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Jisc (Joint Information Systems Committee) has finalised an agreement to preserve and host the Vital subject portals, which will be free to access, complementing Jisc Advance’s new subscription offer to schools. 

“We are delighted that the DfE and The Open University selected us to provide a legacy for the Vital programme," says Guy Lambert, CEO of Jisc Advance. "We’re looking forward to taking over the reins of these established resource portals, accessed by up to 6,000 users every year." 

This service will provide practical support to:
• Optimise the use of schools’ and academies’ existing technologies
• Link the use of technology to improvements in learning outcomes and progression
• Provide opportunities to share with and learn from peers
• Provide open access to resources and professional development opportunities.

Current Vital users will be contacted in Spring 2013 informing them of the changes and increased benefits. They will be offered the opportunity for their registrations to be transferred to Jisc to ensure continuity of service. 

New technologies, in particular the internet, together with globalisation and the emergence of new education providers, are radically changing the way people learn and teach. Open access to education resources offers an unprecedented opportunity to enhance both excellence and equity in education. The EU aims to help both individual learners and education and training institutions in Member States to benefit from these opportunities and to increase their contribution to society.

In the last quarter of 2012, the Commission will present a Communication on Rethinking Skills aiming to increase the quantity, quality and relevance of skills supply for higher economic and social outcomes. This will, among other actions, announce a new EU Initiative on "Opening up Education": a proposal to exploit the potential contribution of ICTs and Open Educational Resources (OER) to education and skills development. This new EU initiative on "Opening up Education" will be the topic of a subsequent Communication in mid-2013.

View the consultation document [45 KB]

View the questionnaire

In parallel to the phenomenal rise of the digital game development industry through time, the acceptance of games in other sectors has also been changing. Computer game skills have been increasingly applied in almost all areas of human activity within modern societies. Digital games have now been embraced by the academic research community as a research topic, as well as discovered by the education sector as a highly interactive media that can support and foster learning. As a popular and powerful media, computer games are being considered for use in various education and training settings to motivate learners, to focus their attention, and to help them to construct meaningful and permanent records of their learning.

Games have high presence in informal segments of learning – but in formal education, games are still often seen as an unserious activity and the potentials of games for learning remain undiscovered. However, when evaluating games with their children, 85% of parents believed that computer games contributed to learning as well as providing entertainment.

Beside fantasy and fun elements, games have potential to foster players’ ability to communicate and interact with others during gameplay. Computer games can help players to think critically when they are required to construct connections between virtual and real life. Game-like learning environments can provide motivating interdisciplinary learning settings, creating opportunities that could improve student collaboration skills as well as help them learn new concepts and synthesize new information. Games have also been praised for the potential they offer in learning business leadership and other skills by practicing in a safe environment.

The potential of Game Based Learning (GBL) is still underestimated. It can play a major role in renewing learning as it is perceived by learners in all levels of education and training systems. eLearning Papers seeks contributions about mixed realities, virtual worlds and gaming in both sections: In-Depth and From the Field.

We specifically invite contributions which address one or several of the following issues:

• Innovative game based learning technologies, applications, tools and environments
• 3D virtual worlds supporting learning, e.g. in language learning or leadership training
• Use of mobile games and location-based technology for learning
• Innovative applications of mixed realities for learning
• Use of simulations in education, corporate training and military
• Technology for massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs) for learning
• Interactivity design in game based learning applications
• Player immersion and learning
• Case studies and best practices in GBL
• Social and collaborative aspects of GBL
• Implementation issues associated with GBL
• Learning design, good gameplay and instructional theory for GBL
• Use of role plays for learning and training
• Assessment and evaluation in GBL
• Gender, age, cultural and ethical issues in GBL
• Rating of games for learning
• Accessibility of games for learning

The article submission has been extended to June 3, 2011 The provisional date of publishing is 14 July 2011. For further information and to submit your article, please contact:

Guest editor:

Professor DI Dr. Maja Pivec, University of Applied Sciences FH JOANNEUM in Graz, Austria

The submissions need to comply with the following guidelines:

• Submission language: English
• Title: must effectively and creatively communicate the content of the article and may include a subtitle.
• Executive summary for In-depth section should not exceed 200 words.
• Executive summary for From the field section should not exceed 50 words.
• Keywords: up to five relevant keywords need to be included.
• In-depth full texts: articles should range from 4,000 to 6,000 words.
• From the field texts: texts should not exceed 1,200 words.
• Conclusions: special importance is given to the representation of the conclusions, which should be clearly stated both in the summary and at the end of the article.
• References: All the references must be adequately cited and listed.
• Author profile: author name, institution, position and e-mail address must accompany each submission.
• Images: Please send high resolution JPEG files

See the complete guidelines at: Instructions for writers

The survey, funded and guided by Jisc and Research Libraries UK and conducted by Ithaka S+R, covers a range of areas: from how academics discover and stay abreast of research, to their teaching of undergraduates; how they choose research topics and publication channels, to their views on learned societies and university libraries, and their collections.

The Survey of Academics 2012 confirms that the open web is the first port of call for academics starting research. It also confirms that libraries have an important role to play in both surfacing open content on the web and ensuring open content is accessible through library systems.

Key findings include:

Access limitations – While 86% of respondents report relying on their college or university library collections and subscriptions, 49% indicated that they would often like to use journal articles that are not in those collections.

Use of open resources - If researchers can’t find the resources or information they need through their university library, 90% of respondents often or occasionally look online for a freely available version.

The Internet as starting point – 40% of researchers surveyed said that when beginning a project they start by searching the Internet for relevant materials, with only 2% visiting the physical library as a first port of call.

Following one’s peers – The findings suggest that the majority of researchers track the work of colleagues and leading researchers as a way of keeping up to date with developments in their field.

Emergence of e-publications – The findings show that e-journals have largely replaced physical usage for research, but that contrasting views exist on replacement of print by e-publications, where print still holds importance within the Humanities and Social Sciences and for in-depth reading in general.