tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32969307127234316042024-03-19T04:54:09.938+00:00WebPAUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger82125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-32230547813035979242009-02-09T09:16:00.004+00:002009-02-09T09:25:44.099+00:00Busy, busy, busy...This week is looking to be an interesting one. Not only are we in the midst of trying to get all of the project tied up, but we are holding the last management and advisory group meetings under the current funding. As with all of these project meetings more of my time is gobbled up by everything surrounding the meeting more than attending. I have though ordered the lunch, so all that is left is to get into the room for the meeting after the teaching has finished and set up. (Our centre administrator is on holiday, so its fend for your self time.)<br /><br />Towards the end of the week, I am off to attend the community day of <a href="http://dev8d.org/">Dev8D</a> and the evenings awards dinner. I'm off to the dinner as I have been nominated for an award. At the moment I am not sure what to expect, but it should be interesting to say the least. I will of course post the out comes if any.<br /><br />Right I better get to the day job and make sure everything is in place for the meetings.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-12595432399699498982009-01-29T09:38:00.003+00:002009-01-29T15:05:50.878+00:00The lapse in blog posts has continuedI am aware that the lapse in blogging has continued. There are many reasons behind the lack of posts, mostly related to time.<br /><br />Since the last post we have held our very first user group meeting for the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">WebPA</span> tool. I am happy to say that the event was more than successfully. It out stripped my expectations of the day, my only wish was that people would talk and interact with each other. Well they all talked, talked and talked some more (causing us to over run on sessions). This makes such a nice change from me doing all the talking about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">WebPA</span>, and also from event delegates behaving like the students they say never interact.<br /><br />One of the best statements about the day came from a delegate who said;<br /><blockquote>This tool has a great future but it needs to move quickly if it <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">doesn</span>’t want to be overtaken by the big boys’ (e.g. Blackboard <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">et</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">al</span>) growing desire to jump on the ‘assessment and feedback’ bandwagon. Congratulations to all those who’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">ve</span> worked on it so far and I’d like to express my interest in getting involved.</blockquote>Really that statement says it all for me. Not only does this person see how they can implement and support the tool at their institution, but they also want to become involved. I think that we can say that we are now at score 2 (<a href="http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2007/11/04/score-one-for-jisc-open-development/">score1 being reached a while ago</a>). And that was really what I wanted to get out of the user group, but believe me we got more... one implementer has talked about creating a ''power link for Blackboard, another suggested they help us work with the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Moodle</span> community, the list goes on and on.<br /><br />In addition to the user group, the Physical Sciences Subject Centre held an assessment event last week and again the feedback has been really positive. The day after I was at an e-learning conference at the University of Ulster. This was yet another interesting event and initial feedback was positive and encouraging. I think that we may have collected more potential adopting <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">institutions</span>. I still think more the merrier, but we are coming to the end of the funding and although they will be good for the sustainability of the project, at the moment it looks like with out <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">further</span> funding many of these potential adopters will be out in the cold and not have the support adopters up till now will have had. Only time will tell thoughUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-7048758332221287672008-12-08T14:37:00.004+00:002008-12-08T15:15:39.974+00:00Lapse in BloggingIt seems such a long time since I managed to write a post and in this time so much has happened.<br /><br />We are well on our way to providing our first ever user group. The venue has been selected, booked, the last thing to do it to confirm numbers and the bookeing. Hopefully, this will be complete by the end of the day. The programme of what is happening for the day is well on its way. There are areas that need work and there is now so little time in which to do the work. But the very nice folks over at OSS-Watch have agreed to help and provide a presentation on community and how it works within the world of open source. But we would like the day to be more centered around those who are going to use the WebPA tool and support insitutional users.<br /><br />Before preparing for the user event, I ran a work shop at the University of Coventry who have installed WebPA and are in the process of piloting the tool with a small number of academics. This ment that the people attending the workshop had very specific questions about the tool and its operation. None of the questions where anything that I hadn't faced before, but they did introduce some ideas and concepts I had never considered. As always more food for thought. To try and ensure that these where not lost the new features have been added to the projects source forge area, and also noted on the project website.