English Subject Centre Mini ProjectsE-learning Advocate Project 2006/7 Embedding e-learning using e-learning Advocates:University of LancasterProject ReportAuthor: Lee Horsley Dept of English & Creative Writing, Lancaster University The English Subject CentreRoyal Holloway, University of LondonEgham, Surrey TW20 0EXTel 01784 443221 Fax 01784 470684Email escrhul.ac.ukwww.english.heacademy.ac.ukEnglish Subject Centre Departmental ProjectsThis report and the work it presents were funded by the English Subject Centre under a scheme which funds projects run by departments in Higher Education institutions (HEIs) in the UK. Some projects are run in collaboration between departments in different HEIs. Projects run under the scheme are concerned with developments in the teaching and learning of English Language, Literature and Creative Writing. They may involve the production of teaching materials, the piloting and evaluation of new methods or materials or the production of research into teaching and learning. Project outcomes are expected to be of benefit to the subject community as well as having a positive influence on teaching and learning in the host department(s). For this reason, project results are disseminated widely in print, electronic form and via events, or a combination of these.Details of ongoing projects can be found on the English Subject Centre website at www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/deptprojects/index.htm . If you would like to enquire about support for a project, please contact the English Subject Centre:The English Subject CentreRoyal Holloway, University of LondonEgham, Surrey TW20 OEXT. 01784 443221escrhul.ac.ukwww.english.heacademy.ac.ukExecutive SummaryThe below report chronicles patchy (though sometimes significant) progress in several areas, including undergraduate course development. However, the most important outcomes of the advocacy project have unquestionably been my development, with Dr Graham Mort, of very vigorous new initiatives in postgraduate distance learning and in crosscultural creative/critical collaboration, both linked to the creation of a new interactive, transcultural website.On 7th May we announced the launch of the Centre for Transcultural Writing and Research and sent out invitations for the Open Day that inaugurated the Centre (31st May 2007). Grahams and my e-mail announcement summed up our sense of what had been been achieved:“ we are pleased to confirm that the Centre for Transcultural Writing and Research has now been approved by the Faculty. This is an interdisciplinary initiative that will practically and conceptually link together a range of existing and new research projectsThis virtual Centre is also designed to enable a new community of transcultural research students and has attracted strong interest from potential PGRs. We are now building the Virtual Research Environment that will enable overseas PhD students to study with us from abroad. The eLearning PhD will be launched in October with a small pilot group. Some of these PhD applications are already suggesting interdisciplinary supervision not only between English and Creative Writing, but involving other disciplines also.We anticipate that a number of new PhD students will register with us as a result of this more clearly defined research context. It will also provide a platform that can enable new research funding applications and strengthen existing partnerships with the British Council, for instance, who will be funding a new radio-writing project in Uganda and Nigeria in 2007/8We think that the Centre will enrich the life of the Faculty, create new research partnerships, and draw resources into E & CW in the form of PG fees and research funding.”All of the elements in the above announcement are now in place. The website, http:/www.transculturalwriting.com, combines conventional web space with the use of Wordpress for blogs/forums and MediaWiki for a new Virtual Research Environment, which (as discussed below) is now generating considerable interest at Faculty level. We have launched our distance PhD in Creative Writing with this site as the core eight part- or full-time students, half of them from overseas, all working on creative writing projects that have a strong crosscultural dimension. The Centre steering group has held its first meeting; the radio-writing project (Radiophonics) is about to begin; we have Faculty funding for a continuation of a creative-critical seminar series called Trans-Scriptions, which will surround its face-to-face events with virtual events (forums, blogs, podcasts, etc.); and we have applications in (or about to go in) for several other sources of external funding (for development of our VREs at Faculty level, for scholarships for postgraduate eLearning students, and f