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Good to see work on the evaluation of online learning. The National ICT Research Centre is currently involved in several projects that deliver or support learning using VLEs supplemented by individual mobile devices, i.e. handheld computers and mobile 'phones supporting WAP and SMS. These projects involve diverse groups of learners including undergraduate students, lifelong learners, people in remote rural areas. Each project needs evaluation and this evaluation, particularly in seeking feedback and reflection from the learners, needs we feel, to be appropriate (the the ethos of the learners, the learning and the technology), efficient, authentic, quick and cheap. The problems of accessing student feedback on the learning experience on projects outside the confines of sedentary course-based learning are compounded by the difficulty that many learners will have in exposing their feelings, achievements, goals and abilities and in bridging the potential cultural gaps between themselves and evaluators. We're worried that the repertoire of conventional evaluation techniques eg f2f interviews, questionnaires, f2f focus groups may not be entirely adequate and we're currently looking at how existing techniques can be adapted to continuously evolving communities and technologies. I'd be interested in hearing how everyone else tackles evaluation in these circumstances and what they feel about the issues. Regards, John Traxler National ICT Research Centre Priorslee Campus Telford Shropshire TF2 9NT ***************** List information: ***************** Remember - replies go by default to the entire list. Access the list via the web on http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/vle.html The Ferl VLE Focus Area is at http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?page=76 To unsubscribe, email [log in to unmask] with the message: leave vle