ALT-C 2007: book now! - Bookings are coming in as fast as last year, so don’t delay. We may have to close earlier than the 10 August deadline. Book now at http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2007/registering.html. There are five pre-conference workshops to choose from, covering tools for e-learning, e-assessment, learning objects, e-portfolios and designing learning spaces – go to http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2007/pre_and_post.html.The programme has been updated - go to http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2007/timetable.html.

En suite accommodation with dial-up Internet access (via Ethernet cable) and telephones is available on campus next to the conference venue; book well before the deadline to secure this. Hotels in the city centre (a 15min taxi ride away – see http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2007/travel.html) are also offering discounts for ALT-C delegates, which can be booked online via Travelocity Business.

Call for ALT-C 2008 Programme Committee - ALT-C 2008, to be held in Leeds 8 to 10 September 2008, will be chaired by Dr Jill Jameson (University of Greenwich) and Dr John Sandars (University of Leeds). We are now seeking Programme Committee (PC) members to take an active part in planning the programme, reviewing papers and chairing sessions at the conference. PC members must be able to commit to reviewing at least 15 abstracts for sessions, and/or refereeing at least 2 research papers during March and April 2008. The full call will go out on alt-announce shortly; for informal queries please contact me on rriachi@brookes.ac.uk. Deadline for expressions of interest: Friday 14 September.

AGM 2007 - Our fourteenth Annual General Meeting will take place at Nottingham University on Wednesday 5 September, 1200-1230. All members are warmly invited to attend. All candidates were elected unopposed to the three vacancies on the Central Executive Committee so there will be no ballot this year. The following people will take up their places after the AGM in September:
Trustees: Dick Moore (Ufi learndirect) and John Phelps (Goldsmiths College London).
Vice-Chair: Steve Ryan (London School of Economics).
These important roles are on three-year terms commencing from the Annual General Meeting in Nottingham on 5 September.

New ALT-J Co-Editors - Frances Bell (University of Salford) and Rhona Sharpe (Oxford Brookes University) have been appointed Co-Editors of ALT-J to commence from September 2007. Frances is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems and a member of ALT’s Research Committee (http://www.alt.ac.uk/operational_committees.html#Research). Rhona is Principal Lecturer in Educational Development and previously co-edited the International Journal for Academic Development. Over the next six months Rhona and Frances will take over from the retiring editors, Grainne Conole, Jane Seale and Martin Oliver. For more information about ALT-J go to http://www.alt.ac.uk/alt_j.html.
 
Tangible benefits of e-learning - As we go to press the finishing touches are being put on a range of e-learning case studies drawn from 17 higher education institutions across the UK. This JISC-funded project is being run as a partnership between JISCinfoNet, ALT and the Higher Education Academy and will report to the JISC Learning and Teaching Committee. The case studies will be made available to the community later this year. The project has been too short to run it using the CAMEL model of exchange visits (go to http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/camel and http://www.gre.ac.uk/elidacamel) but it is hoped that the CAMEL model could be applied to further work in developing case studies in future.
 
Workshops: your suggestions, please - Now is the time for members to suggest topics for workshops that you would like ALT to run in the coming year. Please email your suggestions (topics, presenters and even locations) to Hayley Willis (h.willis@brookes.ac.uk).

Rhonda Riachi
rriachi@brookes.ac.uk