1. Portsmouth College - SCIP Physics Moodle
The intention of this cloud computing project has been to create a common set of resources
that can be used across a partnership of six College and then to work together to understand
student performance and outcomes and to drive these upwards. The project is for a
community cloud based VLE approach to a virtual science learning centre. Initial outcomes
suggest an improvement in student achievement but real trends will take longer to become
apparent, The real benefit has been to bring teachers together, to provide the academic and
professional benefits of working in a large and busy department to small colleges –
overcoming the loneliness of the individual subject teacher.
Project Development
The project to date has created and reviewed material and made this available across
College Moodle systems so that it can be used across the partnership. Staff in the Physics
Departments, of the partner sites are making use of shared resources to support teaching
and learning. The Partnership now intends to continue review content during the latter part of
the summer term (post examination). There has been considerable use of shared resources
across the partnership, enhancing the teaching and learning programme within the
partnership. To develop this further subject focus group meetings have been held to discuss
content, lesson materials, teaching programmes and the moderation of student practical
assessments. There is a clear expression of satisfaction amongst partners – these meetings
‘are the most useful meetings that we attend’. A meeting held by the physics group
identified the potential to develop common practical experiences. It was agreed that each
College would contribute a fully developed practical procedure to allow students to practice
particular skills required in the later examined practical assessments.
Achievements to date
There has been a partnership agreement to implement a common L3 AS specification in
physics from September 2013. There will be joint training that will be delivered in
implementing the new specification. Setting up of the Moodle server across the Physics
group has been completed across the partnership, with partners now having access to
upload their own materials. Alongside this there has been sharing of current resources to
support teaching, learning and assessment in AS Physics across the partnership. Chemistry
staff have agreed to mirror the physics development with an agreement to work towards a
common specification and agreement on structure for a common Chemistry VLE.

2. Benefits
Implementing a common specification across a partnership is an immensely useful
opportunity for unlocking potential for clos collaborative working. This is now showing real
benefit with staff in partner College. Staff are reporting that changes in the teaching
programme has had positive benefits for students. The ability for staff to discuss student
problems with others has meant that there have been shared solutions – what works in one
college has been transferred to others. Getting 6 colleges to agree to implement a common
subject specification and then to share resources, performance and assessment data has
been a real challenge – but the outcomes for small colleges are now becoming apparent.
Reducing time spent on developing resources through sharing materials allows more time to
be spent concentrating on the key areas – teaching and learning and student outcomes.
The projects state there is no doubt that the project is delivering value for the partners with
one member of staff indicating that he feels there has been a 20% uplift in student
achievement through the sharing of resources and experience.
Future Development
Over the next few months the project is now focusing on agreement on collective resources,
migration of resources to a common area, gap analysis and creation of new resources as a
collective venture to fill gaps, training and use of more interactive features. They are also
working towards delivery of a common VLE training day, wanting to make use of as many
interactive features as possible. The full benefit of this project will not be realised until
autumn 2013 when feedback will be provided on the real impact this cross VLE environment
can be fully assessed.