Moira Massey EDINA Learning and Teaching Projects Co-ordinator Collaborative Working in UK Learning and Teaching Projects

Themes of Presentation Introduction to EDINA Collaborative working and action research at EDINA Service - EDINA Digimap Projects – Xgrain –e-MapScholar Contact details

Edinburgh Data INformation and Access One of three National Data Centres for UK tertiary education Funded by Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of funding councils Part of University of Edinburgh Computing Services Provides around 20 online information services to UK tertiary education - mainly geo-data and bibliographic

Collaborative Working Both in services and projects EDINA aims for collaboration in technical, organisational and content issues, with: - Site Representatives - Trial sites - Associate Partners within projects - Learning and Teaching and other experts - Other projects within programmes - Other projects within clusters - Community Put emphasis on working with stake-holders and carrying out effective evaluation of work

Work based on Action Research principles Integrating practice with the analysis of practice (Webber and Johnston, 2000) Cyclic - Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) - plan, act, observe, reflect, plan again Participative - trial sites, field studies, site representatives, partners, L&T Associates, community calls for proposals Qualitative research (although quantitative also used)

Action Research 2 Reflective - all parties involved offered regular opportunities to reflect and comment Responsive - actions amended in the light of findings Emergent - early cycles used to help decide how to conduct later cycles, both action and research (Descriptors taken from Dick, B

The EDINA Digimap Service

EDINA Digimap Digimap is a web-based mapping service, offering access to Ordnance Survey digital map data National service, serving 51 HE institutions Started as e-Lib funded project with six trial sites Digimap offers an easy-to-use, map-based interface, allowing: –creation of maps on-screen –printing of high quality maps –downloading of digital map data for use in user’s own GIS or graphics package

Land-Line.Plus ® 1:10, :1,250 30% of national coverage Land-Form PANORAMA ™ 1:50,000 national coverage contours and DTM Meridian ™ 1:50,000 national coverage Strategi ® 1:250,000 national coverage 1: 50,000 Place-names Gazetteer - 250,000 place-names Data available through Digimap

Digimap - screen shot

Who is using Digimap? - users undergraduates are largest group 82% of users are not geographers

Growth in user numbers users generally learn of Digimap by word of mouth number of registered users has doubled in this academic year (currently 5,000)

Collaborative Working in Digimap - the project Trial service was made available to six trial sites, each of which appointed a site representative Iterative changes were made to service from work with trial sites Evaluation work undertaken, both by members of the project team, and external evaluators Project continues as Digimap.Plus, with remit to examine development of service to incorporate aerial photography, historical data and locally licensed data Digimap.Plus also working on geo-data survey with community

Overview of Evaluation of Digimap Project Log Files Usability Study Usage Evaluation Teaching Needs Organisational Impact Study What was done? Where? When? Who? Why? How? Where? Happiness? Effectiveness? Impact? Benefits? Problems? Future?

Evaluation outcomes Wide range of insights from the evaluation work: –who users are and what they are doing –how the service can be improved –how data are used and how they can be better supplied –supporting users in their use of complex data –teaching needs, as well as research needs Wide range of benefits: –improved service and new facilities –all developments based on collaboration with stake-holders –led to award of funding for national service

Collaborative Working in Digimap National Service Currently has 51 subscribing HE institutions About to embark upon trial service to 6 FE institutions National service works with local support teams - site reps, local experts, computing services etc All support teams receive intensive training (four separate modules available) Discussion of issues on mailing lists and presentations from users at workshops Digimap team feeds user views to OS and JISC Geo-data content development work directly informed by national service users

The Xgrain project

Aim of Xgrain To enhance and promote the use and usability of specialist Abstracting and Indexing, and electronic Tables of Contents, services in learning and teaching

Summary of X-grain Project led by EDINA, with Associate Partners January May 2003 Broker to carry out searching Cross-search portal Supplemented by learning and teaching materials, including learning objects Project supported by 10 Learning and Teaching Associates Part of larger programme, called JOIN-UP, addressing linkage between reference sources and full text services Further information available at:

Collaborative Working in Xgrain Technical development work with partner institutions User requirements and L&T work being undertaken with 10 Learning and Teaching Associates, to: –Advise on functionality of the cross-search interface –Trial prototype interfaces at local institutions, or within subject community –Advise on enhancement of the cross-search interface for learning and teaching use –Assist with development of L&T materials Community involvement in developing L&T materials

The e-MapScholar project

Digimap e-MapScholar January December 2002 Aim is to develop tools and learning and teaching materials that enhance and support the use of geo-spatial data in learning and teaching Will enhance the Digimap service for learning and teaching Working with Associate Partners from 2 Universities and Ordnance Survey - and Associates from 7 other Universities, or Subject Centres More information available at:

Digimap - obtaining a map Using data from Digimap in a GIS or drawing package The Digimap Skills/Concepts Gap Users need help to negotiate barriers arising from lack of skills/knowledge Learning/skills curve

Digimap - obtaining a map Bridging the Skills/Concepts Gap Tutorials Tools Increasing user sophistication Learning/skills curve Using data from Digimap in a GIS or drawing package

An example - enhanced visualisation K. Morrison/R. Purves Overlay Roads Settlements Land-use Water features D.E.M. derived from DTED

Collaborative Working in e- MapScholar Associate Partners developing software and learning materials Advisors from 7 other Universities assisting with project and user requirements work Consortium divided into teams: project co-ordination, development, evaluation, L&T Regular meetings for all teams, reports and mailing list discussions Community involvement in developing case studies and other learning materials

Contact To find out more about EDINA services and projects, see: or For further information about e-MapScholar or Xgrain, please contact: Moira Massey