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-6559992863670922522008-10-22T08:00:00.003+01:002008-10-22T08:17:17.182+01:00Netskills workshopThis morning I am in Newcastle, going through the elements which make up the task that I will be asking the participants at the Netskills workshop to do. Last week I did the workshop in Oxford at the same event, it went very well and we have received some really positive feedback. <div><br /></div><div>The workshop element that I am running is on WebPA (of course). While thinking what we could do, I decided that we would take a model used at Loughborough within the peer assessment workshops run, but not look at all the types of peer assessment. One of the reasons for not looking at all the types of peer assessment is due to the limitation on time, I have one hour.</div><div><br /></div><div>So in the hour that we have, I have a quick presentation, covering the background and where WebPA comes from. Then I introduce the task... in this case I am asking them to produce a poster in groups on the Student Learning Experience (the main thread of the days workshops). I have a set of users who they become as this takes the edge of when they have to fill in the assessment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Again today I hope that Sharon Waller can mark the posters, before all the participants come back together. Once back together, we collaboratively set the parameters for the assessment and look at the reports generated.</div><div><br /></div><div>Last time Martin from the Economics Subject Centre came out as top student! As Martin is going to be there again to day I hope he is not top student again. When I originally thought about this work shop I thought of giving out chocolates as a prize, but this then adds a competitive edge and detracts from peer moderated marking and takes us more in to game theory. So no chocolates, but we will identify the top student, but we wont identify the worst, even hiding under alias' its not fair to pick on one person.</div><div><br /></div><div>In Oxford everyone seemed to enjoy the ask and being a student again. By doing this they are seeing the student perspective and experiencing what the put students through (even if it is only an hour). After to day, I will put more information on running a workshop on the projects web site for others to pick up and use.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-48032470932305673282008-10-13T09:59:00.004+01:002008-10-13T10:26:24.879+01:00A busy time...As a project we received some really good news over the weekend. A paper we submitted has been accepted, a part from some edits we need to make from the reviewers comments. Of course when the paper is officially published I will provide the citation for it.<br /><br />However, this news has impacted my already busy week some. I need to turn the edits around quickly. As on Wednesday I am in Oxford at a Netskills workshop, then Thursday and Friday I am at the ACED Conference. Both are representing the project. The Netskills workshop should be fun, I will be getting the participants to create a poster on a given topic and then mark themselves and their team mates using the WebPA tool. We will not be comparing different peer moderated marking techniques as we don't really have time in 1 hour.<br /><br />Thursday and Friday, are very different though. I only have 20 minutes to provide an over view of WebPA. This time thought the focus is quite particular, civil engineering. So I will be providing two case studies, where WebPA is used at Loughborough. I am currently not aware of any other institution using WebPA in civil engineering, though it would be nice to compare.<br /><br />Next week will also prove to be busy and interesting. At the moment I am attending another Netskills workshop but this time in Newcastle. Following this I am going to take some time out, but only if the paper has been submitted.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-58714094581418854942008-10-06T14:30:00.003+01:002008-10-06T14:44:53.841+01:00Programme meeting time againIt only seems last month when we had a programme meeting for the project. But we have one looming on this <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Wednesday</span>. I'm sure that we had to do something for it, but I can't remember and I will have to sit down and go through all the emails related to it. However, at the moment this seems a very futile exercise with everything that needs to be done. I will though spend some time this afternoon sorting through and finding out.<br /><br />But there is so much to be achieved in the next few days and weeks. I need to finish sorting out the few glitches in the released code. As with every release you think you have nailed it, and then you come across something that is not quite right. At the same time I am frantically trying to up date all of the manuals on the website to reflect the changes in the system. I think this is how I keep identifying the problems that are appearing. <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Perhaps</span> next time I can make the changes in the documentation and then release the system. You live and learn.<br /><br />Additionally, we have been invited to so many things <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">recently</span> that I seem to be out and about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">a lot</span>. But this has the knock on effect of I need to get all my normal work done and then on top I need to prepare for the events. Next week is the most crowded. I have a work shop with the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Netskills</span> team organised by the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">HEA</span> next <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Wednesday</span>, followed <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">immediately</span> by the ACED Conference.