in Scat’s detailed project update on the SURF X4L website)
Specific activities have included:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Viewing Teknical authored packages in LRN 3
Viewing Teknical authored packages in Reload
Using the Teknical Delivery Environment (Word authoring tool)
Generating content package in Reload
Copyright & IPR
Staff awareness and activity
Version 2.0 of the Xtensis repository
New Reload Content Packaging and Metadata tool version 1.1.2
Reload ADL SCORM 1.2 Runtime Player
Uploading Reload content packages to Virtual Campus
Uploading LRN3 content packages to Virtual Campus
New Evaluation Developments
New Reload Content Packaging and Metadata tool version 1.1.3a
New Reload Tests
New Evaluation Developments
Reload tests as Scorm package
Evaluation Report Progress
Creating content package with CourseGenie
Uploading the CourseGenie Package into Virtual Campus
The Stoke College partners have continued content development and re-purposing of existing
materials from a wide range of sources. Software used for these purposes includes LRN3 toolkit,
Reload, ReCombo, CourseGenie and several web page editors in addition to the inbuilt authoring and
assessment creation features of Learnwise 1.X and Olympus. Also initiated in this phase of the project
is the evaluation of a range of small software products geared to supporting the transition of PDF
content to web based delivery, notable PDF2HTML and PDF2WORD. This has been undertaken the
address the feasibility and worthwhileness of re-purposing FENC “Bronze Standard” materials.
Specific activities have included:
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Interoperability between Learnwise and Olympus
Transfer of content between the two systems
Integration of the new NLN materials into Olympus ready for launch in September 2004
Strategies to support the embedding of these units into schemes of work to enhance uptake
of usage
Assessment content re-authoring using the new features of Olympus for legacy materials
from LW1.X
Upload and testing of Reload authored content in both systems
Viewing of Reload authored materials in the ReLoad Runtime Player
Viewing of Olympus and LW1.X exported materials in the above
Copyright and IPR as relating to materials sourced from other web sites
Raising the profile of the VLE and restoring confidence
Preparing the rollout plan for Olympus
Initiation of the evaluation phase for materials and delivery platform
Creation (with SCAT) of a common instrument of evaluation
Technical underpinning of the above
List objectives for the next reporting period, note if any changes to plan are needed, and explain why.
4
The only change to the plan is an additional workpackage to accommodate exploiting the outputs of
ICE in SURF X4L. Other workpackages on the technical side have been modified slightly to
encompass the outputs of RELOAD, but remain in essence true to their original objectives. All other
workpackages remain unchanged.
The minor changes to plan are:
a. to complete work on SCOs, incorporating this feature in next COSE release (v.2.1),
scheduled in the next reporting period
b. to exploit fully the metadata outputs of ICE by incorporating them in a COSE release which
will be available for evaluation on a development server in the next reporting period, if not in a
full release.
c.
to progress work on importing third party packages, by incorporating RELOAD code including
a viewer.
d. to progress SCORM work. Most likely by incorporating code for RELOAD SCORM player,
however the project needs to evaluate utility of this and determine if there are sufficient third
party packages which use SCORM (in a compatible way) to make this worthwhile
e. to make such useful observations as possible about third party content in pursuit of c. and d.
f.
to progress work in depositing material in the xtensis repository
4. Project Management
Shrewsbury College partners saw a change in staff since the last report. Cameron Furnival, the lead
member of the SCAT partnership, changed job roles within the College and sadly withdrew from the
team. Richard Booth, whom joined the team in October 2002 as e-learning project champion for the
Surf X4L work, has taken over Cameron’s role and David Shearan has joined as replacement working
alongside Richard.
The Stoke College partner saw the lead member, Glen Singleton, lead to take up a senior post
elsewhere. Steve Blakemore has become the main contact for Stoke on Trent College. To
compensate for the loss of Glen, a team of three Learning Materials Developers are now managed
directly by Steve.
In addition the Stoke partners were hit by a catastrophic failure of their Learnwise installation which
necessitated the diversion of Steve’s attention from the project whilst the problem was solved.
The problems above involved the “contributed” .5 FTE in both partner colleges, plus additional loss of
focus at the Stoke partner. Nevertheless both college partners have continued to deliver well and
were fully contributing again by early autumn ’03. The project manager is satisfied that both partners
are fully staffing the project again in terms of both funded and contributed effort.
Nevertheless there has been some slippage against the project plan. In particular, progress on the
pilots with live student courses has slipped about one term. It is therefore proposed to extend the end
point of the project to December 2004. There are no funding issues associated with this move, as all
partners recognise that funded time has been “lost” to the project. This proposal has been discussed
and agreed with the X4L Programme Manager.
5. Programme Support
Contact with the programme has been mainly through programme-wide and cluster meetings, but
links through CETIS have also proved valuable.
One of the other project within the Wales-Midlands cluster (at Henley College) expressed interest in
SURF X4L’s work with SCOs and successfully tested importing a SCO generated from COSE into
WebCT, a system to which the project doesn’t otherwise have access. Whilst the project is interested
5
in a number of projects in the programme within the cluster (e.g. the SCORM work at South
Birmingham College), the main problem is finding time to develop these links effectively.
Other programme-related activities carried out include input to CETIS review on SCORM (Warwick
Bailey), collaboration with the JISC 1/01 NIMLE project (who are interested in our work with SCOs
and are planning to make used of COSE within the project), attendance at a CETIS sponsored
meeting on identifiers for learning objects, input to the sharealike forum on the creative commons
approach to IPR, meetings with other partners in promoting SCORM and learning repositories and
metadata standards.
Overall all SURF X4L partners have the programme events and cluster meetings worthwhile.
What further support would you like from the programme, e.g. training, workshops, etc?
Perhaps another workshop on xtensis would be useful.
6. Risk Analysis
The main “internal” problems have been associated with the loss of the two contributed .5 FTEs at the
partner Colleges, and the slippage caused whilst replacement for their input was organised. This was
discussed in section 4.
The partners feel that as there is more work to be done in this field than could possibly be achieved in
the time available, it will be important for the project to focus on the targets it has set ourselves and to
avoid being distracted by those goals within ICE and NIMLE which have no direct relevance to SURF
X4L This can be managed by the use of staff at Staffordshire who are not part of X4L, but the project
manager will need to make sure that SURF X4L staff “contain” their natural enthusiasm!
More general concerns (including those at programme and wider levels) include:

