CARET, the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies, held its first open day yesterday, Wednesday 17 October, 2001.

CARET, the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies, held its first open day yesterday, Wednesday 17 October, 2001.

The event was an opportunity for people from across the University to learn more about the Centre's work and to discuss possible future partnerships.

Brief presentations on three of CARET's latest projects were followed by an opportunity for participants to chat informally with CARET staff over refreshments.

CARET was set up in May 2001 to provide the University with a central focus for the creation and evaluation of new technologies for online education. Speaking at the open day, Dr Jem Rashbass, CARET's director, described its mission:

"Our aim is to take the research excellence in new technology that has already been developed in the University and to apply this to teaching and learning online. We want to promote best practice in this area and establish Cambridge University as a world-leader in the field. This is a crucial area for all universities, both to address the needs of our future students and to widen our educational agenda."

Already CARET is engaged in collaborations with Cambridge University Moving Image Studio (CUMIS), the Faculty of English, Kettle's Yard and with students from other departments, but external partnerships are also central to its mission. Joint projects have brought CARET together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Hewlett Packard, Cambridge University Press (CUP), West Herts College, and The Junction. CARET is also very keen to work in partnership with local schools.

CARET is based in newly refurbished premises at 16 Mill Lane in a modern workspace designed to facilitate the flexible group-working which is central to CARET's approach. The premises are currently home to over 30 experts in areas as diverse as communication and information technology, pedagogy, design, assessment, and security and confidentiality of online data. It is anticipated that in the near future CARET will expand to about 50 people at any given time, as people from other departments take up hot-desking spaces.

Academic staff (and students) from all departments can visit CARET and work alongside resident experts to develop new components for their courses - emphasis will be placed on innovation and creativity using new teaching technologies. Synergies between subject areas will be exploited to develop new generic technologies for delivering, interpreting and manipulating information.

In addition to the funding it will receive from the University for three years, CARET has been awarded funds by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to support technology-based initiatives for teaching (as part of the University's Teaching and Learning Strategy). Applications for available funds were recently invited from individuals or departments within the University who wished to develop innovative teaching technologies in collaboration with CARET. Other sources of funding include the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) and Hewlett Packard.

Amongst the initial areas of interest are virtual learning environments, online simulation systems and generic tools to support online assessment. CARET's current projects include:

As a result of the level of interest expressed, further open events will be held throughout the year. If you would like to be on CARET's email contact list, please email info@caret.cam.ac.uk with contact details and your area of interest.


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