All AERS research projects are supported by a Virtual Research Environment that offers facilities for storing and sharing resources online, for communication, collaboration and project organisation. The tools include File Store, Discussion area, Chat room, Announcements tool, Email Archive and a collaborative authoring tool Wiki, to mention the most important ones.

You can 'self register' to gain access, but may need to contact your Network or Project Coordinator to gain full access to restricted areas. For more information contact the Senior Research Fellow Alastair Wilson ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or the Network secretary Alexis Merry ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) at the University of Strathclyde, Applied Educational Research Centre (phone 0141-950 3140 or 3135).

To find out more about the Virtual Research Environment, see:

• Rimpilainen, S. and Carmichael, P. (2006) 'Sakai: An Environment for Virtual Research' Ennen & Nyt 2006 (2). http://www.ennenjanyt.net/2006_2/rimpilainen.pdf
• Carmichael, P., Rimpilainen, S. and Procter, R. (2006)'Sakai: A Virtual Research Environment for Education' Paper presented at BERA Conference, September 2006, Warwick. http://www.caret.cam.ac.uk/jiscvre/downloads/sakai_paper_bera_sept06.pdf

Or access the Sakai Project site http://www.sakaiproject.org/.