Sessions at JISC Conference 2011 on Tuesday 15th March

An interactive presentation and Q and A session on the role digital media can take in supporting and enhancing teaching and learning (e.g. through screencasts and podcasts). Access to digital media resources can often be free and at a time when there is a necessity for all institutions to ‘tighten their belts’ then this is an ideal way in which to not only improve our educational provision but to do so in a cost effective way. All participants will be given access to a virtual goody bag of JISC Digital Media resources e.g. JISC Collections.

This session will provide a brief overview of a number of initiatives, including the ‘Students as Change Agents’ project at the University of Exeter, the T-SPARC project and Student Academic Partners Scheme at Birmingham City University, and the KUBE project based at Kingston College. We will provide an overview of three projects, including the different ways in which students have become engaged within technology-enhanced change initiatives and their views harnessed to shape how technology has transformed curriculum design and delivery, how students have been involved as researchers of their learning environments, and how communities of engaged and empowered learners have evolved and driven change. A range of activities will enable participants to engage with these initiatives, consider how these approaches might relate to their own institutions, discuss the benefits and barriers, and share practice and ideas.

In these rapidly changing times, the cloud is seen as a solution for many of the challenges facing both industry and education. Cloud is proposed as a mechanism to move IT provision from product to service, and from Capital expenditure to Operational Expenditure, whilst enabling institutions to concentrate on delivering core activities.

The cloud, however, also carries with it new risks, placing new tensions on IT provision and frequently requiring new ways of working. This session will look at the issues and opportunities for institutions as they consider cloud adoption in the service, enterprise and research arenas. Topics to be covered include:

• Opportunities for organisations to exploit the potential benefits of linking costs and usage, through cloud solutions
• The cloud to support research management – using the example of Newcastle University to show how a cloud platform can support a range of research activities.
• Using the cloud for enterprise needs;
• Major issues for institutions migrating to cloud provision;
• Using a brokerage to assist cloud adoption, create efficiencies and mitigate risks

Via Open Educational Resources (OER) academics and institutions release their learning materials for anyone to reuse for free. However there are costs involved in making OER possible, in time if not money.

In an environment where funding is tight can we justify supporting OER release as an institutional or personal priority?

In this session we will look at the benefits and effects of involvement in OER that institutions and individuals have experienced. We’ll look at what they are getting out of it, and why.

In the current economic climate, institutions are being encouraged to “do more with less”. Sharing of research specific e-infrastructure can be cost effective in decreasing the need for individual institutions to maintain large resources.

The UK NGS is a national enabler of shared resources and can assist institutions in the sharing of their resources resulting in immediate benefits for both institutions and their researchers. Evidence has shown that using NGS resources enables top rated research and improves research speed.

This session will present the NGS roadmap for the next 5 years and will explain how institutions can become involved in the NGS at a variety of levels. There will also be presentations from researchers involved in two grand challenges who will demonstrate the benefits of using NGS resources.

The session will try to demonstrate how the work of local software developers employed in higher education has had a significant impact and value in those institutions, particularly in the way they use remote services to innovate. The DevCSI project will present some case studies and stories from higher education institutions of their work engaging with software developers in higher education helping to increase capacity in the sector. Delegates will be invited to discuss some of the issues that have been identified by each example. The session will end with a more detailed analysis and discussion.

The scientific process is enhanced by managing and sharing research data. Good research data management practice allows reliable verification of results and permits new and innovative research built on existing information. This is important if the full value of public investment in research is to be realised.

Higher education institutions are coming under increasing pressure to manage the research data generated by their researchers that cannot be curated by subject-based data centres - and many are unsure how to proceed given the absence of clear good practice. To address such concerns, JISC’s Managing Research Data programme has, with an investment of nearly £2M, funded eight projects to provide the UK Higher Education sector with examples of good research data management.

These pilots have demonstrated ways in which research data management infrastructure can generate benefits for the HE sector: e.g. savings of time, more efficient research, better allocation of resources to active research, greater opportunities for sharing and reuse. Individually and as a group, these projects have contributed significantly to the case for improving data management practices in UK Universities.