<br /><br />I would rather be this way, busy, I hate not having things to do. But at some point I will need to slow down and take some time out.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-30645049822488073212008-10-02T14:35:00.004+01:002008-10-06T15:03:16.840+01:00Formative e-assessment workshopTo day I am down at the WLE center at the university of London attending their JISC project workshop on formative assessment.<div><br /></div><div>We are all in groups working towards developing some <a href="http://patternlanguagenetwork.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Cases">case studies</a> on one persons experiences of formative assessment. These case studies are being constructed through the person talking about their experience, another types the information directly into the projects wiki page. At the moment we are in the process of listening to other groups explaining the case study (this person is not the case study individual or the person who typed the assessment.)</div><div><br /></div><div>It is really interesting to see the different uses of assessment. From the WebPA project formative assessment is an area that is not really exploited to its full potential. It would be nice to gather examples of where the WebPA tool is to assist formative assessment.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think that from today I will take away a number of things, both for the project and also ideas for what we may wish to include in our user group day.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-15692062675076238342008-09-24T14:06:00.005+01:002008-09-24T16:33:44.964+01:00Over a month...I just came to write an update to the blog to give you some idea of what is happening with the project and realised it is well over a month since I last posted anything and it is already coming up to the end of the month.<br /><br />To recap the month just gone will be far to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">audios</span> for both me as a writer and to you as the reader. Instead I will try to highlight some of the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">success</span> that we have managed and also cover some of the problems we have encountered.<br /><br />One of the reasons for not being able to write to this blog as much has steamed from the fact the project has lost a member of the team. Steve has moved on to pastures new and I can be grudge him the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">opportunity</span> that came up for him. As a result of this loss the project is suffering, hopefully only for the short term. However, Steve has left a couple of elements which he did not have time to finish off to his satisfaction. One of these elements is the production of the case studies. Although Steve managed to get around 14 academics here at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Loughborough</span> there are others who could not see him in time. Due to this I have picked the stragglers up and hope to have them done by the end of next week, but the <a href="http://www.webpaproject.com/?q=case_studies">case studies so far are all on the project website </a>(I added the ones Steve completed under his name, there is no way I could take credit for his hard work.)<br /><br />Before an event in Cardiff set up and run by the<a href="http://www.engsc.ac.uk/"> Engineering Subject Centre</a>, I met the new Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching, who was interested to hear about the use of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">WebPA</span> at the University of Wales, Newport. The academic tutor has also been able to provide the project with a <a href="http://www.webpaproject.com/?q=node/371">case study</a>, although this is not community development in the code side of things it still constitutes (as far as I am concerned) this should count as a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">success</span> for the project.<br /><br />Another event, but local to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Loughborough</span> University was also a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">success</span> and for three hours I don't think I got a break from talking about the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">WebPA</span> tool and its use at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Loughborough</span>. I did though find out some interesting ways in which the tool is being used here. Again these are practices that were never considered through out the history of the project.<br /><br />Finally, we are being invited to some interesting workshops as participants (<a href="http://patternlanguagenetwork.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Groups.FormativeEAssessment/2Oct"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">JISC</span> formative e-assessment 2<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">nd</span> practical Enquiry Day</span></span></a> and<a href="http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/events/2008-10-20/programme.xml"><span style="font-size:100%;">Community Building and Open Source Development Workshop</span></a>) and some as <span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">presenters (</span></span><a href="http://patternlanguagenetwork.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Groups.FormativeEAssessment/2Oct"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span></span></span></a><a href="http://www.netskills.ac.uk/">Using Technology to Support the Student Learning Experience</a>). As you can imagine the coming month is going to be hectic, with lots to do and places to go. On top of this we will be releasing the next version of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">WebPA</span>, which will require updates to the user guides for both the installer, administrator and the academic user, so if there is anyone out there who can help, all offers will be considered (of course in an open source way).