Abstract
This paper draws upon the experience of supporting the development of teaching and learning materials for use within civil and structural engineering departments in higher education. It describes a European funded project SteelCAL that aims to develop and share new learning technologies based materials across the sector. It also describes the rationale for the participatory processes that were involved and the issues that emerged as a result of using this approach. What is of interest are the genuine benefits gained from involving lecturers in the curriculum development and the evaluation process. However there is also evidence that the participatory process is problematic when complex computer based learning materials are to be developed. There are implications to be drawn from this for the development of materials for use within other initiatives, for example, the e-university within the UK.