Two projects will speak of their experiences and achievements and a summary of the programme cost-benefit analysis will be given. The JISC Managing Research Data Programme has produced reports, requirements analyses, working infrastructures, cost-benefits analyses across a range of institutions – the session will conclude with an opportunity to discuss this material, the examples given and the programme’s findings.

An interactive presentation and Q and A session on the role digital media can take in supporting and enhancing teaching and learning (e.g. through screencasts and podcasts). Access to digital media resources can often be free and at a time when there is a necessity for all institutions to ‘tighten their belts’ then this is an ideal way in which to not only improve our educational provision but to do so in a cost effective way. All participants will be given access to a virtual goody bag of JISC Digital Media resources e.g. JISC Collections.

It has been two years since ITHAKA S+R’s Case Studies in Sustainability offered a candid view of just how developers of new and innovative digital content resources devise and modify their plans to contain costs and generate sustaining revenue streams for the long term. With data on actual costs and revenues, the case studies offered a rare glimpse of the array of strategies that leaders put in place to support their projects. Today the questions are more stark than ever: In a time of drastic budget cuts, what new and innovative thinking will permit us to sustain the value of the digital content created? What new strategies are they trying? Which strategies have held up well – and less well – under the strain of a tight economy? Join us to learn how all twelve projects have fared, and hear a panel of project leaders share their “top three keys to success.” Session will include a facilitated Q and A.

• Tools for effective online collaboration with Business and Community Partners
• Enhancing the user experience - innovative solutions for real library services
• Co-genT: an interactive staff development tool
• What's in it for me? A business case for a Research Information Management standard
• The Design Studio: supporting innovation in curriculum design and delivery
• Opening Access to Film and Sound
• DIGIPEDIA: online guide to the digital life cycle

For more information on individual workshops, please follow the link below

How can universities benefit from positioning themselves as being innovative organisations? This session will look at a number of areas where innovative solutions have improved both efficiency and cost effectiveness within institutions. What is required within research and learning information environments to stimulate innovation? What resources, tools, models and frameworks do universities have to enable innovation? What else do they need? This will be an interactive session where panel members will stimulate the discussion and delegates will have the opportunity to raise their own issues and ideas. Can these offer improvements in efficiency and save costs within your institution?

Examples could be: a VRE as an aid to collaboration and improved research; Identity Management as a way of improving access to resources. These are just some examples of where innovation has improved efficiency and reduced costs.

This session takes a high level view of the costs associated with operating institutional data centres, the issues for institutions in building total costs of ownership, and opportunities for savings for institutional data centres. In doing so, alternative provision models for data centre service provision are also discussed.

Over the past 20 years, we have become completely dependent on ICT systems for the day-to-day running of our universities and colleges to the point that we couldn’t now imagine operating without them. But could we use these systems much more effectively?

This session will explore what information standards are and will identify key ways in which they could save universities and colleges money and free up resources for use elsewhere by streamlining routine processes.

Delegates will hear from two institutions where implementing standards has helped them to find real efficiencies. The University of Bolton has recently replaced its VLE WebCT with Moodle. Information standards such as content packaging have simplified the process of transferring data resulting in significant savings in staff time. At Southampton the question and test interoperability specification is being used to prevent lock in to one assessment system. Good questions take time to write and quality assure, so it is not cost-effective for staff to rewrite questions for each specific system.

The session will conclude with a panel question and answer session where attendees will have the opportunity to ask practical questions about how to make the most of an open standards approach in their institutions.

Good research information management can save institutions time and money in preparing bids, locating expertise and reporting to funders. The information required for these tasks is often held across the institution, by funders or elsewhere in the sector, and is hard to assemble in support of strategic planning. This session will showcase tools that can be used across the research life-cycle, from grant bids to evidence of impact, that offer institutions the means to gather and use that information to manage, direct and evaluate their research performance.

With over 8 billion pounds per year being spent on UK research (RLUK), there is a significant need for researchers to justify that the research papers they are producing have significant and lasting value. One way to achieve this is to break the data that every research paper has into its component parts so that it can be shared and reused. The A-B-C-D of Open Scholarship is an Aide Memoire for researchers that will help remind them of which research data they can share and the value that sharing can have for them and the entire sector.