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-23010678562942032982008-08-13T14:47:00.004+01:002008-08-13T15:02:03.310+01:00A quick update before a breakIt's August and I have decided like the rest of Europe to take some time off. But this does not mean that the project will stop. Life and development will still be occurring.<br /><br />Today though, the WebPA project has been held high as an example again. This time rather than from inside the project it came from the Programme manager David down a JISC drumming up support for the <a href="http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2009/regional2009li.html">UK round of IMS award</a> short lists. I would say that any JISC project should have a go. The reward to the project is phenomenal in terms of credit to the project team and also lead institution.<br /><br />We are also in the process of writing a paper which will hopefully be accepted into the special issue of the BJET. But only time will tell.<br /><br />However, when back we will be gearing up to make a new release of the WebPA tool, providing people with enough time to get an installation working before the next semester. If you are interested in using WebPA or installing it I suggest that you <a href="http://www.webpaproject.com/?q=contact">contact the project</a>. If you do take the WebPA tool and use it you could join our list of <a href="http://www.webpaproject.com/?q=node/34">adopting institutions</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-42200594370067728992008-08-08T09:55:00.004+01:002008-08-13T14:46:28.898+01:00Visiting a WebPA adopterEarlier this week, we went down to the University of East Anglia (UEA) to the Medical department to meet with two staff members heavily involved in the assessment of students. They had found the WebPA project and system, and seen how they can apply it to their situation.<br /><br />The implementation of WebPA they will use will not at first exploit the full system. They are looking at using the system to gather the data needed from the students against the form criteria. This is where the break comes, UEA will not be using the algorithm, but exploiting the form reports (hopefully we will be providing a tailored report). The system will address the need to asses students abilities as part of the General Medical Councils guidelines on fitness to Practice.<br /><br />This forms an interesting break from both how the system was designed to use into an interesting area for the project to explore. It is only the flexibility that the system provides that allows this to happen. If the project had gone down the route of producing a more stringent process focused system UEA may never have been able to use the tool.<br /><br />All in all watch this space and see how the use of WebPA develops for a new type of assessment.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-8721694485745671022008-07-03T14:30:00.006+01:002008-07-03T14:56:53.160+01:00Landing on our feet again...Next week will see the annual <a href="http://www.caaconference.com/">CAA (Computer Aided Assessment) Conference</a> at Loughborough. Back in February when they where asking for abstracts, I did think of writing a paper and submitting. But then there where more pressing things staring me in the face, including all the work for the project and the <a href="http://webpa-tec.blogspot.com/search/label/IMS%20Global">IMS Learning Impact Awards</a>. As a result the time to sit and write an abstract escaped.<br /><br />Since the dark days of February, I never really thought much more about the <a href="http://www.caaconference.com/">CAA Conference</a> until towards the end of May when some one mentioned that they might see me there. A general assumption that I would be attending as it is at Loughborough. But again this was soon forgotten.<br /><br />However, everything changed on Tuesday this week. After a meeting related to another forth coming conference (<a href="http://www.ee2008.info/">Engineering Education 2008</a>, again at Loughborough) it was mentioned to see if we could get our posh banners up during the CAA. Following this I duely emailed those organising the CAA, to receive the response of;<br /><br /><blockquote>... as it happens we have a free slot in the programme on Wednesday at 11.30 a.m. if you'd like to present a demo, also we'd be happy to distribute your publicity material to the delegates. </blockquote><br />Well I'm not one for turning offers like this down. So we have jumped in both feet first. This has resulted in an increase in work for a couple of days and I have to pull together a presentation for 45 minutes, but hey we have more than enough expertess and information on this project not to be able to do this. Also those at the CAA conference are also part of our community, well not directly the WebPA community, but the wider assessment community so it will be good for us to be there.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-90906439418378887882008-06-25T09:22:00.004+01:002008-06-25T09:35:52.178+01:00IMS Regional Finals for the next IMS Learning Impact AwardsThis morning I received an email about the UK having their own <a href="http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2009/regional2009li.html">regional finals for the IMS Learning Impact Awards for 2009</a>. Over the past two years there have been two successful UK entries to the Awards, <a href="http://www.webpaproject.com/?q=node/290">WebPA</a> (<a href="http://www.lboro.ac.uk">Loughborough University</a>) being one and <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/news/news-full.php?id=10899">OpenLearn</a> from the <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/">Open University</a> the other.