About SEEL

SEEL (Supporting Excellence in E-Learning) is a consortium dedicated to the study of the impact of quality policies in e-learning at local and regional levels.

SEEL is an open initiative and we invite other regions and partners to join the initiative through the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

You can also benefit from several outcomes:

• eLearning quality guidelines
• eLearning Regions and Cities Memorandum of Understanding (eLRC MoU)
• eLearning Regions & Cities Centres of Excellence Charter
• eLearning Regions & Cities Benchmark system
• eLearning Quality Award
• the proceeding of several confences (see supra)

If you are interested in using any of these outcomes, please contact maureen.layte@eife-l.org.

eLearning Regions and Cities conferences

eLearning Regions & Cities 2003

A first conference, was held 19-20 May, 2003,  in Lisbon, with the support of the World Education Market. It was the first major SEEL activity. Leading experts in e-learning, quality and especially, learning regions, discussed the key issues of quality in (e)learning, innovation and regional development.

eLearning Regions & Cities 2004

A second conference was held in La Rochelle, which explored in particular the role knowledge, information and learning technologies (KILT) can play in the development of social capital and inclusion. During the conference were presented the results of the SEEL project.

Plenary and parallel sessions in the amphitheatre have been recorded and are available for viewing. For more information on the conference, follow this link. 

eLearning Regions & Cities 2005

The 2005 UK eLearning Regions and Cities Conference (Oxford 21 and 22 June 2005) brought together the most up to date information in eLearning for regional authorities and groupings of regional stakeholders to work on regional strategy and tactics:

• Regional Development Agencies
• representatives from local education authorities and from initial, higher and further education institutions
• local learning and skills councils
• employers and workforce representatives
• technology providers -- local and regional portals

Executive summary

REF: 2003-002/001 - 001 EDU-ELEARN - SEEL (Supporting Excellence in e-Learning) 

It is clear that the development of the human capital of regions is essential for the achievement of the goals of the Lisbon declaration, and that co-operation between regions is key to this. As many European countries seek to decentralise basic services and devolve decision-making processes on a regional level, regional identity and prosperity become increasingly important.

The SEEL project, representing the first attempt to address the contribution of eLearning to regional development, had an ambitious remit: to identify the needs of policy-makers in the domain of effective employment of e-learning for regional development; to demonstrate the benefits of an explicit policy and to produce tools to enable this. The project was highly productive in terms of mainstream outputs and additional related outputs – particularly in view of its short duration, and given the fact that decisions and progress at regional level are subject to administrative imperatives and may indeed be radically affected by a change of political climate. Project activities resulted in a better understanding of the potential impact of quality policies on regional development; mechanisms for dissemination of local initiatives at a European level - and vice-versa - and improved networking among key stakeholders to benefit from and exchange good practice. Among the important findings was that regions are at very different stages of development in terms of the articulation and implementation of quality policies for e-learning. The heartening finding is that many are ready to learn from and with other regions and it is clear that SEEL has been, and can continue to be, an important catalyst for this.

Partners in the SEEL project were originally identified on the basis of their being representatives of regions or having strong connections with European regions, and/or bringing to the project sound competencies in the field of e-learning. The partnership represented seven countries: France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK and one of the distinguishing features of the project was the close co-operation between member regions, from which base a larger network was built.

The project has throughout been public-facing, with continual contact with regional stakeholders in order to ascertain their needs and obtain their input into the final format of the outcomes. SEEL activities thus reflected the expressed desire of regions to gain validation of current work in progress; flexible quality initiatives that allow for innovation; independent quality assurance and benchmarks for measurement, and the sharing of experience, resources and networking opportunities. Dissemination played a major role from the start of the project, as the aim was to involve as large a number of stakeholders as possible. A wide variety of dissemination activities was carried out by all partners: development of project website, use of external websites, newsletters, general marketing material, targeted e-mailshots, direct contact with target organisations, SEEL conferences and seminars, other conferences and exhibitions, pilot programmes and focus groups, translation and dissemination of evolving versions of tools. The impact on the target groups is evident in the number of regions involved in the project's activities - most notably, the pilot programmes, seminars, conferences and quality award, the establishment of the quality centre network, the response to join SEEL and the planned sustainability activities. The formal pilot programmes that were run to test the Benchmarking System and the Quality Guideline involved 11 regions from 8 countries. The two eLearning Regions and Cities Conferences held in Lisbon in May 2003 and La Rochelle in May 2004 were attended by representatives from 18 countries.

