Multi SIG meeting

Last week I attended the joint SIG meeting for the JISC CETIS groups on enterprise, portfolios and assessment 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.

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.

However, I must say that we where not the only project presenting, Alan also provided information on the DELIA project and there where others there to discuss a new standard for schools being proposed the the BSI 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.

I hope that the interest expressed at the time can translate into people actually downloading and trying the WebPA system for themselves.

One innocent little action...

In the run up to christmas I suggested that it would be good for the project to enter the IMS Global Learning Impact Awards. In doing this I landed my self a huge chunk of work in filling out the application. The application was not as straight forward as I had hoped and it even ate into my christmas holiday. But the application went in, with some in put form the WebPA evengelists here at Loughborough and the JISC Cetis Assessment co-ordinator.

The new year came and went. Then at the beginning of Feburary news came in that we had been accepted as a finalist. There were a couple of weeks to decide whether to progress to the finals or not. Now progression has been agreed and in the space of a few days news is already getting around.

Firstly, the Cetis co-ordinator sent an email with congratulations and now JISC are asking for a quote for a press release on how the project feels. Hopefully all this publicity will work for the project and draw in more institutions that will want to use the tool. All in all, not bad for a little open source project, bearly a year old!

New Year Update

Well the first month of the new year is almost complete and this will be my first post. Even though this is the third week I have been back, after the holiday session, lots has already happened.

To begin with I attended the CETIS Portfolio and Enterprise SIG meeting, where I had the chance to speak to people who are interested in the use of WebPA. Also with the meeting involving the Portfolio SIG I also had the opportunity to talk about the feedback mechanism which exists in WebPA. Those involved in Portfolio work suggested it may be an idea if this feedback to the student could be linked into Portfolio systems easily. This was a subject which was again raised in the recent project advisory board meeting. Perhaps this can be something for the future development of WebPA.

I have also been trying to reach a point where a new stable release can be made. However, as with all good intentions this has had to be delaied. After I have made a couple of fixes and alterations to the system then I hope to be able to make the release in the next week.

But on more positive notes; our Advisory Board meeting was a sucess. A lot of interesting points where raised and new pointers for some elements of the software where also highlighted.

Also, we have had increasing levels on interest in the WebPA tool. I have been monitoring where the interest has come from and how the parties have reached us. But the best news has been interest in the project from the otherside of the world, all thanks to one of the projects evangelists. I hope to blog a bit more about this later, when I can hopefully reviel more.

In the mean time I hope that this post has given you an insight of what has happened over the brief silent period.