The PotsPan Project Steering Group held their first meeting to discuss the aims and objectives of the project. The project will pilot a digitized administrative and documentation system for Work Based Learning that was developed by the previous JISC SWANI Project. Partners will explore how to pilot the system at their institutions. Actions were agreed to provide partners access to the system, continue evaluating digital pen options, and finalize project budgets and partnership agreements. The next meeting will be held online for partners to report on their pilot planning.

1. PotsPan Project Steering Group Meeting Minutes
Date: 29th May 2012
Venue: Coleg Sir Gar, Room G48 (Engineering Building)
Time: 11am
Present: Dave Howells (Project Director, CSG)
Professor Tony Toole (Project Manager, CSG)
Lewis Jones (Systems Developer, CSG)
Caroline Peek (WBL Coordinator, CSG)
Kathryn David (SMU)
Wendy Webber (Pembrokeshire College)
Dr Geoff Elliott (Pembrokeshire College)
Christine Davies (JISC RSC Wales)
Apologies: Helen Humphreys (PRP Training)
Meeting Notes:
1. Welcome and introductions: DH welcomed the members of the steering group to CSG for
the first meeting and introductions were made.
2. Project overview, aims and objectives: DH provided a brief summary of the context of the
PotsPan project, including an overview of the regional WBL programme and a description of
the outcomes of the SWANI project that will be piloted by the partners in the current
initiative.
TT explained how the PotsPan project was an Embedding Benefits initiative under the JISC e-
Learning Programme and was specifically intended to exploit the beneficial outcomes of
previous JISC projects. He described how The JISC SWANI Project successfully created a
digitised administrative and management documentation system for Work Based Learning in
Wales that included a digital signature system that satisfied the audit requirements of the
EU and the Welsh Government.
The proposed PotsPan project will enable the system to be piloted by the three other
partners in the Skills Academy Wales WBL consortium, as well as being evaluated in a
different context by Swansea Metropolitan University for use in their general information
management systems.
TT reported that the project would be one year in length and had an overall budget of
£61,000, of which £40,000 was being provided by JISC. He outlined the project timeline with
reference to the Gantt Chart in the project plan. This showed a start-up period of 2 months
where, following the tasks of completing the project plan and setting up of the project Wiki
and Blog which preceded the steering group meeting, the second part of the start-up would
involve the partners gaining access to the digitised WBL system developed by SWANI and
becoming familiar with its features.

2. The meeting then discussed holding the next meeting after this system familiarity period in
order for each partner to present their outline plans for piloting the WBL system in their
institution. Because of the geographically dispersed nature of the group, an online
videoconference meeting was proposed, although the project plan includes a practical
workshop at this time that the members may prefer to attend f2f.
3. Demonstration of the digitised WBL administrative system and digital pen system: LJ
demonstrated the WBL admin system developed by the SWANI project. He also showed the
digital pen system. Examples of the online forms and records were shown, and the meeting
had an extended discussion about the detail of the document management system. It was
agreed that each partner needed to explore the system and to report their own preferred
way of piloting it. An important issue that emerged from the discussion was the recognition
that the system offered significant potential benefits for the management of the WBL
programme. The original SWANI project was concerned with creating an efficient and
effective administrative document and audit management system, whereas the meeting saw
immediately how it could provide system performance information to inform management
decisions.
LJ agreed to make arrangements for the partners to gain online access to the document
management system and to email log-on and operational details as soon as this was
complete. TT would continue to investigate the range of digital pens available (CD indicated
that the RSC could provide information in this regard) and KD agreed that a component of
the SMU contribution would be trialling these with a view to identifying the most cost-
effective solution.
4. Project partners: roles, activities, partnership agreements, budget arrangements: It was
noted that all the partners were collaborating in the regional WBL consortium and in other
SWW partnerships. It was agreed that the project budget arrangements would be decided
following the next meeting when individual development and piloting activities would be
discussed. This would determine the nature of the partnership agreements where an
agreement on deliverables linked to a budget allocation would be likely to suffice.
5. Project management: management plan, targets and reporting: TT proposed that the project
team should meet online monthly to review progress against targets and for steering group
meetings to meet quarterly. He would be responsible for day to day management of the
project activities. DH would be responsible for managing the project budget and CSG
payments to partners.
6. Communications and dissemination: Online meetings, project Wiki & Blog
TT reported that he had set up the PotsPan project Wiki and Blog and that both were
available for project communications, dissemination and the sharing of project documents
and resources. He would be ensuring that they were both kept up to date during the project.
The web addresses were:
Project Wiki: http://potspan.pbworks.com/
Project Blog: http://potspan.blogspot.co.uk/

3. General communications would be by email, Skype and videoconference as appropriate. CD
indicated that RSC Wales could assist in communications and dissemination in the wider
community.
7. Action plan
a. Partner pilot planning
All partners would plan their own pilot activities based on their evaluation of the
digital WBL platform and report back at the next meeting.
b. Technical setup and digital pen arrangements
LJ would make a version of the WBL document website available for all partners and
would communicate with sign-on and operational details. TT would continue
evaluating digital pens and would organise testing as part of the SMU contribution.
c. Project management
TT would update the project Wiki and Blog and would liaise with the JISC
programme manager. Any proposed changes to the project plan would be circulated
for SG approval. Project budget arrangements would be agreed by the end of
June/early July 2012 and also circulated to the SG for discussion and approval.
8. AOB
TT informed the meeting of three other related projects involving the CSG and SMU that
were waiting approval. It was noted that each had the potential to add benefit to the
PotsPan project (one JISC funded, one HEFCE funded and one EU funded). He would
keep partners informed of the outcomes with a view to further discussions.
Date of next meeting: to be agreed for late June/early July 2012