The concrete outcomes of the SEEL project are:

• A Benchmarking System to help regions to identify and reflect on strategies and actions in order to improve their performance in promoting, supporting, developing, implementing, monitoring and assessing quality in eLearning at local and regional levels. Accompanying the benchmarking tool is a comparative analysis of regional reports on lifelong learning strategy and policy about the quality of the e-learning supply in four of the partner regions. This has helped the development of the benchmarking tool, and constitutes a contribution to the knowledge base.
• Quality Guidelines to enable regions to assess and develop their policy and practice in four areas: learning strategy and innovation; supporting learners and organisations; e-learning delivery and learning resource provision.
• A Strategic Framework for Quality Centres, which positions the centres firmly at the heart of the development and promotion of quality in e-learning.
• The establishment of the first regional centres of excellence (Quality Centres) in Poitou-Charentes, France, Yorkshire, UK and Sweden, which provide a hub for the project's activities and the basis for a self-sustainable network of centres.
• The start of a knowledge base, to assist observation and assessment of current innovative practices in e-learning, and observation and assessment of current tools, methods, actors and practice in quality assurance.
• A European Award for Quality, which supports and promotes the orientation of the project's outcomes, and aims to recognise good practice (actual and emerging) among European regions and territories. The first prototype awards were made to four organisations in October 2004 following the establishment of the judging process.
• National and transnational seminars to elicit regional needs in terms of quality policies
• Two international conferences, whose purpose was to disseminate the aims of the project and achieve the involvement and input of regions to the project’s outcomes.
  
• A series of national pilot programmes to test and improve the benchmarking tools and quality guidelines.
  
• A piloting report outlining the piloting methodology, activities undertaken and impact on SEEL outcomes.
  
• Over 80 organisations responding to the open invitation to "Join SEEL".
  
• Measures in place for the self-sustainability phase
   

Self-sustainability was built into the project from the start. It was recognised that the role of a project of relatively short duration was to help to build a foundation that regions themselves should see the interest of building on - hence the vital importance of having regional project partners. A large part of the final project partnership will continue to work actively together on SEEL - and related - activities. These partners intend not only to exploit the results of the project but work to ensure "interoperability" between other projects and other initiatives. Measures in place to ensure sustainability include:

• A self-sustainability strategy
• A public web space that now contains all the project outcomes and is provisionally being used to launch the self-sustainability phase: www.seelnet.org
• A memorandum of understanding open to all organisations wishing to work on SEEL activities.
• A Charter for Quality Centres
• An established nucleus of Quality Centres with planned activities, providing a hub for the project’s activities and the basis for a self-sustainable network of centres
• Preparations for the 3rd international conference in Oxford in June 2005 at which the 2nd eLearning Regions and Cities Quality Award will be made
• Continuity of SEEL activities in the framework of the project Triangle, which has recently been accepted for funding under the eLearning Call for 2004 specifically through the establishment of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning (EFQEL).

The content of this project does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Community, nor does it involve any responsibility on the part of the European Community.

"Regions are becoming focal points for knowledge creation and learning in the new age of global, knowledge-intensive capitalism, as they in effect become learning regions. The learning regions function as collectors and repositories of knowledge and ideas, and provide the underlying environment or infrastructure which facilitates the flow of knowledge, ideas and learning"

 Richard Florida

First eLearning Regions & Cities Quality Awards!