Professor Patrick Carmichael

Ensemble: Semantic Technologies for the Enhancement of Case Based Learning is a project jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under the Technology Enhanced Learning Programme will explore the potential of the ‘Semantic Web’ to support teaching in complex, controversial and rapidly-evolving fields where case based learning is the pedagogical approach of choice.

The three-year, £1.5 million project brings together educational researchers and technologists from Liverpool John Moores University (Patrick Carmichael) Cambridge (Keith Johnstone); City University London (Uma Patel, Lawrence Solkin and David Bolton); the University of Stirling (Richard Edwards); the University of East Anglia (Rob Walker) and the University of Essex (Louise Corti), together with project partners at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Technology, Sydney.

The project employs five researchers: Katy Jordan and Michael Tscholl (Cambridge and City University) and Agustina Martinez, Simon Morris and Kate Litherland (Liverpool John Moores University).  There are also two linked PhD Students (Sanna Rimpilainen, Stirling and Nicola Beddall-Hill, City University London) and the project has hosted several visiting research fellows.

The project is working with teachers and students in undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Liverpool John Moores University, Cambridge University and City University to explore both the nature and role of the cases around which learning is focused, and the part that emerging Semantic Web technologies and techniques can play in supporting this learning. It recognises that teaching and learning environments are complex and evolving, and that participants in these environment may have multiple identities – as teachers, learners, researchers and workers. The learning technologies they use need to be robust yet flexible enough to support teachers and learners as they grapple with complex situations and develop creative solutions.

Unusually, the project includes an international seminar series running concurrently with research and development activity. This reflects not only wide interest in the Semantic Web and its applications in education, but also the opportunities offered by the project for researchers interested in discovering how the very latest ‘Web 3.0′ technologies are understood and used by teachers and learners in different disciplines and environments.

For more information, see the project website at http://www.ensemble.ac.uk