Remaining concerns that the JORUM partners are ambivalent about any requirement for
conformant content in respect of certain specifications, e.g. SCORM

Generally limited co-operation from vendors

The terms of the Jorum license mentioned at the IPR event need proper scrutiny / agreement

That metadata issues may be further complicated by emerging metadata specifications (e.g.
RLI, VDEX)
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In the light if ICE, but also with respect to the wider context, that widespread take-up /
adoption or use of educational metadata may prove to be very difficult (This bears on issues
of culture change)

That whilst “peripheral” issues and programme related activities may well be very worthwhile
in the wider sense, that can distract those involved from distract from the principal objectives
of an individual project
7. Budget
Deleted to allow wide circulation
Section Two
This section is extracted from much longer reports from each of the three main project partners.
These are, or will be, available on the SURF X4L Website http://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE/X4L/
8. Project Outcomes
Briefly summarise achievement against objectives, list outcomes and findings to date, and any interim
conclusions.
6
Progress against Technical Workplan Components at Staffordshire University
Project development is proceeding much according to plan, with the proviso that the work is more
labour intensive than expected, and as a result it is taking longer than anticipated to meet some
objectives where effort is / has been diverted to accommodate other requirements of the project.
The work carried out under the JISC 05/03 Project, Staffordshire ICE (report submitted to JISC in
early February) has had a significant impact on the technical strand of SURF X4L. Using the
RELOAD code, we are extending use of metadata to improve searching for content in COSE and, as
a result, the re-use of content within the VLE. A COSE version incorporating these features has been
produced in proof of concept. ICE related specifically to Reusable Reference Objects, the facility is
to be extended to other COSE objects. The first targets for SURF X4L will be exported content
packages, both native and standalone. Imported packages labeled with such metadata should be
searchable. The new WPC 022 will aim to implement these features. Importantly, a most valuable
contribution to SURF X4L from ICE has been the creation of a COSE Metadata Application Profile
using UK LOM Core.
The evaluation and selection of usable tools is ongoing across the partners. Since the last report, the
VLE systems at Stoke and Shrewsbury (in respect of the authoring tool) have been upgraded. The
SCO outputs are also being upgraded. Testing a wider range of third party content will be enabled by
further integration of RELOAD code into COSE to provide a third party content viewer and SCORM
player. This approach to providing SCORM facilities in COSE has effectively replaced the originally
intention to develop this independently, and the project is talking to Colin Milligan about this aspect of
the work. Work is continuing on integrating the RELOAD into COSE for the import of generic IMS
packages.
Work on COSE SCOs is nearly complete. The addition of this facility allows COSE to export IMS
conformant content packages in two forms – a generic form and standalone form which enables
COSE generated content to be viewed along with its nagivation structure in browsers and other VLEs.
SCOs have been successfully imported and viewed in a wide range of commercial VLEs.
This work is being utilised by the JISC 1/01 NIIMLE project, who plan to use COSE as a central VLE
for staff to enable the creation, reuse and sharing of content across the NIIMLE partners. COSE has
been installed at NIIMLE and colleagues at Staffordshire have kindly agreed to give NIIMLE two
complete modules (on Careers Planning and Information Skills) to provide a “kick-start” to available
content. The first of these modules has been provide to NIIMLE in both generic and SCO form. The
approach should allow NIIMLE colleagues to create and reuse/repurpose content within COSE, view
content created by themselves and others and export content in SCO form for use within their
individual institutional VLEs. SURF X4L see this collaboration as a significant “win”.
Both the ICE metadata work and the SCO facility will be provided in a generally available “official”
COSE release within the next reporting period.
The project would make the overall comment that work on RELOAD and TOIA (and the its own
technical work including SCOs) has provided a useful means on progressing interoperability and
content reuse/repurposing. It is worth noting that the project has demonstrated (via its own work and
use of RELOAD) that significant re-use and interoperability can be achieved even in absence of
runtime model for content (SCORM).
The project feels that TOIA offers it possibilities to make a start on QTI interoperability as questions
can be exported as XML. However, it will probably not have time to pursue this in the timeline of the
project but would wish to follow it up at later date.
Progress against Reuse/Perpurposing Components at Stoke and Shrewsbury Colleges
7
Shrewsbury
Progress to date has been encouraging and matches criteria initially set out in the aims and objectives
of the project plan. A range of repurposed materials, content packaged materials have been produced
with tools provided such as Reload and LRN. Use has been made of the JORUM repositories and
packages migrated to various learning platforms with mixed results. Testing conformance and using