This informative and interactive session will allow delegates to learn about the opportunities and challenges in Business and Community Engagement. These issues are faced by all institutions who collaborate to make resources available to external partners. Attendees will benefit from discussion around the issues.

Access to resources projects OpenBiz and Engage, funded by the JISC Business and Community Engagement programme, will provide case studies of collaboration between Further/Higher Education and business. They will also inform participants of online resources available to support collaboration which will be openly available and transferrable to other institutions.

Delegates will also learn about and be able to access the Acumen toolkit produced by JISC TechDis which offers institutions free tools and information sources on the use of IT in business, designed to enhance new and existing projects and partnerships.

How technology can enhance assessment and feedback for learners and practitioners

This workshop will explore how technology can enhance the value of assessment and feedback for practitioners and learners. The session, which draws on the findings of JISC reports and projects as well as developments in a range of institutions, will include the following topics:

• Intervention points: how technology can support processes around assessment and feedback
• Why do it? Potential benefits of technology-enhanced assessment and feedback
• Types of technology: more than you might think
• Introduction to Effective Assessment in a Digital age publication and supporting resources
• Case study: implementing a strategic vision for assessment to improve the student experience and reduce workload

Delegates are encouraged to think about their own challenges in the area of assessment and feedback in advance of the workshop.

How to exploit the new opportunities with appropriate licencing and risk management techniques

Adopting the right intellectual property rights (IPR) and licensing strategy is essential if colleges and universities are to take advantage of technological innovation and engage with other sectors such as creative industries. IPR and licensing issues will often present risks when creating and sharing research data or Open Educational Resources (OERs) for example. Yet, by improving training and using simple tools as part of an IPR and licensing strategy, colleges and universities can minimise risks and develop opportunities to support their staff working in teaching and research.

This session will explore how free, re-usable training resources and support tools dealing with IPR and licensing (funded by JISC and the Strategic Content Alliance) are reducing training costs, saving staff time and improving competencies to reduce IPR-related risks.

The opportunities and drivers have never been stronger for libraries to re-conceive the value they provide to the research and teaching communities they support, and to re-model the ways in which they deliver that value more efficiently. However, such opportunities are often accompanied by uncertainties, with a paucity of information and support for those attempting to plan for and envision that future.

This session will explore questions such as: What does an efficient library look like in the future and what technology does it use to function most effectively, both economically and in terms of its service-oriented goals.

This practical, solutions-based session will explore the key themes of

• Planning for an innovative future,
• Tools and tactics to support the appraisal of digital assets
• Shared approaches to services and infrastructure

As institutions continue to absorb the impact of reduced budgets and increasing financial pressures, the need to save money, maximise value and demonstrate efficient content procurement is critical.

In this session, three of the JISC Services; JISC Collections, Mimas and EDINA will showcase some of the new digital solutions that they have developed collaboratively on behalf of the education and research community:

• In August 2011, JISC Collections, EDINA and Mimas will launch a brand new Service specially developed for UK Higher Education and Further Education. The Service, consisting of three new content platforms, will aggregate the images, film, journal archive and historical book content purchased by JISC in perpetuity on behalf of the education community.

JISC Historic Books – The full text or page images of every book published in England before 1800 (currently available in two separate collections, Early English Books Online and Eighteenth-Century Collections Online), plus the full text of over 65,000 19th Century books from the British Library

JISC Mediahub – over 150,000 photos and more than 500 hours of moving-image content, including newsfilm from major agencies such as ITN, Getty, and AP Archive, and historic newsreel footage dating back to the early years of the 20th century

JISC UK Journals Archive – more than 3.75 million scholarly journal articles from the archives of major publishers such as Oxford University Press, The Institute of Physics, Taylor & Francis, and the Royal Society of Chemistry

This new shared Service will ensure long-term access and preservation of the huge range of content that has been bought by JISC on behalf of the education community. The development of this community owned content will be managed by editorial boards comprising of senior academics and information specialists from across the education spectrum and teaching and learning boards to ensure that the Service is developed to your requirements.

