A Few Words…

This issue highlights the forthcoming Festival of Assemblies which take place on Wednesday 20 October (please make a note in your diaries!). The venue is still to be confirmed, but as soon as there is news, we will pass the details on. In addition, there is a report on the recent MUSKET assembly, a table outlining your assemblies and project information and a list of conferences and events that may be of interest to you. As ever, if there is anything you would like to announce or comment on, please contact emma@jisc-ssbr.net

Festival of Assemblies

Assemblies

Phase 3 LLL & WFD Assemblies

Here is a table detailing the assemblies to date and what all of the projects have been doing. As you can see, a great deal has been achieved. Keep up the good work!

http://assemblies.inin.jisc-ssbr.net/phase-3-lll-wfd-assemblies/

MUSKET 2 July 2010

The MUSKET assembly on XCRI ran on 2 July and the room was full. People from the MUSKET project and their Middlesex University colleagues were joined by Phase 3 projects, Cardiff (UWIC), Nottingham (SAMSON) and Liverpool (CCLiP), and Bradford (WELL) and JISC Programme Manager, Ruth Drysdale. The day started with an overview of the MUSKET project and followed with sessions from SAMSON and CCLiP as well as input from Alan Paull, from the JISC XCRI Support Project.

This was the first assembly that I was able to attend and though I didn’t understand all the technical implications of implementing XCRI, I thought the non-stop buzz that went on all day and the connections people made summed up why the assembly process has been such an important component of this programme. People thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to learn from each other and from my role on the Support and Synthesis team, I learned quite a lot about how XCRI ties into some of the themes that are coming out of the LLL & WFD projects – institutional change issues, for example.

Ellen Lessner levellearning@waitrose.com

There will be more on the assembly in the next newsletter and for more information about MUSKET, contact Geetha Abeysinghe G.Abeysinghe@mdx.ac.uk

Conferences and Events

Generation 4 showcase: transforming curriculum delivery in medical education through interactive online virtual patient (VP) cases

9 July 2010, 11.00 – 12.00 Elluminate session

The Generation 4 (G4) project started in November 2008 funded under JISC’s Transforming Curriculum Delivery through Technology programme, the aim being (and successfully achieved) to replace paper problem-based (PBL) cases with Interactive Online Virtual Patient (VP) cases with options and consequences. For background resources visit the G4 project blog – (here) – and to register go (here) and you will be sent a link and instructions for joining the session.

JISC learning and teaching practice experts group

13 July 10:30 – 16:00 at Future Inn, Bristol

The final agenda and online booking form for the meeting is now available from www.jisc.ac.uk/…

Gaining business intelligence from user activity data

14 July 2010
The Hatton, 51-53 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8HN

The value of user activity data is evident in companies such as Amazon and iTunes that have not only used it to obtain management information but to capitalise on business opportunities. These companies use collated activity data from their broad network of users to provide recommendations of items and services. In the context of Higher Education, intelligence resulting from user activity data could lead to similar service improvements, more efficient management of resources, and even influence policy. This workshop is suitable for senior managers and practitioners working in libraries, teaching and research and will be chaired by Professor David Baker, Deputy Chair of JISC, with contributions from practitioners who have practical experience of using user activity data in higher education. The workshop will inform current activities and the next phase of JISC’s work in this area. Your registration includes refreshments and lunch at the event.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2010/07/businessintelligence.aspx

Design bash

16 July 2010 University of Oxford

This event will follow the European LAMS conference (15 July 2010) at the University of Oxford. Building on the model of previous design bashes, this event will provide an opportunity for those creating learning design systems and learning designs to come together in hands-on way to explore ways of sharing, storing and finding learning designs. More information and registration is available at the LAMS website – url below. Online participation is available via the Design Bash Cloudworks site www.cloudworks.ac.uk/…. Register here jisc.cetis.ac.uk/…

JISC Cetis events

For all forthcoming events, visit http://jisc.cetis.ac.uk/events/

Open Educational Resources international showcase

23 July Holborn Bars, London, EC1N 2NQ

This free one-day event is being held in partnership with JISC and the Higher Education Academy and will showcase the work of the UK Open Educational Resources pilot programme and highlight how the UK is supporting innovative learning, teaching and assessment by enabling universities and colleges to share educational materials freely online. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/ukoer10

