PRESS INFORMATION ISSUED ON BEHALF OF:

MyKnowledgeMap
37a Mickelgate, YORK, YO1 6JH
tel 00 44 (0) 1904 466081; fax 00 44 (0) 1904 659465;
web www.myknowledgemap.com

 
BL/MKM/12/07 10th July 2007

MyKnowledgeMap drives UK’s biggest mobile learning project

The UK's largest-scale exercise in mobile education to date is helping 9,000 students throughout Yorkshire to assess their own competencies via their phones and related handheld devices.

The Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings project (ALPS) aims to ensure that the graduates, studying 16 different subjects from a wide range of health and social care courses, have the skills needed to be effective in the workplace.

Learning development specialist MyKnowledgeMap (MKM), T-Mobile and mobile software specialist ecommnet are providing the online infrastructure to support ALPS, a partnership between the Universities of Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield and Leeds Metropolitan as well as York St John University College.

The major provider of learning systems for the project, York-based MKM is creating a backbone system to handle the management, mapping, co-ordination and analysis of the assessment data. T-Mobile will be providing airtime connectivity and mobile hand held smartphone and PDA devices. ecommnet is providing data security and mobile applications development and core infrastructure management solutions for the project.

MKM is integrating a number of its products into the ALPS solution. A networked version of its Compendle system allows course leaders to compile and manage assessments using a range of existing repositories.

A competency mapping system based on the company’s new Capability Matrix skills gap system enables tutors to match competencies with assessments. MKM’s e-portfolio, integrated with a multi-function cohort management system, allows learners to compile a record of their learning.

All of these systems will integrate with the online learning environments that learners and tutors are accustomed to using.

ALPS is to provide the students with a range of materials focused on helping them to assess their competencies, accessible any time, anywhere, via their phones or PDAs. Students will be able to complete assessment questionnaires via their devices, covering core competencies such as teamwork and communication.

They will also be encouraged to reflect on their skills as they practise them. Using the multimedia capabilities of their mobile phones, they will be able to record sound and video, and upload these to e-portfolios online as evidence of their achievements.

Mobile technologies are vital to enable students learning in the workplace to access university learning systems when needed.

"Developing competence and confidence in a practice setting is vital for students training for a career in health and social care because there is a wide range of general and specific skills that can only be developed in the clinic, hospital or workplace," says MKM managing director Rob Arntsen. "Accessing learning systems between dealing with patients matters most to these people and that’s where mobile technologies come in."

Ends

Notes for Editors:

About MyKnowledgeMap

Founded in 2000, MyKnowledgeMap (often known as MKM) is a dynamic company delivering web-based knowledge systems designed by individuals, for the individual.

Operating in the corporate, public and education sectors, MKM's range of products and services includes:

• Academies: MKM is the UK's leading supplier of infrastructure systems for national skill academies, including those in the UK for food & drink manufacturing, sport & active leisure, care, and retail. MKM's e-academy infrastructure helps learners and people with a stake in a particular skill to progress from entry to degree level. Working with the UK's national Sector Skills Councils (MKM's clients include Skillsmart Retail, Improve and SkillsActive), MKM has pioneered online academies that can help people with everything from day-to-day productivity to discovering and achieving relevant qualifications. MKM also offers e-academies tailored to the needs of organisations in the private and local government sectors.
   

• Skills diagnostics: MKM's Skills Diagnostic suite allows clients to build their own system of skills diagnosis and training regimens. Its sophisticated software tools are designed to meet clients' specific needs, and to facilitate, not impose, the required solutions.
   

• Learning: MKM's e-learning solutions, including e-learning content, delivery systems and teaching aids, are used by a worldwide and growing range of organisations from Lloyds TSB to the RSPB; from manufacturing to retailing; from the police to local authorities; from the University of York to colleges in Delhi, Bahrain and Nairobi. MKM produces inventive and versatile applications that are can be shaped and contextualised by their users to meet the rapidly-changing needs of contemporary work and training, either for use within an e-Academy environment or as stand-alone products.

Further Information from:

Rob Arntsen / Tom Holland/ Dawn Ritchie, MyKnowledgeMap 00 44 (0) 1904 466081
Peter Muir / Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR 00 44 (0) 1727 860405