The MARBLE Project: A collaborative framework for educational courseware design

The MARBLE Project is a collaborative venture that provides on-line resource-based learning materials to students at three higher education institutions in Scotland. As per capita funding from central government decreases without a decline in graduate quality, new methods are sought in universities to cope with this challenge. This paper discusses the collaborative beginnings and implementation of MARBLE and then focuses on one of the 10 components of the range of on-line courseware, the Computers in Teaching and Learning subproject. The extent to which MARBLE's collaborative nature causes efficiency gains while enabling the student to advance in the learning process is assessed. Topics covered include: background, including the use of the Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) in Scotland for effective courseware design and dissemination across the World Wide Web; the collaborative framework; convincing the teachers; the core problems associated with effective distributed courseware design; maintaining standards on a decreased budget; innovative use of resources; and feedback and analysis, including results of a questionnaire aimed at student and tutor participants. An extract from a HyperNews session is included. (Author/DLS) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Web Net 96 San Francisco, CA October 15-19, 1996 http://aace.virginia. edu/aace/conf/webnet/htm11144.htm The MARBLE Project: A Collaborative Framework for Educational Courseware Design U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) ID This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. O Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Sarah Price (sprice@icbl.hw.ac.uk), Heriot Watt University "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY G.H. Marks Patrick McAndrew (patrick@icbl.hw.ac.uk), Heriot Watt University Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Roger Rist (roger@icbl.hw.ac.uk), Heriot Watt University TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC). " Terry Mayes (jtma@glasgow-caledonian.ac.uk), Glasgow Caledonian University CZ) Eric Bonharme (e.bonharme@dcs.napier.ac.uk), Napier University Ray Land (r.land@central.napier.ac.uk), Napier University Mary Cuttle (mcuttle@ed.ac.uk), University of Edinburgh Jeff Haywood (J.Haywood@ed.ac.uk), University of Edinburgh Hamish MacLeod (Hamish.Macleod@ed.ac.uk), University of Edinburgh Abstract: The MARBLE Project is a collaborative venture which provides on-line resource-based learning materials to students at three Higher Education Institutions in Scotland. As per capita funding from central government decreases without a decline in graduate quality, new methods are sought in Universities to cope with this challenge. This paper discusses the collaborative beginnings and implementation of MARBLE, and then focuses specifically on one of the ten components of the range of on-line courseware. Since one influential report into Higher Education in the early 90s claimed that "Duplication of effort is wasted effort", we assess to what extent MARBLE's collaborative nature causes efficiency gains and yet, crucially, still enables the student to advance in the learning process. The MARBLE Project is a collaborative venture which provides on-line resource-based learning materials to students at three Higher Education Institutions in Scotland. As per capita funding from central government decreases without a decline in graduate quality, new methods are sought in Universities to cope with this challenge. This paper discusses the collaborative beginnings and implementation of MARBLE, and then focuses specifically on one of the ten components of the range of on-line courseware. Since one influential report into Higher Education in the early 90s claimed that "Duplication of effort is wasted effort", we assess to what extent MARBLE's collaborative nature causes efficiency gains and yet, crucially, still enables the student to advance in the learning process. This paper describes the MARBLE Project, which is an innovative, collaborative attempt to use the power of the Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) in Scotland for effective courseware design and dissemination across the World Wide Web. The MANs have provided the technical motivation for MARBLE: each offers FDDI at 100 megabits per second and ATM at 155 megabits per second. The four MANs are currently linked via the high speed SuperJANET academic network, which provides internet links, and will shortly be fully interconnected. The background for the creation of MARBLE is the changing pattern of Higher Education in the UK during the last decade. In brief, the major influences for change are increases in student numbers without per capita increases in funding, along with a greater external scrutiny of the quality of teaching and learning with the expectation that graduate quality will be maintained or even improved. In an attempt to evaluate these changes and steer a way forward through this challenging situation in Higher Education, an influential report written by a committee of Scottish University Principals in 1992, concluded that: "Computer Based Learning may not offer just another approach to learning, but may, in fact, be crucial to education's ability to meet the needs of the next few years" O [MacFarlane, 1992, p85] Cie 9 EST COPT' AVAILA 1 of 7 11/20/98 9:39 AM LE Web NO 96 San Francisco, CA October 15-19, 1996 http://aace.virginia. edulaace/conf/webnet/htm1/144.htm Strategies were proposed and implemented shortly thereafter which led to the creation of the MANs and to a vision of the distribution of computer-based learning materials becoming reality. MARBLE is one project which contributes to this process. The collaborative nature of the Project is also commensurate with the changed climate. Creating effective multimedia or hypertext courseware can be costly in terms of time and money; it is also extremely easy to do it badly. The notion of individual lecturers preparing their own educational software for their own immediate teaching needs has become increasingly viewed as less than ideal, given the necessity of constraining costs and avoiding duplication of effort wherever possible. MacFarlane foresaw that an "unprecedented degree of collaboration and sharing between different institutions" was required, and noted that "Duplication of effort is wasted effort" [MacFarlane, 1992, 03]. Diana Laurillard suggested further in 1993 that the problem could be addressed by producing educational software by consortia: "Because of the importance of collaboration for greater efficiency of production of materials, and the greater likelihood of widespread dissemination of them, any central funds made available for development of these materials should be given only to collaborative consortia" [Laurillard 1993, p230] The Funding Councils in the UK have moved some way towards adopting such a model, such that the current Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) required that all bids for funds to produce coursework software involved at least three institutions as members of a consortium. The infrastructure for widespread dissemination of web-based courseware is firmly in place in Scotland (the high capacity MANs) and the time is right for such a collaborative venture (the technology-friendly direction taken at the highest level in response to the demands made of Higher Education). With these two essential building blocks in place, the MARBLE Project proposed a matching of suitable academic subject areas with identified university departments who were willing to tread new ground and incorporate some of the most innovative web-based capabilities into their curricula. A Collaborative Framework An essential feature of the MARBLE framework is that it is the collaborative product of three universities, and bridges subprojects in several cognate subject areas. A Project Officer is employed at each university to provide the technical and organisational input; a Project Management team of six consists of permanent staff from the three sites; and seconded academics from the university consortium provide the direction for the subprojects, plus the core academic knowledge upon which the system depends. The 10 subprojects contained within MARBLE cross a range of subject areas. As even the most impressive new technology will not address the problems of the late 90s teaching environment unless the teaching staff are won over by it, MARBLE has attempted to "seed" the use of the MAN for resource-based learning across the following subjects: Biological Sciences Databases The Built Environment Computing in Teaching and Learning Geotechnical Engineering Interactive Vision Introductory Statistics Teaching in Psychology 3 2 of 7 11/20/98 9:39 AM Web Net 96 San Francisco, CA October 15-19, 1996 http://aace.virginia. edu/aace/conf/webnet/htm1/144.htm Library Information Retrieval Mathematical Assessment Molecular Sequence Databases The WWW for Computing Courses Thus, many academic staff will find resource-based learning materials in fields not too distant from their own, which they can clone and adapt to their own teaching with minimum effort. Convincing the Teachers Most of those involved in the process of designing educational software are aware of the potential for distrust, or, at best, unease, on the part of some course tutors towards such work. One of the most effective ways to allay these fears and reiterate that computers can be viewed as a tool to reduce workloads and improve quality is to involve them with the technology and show that it can be beneficial. T