Whilst the web 2.0 developments of the previous post had been gathering pace and the Netvibes approval hung in the balance a lass in libraryland had attempted to meet up with the Vice Principal to discuss VLEs. Once again this meeting took over a year to pin down, mainly due to staff changes at management level and various abortive attempts due to schedule clashes. The long planned meet up took place in July and ALIL decided to invite the marketing department who manage all things college website so we could explore all the alternatives – VLEs, student intranet, expanding the student section of the website, etc.

It became clear that anything that required use of the college servers was a no go as storage space was limited and a planned upgrade would not be online until September. The discussion of VLEs therefore centred on the cost of externally hosting the service, which in the present economic climate proved too costly. Conversation turned to developing the student section of the college website and it was decided that this was by far the most cost effective and easy to implement solution. A lass in libraryland was asked to pen and present a proposal for the learning and teaching committee the following week, asking them to support approval of the proposal at the academic board.  ALIL presented the proposal to L&T and it was wholeheartedly approved for referral to the academic board later that week, where it was approved. A working party was then finalised and development of the student section of the college website will take place over 2010/11, going live in September 2011.