JIF2010

28 and 29 July 2010
Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey

The programme for this year’s event can be found on the JIF2010 Cloudscape at http://cloudworks.ac.uk/… and should be regarded as one of your programme support allocated days. There is no charge for attendance at the event, however delegates are expected to meet their own travel costs. To register for the event please follow this link www.eventsforce.net/jif2010

Strategic Content Alliance audience analysis workshop

30 July JISC London offices

Attend a FREE workshop from the Strategic Content Alliance (Alliance) introducing simple and inexpensive Audience Analysis techniques. This aims to improve your knowledge and understanding about how to measure and demonstrate the impact of your collection or website beyond a simple numeric value i.e. number of hits. The workshop offers delegates the opportunity to make the most out of their collections and websites using a range of free tactical tools created by the Alliance.

The workshop is aimed primarily at delegates from universities, archives, museums, health, public service broadcasting, schools and cultural heritage. No particular technical knowledge is required, however, we encourage delegates to consult the free audience analysis documentation at

To register, go to https://www.eventsforce.net/jisc/48/home

ALT C – Into something rich and strange – making sense of the sea-change

7-9 September Nottingham UK.

Visit http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/

Social media marketing conference

18 October, Hotel Russell, London

UCAS is pleased to present this highly interactive event providing expert marketing techniques and tips for social media. The event will cover various areas of social media from a general introduction, to the specifics of online communities such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. We will also tackle the burning issues including online safety and privacy, and useful information on statistics and conversion rates. For more information and to book please visit www.ucasevents.com/socialmedia

Association of Colleges conference and exhibition

16-18 November Innovation Convention Centre, Birmingham

http://www.aocannualconference.co.uk/conference.asp

JISC online conference innovating e-learning 2010

Bringing Innovation to Life: from adversity comes opportunity

23-26 November 2010

We are pleased to announce that each e-Learning project will receive one free delegate place for this event. To register for your free place, email Judith Mole judithm@directlearn.co.uk stating your project name and the URL for your project page on the JISC website.

Innovating e-Learning 2010 will explore why it is more important than ever that universities and colleges continue to innovate in their use of technology in the current climate of economic constraints to compete globally. The conference will explore how colleges and universities are sustaining and encouraging innovation and creativity in technology-enhanced learning and will cover topics including assessment and feedback, open educational resources, mobile learning, curriculum design and delivery and institutional change. To find out more, visit the conference website www.jisc.ac.uk/elpconference10

Publications and Reports

The Leap Ahead LLN ePortfolio and eSystems

The Leap Ahead LLN ePortfolio and eSystems pilot report carried out by the University of Nottingham’s Centre for ePortfolio Development is now complete. The project ran trials of over 1000 ePortfolio licences in schools, FE, HE and employees from 2007 to 2009. See here for the Executive Summary, five pilots and XCRI report http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/…

News in Brief

QCF – FAQs for HE admissions staff

The Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) has been developed by the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) as a new framework for creating and accrediting qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. SPA has worked with colleagues from the QCDA and UCAS to develop a set of FAQs www.spa.ac.uk/national-developments/QCF_FAQs.html

If you have any news or information you would like to share, please contact emma@jisc-ssbr.net

SSBR Institutional Innovation Taxonomy

George Roberts

The Support and Synthesis project is getting down into two grooves of activity. The first is supporting the Phase three, Lifelong Learning projects to produce their outputs and then to realise the benefits more widely. We are contacting and visiting all projects, stirring up assemblies, promoting the “Festival of Assemblies” on 20 October (do get that date in your diaries) and encouraging the uptake of the current call for Benefits Realisation funding. Read more here…

Benefits Realisation

BR proposals deadline 21 June 2010

The deadline for BR proposals is Monday 21 June 2010. If projects could please let Paul Bailey p.bailey@btinternet.com or Ruth Drysdale r.drysdale@jisc.ac.uk know of any intended BR proposals as soon as possible it would help in predicting the likely funding commitment.

Reports: Location Independent Working and Asset

The benefits realisation activities have now been running for over 12 months and projects are starting to report on what they have achieved. So far two projects have submitted final reports and several more are due in the next few weeks. These reports are a good opportunity for others to discover the sort of activities that can lead to wider benefits for the sector. Read more from Paul (here…)

Assemblies

Festival of Assemblies 20 October 2010

Venue TBC

More details on this will follow shortly. In the meantime, please make a note of the date.

