| Other projects have been continually emerging from the APT STAIRS project, which launched in June 2008. Our first project was the 'Benefit's Realisation project' based at the London Knowledge Lab (LKL), the second was the 'E-Case project' at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) and we're currently working on third and fourth projects 'APT Extension' at the Centre for Distance Education (CDE), University of London, and the 'APT for Africa' at the RVC. |
Benefit's Realisation Project
This project was managed by one of the APT team members, Tim Neuman, based at the London Knowledge Lab (LKL) .
The official title of the project was called Developing a Collaborative Research Environment, which was funded by JISC to realise the benefits of the APT STAIRS project.
The aim of the project was to implement a collaborative research environment at the London knowledge lab on freely available open API web 2.0 tools. Google Apps was selected for its usability, feature set and free availability for educational institutions. The project extended the work of APT STAIRS to explore a wider range of technologies.
For more information about the project please visit the website.
The e-Case Project
The e-Cases project, a clinical case-recording project funded by APT STAIRS, is currently being managed by Chris Trace. Chris is ideally placed as he is an ex-veterinary student from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC); he's had first-hand experience of veterinary education at the RVC. 
The purpose of the project is to follow on from the APT model, in using simple technologies to enhance the learning experience through collaboration. In the past, fourth year RVC students have been creating clinical cases in PowerPoint to record how certain conditions are treated and/or diagnosed. It was decided to enhance the clinical cases by using multimedia tools, and to share these cases on a collaborative website for the RVC students to view.
Student groups are now using easy-to-use digital High-Definition camcorders to record still and moving images, as well as electronic stethoscopes to record unusual heart, lung or abdominal sounds. These are added to their PowerPoint cases which follow a logical order from a template.
Once completed these cases are uploaded to VetConnect , a website developed by the RVC, which is based on a series of notice-boards similar to a wall in Facebook. Students can now post their cases on relevant notice-boards into this social website, to share and discuss cases with one another online. Students are also able to search for specific cases or conditions and view advanced treatments and diagnostic results undertaken by specialists in the field.
APT Extension
Based on the success of the initial project, the APT Extension project is extending it's approach to The External System at the Centre for Distance Education, University of London. This enables the the APT project to further disseminate its experience to a wider audience.
The APT project extension is assisting three programme teams to enrich student support and academic guidance to students using simple and appropriate technologies. The External System is currently engaging in a system-wide process of quality enhancement in this area, so the use of online collaborative tools will be particularly appropriate for this purpose.
The project extension has offered an initial explanatory workshop with the Centre for Distance Education, providing an opportunity to review the original demonstrator projects and assess their applicability to this context. Three programmes will be then be invited to develop new demonstrator projects. Initial meetings with key stakeholders will provide foundations for the new demonstrator projects.
APT for Africa
We are now working to take the APT project into a new context through partnerships in Africa.The idea is that the basis step by step model for implementing appropriate technology also has a relevance to projects in less developed countries. We're therefore looking to collaborate with community based projects to explore the use of mobile phones running Android, Google forms and podcasting.
Our first initiative aims to explore the opportunities provided by mobile technologies to enhance animal disease surveillance, reporting and feedback in Africa. It will draw on the extensive experience of its partners working in the field, university based research and development expertise and the insight and experience provided by Google and other technology providers.
The project has been working with Novoda.com on identifying suitable Google Android technologies to support mobile devices in Africa. As part of this collaboration, APT secured a small amount of funding from JISC to send Kevin McDonagh of Android out to the Google I/O Conference in California early June 2009. You can read a full review of Kevin's experiences on his blog. For an outline of the APT for Africa project, please click here.