Final Report Summary - DYRECT (DYnamic Roadmapping with application for EduCation and Training)
Overall, the DYRECT Marie Curie Fellow achieved good progress on all of her research activities. The MC Fellow’s research towards a PhD has progressed well over the two years of the project, with the development, improvement/ finalisation and pilot-based validation of the Conceptual Framework for Dynamic Roadmapping, and the completion of the relevant Action Research programme with stakeholder clusters (involving a number of consultative stakeholder workshops and meetings). Particularly she has led with great success the Schools Roadmapping Cluster, which has now excellent prospects of sustainable development, community building/growing, and collaborative dynamic Roadmapping. The achievements of this Cluster, culminating in a living example of a Dynamic Roadmap, are an excellent demonstration of the DYRECT achievements. The MC Fellow’s PhD programme, which she has pursued at Brunel, is also on good course for completion, and now in its final stages.
During the two years of the project,, the MC Fellow has achieved all three main objectives of her research, and has completed/finalised all the DYRECT deliverables and research objectives:
(a) Introduce and investigate the concept of Dynamic Roadmapping as continuous knowledge creation process;
(b) To provide a framework for developing an alerting system that will identify record, classify important trends and weak signals, at a global scale and analyse their significance for Roadmapping (TEL Observatory – the main new contribution of Year 2 research); and
(c) Provide a meta-model for Roadmapping to serve as a framework for the needed semantic interoperability between diverse roadmaps of different communities (Conceptual Framework of Dynamic Meta-Roadmapping).
In Year 1, the MC Fellow was academically initiated to the nature and particularities, the objectives and the challenges of PhD-level research. She attended a one-year-long PhD Advanced Class programme in Research Methods, together with all her PhD candidate colleagues at Brunel. She also participated in the activities of Brunel’s Graduate School and attended many Research Development and Professional Development sessions, lectures and seminars, addressed to individual researchers.
During the two years of the project, the MC Fellow focused on and delivered successfully the following:
• Development and completion of the outstanding Year 2 research objective (b)
• Integration of all the outputs of her work
• Completion of all outstanding aspects of the work of the DYRECT project
• Significant progress on her research towards her PhD award; and
• Preparation of at least three high-quality publications to appear in major academic journals, to disseminate the research done effectively to the wider research community and at the highest level.
• Organised and led the programme committee of the European Forum for Learning Futures and Innovation (to take place in the Committee of Regions in Brussels, on 18-19 March 2013)
• Played a leading role in the co-organisation of the joint event of the European Forum for Learning Futures and Innovation liaising with other co-organising projects (TEL-Map, VISIR, and Open Discovery Space) and shaping the Programme of this joint event (see also attached Programme of the event).
• Led the activities of the Schools Roadmapping Cluster, and the follow-up activities within the Open Discovery Space’s large Network of Schools.
• Piloted the Dynamic Roadmapping methodology and the DYRECT Observatory function in the context of primary and secondary education as well as in Higher Education. In particular, she has led the Schools Roadmapping Cluster and has been a major contributor to the Higher Education Cluster. These Roadmapping clusters attracted/included a large number of participants across Europe, and run large-scale EU-wide pilots going through the complete Roadmapping process (see Deliverables (D4 and D5), with workshops taking place in various locations in Europe and organised by the researcher during Year 2.
• Initiated a process inspired from Roadmapping, to provide a map/cartography and integrate the fragmented TEL area, towards a federated effort to streamline and develop joint activities amongst the big players and projects in European TEL.
• Presented and disseminated the developed Roadmapping framework in the context of numerous venues, conferences, workshops, institutions and projects (such as GALA, iTEC, VISIR, etc.) and organised and held a number of related workshops (such as in OnlineEducaBerlin 2012).
Thus DYRECT has delivered significant contribution/input, value and impact on the wider EU TEL area, via (a) supporting the TEL community with a new framework and methodology of Dynamic Roadmapping, and more generally supporting various types of Technology Roadmapping, and (b) increasing awareness and supporting the community around Tel via federated, conjoint streamlining and cartography efforts, inspired from the concept of Roadmapping.
The DYRECT project has also achieved significant sustainability by:
• Facilitating and supporting the development of a new roadmapping infrastructure which supports that proposed Dynamic Roadmapping framework, in the form platform and tools, currenlty being developed at the Learning Frontiers EU portal.
• Developing sustainable, living communities to engage in their own continuous Roadmapping, in the form of Roadmapping clusters (such as the Schools Cluster and the Higher Education Cluster).
• Actively supporting, through the developed methodologies and tools, the Open Discovery Space roadmap, which aspires to engage the majority of European Schools and which will be based on the developed Dynamic Roadmapping approach.
• Initiating the first steps of a process towards a federated action plan, a pan-European strategic intelligence service, and a community support framework.
Furthermore, in Year 2, the MC Fellow was academically active and participated in the various activities of Brunel’s Graduate School and attended many Research Development and Professional Development sessions, lectures and seminars, suitable for individual researchers.
In particular:
1. The MC researcher attended the compulsory Research Methods course (1 year full-time, or 2 years part-time) which is offered to all Brunel researchers. She also received from the University formal training on Research Ethics and the practicalities of compliance (e.g. how to seek ethical approval for research) as well as courses on academic writing and presentation/communication skills for academic researchers. Furthermore, she was able to attend crash courses in major subjects offered by DISC and by the Brunel Graduate School, as well as other subjects of general interest (European languages, art and philosophy courses, etc.).
2. With the support of DYRECT project grant, the MC Fellow has received formal training in (a) Roadmapping and (b) strategic Project Management. In particular, she attended and completed Cambridge University’s Roadmapping course (by R Phaal), and also and also registered, attended and successfully passed the PRINCE2 professional course, an intensive 2-day professional course in Project Management, which will included offered hands-on training and theoretical backing on the management, running and delivery of large-scale implementation Projects. The researcher is now holder of the PRINCE2 formal qualifications in Project Management.
3. The researcher was offered formal Mentorship by her supervisor and other suitable members of academic staff in DISC (Prof. Z Wang, Prof. P. Louvieris, Prof. A. Payne), including annual appraisals, career development sessions, as well as external activities like attendance of Summer Schools (she attended one Summer School in Year 1).
4. Via Brunel’s Graduate School, she researcher received l training on aspects to do with Research , as well as courses on academic writing and presentation/communication skills for academic researchers. Furthermore, she was able to attend courses in major subjects offered by DISC and by the Brunel Graduate School.
5. She also had the opportunity to take part in personal development courses and seminars and study other subjects of general interest (European languages, art and philosophy courses, etc.).
6. She has been involved in the writing of academic papers with at least 3 papers currently in preparation, to be submitted in A-Grade research journals.
There have been no significant problems or delays in delivering the promised research programme and all tasks and outcomes/results of the work were delivered on time, without any impact / delay on the originally planned schedule.
The project resources were used in the appropriate and pre-planned way, without any deviations from the planned Researcher-months in Annex 1.
In summary, DYRECT has succeeded in producing the expected outcomes and delivering all its six deliverables (D1-6) in appropriate form and quality, and overall achieved the DYRECT vision to a satisfactory degree – and met all the project’s objectives in an efficient way. All three critical project objectives (as outlined in Annex 1) were achieved. Furthermore, DYRECT has delivered additional value in many areas of its initially proposed Research programme, and the completion of her PhD is imminent (with its final submission now planned for May 2013).