DiCE Projects

Current Research

New Geographies of Learning: Distance Education and Being 'At' Edinburgh: Sian Bayne, project leader; Clara O'Shea, Hamish Macleod & Jen Ross, project partners; This two-year research project, funded by the Principal's Teaching Award Scheme at the University of Edinburgh, is exploring the ways in which location and connection to an institution is felt by students who are studying at a distance from their home university. This project will ask the question: what does it mean to be a student at Edinburgh who is not in Edinburgh, and what insight does this give us into learning design for high quality distance programmes?; Using the MSc in E-learning programme as its primary focus for research, the project employs an innovative mix of narrative and visual methods to explore how distance learners understand the relation between 'here' and 'there', and how they construct and describe their relationship with their institution. On the back of this research, the project will develop new pedagogical and pastoral approaches to supporting community formation for distance learning programmes, which will be of value and relevance to those working on distance programmes at this University, in the UK and beyond.
The Digital Futures of Cultural Heritage Education: A Social Media Research Agenda for the Scottish National Collections: Sian Bayne, project co-leader; Funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, this project will run a series of workshops and seminars in partnership with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The project will work with the Scottish museum and gallery sector in order to establish a research agenda for digital museum and gallery education.
Student Writing: Innovative Online Strategies For Assessment & Feedback: Jen Ross, project leader; Clara O'Shea, Hamish Macleod & Sian Bayne, project partners; Funded by a University of Edinburgh Principal's Teaching Award, this is a two year research project exploring existing feedback and assessment practices on the MSc in E-learning programme in partnership with students and tutors, identifying principles for successful feedback on and assessment of digital writing, and disseminating these widely within the school, University, and Higher Education community.
Literacies in the Digital University: Sian Bayne, project partner; We are partners in an ESRC seminar series led by Robin Goodfellow at the Open University which aims to develop a research agenda for the study of literacy in post-school education.
Insights Into... Seminar Series: Fiona Littleton, project leader, with partners Sian Bayne, Jen Ross & Hamish Macleod; Supported by the University of Edinburgh College of Humanities and Social Science knowledge transfer fund, the Insights project aims to develop and deliver workshops that will function as income-generating knowledge transfer between the MSc in E-learning research activity and high level training and development staff in the Edinburgh area.
Assessing the Educational Potential of Immersive Worlds: Fiona Littleton, lead consultant; An Education Excellence-supported project at the Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement (CAPLE), University of Strathclyde.
Research Perspectives: Discussion, Debate, Dialogue: Jen Ross, co-investigator with Zoe Williamson; A series of seminars bringing together doctoral students and early career researchers in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh to discuss, debate and engage in dialogue about issues relating to a range of innovative research perspectives. Funded by Roberts.
Evaluation of the Principal's E-learning Fund: Hamish Macleod, project partner; An internal University of Edinburgh evaluation project.
AHRC Beyond Text Programme Collaborative Doctoral Award: Michela Clari, doctoral student; Sian Bayne, award holder; Michela Clari is working in collaboration with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland to research the impact of social media on learning from the archives of national collections, funded by the AHRC.
RECAL: Akiko Hemmi, project partner; This project, run by the Learning Technology Section in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, is investigating how existing European teaching practices in Pharmacology and Physiology can use innovative computer-based teaching and learning.
Handheld-Devices in Education Beyond Institution and Country: Akiko Hemmi, project partner; Funded by JISC and based in the Department of Asian Studies, this project is developing the use of games consoles, specifically the Nintendo DSi, to support Japanese language learning and enrich the learning experiences of British undergraduate students of Japanese language during their year in Japan.

Recent Research

National Museums Online Learning Project: Sian Bayne, project leader; Funded by the Victoria and Albert Museum, this was a partnership project between nine national museums and galleries to which we were research partner and project leader. The research looked at how digitisation and social networking change the way museum users learn from collections.
Putting Web 2.0 to Work: New Pedagogies for New Learning Spaces: Sian Bayne, project leader; The focus of this Higher Education Academy-funded research was the use of Web 2.0 within formal academic programmes in two Scottish universities. We were
Learner Identities in Transition: Sian Bayne, project leader; A British Academy-funded collaboration with the University of New South Wales which looked the relation of discourse to identity in online postgraduate programmes of study.
Virtual Appraisal and Role Play: Rory Ewins, Fiona Littleton & Hamish Macleod, project partners; A project led by Shona Morse of the Management of Training and Development programme in the School of Education, exploring the use of virtual worlds in appraisal training.
Ideas in Cyberspace Education: Sian Bayne, project co-leader; Three international symposia aimed at developing the research agenda for e-learning in higher education. They ran in partnership with the University of Strathclyde in 2002, 2005 and 2007.
SCROLLA: Jeff Haywood, project co-leader; Rory Ewins, project partner; The SFC-funded Scottish Centre for Research into On-Line Learning and Assessment operated from 2001 through 2006, running seminars and workshops as well as conducting its own research. The University of Edinburgh branch worked on policy and strategy issues in partnership with the University of Glasgow (networked learning) and Heriot-Watt University (assessment), with the later involvement of the University of Strathclyde.
UNIGAME: Game-based Learning in Universities and Lifelong Learning: Jeff Haywood, Hamish Macleod & Fiona Littleton, project partners; An EU-funded Minerva Project.
SIG-GLUE: Special Interest Group for Game-based Learning in Universities and Lifelong Learning: Jeff Haywood, Hamish Macleod & Fiona Littleton, project partners; The SIG-GLUE project started on March 2004, under the financial support of the EC eLearning initiative. The main interest of the project is to promote more and better use of better learning games.
ERDEE: E-portfolio Research & Development in Education @ Edinburgh: Jen Ross, project leader; This Carnegie-funded project explored and developed the use of e-portfolios within the School of Education as a tool for learning, reflection, assessment, personal development planning and continuing professional development.
Massive: Jeff Haywood, project partner; EU-funded project to design a model of necessary support services for European traditional Universities to successfully implement the virtual component of teaching.
Victorious: Jeff Haywood, project partner; An inter-university co-operation project partly funded by the European Commission looking at student mobility in a digital world.
CUE: Coming to the University of Edinburgh: Clara O'Shea, co-developer; An online resource to ease students' transition to higher education.