• The JISC Journal Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP) which provides a single point of access for usage statistics, meaning that each University can quickly and easily compare usage across various publishers, years and NESLi2 journals. This service, built in response to demand from the UK higher education community provides universities with central and easy to use tools to collate empirical evidence to inform the management and procurement of e-journals.

• PEPRS and PECAN are pilots exploring how to sustain value by maintaining access to journal content.

Universities and colleges are facing un-paralleled challenges as they grapple with the realities of a very changed landscape of funding and governance in higher and further education. Now, more that ever, institutions need to understand the way they operate, their strengths and weaknesses and the environment in which they operate. JISC’s work on organisational support seeks to provide the support and advice and guidance that institutions need, and that will enable them to rise to these challenges and emerge as more efficient, flexible, greener and effective places in which to learn and to generate and exchange knowledge. This session will provide an opportunity to take part in a high level strategic debate with members of JISC’s Organisational support committee and will help shape the future of the agenda for this crucially important area of JISC’s work.

With funding cuts now a reality in the HE and FE sector, institutions are now looking to shared services and outsourcing as solutions to financial constraints. Legal considerations can arise at different stages of implementing shared service solutions and this session will explore these issues from both a strategic and operational perspective. The session will address a wide variety of legal considerations involved, including contractual arrangements, data protection, e-security and intellectual property rights. Panellists will provide examples of when possible legal risks can arise and good practice for management in addition to directly addressing any concerns raised by participants in the session.

Linked data is something many mangers have heard about but few actually understand as something other than a new technology that a lot of people are talking about. With the inventor of the Web calling for all institutional websites to have a star rating (please see link below), it is likely to become significant management rating for an institutions website. This session simplifies the technology aspects of linkeddata and talks about it in terms of business value to the institution. It will discuss how utilising linkeddata can enable data to be shared amongst departments easier to increase the ability by the institution to meet its core business needs and services. The panel talk will have direct evidence of this as institutions experiment with the value of sharing data centrally throughout the institution. Several Universities have begun to experiment with the pragmatics of institutional data for administrative systems (financial, estates, courses, library, etc.) These systems provide obvious solutions like providing a list of all rooms on campus in a spreadsheet or listing library resources in XML so they can be integrated into a new course website. The possibilities and solution this achieves for sharing data within the University enterprise is significant and this talk should not be missed by the manager who wants to save money for their institution.

Digital literacy for students, researchers and teaching staff

UK Further and Higher Education are facing the toughest financial constraints for a generation. At the same time, digital literacy is an agenda which aligns well with economic recovery, as it concerns the employability of UK graduates, the health of UK research and innovation, and the capacity of individuals and organisations to make use of digital opportunities. Digital literacy defines those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society.

Through the findings of the Supporting Learners in a Digital Age (SLIDA) JISC-funded study and by hearing from the exemplar institutional case studies, the session will provide recommendations on how institutions can better develop the digital literacies of their students, teaching staff and researchers, to meet the demands of 21st century employment.

Over the years JISC has funded many projects to support sustainable open working and release of content. So what are people doing with all this “stuff”? This session will bring together ideas of digital scholarship, open science, open data, open education and open educational resources to look at it all from the point of view of the user. It will be a lively set of stories of how people have found, used and shared free open content, opportunity for discussion and reflection, and participants will help compile top tips for making the most of it all. All welcome!

This session will be LIVESTREAMED so you can join it online.

If you're tweeting please use #jisc11 #ocstories to join in!

All institutions are involved in providing events, ranging from international conferences through to smaller and more informal seminars and workshops. But in today's economic environment the costs of participating in such events may lead to concerns over their sustainability. 'Amplified events' provide an approach which enhances the advantages provided by traditional face-to-face events by exploiting networked technologies to widen participation to remote participants and 'time-shifting' events.

This session will review a variety of approaches which have been taken at a number of national, international and regional events. The session will explore the reasons for such approaches, address possible concerns and outline various business models, policies and emerging technologies which can be used to maximise the benefits of amplified events.