This article is from the July 2002 Issue of Update.

To professionals in higher and further education, the terms virtual learning environment (VLE) and managed learning environment (MLE) are becoming more familiar. However, for those of you providing research support, the technological emphasis on teaching and learning may have made you feel left out. You will be pleased to hear about a new acronym, designed particularly with the researcher in mind. Please welcome the Virtual Research Environment (VRE).

Considerable work is being undertaken in providing library and information support for teaching and learning, delivered online. Its importance is highlighted by national funding for projects such as Inspiral (Investigating Portals for Information Resources and Learning)[1] and Angel (Authenticated Networked Guided Environment for Learning),[2] which examine the integration of library and information resources and VLEs. At a local level, many LIS services are exploring how their resources and services can be most effectively targeted to support online teaching and learning. Such initiatives include one at my own institution where a virtual library service is being developed to support the University of London External Programme’s new Virtual Campus Project.[3] However, research is important at the national level. If the UK’s excellent track record for research is to continue, the provision of research support in an electronic environment must be embraced.

The Virtual Research Environment Project

The Virtual Research Environment Project[4] runs for 12 months (December 2001 to November 2002) and is led by the University of London Library (ULL) on behalf of the University of London. The aim is to develop and test an integrated web-based environment to support the needs of the e-researcher. A review of current research support provision within the academic community is under way, focusing on the University of London, but also considering the wider academic community in the UK and elsewhere, as appropriate. Various issues are being considered, including:

• research support delivered in different media, e.g. print, online and video;
• research support provision across a broad range of subject areas, e.g. Arts and Humanities; Social Sciences; Sciences and Medicine;
• different levels of research including undergraduate, postgraduate taught, doctoral and post-doctoral.

From this review a recommendations report will be produced suggesting which examples of research support provision may be suitable for online delivery within the VRE model. From the initial findings of this review, the principle components of the VRE may include:

Virtual research library support

Research resource meta-search engines and electronic bibliography. An integrated resources page which will allow you to search across a variety relevant library resources, such as e-journals, subscription services and even the library catalogue, from a single point of access. Pre-determined searches can be carried out by the VRE on a regular basis to ensure that the researcher has the most current information delivered to their desktop. Once you have retrieved your results, these will be fed directly into an electronic bibliography facility which will be integrated within the VRE.

Online research skills training. The support provided in the use of a library’s resources is as important as those resources. Training in research and information skills in a virtual environment is, therefore, also important. As a rollout of the initial project, further funding for an online research skills tutorial is being sought. If the funding application is successful, the online research skills tutorial will provide a generic template which can be customised for different research subjects. The tutorial would be specifically designed to meet the information needs of arts and humanities researchers, who often use original documents alongside surrogates and electronic resources in a hybrid environment. In this way the whole of a library’s research collections can be advocated through the VRE.

Enquiry service and electronic helpdesk. In a library the enquiry desk is one of the most heavily used services. So it has to be available in an online environment. Already the ULL is delivering a remote-access enquiry service for distance learners as part of its virtual library service.[5] Students can choose to send enquiries by email, web-based enquiry form or telephone. Queries are answered only during working hours, but the potential need for 24/7 enquiry services has not be forgotten. Research into such provision is already being undertaken elsewhere, for instance in the Online Personal Academic Librarian (Opal) project,[6] developed by the Open University, Leicester University and Birkbeck College.

As further support an electronic helpdesk can be developed. Questions received via an enquiry service are recorded and analysed and answers to FAQs provided via the electronic helpdesk web page, to which students and researchers will be encouraged to refer before asking a question. Such a service is being prototyped as part of the VLS project.[7]

Research-related information. When an individual is conducting research, there are several guides they may refer to in order to check that their research conforms to the guidelines or regulations issued by the university. They may want further information about how to apply for funding to continue their research or how to cite an internet reference in order to conform to citation style guidelines. This and other research-related information could be compiled into a gateway for the VRE.