XCRI Assembly @ MUSKET – Middlesex University Date TBC

If you are using XCRI or want to find out more, come to the XCRI assembly, hosted by the MUSKET project at Middlesex University. The aim of this Assembly is to use MUSKET to focus on:

• APEL/APCL
• share the challenges we faced and what we found difficult.
• discover challenges other projects have faced, and how they overcame them
• XCRI
• Implementation
• Extension to include industry specifications.
• future development of XCRI standard to accommodate educational needs; industry standard/European standard?
• Demonstration of the MUSKET tools

Contact Geetha Abeysinghe (G.Abeysinghe@mdx.ac.uk) for date and venue details and for more information about MUSKET visit http://www.musket.mdx.ac.uk .

Keep up-to-date with assemblies

To see what is going on with your co-projects and their assemblies, visit http://assemblies.inin.jisc-ssbr.net and also http://planet.inin.jisc-ssbr.net, the Planet site for the Institutional Innovation programme.

Conferences and Events

Learning in a Digital Wales – Dysgu mewn Cymru Digidol
30 June 2010, All Nations Centre in Cardiff

This is a collaborative, cross-sector event brought to you by JISC RSC Wales, with the support of LearnTech Wales, Moodle-Wales and Community eLearning Wales (CeLW) covering all educational sectors in Wales including work-based learning and Higher Education.

For more information and bookings, visit JISC RSC Wales

JISC/CNI
1-2 July 2010, Barcelo Carlton Hotel, Edinburgh

Managing Data in Difficult Times: policies, strategies, technologies and infrastructure to manage research and teaching data in a fast changing technological and economic environment. To register for this event, go to http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/jisc-cni-2010/. The delegate rate is £345 including attendance at all conference sessions, refreshments and lunch on 1 and 2 July, a place at the conference reception and evening activities on 1 July, overnight accommodation on 1 July and breakfast.

Quality Assurance and Quality Enhancement in e-Learning
2 July 2010, Fielder Centre, University of Hertfordshire

This one-day conference will explore challenges facing the sector in relation to assuring quality whilst also enabling quality enhancement and innovation through technology enhanced learning (TEL). Presentations will include a keynote from Professor Colin Raban, Director of Quality Enhancement at the University of Derby and dissemination of consultation findings from the HEA funded QAQE project. The day will also include networking opportunities and participatory sessions and to explore practitioner needs. Further details of the programme and the booking form are available at the HEA site: QAQE Conference 2010 Attendance at the conference is free. Please e-mail completed booking forms to Helen Barefoot (h.barefoot@herts.ac.uk) by 18 June 2010.

Learning and Teaching Practice Experts Meeting
13 July 2010, Future Inn, Bristol

The next meeting of the JISC Learning and Teaching Practice Experts Group will be taking place on Tuesday 13th July from 10:30 – 16:00 at Future Inn, Bristol. We are delighted to say that this will be the 20th meeting of this group. The draft agenda for the meeting is available from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/… together with the online booking form. Registration for this meeting closes on the 28 June and the theme of this meeting is Supporting Learners in a Digital Age

If you would like to showcase your project at this event or any future meetings, please contact Ruth Drysdale r.drysdale@jisc.ac.uk or Sarah Knight s.knight@jisc.ac.uk

CIePD XCRI (eXchanging Course Related Information)
22 July 2010, University of Nottingham

You are invited to attend both of the events below, or either one depending on your interests. Lunch will be provided either way.

1. Morning event: Developers’ XCRI Workshop
Practical advice on moving your XCRI developments forward, as well as live demonstrations.

2. Afternoon event: East Midlands XCRI Seminar
Bringing together those representing a wide range of educational stakeholders to discuss the opportunities arising from joining together data relating to learning and skills.

