KINSHIP King's Social Harmonisation Project: Developing a pilot social network in medical education Bernadette. A. John 1, Sophie. M. Strong 1, Prof Patricia Reynolds 2, Dominique Borel 3, Catherine Brossard 3, Dr Stylianos Hatzipanagos 4, Elena Hernandez-Martin 5, Prof Alan Read 6 1 School of Medicine, 2 Dental Institute, 3 Modern Languages Centre, 4 Kings Learning Institute, 5 Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning, 6 Department of English; Kings College London Background Students entering Higher Education are increasingly ICT literate, although, as evidenced by the recent College Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) benchmarking review, they have some concerns about e-learning replacing face- to-face teaching (Hatzipanagos et al 2010). The informal use of social media for learning is becoming evident, and so there is scope to evaluate the impact of a custom made secure College-wide social network for education. Aims This College Teaching Fund project, led by students, aims to identify, customise, and evaluate a social networking platform, to meet the diverse educational needs in healthcare (Medicine and Dentistry) and the humanities (English and Modern Languages). This platform is initially being piloted, in the medical school, to establish if it can foster an improved sense of community, enhance communication and serve as a space to model digital professionalism. Background Students entering Higher Education are increasingly ICT literate, although, as evidenced by the recent College Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) benchmarking review, they have some concerns about e-learning replacing face- to-face teaching (Hatzipanagos et al 2010). The informal use of social media for learning is becoming evident, and so there is scope to evaluate the impact of a custom made secure College-wide social network for education. Aims This College Teaching Fund project, led by students, aims to identify, customise, and evaluate a social networking platform, to meet the diverse educational needs in healthcare (Medicine and Dentistry) and the humanities (English and Modern Languages). This platform is initially being piloted, in the medical school, to establish if it can foster an improved sense of community, enhance communication and serve as a space to model digital professionalism. Social Network Noun A dedicated website or other application which enables users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages etc (oxforddictionaries.com) Social Network Noun A dedicated website or other application which enables users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages etc (oxforddictionaries.com) Open Source adjective Computing denoting software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified (oxforddictionaries.com) Open Source adjective Computing denoting software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified (oxforddictionaries.com) Platform evaluation The Kinship (Elgg) prototype platform was developed and supported with mentorship from Brighton University, who have an Elgg institutional social network with 90,000 registered users. Kinship is hosted on a commercial external, UK based cloud server (so UK Law applies to the content created), mindful of College regulations and the TEL strategy. It has been piloted with 700 medical students for 3 months.). Suitable open source platforms were evaluated for relevance in (Elgg, Ning, Buddy Press, Mahara). The core functional design of the 4 popular platforms is not identical. Mahara has comparatively high developmental costs. Elgg is primarily a social network whereas Mahara is primarily an eportfolio – so whilst both have similar features, simply listing a set of functions doesnt indicate how well each platform executes these functions. Ning, although popular is obviously different because it is a paid application hosted on a proprietary website. Platform evaluation The Kinship (Elgg) prototype platform was developed and supported with mentorship from Brighton University, who have an Elgg institutional social network with 90,000 registered users. Kinship is hosted on a commercial external, UK based cloud server (so UK Law applies to the content created), mindful of College regulations and the TEL strategy. It has been piloted with 700 medical students for 3 months.). Suitable open source platforms were evaluated for relevance in (Elgg, Ning, Buddy Press, Mahara). The core functional design of the 4 popular platforms is not identical. Mahara has comparatively high developmental costs. Elgg is primarily a social network whereas Mahara is primarily an eportfolio – so whilst both have similar features, simply listing a set of functions doesnt indicate how well each platform executes these functions. Ning, although popular is obviously different because it is a paid application hosted on a proprietary website. Preliminary Findings and Discussion A working social networking platform, built in Elgg has been developed in keeping with College guidelines. It enables secure authentication using students own College logins and is simply accessible via Early usage statistics and student feedback in Medicine have shown that the site has the potential to create and enhance a genuine sense of community for our students, who are more likely to be living off campus than ever before and studying at various sites, scattered across London. In order for an institutional social network to offer a viable alternative, it must have the ability to develop at a pace - this can be inexpensive if using an open source platform. Students have high expectations of the functionality within social networks and the long established, active community of Elgg developers, collaborating and sharing their extensive catalogue of plugins is a valuable characteristic of this platform. Elgg is written in a popular code termed php, so it is a large number of developers. Preliminary Findings and Discussion A working social networking platform, built in Elgg has been developed in keeping with College guidelines. It enables secure authentication using students own College logins and is simply accessible via Early usage statistics and student feedback in Medicine have shown that the site has the potential to create and enhance a genuine sense of community for our students, who are more likely to be living off campus than ever before and studying at various sites, scattered across London. In order for an institutional social network to offer a viable alternative, it must have the ability to develop at a pace - this can be inexpensive if using an open source platform. Students have high expectations of the functionality within social networks and the long established, active community of Elgg developers, collaborating and sharing their extensive catalogue of plugins is a valuable characteristic of this platform. Elgg is written in a popular code termed php, so it is a large number of developers. Plug-inadjective Computing (of a module or software) able to be added to a system to give extra features or functions: a plug-in graphics card (oxforddictionaries.com)Plug-inadjective Computing (of a module or software) able to be added to a system to give extra features or functions: a plug-in graphics card (oxforddictionaries.com) Next Steps: Clarify what user preferences are with regard to functionality, privacy settings and access Establish institutional support required to enable adoption of KINSHIP by KCL Secure funding to enable roll out across the college Next Steps: Clarify what user preferences are with regard to functionality, privacy settings and access Establish institutional support required to enable adoption of KINSHIP by KCL Secure funding to enable roll out across the college References: Hatzipanagos, S. Warburton, S. Reedy, G. (2010) Technology-Enhanced Learning Benchmarking Report. Kings College London. Hatzipanagos, S. Warburton, S., Blackmore, P. (2009) A review of e-learning at Kings College. Kings College London. Oxford Dictionary Oxford Dictionaries. [ONLINE] Available at: dictionary [Accessed 14 June 12] dictionary Stanier, S : The Development of an Institutional Shared Learning Environment. In: ODonoghue, J. ed., Technology Supported Environment for Personalised Learning: Methods and Case Studies. [s.l.]: IGB Global, 2009, pp References: Hatzipanagos, S. Warburton, S. Reedy, G. (2010) Technology-Enhanced Learning Benchmarking Report. Kings College London. Hatzipanagos, S. Warburton, S., Blackmore, P. (2009) A review of e-learning at Kings College. Kings College London. Oxford Dictionary Oxford Dictionaries. [ONLINE] Available at: dictionary [Accessed 14 June 12] dictionary Stanier, S : The Development of an Institutional Shared Learning Environment. In: ODonoghue, J. ed., Technology Supported Environment for Personalised Learning: Methods and Case Studies. [s.l.]: IGB Global, 2009, pp Specialist social networking platform Built in PHP and MYSQL code Popular code, easy to find developers Easy to integrate with other systems Active community of developers sharing plugins Cheap to develop Platforms built in Elgg can evolve quickly Established use by large organisations