1. University of Edinburgh (JCMB)   Martin Morrey   Kim Underwood
Jean Ritchie

2. Open University (Walton Hall) Peter Twining

3. University of Paisley   Charlie Hunter  Patrick Walder
John McQuillan

4. University of Strathclyde   Lorna Campbell     Ralph Weedon
Dave McNicol     Dave Whittington
Niall Sclater

5. TALiSMAN   Carol Higgison     Brian Shields
Nora Mogey

1)  Attendees as above

2) Report from Jean Ritchie
2.1) SHEFC has sent out a letter to HEIs inviting interest in the Web Tools initiative. Details  were circulated on the umi-info list.
2.2) All the UK funding councils are holding a consultation on subject centres to support L&T in HE.  There are places available at the workshops.
2.3) SHEFC will shortly send out a letter inviting bids for the Intranets initiative.
2.4) JR attended the final meeting of the Child Health Medi-CAL steering group.  The group plan a further meeting where consultants will check each others’ materials.  This project is keen to put their materials on the proposed SHEFC T&L server; they plan to develop a home page for the project which would include a notice along the lines of ‘materials vouched for by the Scottish Child Health Group’.
2.5) The SMVCN contacts group agreed the proposal for projector and data facilities for the videoconference studios.  The proposal is now with HEIDS who will take it to SHEFC.
2.6) Proposed SHEFC funded T&L Server.  It is now suggested that the Scottish T&L server will  reproduce the service that CVU has developed.  Initially the server will provide a service with no development activity associated with it.  The suggested name is:
Scottish HE Teaching Materials and Services SCOTMATS.  A video server may be needed separately from the main server.
JR feels that one of first things to do will be to contact owners of materials to see if they want them on the server.

2.9) This is Kim’s last meeting; she is leaving at the end of the week and will go to Paris.  The group will want to thank her for all her work and wish her well.

3. Presentation by Peter Twining, SoURCE project, Open University
Peter Twining works at the School of Education at the Open University. He is the SoURCE Project Director (Software Use, ReUse and Customisation in Education).

3.1) PT described how the generic version of the Elicitation Engine was developed  from a stand alone application called Art Explorer.  The software allows students to carry out successive sorts of objects, using classification descriptions chosen by the student; the system then prompts them to think about the sorts they have made, and includes information on sorts that have been carried out by subject experts.  The student is thus led to think about his/her own knowledge of the subject.  Thus the Elicitation Engine is a meta-cognitive tool.

3.2) SoURCE is evaluating the process of customising the Elicitation Engine for use in a range of subjects in four HE institutions.  These subjects include:  education, art, architecture and ocean science.  The possibility of using the Elicitation Engine in a subject such as chemistry was discussed and as was the need to alter the way the
software might be used.  Thus, for example, in Chemistry it might be used as an assessment tool.
 
3.3) NM from LTDI asked whether the SoURCE library will be a lending library in the future. LTDI has a large collection of software, and many academic staff view LTDI as an easy organisation through which to access materials, but the administration has been difficult. PT envisages people downloading information, rather than accessing materials through a walk in library; IMS may solve some problems with micropayments etc., or they may organise some sort of collaborative repayment system.

3.5)  The SoURCE project involves three HEIs: Open University, DeMontfort University and University of Wales, Bangor, and Middlesex University.  Several people are involved at each institution, including:
- Open University: 2 people from Institute of Educational Technology, (IET), 1/2 Research fellow working on evaluation; an IET coordinator;  Members from Library service, Copyright department, 2 academics
- DeMonfort University: 1 research fellow (1/2 time), 3 or 4 academics
-  University of Wales: 4 academics, 1 research fellow (1/2 time)
-  Middlesex University: 1 research fellow ( ½ time), 2 academics
The project started in September 98.

3.6) The SoURCE project started with the elicitation engine because it is very easy to customise; new digital media can be included in the appropriate folder. They are also working on an application called the "personal learning manager", which is more heavily dependent on content. SoURCE has chosen these two applications to customise and compare since they are at opposite ends of the spectrum as far as potential for customisation is concerned.  They will choose a third application in approximately one years time.

3.7) PT asked about UMI. PT was also interested to hear about the LTDI project and the software collection that they have built up.  He is keen to work with other projects.  PT’s email address is:

Peter Twining <P.Twining@open.ac.uk>
More information about SoURCE can be found on its (as yet embryonic) website;  http://mathetics.open.ac.uk/source/

4.  AOB
4.1) DW thought the next step in discussions about a Scottish T&L server would be to find out exactly what particular projects would require from the server.
MM said NLN for RS materials would need Perl, database management tool (MSQL), JAVA, discussion board, "GnuPlot", and other UNIX utilities. EDINA is UNIX based so these materials could be mounted there.  The NLN for RS materials are stored on both, or either one of two servers. General courseware is moveable, but more specialised applications are on one or the other server, and then linked through absolute links, student accounts and passwords.  DW remarked that many teaching applications were not designed to be moved onto different servers.

4.2) No date was set for the next UMI meeting. This will be further discussed by email.