After twelve productive years, the University of Strathclyde’s relationship with Cetis has now “reached its conclusion”. The Cetis Memorandum of Understanding has been terminated and all Cetis staff at the university have been made redundant. This move comes a year after the closure of the Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement (CAPLE), the department that had housed Cetis since 2001. One reason given by the university for terminating the relationship is that Cetis are no longer strategically aligned with institutional policy.
I first came to the University of Strathclyde as a Research Assistant in 1997 and worked on a wide range of learning technology research projects before winning the contract to run the Cetis Educational Content Special Interest Group (EC SIG) in 2001 along with Charles Duncan at the University of Edinburgh. The following year I was appointed to the post of Cetis Assistant Director and in the ten years that followed Cetis transformed from a Jisc project, to a service-in-transition, to a Jisc Innovation Support Centre and most recently, to an independent technology advisory agency. One constant throughout these changes was the unfailing support Cetis received from CAPLE and all its staff, who provided a stimulating, friendly and supportive environment for all Cetis colleagues who came and went at Strathclyde over the years. Consequently I’d like to thank all those who made CAPLE such a great place to work and who have now moved on to brighter pastures, in particular Professors George Gordon, Ray Land and Allison Littlejohn, all our former academic colleagues and, last but absolutely by no means least, the sterling administrative staff Aileen Wilson, Susan Mitchell, Allison Carmichael and Lynn O’Brien. Many thanks also to Elaine Hurley who has provided invaluable and admirably efficient administrative support over the last six months.
The CAPLE Admin Team
Although this week marks the end of Cetis at Strathclyde, Cetis is still very much alive and kicking at the University of Bolton. The centre has broadened its funding base and is going from strength to strength. Cetis will be a launching a new website shortly, so look out for details.
I very much hope that I will be able to resume my association with Cetis at some point in the near future but, like Sheila, for the next couple of months I will be taking a sideways step. However I won’t be sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I have conference papers to write with Phil Barker and I will be following up actions from the Open Scotland Summit with colleagues from SQA, Jisc RSC Scotland and the ALT Scotland SIG later in August. There’s also the small matter of a naval history book I’m in the process of writing in my “spare time”. (Have a look here it you’re curious: http://indefatigable1797.wordpress.com).
Now here comes the plug…if you happen to need the services of an experienced and approachable learning technologist with a sideline in OER, open education policy and project management, please feel free to get in touch. My new e-mail address is lorna.m.campbell@icloud.com and my twitter and skype IDs remain unchanged. I’ll look forward to continuing working with you all in the future!
CAPLE really knew how to make its staff feel valued.