All information about the events and the booking form is available from this link: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/…

UK Perspectives on Open Educational Resources
23 July 2010, Holborn Bars, London, EC1N 2NQ

The Higher Education Academy and JISC would like to invite you to the Open Education Showcase: UK Perspectives on Open Educational Resources. This free one day event will showcase how the UK is supporting innovative learning, teaching and assessment by enabling universities and colleges to share educational materials freely online.The day will bring together British and international colleagues who are working towards the sustainable development and delivery of Open Educational Resources nationally and internationally.For more information, the full programme and to register for your place at the event please visit: www.jisc.ac.uk/ukoer10

Funding Opportunities

Open Educational Resources

The HE Academy has released the next strand of Open Educational Resources funding:

Open Educational Resources for Accredited Courses for Teachers in Higher Education – Call for projects
Max Amount/Bid: £20,000
Closing date: 9 July 2010
Type of funding: Projects

See here for more information http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/…

News in Brief

Call for participation – The Open University

We are running a project funded by the Higher Education Academy, UK, that is investigating evidence-based practice in the use of technology in teaching and learning in higher education. We are particularly interested in hearing from practitioners about the kinds of evidence they use, or would find useful, when using technology to supporting teaching and learning. We would really like to hear about your views. Could you spare a few moments to complete the short online survey at this URL http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZZPGKGY? The team is also interested in supporting a network where practitioners can talk about their practice and issues in relation to supporting learning and teaching with technology. If you are interested, please go to http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2050 where you can follow and contribute to discussions. If you would like any further information please contact Linda Price l.price@open.ac.uk or Adrian Kirkwood a.t.kirkwood@open.ac.uk

JISC TechDis

For more information on JISC TechDis visit http://www.techdis.ac.uk, and for the JISC TechDis SME e-Empowerment Toolkit, see (here)

If you have any news or information you would like to share, please contact emma@jisc-ssbr.net

The second big area of activity is synthesising the outcomes of phases one and two of the Institutional Innovation Programme. Phase three may notice our inquiries are starting to take on a synthesising character already. How do we make sense of such a big and multi-faceted programme?

We have been developing a taxonomy of institutional innovation for the higher education sector.

This taxonomy is in two broad parts. First, why are things changing; what are the drivers? Second, what, exactly is changing? The first part of the taxonomy – the why – has three parts. The first concerns political and institutional strategies. The second is pragmatic, addressing institutional ICT concerns – it is all very well changing the world but we have 11,000 undergraduates being assessed next week; or similar. The third is programmatic. The JISC Organisational Support (JOS) committee funded the Institutional Innovation Programme in order to achieve efficiencies, develop sustainable solutions, enhance networks, provide strategic leadership and enable development services.

Politically institutions are driven by the wider economy and the currently operating public finance regime. Institutions are driven by quality and governance issues, too, maintaining institutional and individual reputations in the wide community and attending to proxy measures of success in league tables, widening participation targets, and similar. The global economy and globalisation issues are increasingly important, as is the civil mission of the academy to be open to all.

The pragmatics of higher education are seen operating through pedagogies where communities of discipline and assessment are sustained; through R&D programmes; and through “third stream” funding for business and community engagement. Institutions have learning resources and libraries to operate and they have information service infrastructures of great scale and utility. There are many bureaucracies that administer property portfolios, utilities, teaching and other meeting spaces, as well as the functions of employment, admission, studying, examining and accrediting. Energy awareness in the light of our global responsibility for the climate and for reducing our footprint on the earth continues to drive change. New mobile, location-aware, ambient, pervasive computing is helping us to reconfigure the physical and digital spaces inhabited by knowledge. All these represent domains in which Institutional Innovation programmes are working.

At the end of the programme projects can be evaluated in terms of how they address the political, pragmatic and programmatic reasons for their funding. But that still doesn’t say what is changing. We have addressed the why. The what is perhaps even more challenging.

HE Net is a JISC funded, collaborative research project between FE (Further Education) and HE (Higher Education) sectors. This forms part of the Benefits Realisation strand, which forms part of the HELLO Project (Higher Education Lifelong Learning Opportunities).

In 2008 653 students were successful in securing places in Higher Education. Student choice of institution showed that in excess of 250 went on to their local HEI. More students are moving from the FE sector after completing a Foundation Degree to HE to “top up”, often joining a third year, well established, larger group of students. The project investigates whether or not linking these FE students to existing, peer mentors at the HEI will aid and ease any anxieties about the transition.

The HELLO Project uses Mahara as the “social network” element of the project. This area is an organically grown, student-led space and is additional to the Moodle TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) Environment which is curriculum based and tutor-led. It is on this “social network” that the FE students can find a virtual, online peer where they can post questions and get responses. Peers from the University are subject related or “generic”.

