Otley College: An Online toolkit for tutorials in rural- based FE – meeting new funding needs

As part of an LSIS Regional Response Fund project, Otley College has developed an online toolkit for one-to-one tutorials, based on research undertaken with practitioners and learners. The toolkit has been developed to meet the needs of students and tutors, and attempts to fulfil the requirement for tutorials within a new straightened funding agreement.

Online promotion of research expertise self assessment

Helps institutions identify if their use of online channels in communicating information about the expertise of researchers within their organisation meets the needs of both business and wider communities, as well as the researchers themselves.

Presenting research expertise information online: a guide for higher education institutions

Helping HEIs plan the use of online channels to communicate information about the expertise of researchers within their institution so that it meets the needs of business and community users, as well researchers themselves

Promotion of research expertise online: the self-assessment tool

Helping HEIs identify whether the way they use online channels to communicate information about the expertise of researchers within their institution meets the needs of: – Business and community users – Researchers themselves.

Virtual Research Environments The Next Steps workshop

The main aim of the workshop was to extend international dialogue and promote the development of VREs led by researcher needs. On the first day principal investigators and project managers of a great variety of projects provided an insight in the current state of development regarding technical innovation, disciplinary specific solutions, and impact on the research community. A series of short presentations of selected projects were followed by an extensive poster session that functioned as a "trade fair" of current trends in the field of VRE development and implementation. The second day was dedicated to the discussion of the "next steps" to improve and advance the development of VREs and to foster ideas for future engagement. The results of landscape studies funded by Jisc and the SURFfoundation were presented as Key Notes and impulse for the following discussions in four sub-groups. The sub-groups concentrated on the following four key themes: technological challenges organisation & concepts researcher needs strategic issues The outcomes of the separate discussions consisted of recommendations to the Knowledge Exchange initiative itself, for the Knowledge Exchange partner organisations and beyond.

EU Copyright Law in Support of European Research & Education

In this brief an explanation is given why Exceptions in copyright legislation are of great importance to the free flow of knowledge, essential to education and research in the European Union. At present the Freedom of access to knowledge for EU citizens is trapped in a complex web of national laws and local licensing arrangements. The current EU copyright law does not enable the vision of either a "Europe of knowledge" in the Bologna Process or of a "unified" European Research Area to be realised. To address this Exceptions and limitations harmonised to fit best practice are required to allow content to move digitally across Member States in support of education, research and libraries. Support for open content licensing by the European Parliament will strengthen authors’ rights, meet the needs of researchers, teachers and learners, and enable the free flow of knowledge in support of the "fifth freedom".