standards such as IMS and SCORM have been an interesting factor and will form an important part of
the project, which would affect those transposing materials to their own VLE systems in the future.
The Shrewsbury partners have concluded that the Surf X4L project has shown a need for repurposing
learning materials to suit individuals teaching and learning requirements on specific courses (as
opposed to straight “reuse”), and also the need to share resources and minimise the need to
continually re-invent the wheel. The use of tools to content package learning materials can be used by
staff from various areas with varying levels of ILT skill to generate packages easily with effective
results.
Shrewsbury have created content repurposed from the following materials:
o NLN
o Fenc
o JISC Collections
and have developed / assembled content packages using
o Reload
o LRN 3
o CourseGenie
o Teknical Authoring tool
Shrewsbury have made extensive use of uploading packaged materials in various formats, and IMS
/Scorm generated materials, to various platforms, including Teknical Virtual Campus with varying
degrees of success. The latter tests have proved encouraging. Further details can be found in SCATs
detailed project development report on the X4L website.
Stoke College
Despite the upheaval caused by the catastrophic failure of the main delivery platform for virtual
learning towards the end of year one of the project, the College feel that they have maintained
momentum and have increased their profile and that of the project during the last period. The move to
an updated VLE with the concomitant opportunities for engagement and dissemination will enable the
team to work with an even wider range of subject specialists and tutors.
Stoke conclude that their work seems to demonstrate a strong case for the development of guidelines
and strategies to assist in the re-purposing of the vast arrays of legacy materials that still offer sound
content, albeit in need of restructure and redesign. The vital need for organisations to work together
and develop materials collaboratively for common usage is becoming clearer than ever. Likewise, the
need for a coherent and consistent approach to staff awareness raising and training in the skills
necessary to achieve this aim has become more apparent as the project has progressed. The
availability of good free tools for content authoring and repackaging needs the support of a planned
and embedded scheme to engage staff in the process to help foster ownership of the resulting
resources. The work undertaken in the project should help form the basis for a longer term
commitment to the authoring and re-purposing process, with attendant commitments to staff
development and resource sharing within the wider community.
Stoke have created content repurposed from the following materials:
NLN Resources – Rounds 1 and 2
FENC – Bronze and Silver
Staff legacy materials – all Microsoft Office formats
Web sourced supplementary/enhancement materials
and have developed / assembled content packages using
8
Aggregational Tools:
ReLoad
LRN3
Authoring Environments:
Learnwise Publisher
Dreamweaver MX
Microsoft Office
Content Disaggregation Tools:
PDF2WORD
PDF2HTML
CHM Help Decompiler
The major area of interest at the college is targeted at Olympus. All materials authored using
RELOAD have uploaded successfully.
9. Use of JISC Subscription Collections and NLN Materials
Please indicate if you are repurposing any of the following collections:
SCRAN – Shrewsbury (The licence for SCRAN has now been purchased by the University for use by
SURF and the materials will be more widely used in the coming period)
KnowUK - No
KnowEurope - No
Literature Online (LION) -No
Education Image Gallery – Shrewsbury and Stoke
NLN Materials – Shrewsbury and Stoke
At Shrewsbury, staff have begun to make good use of NLN and have looked at image collections such
as SCRAN and Education Image Gallery with the 30-day trials of each resource that were arranged.
Staff found such collections to contain good range of resources / images to integrate with exisiting
content or include with re-purposed material. A SCRAN workshop was run at Shrewsbury College,
where Jenny Ure demonstrated the materials to Art & Design teaching staff. The event introduced the
materials / images to staff and the effective use of such materials in learning packages and ease of
use. These resources will be used to build further learning packages to incorporate into course
packages to enhance the teaching and learning in this particular area.
The project is in the process of agreeing a contract within the BBC for reuse of their skills materials.
10. Intellectual Property Rights
The project has agreed the format of a “Copyright and IPR Roadshow” with information specialists
from Staffordshire University’s Information Service Learning Support Team. This will provide training
to staff at the partners working with the project on the reuse and repurposing of material, reflecting the
need for much stronger awareness in this area. The University has comprehensive guidance and
support available in this area and within the University and SURF, those working on
reuse/repurposing can call on specialist staff for assistance.
Following attendance at the IPR workshop in Glasgow on the 24th January, it is felt that COSE
appears to be appropriately covered in respect of licence but this will be more closely examined. The
work of the ICE project with the eAggregators ebrary and Emerald has thrown up a number of
interesting issues relating the IPR and copyright – in particular relating to the copyright of metadata these are discussed in the ICE report.
