Education Committee/Education Committee meeting 16 April 2013/Report

Since the previous meeting of the Committee in January, there has been some progress for the WMUK Virtual Learning Environment; and some matters are in hand.

Basic steps forward

1. A new skin was added in February.
2. Five evaluations of the VLE have been obtained, one from outside the Wikimedia community, two from representatives of other chapters, and two from people who have held WMF positions.
3. An organisational meeting was held in the WMUK office in March, to create actions in response to the evaluations.
4. The authentication software has been configured, meaning the intended wiki+Moodle system can be seen in action, and accounts can be created without VLE access.
5. Accesses to the VLE have been created, carrying out actions from the January meeting.
6. A basic set of protocols has been created for circulation, allowing VLE editing with the wiki doing version control and tracking attribution.

In hand

1. A pilot use of the VLE in its intended role as support for WMUK workshops is possible on 30 April.
2. The developer assigned to the work has a to-do list, including setting up Moodle in the WMUK hosting. This will allow further work in-house and by volunteers on skins and software.
3. SB will give a presentation on the VLE at the WMUK AGM in June, with a demo module.
4. There is a detailed outline for improving the look of the VLE (SB).
5. CM has put together a detailed outline of a second staff role on the VLE, overseeing content.
6. Volunteers are available for further technical and evaluation work.
7. CM has three tasks for documentation, which would be under the existing contract, and can now move introductory material onto the wiki.
8. Two audits of the VLE should be carried out, for accessibility and to get control of internal communications.

On the three-month scale

It is hoped to have a developed system online to be trialled during Wikimania in August. The migration of the VLE to WMUK's hosting will be discussed.