<br /><br />I would encourage anyone with a project in the UK to have a go and see where you get. There is no harm in trying and if you are successful you will be awarded with the recognition of your project within your institution and the UK. Being an award wining project means a lot for both the project and those involved. If you don't know where to start, I would recommend contacting the folks at JISC Cetis as they know the community at IMS better than anyone. You can also read about my experiences of attending the conference and the award process by reading the past entries I made related to the <a href="http://webpa-tec.blogspot.com/search/label/IMS%20Global">IMS Awards</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-22477440547008656752008-06-19T10:30:00.004+01:002008-06-19T11:15:00.118+01:00Selecting the right time to releaseToday, my main task was to make a new release of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">WebPA</span> files. This should be a simple job, but our timing is really off. Just <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">recently</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Sourceforge</span> have moved their systems to a new data center. Which seems to have had a effect on some of the services that they provide, such as the wiki and the FTP upload for project releases.<br /><br />This has prompted conversations about reporting on our view of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">sourceforge</span> and the issues and limitations that we have found with the system. I have in the past written about the '<a href="http://webpa-tec.blogspot.com/2007/08/sourceforge-adventure-into-unknown.html"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">sourceforge</span></a>' effect and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">perceived</span> views and values of the system, which in a way covers the issues that we are facing at the moment. But with all things in the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">open source</span> arena, they are providing a free to use service so some give and take needs to be <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">afforded</span>.<br /><br />For us, this is a glitch that we will just have to cope with for now and hope that they will have the systems over at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Sourceforge</span> up and running again really soon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-62430754561300744692008-06-03T16:18:00.002+01:002008-06-04T11:14:17.060+01:00Gathering survey information onlineOver the past day or so I have been developing a bespoke survey for the researcher on the project to use. This need for the bespoke tool has come about as they would like to survey the students who have just recently used the WebPA tool (we are fast approaching the end of semester two).<br /><br />This all seems so simple, why not use one of the many tools that are already out there and in use. For a start there is <a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/">SurveyMonkey</a>, <a href="http://www.polldaddy.com/">PollDaddy</a> and <a href="http://freeonlinesurveys.com/faq.asp">FreeSurveysOnline </a>to name a few who are free. But that's the catch isn't it 'free', however, what they really are is limited use. All three mentioned above are free is your survey will be for less than 100 user and only 10 questions (approximately).<br /><br />So that left us in a bit of limbo... we know at Loughborough that we wanted to contact the academics of 35 modules which have run or are about to run WebPA. Each module ranged in size from 30+ to 300+, which automatically rules out the free survey tools, even taking into account the low response rate normally received by surveys.<br /><br />At this point the options are limited but viable. We can either bite the bullet and pay to run the survey or develop a bespoke form. However, in building a bespoke form there are compromised to be had. The first is that you loose the ability for the researcher to create and edit the form easily ( well in our case some knowledge of PHP and HTML) and you also loose the nice GUI reporting tools, but who says that they will provide you with the reports you actually want. On the plus side, all the information is kept within the institution, which helps with the ethics side of carrying out the survey and the data is easily accessible and can be manipulated easily via a spread sheet. The final survey has also been tailored so that we can collect information dependant on the URL sent to the recipients/participants. This has meant that we can easily filter the information dependant on module and also semester, but also easily use the same survey at the adopting institutions, by identifying the university.<br /><br />All in all there is nothing wrong with the tools available that are 'free' as in 'limited', but there are times where a bespoke survey will provide slightly more, even if it is just simple peace of mind on where the resultant information will be.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-18915526888917365112008-05-29T15:22:00.005+01:002008-05-30T15:48:59.628+01:00Amazon CloudsUntil now I have not really looked in to the Amazon Clouds or to give it its proper name, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=201590011">Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2 for short)</a>. But at the JISC Cetis meeting someone mentioned them again so I thought that I had really better take a look at what they are and how easy it would be to use. I could have just evaluated the EC2 from the developers point of view, but often the issue that we have with installations of WebPA are related to a single academic tutor wanting to use the system and not having access to a server or the knowlegde to install the system. So as a quick solution the EC2 looks like the right tool for the job.