Online secure research repository and electronic communication facilities. In the research process, regular meetings between researcher and supervisor are commonplace. During those meetings, drafts of documentation are discussed and suggestions for improvements made. Such meetings and opportunities for document sharing will be provided securely within the VRE. Different versions of the documents can be stored, comments shared and changes tracked using version control software. Additionally, software could be included which allows both people to see the document at the same time and make live changes during a discussion, perhaps using chat software, or by telephone. This means that the meeting can take place virtually. Discussion boards, email, chat facilities and video-conferencing facilities can easily be included in the VRE to encourage the development of subject-specific research communities. Such functionalities will make online seminars, conferences and presentations an option.

Tracking of research activity and achievement. In the workplace, familiarity with project management software is becoming an essential skill. However, in an academic environment, such software is less often used, even though longer research projects such as PhDs would benefit from it. Online research planning tools to track research activity and achievement may be a welcome addition to the VRE. These will be included by adapting or pre-configuring project management software to reflect the needs of academic researchers.

Research output repository. Once certain elements of the research have been completed, a repository to store digitised or born-digital research articles, book reviews, electronic theses and dissertations would be useful. The ability to search this repository will also be included in the library meta-search engine outlined above. This functionality will be facilitated by the implementation of open archives[8] and e-print[9] standards.

Developing and testing the model

One of the key objectives of the VRE project is to develop a researcher-focused VRE model. It is therefore essential to develop the model in dialogue with the relevant University of London researchers. For such collaborative work to be most effective, a VRE demonstrator, integrated with some of the functionalities listed above, is being developed. The demonstrator is based on an open-source content management system (CMS), integrated with genuine library facilities such as a meta search engine, which is able to search the broadest possible range of catalogues of electronic resources and printed collections simultaneously, in addition to the electronic harvesting software mentioned above. The seamless integration of facilities such as this will provide the real added value of the VRE for e-researchers above a standard, non-customised CMS, or above simply using the internet, and the communication facilities it provides, as a virtual research environment.

At this stage of the project, the focus is on encouraging dialogue and participation by researchers rather than implementing a production-quality solution. The basic modules will therefore be developed on one CMS, which allows the final decision of which technology to use for the end product to be made once the final list of VRE functionalities is clear.

Final model

Following this iterative development process, the final VRE model will be developed, based on the most suitable CMS. The model will consist of a series of generic modules which the researchers have decided will be most useful for implementation. However, the flexibility of the system will not rule out the possibility of additional generic modules, such as the online research skills training tutorial being developed and integrated. From this generic selection, researchers will select the most appropriate modules for their research and populate them with their own content, thus creating a customised VRE. As an outcome of the VRE project, several customised VREs will be produced to demonstrate successful implementations of the generic model.

Once the final implementation of the VRE model is launched at the project dissemination conference, towards the end of this year, it is hoped that academic departments and individual researchers across the University of London and perhaps also in the wider academic community will customise the generic model for their own research. The VRE model will allow customisation or personalisation for either an individual university department or perhaps an individual researcher across a broad range of subject areas.

So has virtual learning been transformed into virtual research?

When the VRE project was envisaged, our objective was to assess how the functionality of VLE software, such as Web CT, First Class or Blackboard, could be customised to meet the needs of the e-researcher. However, on closer inspection, it was not a question of reconfiguring some VLE software. A VLE is an integration of various components which facilitate the learning process, delivered in an electronic environment. What we needed was the right combination of components, developed in dialogue with researchers, to facilitate the research process. Although some of the components will be similar to those found in a VLE, we are not transforming virtual learning into virtual research, but identifying the underlying elements needed to support the online researcher and delivering them in an electronic environment. The true value of the VRE will be how these components are seamlessly integrated. By the end of the project, we will be able to demonstrate just that.

References

1. inspiral.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/index.html
2. www.angel.ac.uk
3. www.external.ull.ac.uk/elpt/vls.asp
4. www.external.ull.ac.uk/elpt/vre.asp
5. www.external.ull.ac.uk/enquiries.asp
6. oulib1.open.ac.uk/wh/research/opal
7. www.external.ull.ac.uk/help.asp
8. www.openarchives.org
9. www.eprints.org

Sally Chambers (schambers@ull.ac.uk) is the Electronic Library Projects Co-ordinator, based at the University of London Library. Ulrich Tiedau (utiedau@ull.ac.uk) is the Virtual Research Environment Project Officer, also based at the ULL.