Keynote from the 20th Annual INSPIRE conference, organised in conjunction with the BCS e-Learning SG, addresses software process improvement related to teaching, training and research whilst SQM addresses issues relevant to business and industry.
18 years developing educational technology at Loughborough University and beyond
1. http://cede.lboro.ac.uk
Melanie King
Head, The Centre for Engineering & Design Education
18 Years developing educational
technology for Loughborough
University and beyond
INSPIRE: International conference for Process
Improvement, Research and Education
March 2015, Loughborough University
2. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
• History of the Centre for Engineering and Design Education
• A technical evolution: from XLS to Software as a Service (SaaS)
• A management evolution: from Project Management to Product Management
• A process evolution: from user requirements and sole developer to co-designing
services and enterprise architectures
• Can academia based edtech development compete with industry?
Outline
3. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
The Centre’s History
1997 - 2000
The Faculty of Engineering Teaching and Learning Support Centre
Funding: Internal – Faculty of Engineering
Staff: 2 core, 3 fixed funded, 1 Faculty officer
Technologies: Microsoft Office etc., Authorware, ASP.
4. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
1997
Jonny Mnemonic
5. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
A CAL package on
Floppys for
Distance Learners
Visual Basic in Excel for
a Lab Assistant
application.
CAL packages on
the University CAL
Launcher
An ASP web-based Peer Assessment System
6. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
The Centre’s History
2001 - 2005
Funding: Internal – Faculty of Engineering
Staff: 3 core, 5 fixed funded, 1 Uni online learning officer
Technologies: Microsoft Office etc., Authorware, ASP > PHP, Video / Audio, open source.
8. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
HTML course
material for Lboro’s
first VLE
Authorware application to
automate template layout
for VLE.
Online tutorial for staff to
creating digital video
PHP / MySQL web application to create and mark registers
Tailored existing open source PHP
software ‘Claroline’ for Engineering
Authorware applications for distance
learners – virtual laboratories
9. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
The Centre’s History
2005 - 2011
Funding: HEFCE CETL Funding
Staff: ~10 core, ~4 fixed funded
Technologies: Microsoft Office etc. PHP, Video / Audio, open source.
The Engineering Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
10. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
2005
I Robot
11. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
Created more PHP /MySQL systems for
academics: PROJECTLIST final year projects,
WebPA and Co-Tutor
CO-TUTOR: fourth iteration of the personal tutoring system
Utilised more commercial software: Venture Strategy – online
Business Simulation game (8 weeks)
Co-opted existing open course CMS ‘Exponent’ for learning
resource repositories
12. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
The Centre for Engineering and Design Education 2011 -
Funding: 4 Engineering Schools and the
Loughborough Design School
Staff: 3.7FTE core, ~6FTE externally funded
Technologies: HTML5, PHP /MySQL, Jquery,
Bootstrap, Cloud etc.
CEDE’s team of specialists work closely
with the Engineering and Design
Schools at Loughborough University to
encourage effective practice and
innovation in teaching and learning.
13. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
2011
The Social Network
14. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
Placements / graduate
opportunities database
www.kit-catalogue.com
www.webpaproject.comwww.co-tutor.co.uk
Using commercial hosted
systems where we can and
its value for money
CASPA: MySQL / PHP Assessment Management system
Commercialisation
Now developing for
range of devices
CASPA: PHP / MySQL system for assessment management
15. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
A technical evolution
from XLS to Software as a
Service (SaaS)
16. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
History of Development June 1999
Tutorial Support Database (MS Excel)
Version 1
Version 1 was a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet with Visual Basic Macros to help enter all the data and organise
the content for pastoral care and monitoring. The spreadsheet was located on each tutor’s local PC.
1 developer
~ 10 days
17. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
Tutorial Record System October 1999
Tutorial Record System
Version 2 was a web based ASP application with a Microsoft Access Database. All student data had to be
manually entered in to the database. The database and application was located on a department server.
1 developer
~ 20 days
18. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
Co-Tutor September 2003
Version 3 was a web based PHP application with a MySQL Database. All student data was automatically read in
from a Central database using nightly CRON routines. The database and application was located on a Faculty
server.
1 developer
~ 40 days
19. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
Co-Tutor January 2005
Version 4 was a web based PHP application with a MySQL Database. All student data was automatically
read in from a Central database using nightly CRON routines.
1 developer
~ 20 days
20. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
Co-Tutor July 2009
Version 5 is a web based PHP application with a MySQL Database. It utitises nightly CRON’s and an API
infrastructure to pass information between central and sister systems. The database and application is located
on a Faculty server.
2 developers
~ 80 days
21. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
Commercial Co-Tutor September 2014
Version 5 is a web based PHP application with a MySQL Database. It utitises nightly CRON’s and an API
infrastructure to pass information between central and sister systems. It uses PHP Frameworks to make it
responsive and Jquery to add finesse.
~3 developers
~150 days
22. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
A management evolution
from Project Management to
Product Management
24. The Product tree K I T
CATALOGUE
®
http://www.kit-catalogue.com
The infrastructure / underlying
database etc.
The core / essence of the
application
Product areas
The individual features
25. What is a product vision? K I T
CATALOGUE
®
http://www.kit-catalogue.com
WHAT: Our product is the only __________________
HOW: that _________________________________
WHO: for __________________________________
WHERE: in _________________________________
WHY: who _________________________________
WHEN: in an era of __________________________
26. Feature / Problem cards K I T
CATALOGUE
®
http://www.kit-catalogue.com
27. Prioritisation versus Effort K I T
CATALOGUE
®
http://www.kit-catalogue.com
Quick Wins Major projects
Fill ins Hard slogs
HIGH
LOW
LOW HIGH
28. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
A process evolution
From user requirements
and sole developer to co-
designing services and
enterprise architectures
30. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
Can academia based edtech development
compete with industry?
2014 marked a record year for global investment in Edtech companies
Src: http://www.geekwire.com/2015/can-count-2-billion-education-technology-investment-hits-new-record/
$1.87 billion
24% of all global investment
is made to companies in China
“there’s a global trend [called] Retail
Education“ (Adkins of Ambient Insight)
Sep’12 Desire2Learn received another $80 million of investment
Src: http://www.informationweek.com/software/education-tech-investments-surpassed-$1-billion-in-2012/d/d-id/1108366?
Co-Tutor ~£250k (HEIF & Jisc) over three years to create a product to be used across HE & FE
31. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
What impact will global ‘me too’
products have on higher
education in the UK?
32. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education
Steve Jobs, in an interview about the release of
the Macintosh, 24th January 1984 stated
“We're gambling on our vision, and we would
rather do that than make ‘me too’ products. Let
some other companies do that. For us, it's always
the next dream.”
Src: http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2013/10/05/lessons-learned-from-4-steve-jobs-quotes/
33. http://cede.lboro.ac.uk
Melanie King
Head, The Centre for Engineering & Design Education
m.r.n.king@lboro.ac.uk
INSPIRE: International conference for Process
Improvement, Research and Education
March 2015, Loughborough University