<br /><br />Well that is on the surface at least. A further look and you suddenly become aware of how complex the system can become. When you first read the information about the EC2 it appears that you access the service set up and instance for you and off you go. However, on closer inspection, this webservice is really aimed at seasoned developers. Not only is the documentation at times confusing, but when you do find a very good <a href="http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/04/05/how-to-getting-started-with-amazon-ec2">tutorial on getting started (based on using a Mac)</a> you soon realise that it is far to complex for the average Joe.<br /><br />In light of this I would recommed that an experienced developer use the EC2, but I will have to look at something else to make life easier for a none technical potential user. This means that I will need to build a bundle of tools for the next release of the WebPA tool, similar to those used for Moodle.<br /><br />One last point on the Amazon EC2, is that there is a cost. Its adoption into the Education arena particularly in the UK may be slow due to this and there are also other services available that may be more intune with the UK Education system such as <a href="http://www.eduserv.org/">eduserv.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-90848521162785936412008-05-29T09:07:00.003+01:002008-05-29T09:33:51.484+01:00Multi SIG meetingLast week I attended the <a href="http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/Assessment-Enterprise-Portfolio_meeting_2008">joint SIG meeting for the JISC CETIS groups on enterprise, portfolios and assessment</a> up in Glasgow. As the developer for the project I tend to try and attend the Enterprise SIG meetings, but so far I have not been able to attend the assessment meetings, due to timing. But more over this was the first time that I would be presenting.<br /><br />For me the meeting was a huge success. There where a lot of people there who are interested in the WebPA system and what it can provide for them. One person could see positive uses for WebPA in further education colleges that they support. Others could see a use for WebPA in their teaching and institutions. This is all really positive for the project as we have a very unique tool that there seems to be a real need for.<br /><br />However, I must say that we where not the only project presenting, Alan also provided information on the <a href="http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/DELIA/">DELIA </a>project and there where others there to discuss a new standard for schools being proposed the the <a href="http://www.bsi-global.com/">BSI </a>and much much more. I do tend to find that these meetings are informative and interesting in the variety of topics, projects and subjects that are covered in such a short period of time.<br /><br />I hope that the interest expressed at the time can translate into people actually downloading and trying the WebPA system for themselves.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-47092839271000850182008-05-21T09:04:00.004+01:002008-05-21T09:41:54.349+01:00WebPA is now award wining<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaSeq7CKHmTLuEA6UHOERUtRTRafWxS9jOTKm6FfTMZisTbQeuyOGMuSttkGJM7cjT2LPPbXgUthS1rqZWaWElJiYYWEBByp_xKjfR3CeuGhZVqo8t2AjFqlQcknE0ytF9wHIT9S8i5GWl/s1600-h/2008Bronzesm.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaSeq7CKHmTLuEA6UHOERUtRTRafWxS9jOTKm6FfTMZisTbQeuyOGMuSttkGJM7cjT2LPPbXgUthS1rqZWaWElJiYYWEBByp_xKjfR3CeuGhZVqo8t2AjFqlQcknE0ytF9wHIT9S8i5GWl/s320/2008Bronzesm.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5202747397843777362" /></a><br />I spent last week at the IMS Global annual conference in Austin, Texas, USA. The main reason for being there was to represent the WebPA project for a <a href="http://webpa-tec.blogspot.com/2008/02/one-innocent-little-action.html">submission that I made back around Christmas time</a>. <br /><br />The main aspect of the awards process after being shortlisted comprised of a speed dating style presentation to small groups of conference attendees for five minutes and then all change to the next group. All in all we repeated this for a total of twenty three times. I am really glad that Peter Willmot, a colleague here at Loughborough, was able to accompany me there, as I don't think that I would have been able to do that on my own. At the end of the presentation time I think we had lost the plot, I can't remember what we said, to whom and when. Some of the groups that came round must have had the same things repeated to them a couple of times during our presentation. I do know that this whole process lasted over two hours. <br /><br />The rest of the conference had some interesting points, but in the main a lot of the sessions where misleading. I attended a session on learning out comes and analytics, which turned out to be more related to data mink for student retention, the challenges and reasons why it is difficult to do.<br /><br />However, as with every conference it was the networking time that was more beneficial. Various people showed interest in the WebPA system, including representatives from the Open University in the UK, Sakai and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. All of which I intend to follow up in the near future.<br /><br />At the end of the conference was the awards ceremony, during which the WebPA project was presented with a Bronze Award. Although I am sure that we could have gotten a silver or higher if we where more prepared for the presentation people herding session. But a bronze is better than no awards at all. <br /><br />Looking back on the experience I definitely would say that the almost ordeal of going through the whole process including the presentation aspect has been well worth it. Not only will this benefit me as an individual in my career (I put in the submission in the first place), but also the institution that I am based and of course the project and JISC. I will also take the opportunity to thank the JISC Cetis for all the help and support in assisting us with the submission, and supporting us at the conference.