3^rd Annual SEDA Conference for Staff and Educational Developers,

December 1998.

SEDA is funding a Middlesex University project to develop the concept of a virtual reading group on Higher Education teaching and learning. The aims of the group include encouraging wider reading on innovative teaching and learning, and providing a resource for colleagues undertaking PGCHEs.

When group members read an interesting article, book, etc., related to Higher Education Teaching and Learning, they write a succinct summary including a full reference. This is mailed to a moderated mailing list with a copy archived on the web. The reading group is more than an abstracting service due to the personal involvement of group members. As they write about material that they have found interesting, summaries are likely to be of immediate interest to other members. The structure of the summary format gives advantages over an unstructured discussion group avoiding mail overload.

The group was set up in the summer of 1998 and was initially seeded by the organiser writing a series of summaries. They were used to illustrate the concept to potential members. Members were recruited by broadcasting to relevant mailing lists and by describing the idea at development related meetings (staff induction sessions, workshops on innovative teaching, etc). Personal contact at meetings proved to be the most effective means of recruitment with over 50 staff joining either as contributing or read-only members.

To evaluate the group, data will be collected by surveying members at the end of the first year and by examining the archive (percentage of members submitting summaries, variety of sources, etc). To date roughly one summary per week has been sent to the mailing list. Initially, members needed to be prompted into submitting summaries. However, as the group has gained momentum submissions have increasingly been spontaneous. For such a group to maintain momentum in the early stages it is clearly important to start with a dedicated core of contributing members.