We wish to present a short, oral paper on the key findings from the HE Net project. Focusing on cross intuitional issues where historical differences were found to impact on the students’ experiences. Technical issues were recorded in relation to hosting and managing external stakeholder access to data and systems. The suitability of participants was analysed with respect to who makes the most effective mentor? Is it a “traditional” or “non traditional” learner? What was the overall learner experience with regards to the project? By sharing key points of how to realise the benefits of this model across other institutions will open up discussion and debate amongst the audience regarding further roll out of this initiative.

The HELLO Project – using social networks to aid retention and progression

The HELLO (Higher Education Lifelong Learning Opportunities) Project is funded by JISC through its Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development strand. The project, which started in April 2009 and ends in September 2010, is investigating the impact of using a social networking site on the learning experiences of 200 students studying on part time and full time HNC, HND and Foundation Degree courses – including their retention and progression. The demonstration will show how the HELLO Project has built upon the earlier JISC-funded WoLF (Work Based Learning in Further Education) Project – a project established to address the need of a group of non-traditional work based learners to access learning outside of the classroom. It will also show how recent Learning Skills Council (LSC) accommodation projects have resulted in Leicester College experiencing a reduction of 65% in the students’ social space with an adverse impact on their ability to meet and collaborate with their peers. What is more, the college’s growing numbers of Foundation Degree, HNC and HND learners have expressed the view that they would like the opportunity to establish a distinctive ‘HE identity’ within what is predominantly an FE learning environment. The HELLO Project is seeking to address these needs by capitalizing on the potential offered by new technology, and is exploring ways in which it can promote cultural change within the college through the use of that technology to enhance the learning experiences of its students. The demonstration will show how: the social networks have been developed, including a Higher Education Student Community Site, with the potential of bringing together 800 staff and students in one online space; curriculum-led learning spaces have been developed using Moodle; and, a student-driven social network has been established using Mahara, which also has links with external stakeholders such as employers and other HEI. Finally, key findings from the on-going evaluation of the HELLO Project will be shared focusing on the project’s impact on staff and students.

Alongside this reshaping of the institutional space we will see novel frameworks for accreditation supporting more and increasingly flexible pathways for progression, personal and professional development and lifelong learning. New literacies and practices for the digital era are being developed by teachers and learners (are we not all in our ways researchers, mentors and designers of learning?) and these will be set against new knowledge frameworks for validating academic knowledge and assessing and recognising achievement: while still early days, for example, there is an assault on the hegemony of print as the medium for storing valorised propositional knowledge; how do you cite and annotate a podcast; what are the real challenges for providing audio and video feedback? We are already seeing the physical and digital worlds becoming more and more mutually interpenetrating as reconfigurable learning spaces are built and connectivity and connected devices become ubiquitous.

All this, of course, means that there is a lot of work still to be done on the semantics of access and discovery; it is not just identity management, but a new web of people and things articulated through new standards and practices: what Tim O’Reilly recently called the operating system of the Internet. And, of course, all this means that the notions of “traditional” and “non-traditional” learners and learning breaks down. Will the new higher education space be one where participation in learning is accessible to all who need and want it? I would hope so, but we need to recognise that the space is still contested (and costly) and that there are many drivers for change: political, economic, pragmatic and – mediating between these – JISC programmes.

In the months to come I will be approaching you all with a view to producing a number of reports and briefings for senior managers, higher education leaders, and the JISC. I look forward to reflecting with you on the meanings of your achievements.

Thank you all for your participation in the Institutional Innovation Programme.

George Roberts

groberts@brookes.ac.uk

A few words…

In this newsletter, you will find details on assemblies, conferences, events and publications which relate to your projects. Don’t forget to visit the Assemblies site to see what projects are doing, the Comms site for information on dissemination and the SSBR_DB site for the database.

http://assemblies.inin.jisc-ssbr.net/
http://comms.inin.jisc-ssbr.net
http://inin.jisc-ssbr.net/ssbrdb/

If you have any news or information you would like to share, please contact emma@jisc-ssbr.net

Assemblies

Hello – Employer Engagement
24 March 2010, Leicester College, Leicester

The aim of this assembly is to focus on the successful and not so successful techniques of engaging employers in project activity and participation with project outputs. From this, the team hope to have an understanding of how other projects have engaged with employers; share ideas of how to effectively engage with employers and produce a “best practice” list of methods to share with the wider community.