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-90589283834073180962008-04-30T11:46:00.005+01:002008-04-30T13:10:17.113+01:00Embeded in another institutionUp until now, I have done a lot of unseen work with potential adopters. Mainly this has been supporting them on an individual basis as part of the project. Through out this time I have been treading a very thin line on being closed as a project, and open at the same time. Its very much like having a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. I know which is the correct route and which is the incorrect. But now I face a dilemma on ensuring that the results of this hard work are fully disseminated.<br /><br />Part of the reason for not being completely open from the start is due to the project structure and the process of education. The project had the spirit of collaboration from the start, but this was a very much closed process. Although I have objected to this closed method from time to time, I have been over ridden on numerous occasions. It appears that the fear of 'airing dirty laundry in public' will always prevail. <br /><br />But after a success, I then have to mess round, checking that any information provided in an email can then be shared and disseminated. This step could have been avoided in the first place by ensuring all communication had been open, but at the same time I don't think that the relationship would have been built as well.<br /><br />However, this does not answer the initial point of this post, which is...WebPA is now embedded at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and will be used with a first year module for the next five years. The MMU has also received some very positive comments from external examiners. Further more, other HOD's within MMU are also showing interest.<br /><br />This is all great news and shows that opensource projects can be successful within this HE arena, but do require some nurturing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-9177746022166188982008-04-25T14:29:00.004+01:002008-04-25T15:46:31.680+01:00Have we met another important milestone......following the demo (thanks to OSS-Watch) at the JISC Conference 2008 (15 April), we have now passed the 200 downloads mark. I know that there are some people who will still remind me that by using the stats provided by the sourceforge area we will not get a real picture. I accept this but at the same time, the stats can help us see that in the days following (untill today) we have had 39 downloads of the system. Yes, I hear you say, but don't forget the project svn. Well I haven't, when I looked at this there has been little activity other than me writing files.<br /><br />This is not the only knock on effect of demonstrating WebPA at the JISC Conference, I can also track, hightened activity on both the project demonstrator, but also on the project website.<br /><br />This all bodes well for the project and shows that the way in which we have interacted with the wider HE community to date has been benificial. By word of mouth and attending events such as the JISC conference, prospective users are finding out more about the project, and hopefully will become users. In time from these users we may manage to get more input, from this we may even end up with a health self sustaining community. But I think there may be more milestones to tackle before this is reached.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-28805079456585901712008-04-15T10:00:00.004+01:002008-04-14T09:45:49.916+01:00JISC Conference 2008Well here we are a year on, only this time I am not telling people of the new WebPA project. This time we are demonstrating and telling of this establishing tool about to go to the <a href="http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2008/2008LIAnominees.html">IMS Global Learning Impact Awards</a>.<br /><br />Up till today a lot of the attendees for the <a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2008/04/jiscconference08.aspx">conference </a>have been socialising and deciding which sessions to attend on the <a href="http://jisc08.crowdvine.com">JISC Conference social network</a>. However, it is nice to see the photos turn into real people.<br /><br />Hopefully, the project will gain more adopters from attending to day and we hope to hear from them in the very near future.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-64942497666968802612008-04-11T11:05:00.004+01:002008-04-11T11:49:06.144+01:00Back to juggling...At the moment there are so many different things happening.<br /><br />Tuesday, the project will be at the JISC Conference 2008. Where I will be demonstrating on the OSS-Watch demonstrator stand. I need to set-up some time to prepare a laptop and ensure that there is enough data in the database to provide a meaning full demonstration.<br /><br />At the same time there are element of the IMS awards that I need to prepare for. I intend to develop a series of small videos of the software that can be re used else where. There are also the posters which we would like to take.<br /><br />This is all on top of trying to support all the other institutions who are adopting WebPA and keeping up to date with what stages of use they are at.<br /><br />In addition to all this I need to find some time to actually sit and do some more coding. This however, may be delayed for a while and I will try and block a time for some intensive coding. Until then I will continue to fix all the problems, but not code any new major feature.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-25834687849333026252008-04-07T08:56:00.003+01:002008-04-07T09:16:52.552+01:00Visiting another universityToday we are off to another UK university to introduce WebPA to a number of teaching staff there, in hope that they will be able to get the system installed at their institution.