At Stoke, during participation on another JISC project, the college developed a draft e-mail requesting
clearance to use resources from web sites. This was despatched to the owner or webmaster in each
instance of a resource being requested. This has been modified slightly and is now being used
throughout all materials developments and is available to all SURF X4L partners.
9
11. Use of JORUM
The University has returned feedback on the intraLibrary repository version 2.0 and JORUM+
functionality document for scoping study (October '03). The college partners have also fed back
independently.
Shrewsbury have made good use of intraLibrary, especially in the initial stages of the development of
the repository. No problems were experienced uploading material and packages into the system and
they found it easy to search for such material in the system. Stoke have found intraLibrary, until very
recently, problematical. Although they found login and content viewing possible, they have only very
recently succeeded in uploading and managing small content packages. This, however, remains
somewhat of an occasional usage due to repeated timeouts on even small uploads. They anticipate
greater use of this facility if it proves reliable.
All partners have experienced problems in using Xtensis. The project sas fed back the nature of the
problem and a member of the project is planning to visit the Xtensis team in Manchester hoping for
resolution. Both college partners have reported that, although they can now connect to the system,
they can do little beyond that and even the “Browse Objects” facility appears not to work.
12. Evaluation
On the technical side, it is hoped that an evaluation of the use of SCOs and the enhanced COSE
metadata can be put in place. Once a version of COSE incorporating the new facilities resulting from
this work and the incorporation of other RELOAD code (as described earlier) is available an
evaluation programme for staff will be put in place. If this cannot be done before the end of the
project, the work will roll over into mainstream COSE development.
The main work on evaluation focuses on the pilots detailed in the project workplan. The two college
partners have finalised, for Staff and Student evaluation, a set of questions with supporting
observational notes to be used during Participant Observations concurrent with the formal
questionnaire. The questions are to be delivered online as an integral part of the sessions.
The immediate and most important thing to be assessed is the benefit to students and staff accrued
for use of this style of delivery. Identifying and assessing the validity of the learning outcomes, in
addition to the implications for teaching styles and course design is central to the philosophy of
assessment employed. Outputs from the staff evaluation are planned to include personal observations
of the staff as well as attempting to gain insight into their attitudes towards the pedagogical and
workload issues raised by the method of delivery and authoring used in the project. The student
focus is on perception, not only of the materials but the experience as a whole and its place in the
wider curriculum of their courses of study.
The results will be collated back into a database for ease of producing the results. The results from
the multiple-choice questions will give a point score. The questions that the participant can give
comments will be listed on a separate form.
The curriculum areas Shrewsbury College has chosen for evaluation are Construction, Engineering
and Media. These areas have been producing good content and re-purposed learning materials. They
have been aware of the range of materials available (Fenc, NLN, Jisc collections) and have been
encouraged by the value of using such materials and the need to re-purpose existing content to
produce a tailor made course / learning package.
Two members of staff from Construction, two from Engineering and one tutor from Media have been
supported in producing learning content, which will be delivered as a classroom exercise with their
students. They have been supported to use the word-authoring tool we have available from Teknical
and uploaded their materials to the Virtual Campus VLE system. From this, course structures have
been devised and login accounts for all staff and students taking part in the evaluation process.
At Stoke College, the partners have, as far as is possible, endeavoured to work with as many areas of
the College’s academic offer as is practicable. Particular focus has fallen on Property and
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Construction, Motor Vehicle Studies and the Able and Talented programmes (although the project has
proved to be a good platform for general awareness raising elsewhere).
The current areas of focus have been chosen because they are perceived as in need of better
provision and more staff engagement in ILT. This project is affording opportunities to boost the
awareness of staff as well as adding to their skills sets in terms of contributing to the authoring
process.
At SCAT staff will log onto the College Intranet to provide a name to correspond with comments and
opinions. Student feedback will be anonymous. At Stoke the process will be integrated into the VLE.
Work with staff and students on the evaluation process will begin at the end of February and
beginning of March 2004. The results of these evaluations will be documented in later reports.
13. Dissemination
The following activities are worthy of specific note:
Technical and General:

