While resource providers have limited influence over some of the factors inhibiting use of their materials, there are many ways in which they can address barriers such as lack of awareness and skills. For example, alongside its dissemination and training activities, SCRAN provides a support area for staff in colleges and universities on the SCRAN website, providing answers to frequently asked questions, search tips, teaching ideas, feedback points and how-to guides.
Examples of good practice are particularly useful in promoting understanding of and enthusiasm for a resource, though in its first year of working closely with further and higher education SCRAN has suffered from a lack of actual examples of implementations of SCRAN. This is currently being addressed by the SCRAN Awards scheme, launched in early 2000 as a result of funding made available by JISC. Grants have been made available to individual lecturers to assist with the small-scale development of learning materials and ideas for activities based on SCRAN resources. As Littlejohn et al. (1999) have noted, in contrast to large-scale, centralised developments, true culture change will only arise from the adoption of C&IT by many individual academics.
SCRAN Awards materials, together with case study documentation detailing how to recreate the resource, should be available for download from SCRAN towards the end of 2002. This collection of exemplar materials and case studies should provide inspiration and ideas, and many practical hints and tips for other SCRAN users. Awards have been allocated to ensure a good range of materials are produced across a wide range of subject areas - from paper-based handouts and ideas for discussion activities, to interactive web-based resources and CD-ROM resource packs. The materials now under development promise to reflect the approaches to learning explored in section 2 and provide actual examples of many of the ideas outlined in section 3 of this article.
Last updated: Wed Aug 28 2002
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