<br /><br />However, we are going to change the format after doing three or four of these workshops. Rather than 'death by over texted PowerPoint' we are going to try having less information on the presentation. I have been against the use of tight text on power point presentations for a long time. The presentation should be a que for the presenters next point or points, rather that the time honored read the text out. This however, will be new for the project researcher, but I think that they will be fine and make a great success of this method.<br /><br />As for my bit, the demonstration, we are going to try and encourage the participants to interupt and discuss the software more. Hopefully, this will encourage the prospective users to think about how they would use WebPA in their teaching, thus providing us with more potential models of use and new elements that maybe added to the system in future releases.<br /><br />The reason for the change is due to a meeting that we attended last week. Rather than provide the standard presentation, an over view sheet was provided, just to give some basic information about the project. The rest of the time, we had more informal conversation, including through the demonstration.<br /><br />But today, we are also going to provide the participants with time and logon information, so that they to can have a go in a safe and secure environment, without feeling that the information will be seen by real students.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-71925249030225025352008-04-04T09:16:00.004+01:002008-04-04T09:45:55.401+01:00See us at the JISC ConferenceLast year while at the JISC conference in Brimingham the folks at OSS-Watch asked if we would be interested in participating in a demo stand. Of course we jumped at the chance. Now a year later this is all becoming reality.<br /><br />We have our official stint at 10:45 on the OSS-Watch demonstrator stand locationed Hall 3, opposite main JISC stand. However, we will be around all day so feel free to come and find us.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-45214505547875029732008-04-03T08:18:00.003+01:002008-04-03T08:45:38.478+01:00Intergrating MoodleWhile at the JISC Programme meeting in March I spoke to <a href="http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/people/jsh2">Jonathon</a> who has done some <a href="http://moodle.org/">moodle </a>integration for his JISC project. He was able to point me in the right direction as to how integration can be achieved.<br /><br />As some of you will know the documentation for moodle can be a bit flaky and in my experience you often find that some terms are used for one or more things and this is the case for creating extensions for the system. Jonathon pointed me at <a href="http://docs.moodle.org/en/newmodule">NEWMODULE</a> which allows you to create a plugin. However the word module is used repeatedly in VLE development and education. So when I had been originally looking for this ability I had been snowed under with information on setting a new module (in academic terms) rather than creating a plugin or widget.<br /><br />However, I am now at my next hurdle. We have the method to achieve some basic integration, but there is no defined plan of what we will be doing with it. So the next stage is to work out what we will want the widget to do. But there is also another hurdle lurking in the background. Once we know what we want to do, and have an idea on how we are going to develop it, we will need access to a test environment (ie a copy of <a href="http://moodle.org/">moodle </a>somewhere). Once these obstacles are over come then I think that we will be well on our way to providing some integration for VLEs, we will then just need to look at the others.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296930712723431604.post-46148770239489345342008-04-02T13:35:00.003+01:002008-04-02T14:24:42.867+01:00So what happened to MarchAt the almost beginning of march I wrote about attending the JISC Programme Meeting. Well the outcomes where that it was interesting to see that other JISC e-assessment orientated projects are having some of the same issues that we as a project have been facing. However, in other respects we are miles ahead of others in what we have accomplished. A lot of attendees where interested in how we had progressed to being open source so quickly in the project and where interested in finding out more about what they could learn from us. Also the other main area people where interested in was the <a href="http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2008/2008LIAnominees.html">IMS Award shortlist</a>. For me the afternoon was not quite as good as it could have been, and I really didn't have much to take away with me.<br /><br />The following week I was at the <a href="http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/events/2008-03-18/programme.xml">OSS-Watch Risk Management in Open Source Procurement</a>. For me the key elements that I picked up on where:<br /><ul><li>The more customisations move away from the original code the harder they are to maintain and also integrate back in</li><li>What business reasons can we provide to show that the adoption of WebPA is beneficial</li><li>What are the upgrade cycles for a project, as this will often help to sway a potential adopter</li><li>What would aid our survivability, would it be via becoming a service.</li><li>How can we best show the scalability of the WebPA system.</li></ul>A lot of other topics where also covered, far too many to mention here.<br /><br /><br />In the middle of this I have damaged my hand and wrist so, somethings are becoming slightly behind as I work through the pain. I have also had to take some holiday, so that was the end of March really.<br /><br />Now we are in April, I am getting back into the swing of things. However, I still have a list as long as my arm that I need to complete soon, as well as, preparing for the <a href="http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2008/2008LIAnominees.html">IMS Awards</a> next month, which is only 5.5weeks away!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0