Updates on SURF X4L for X4L cluster meetings (September '03 and January '04) posted to
the X4L-WALES-MIDLANDS JISCmail file store.

Web site for SURF X4L http://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE/X4L/ updated to include these
documents and summaries.

Materials submitted for X4L programme website http://www.x4l.org/, One Year On
Promotional Website ("Exchange for Learning (X4L): Building and Sharing Community
Resources"). Distributed by CD to FE colleges nationwide (October '03)

Collaboration with NIMLE (December '03)

Report on ICE (05/03 project) submitted (Feb '04). Interesting lessons in integrating RELOAD
code for IMS system metadata conformance, use of UK LOM Core metadata,
tagged reference objects and possibilities for future COSE developments. Although not a
SURF X4L output, the report will be included in SURF X4L dissemination

A programme of events is being organized to disseminate on IPR issues, reflecting need for
much stronger awareness in this area
In addition, Mark Stiles has disseminated aspects of the work of SURF X4L at numerous events and
conferences as a part of talks and articles on wider topics in his work both for the JISC as in his
Professorial capacity. Many of this are available from the COSE website.
Reuse/Repurposing at College Partners
Both college partners see internal dissemination as central, and are attempting to work with as wide a
range of subjects, environments and styles as possible. They keep staff informed as to the interests
of the project and stress that this will not interfere with their objectives and needs as teachers, but
rather enhance them.
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Internal dissemination at SCAT has been via departmental meetings, ILT newsletter bulletins
and training sessions on creating learning content, repurposing and the wider objectives of
the project.
SCAT have disseminated more widely at external events such as the Virtual Campus (VLE)
user group meetings and discussion events.
At Stoke ILT User Group meetings, ILT Forum Meetings, Departmental Meetings, formal
training sessions, informal staff support in post and informal discussions and consultations
have been used.
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External dissemination by Stoke partners has taken place at Learnwise User Groups, training
sessions for partner colleges, training days undertaken on behalf of Granada around the
country and liaisons with Stoke’s own partner colleges.
Objectives for the next reporting period.
The main focus in the first part of the coming period will be on internal dissemination activities and
planning dissemination to the other colleges forming the formal SURF partnership. It is anticipated
that on-going training and support of staff will allow opportunities for continued dissemination to
continue throughout the remainder of the project, as well as affording opportunities for planning and
executing follow up work now that awareness has been raised.
Following this, the focus will be on the production an dissemination of the project deliverables,
specifically, the two main reports and the new version of COSE incorporating the outputs of the
technical work of the project.
Technical work will make use of the CETIS SIGs and the partners will continue to disseminate via
programme meetings and other JISC and national events and fora.