[C12] The Online Learning Network

Aim: To research the effectiveness of human facilitation and software design to support online communities.

Reflection: Working with Leonie Ramondt, I began to understand more clearly the challenges of establishing and maintaining an online community of practice for learning professionals.

Contribution: I was mentor to project leader, contributor to the online community design and provided technical support for the service. My part: 10% (with Stephen Heppell, Leonie Ramondt and others)

Originality, impact and importance: This project was Ultralab's first to create a community of practice for adults. It informed the design of the emerging UK University for Industry and also many successor projects at Ultralab. (Ramondt & Heppell, 1998)

The idea of a University for Industry (UfI) was a Labour Party manifesto commitment prior to the general election in May 1997, and a central plank of Government policy for promoting a skills revolution.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) had been working on the idea of the UfI for the previous two years. In December 1996 it published 'University for Industry: creating a national learning network' which set out the challenges facing a UfI. The report argued that the UfI should be a 'national learning network', bringing opportunities for learning to people where and when it is most convenient: in the workplace, in the home and in local community-based centres rather than in existing institutions. On-line technologies were clearly central to this concept.

This project was designed to explore these ideas was led by Ultralab, using the First Class computer conferencing software to connect a community of learning professionals.

Further details setting out the projects aims can be found on the initial website.