Contact Lucy Stone for more information lstone@lec.ac.uk and visit http://hello.lec.ac.uk

iBorrow – Learning Spaces and Technology
25 March 2010, Canterbury Christ Church University

The conference will look at the lessons learned and insights gained from the iBorrow Project. This partly JISC-funded project provides 200 thin-client netbook devices within the new library and student services centre, available “as easily as picking a book from a shelf”.

For more information: http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/…

TWOLER – User Generated Contributions in Higher Education
26 March 2010, University of Westminster, Regent Street, London

Unfortunately, due to staff illness and lack of interest in the assembly, the TWOLER project is cancelling their event on 26 March at the University of Westminster. If you would like more information about the project, please contact Iqbal Hussain I.Hussain8@westminster.ac.uk and visit the project website (here)

The workshop is focused around the themes of Westminster’s recent JISC-funded project TWOLER – studying student generated Web 2.0 content with Lightweight Enterprise RSS.

For full details of the day and sign-up, just click here.

The XCRI Support Project

March sees the end of the JISC-funded XCRI Support Project as it signs off leaving the development of the XCRI (eXchanging Course Related Information) specification for sharing (and advertising) course information looking very healthy indeed. For more about this and the XCRI Validator which has been designed to help implementers check data structure and content, see (here)

Focus on CETIS

JISC CETIS, the Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards, provides advice to the UK Higher and Post-16 Education sectors on educational technology and standards. This web site brings together educational technology news, comment and analysis, as well as information on our community events. Our aim is to contribute to current debates and future thinking in this rapidly growing and changing field. For more information see http://jisc.cetis.ac.uk/

Conferences and Events

SEEC seminar
18 March 2010, London Metropolitan University

HEAR – Would you credit it? The Clore Seminar Room at The Women’s Library

For more information on the subject of the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR), visit www.seec.org.uk

Mobile Enabling Technologies
25 March 2010, University of Bradford

http://www.alt.ac.uk/workshop_detail.php?e=348

XCRI at the JISC Annual Conference
12-13 April 2010

Sharing course information efficiently and effectively – XCRI at the JISC Annual Conference

Enhancing Feedback Provision in the Digital Age
14 April 2010, University of Reading

The day will be a mixture of brief presentations, ’show and tell’ sessions, case studies and a final panel discussion; Phase 2 project ASSET will be participating and the aim is to make the day highly participative with a range of presenters from within the University as well as external colleagues, including Rod Cullen, Stephen Gomez, Paul Orsmond and Steve Maw. see here

Briefing on Business Modelling and Sustainability
14 April 2010

JISC Meeting Rooms, Brettenham House, 5, Lancaster Place, London, WC2E 7EN

To register for this free briefing from the Strategic Content Alliance exploring Business Modelling/ Sustainability challenges, examples and tips for the long-term sustainability of grant-funded digital resources go to http://survey.jisc.ac.uk/scabbbms

Podcasting in Learning and Teaching
14 April 2010, Sheffield Hallam University

The recent explosion in the popularity of podcasting provides exciting new possibilities for the development and delivery of learning resources. As well as placing a renewed focus on the use of audio as a medium for learning and teaching, it offers great flexibility in how learning resources can be created and used by staff and students alike, offering new opportunities for independent study and creativity within the curriculum.
http://www.alt.ac.uk/workshop_detail.php?e=351

Beyond Borders: Open Education Conference
20 April 2010, Said Business School, University of Oxford

This event will showcase work done at Oxford University this year during the OpenSpires project and provide an opportunity for discussion and debate on the following themes: Use and re-use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in research-led teaching; Business models for OER in a global market; Open access and open content; Sustainability and support at institutional, national and international level; Legal and IPR issues for researchers who teach.
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/events/beyond2010/

Using of Twitter in Higher Education
4 May 2010, The National College, Nottingham

This workshop, held at The National College in Nottingham, will provide an introduction to Twitter, a microblogging/social networking service, and its potential uses in HE. The first part of the workshop is organised in two strands: strand A – for those who are new to Twitter and who have yet to create or use an account; strand B – for those who have a Twitter account and who would like to extend their understanding of its possible uses.
http://www.alt.ac.uk/workshop_detail.php?e=349

Eduserv Symposium 2010
13 May 2010

The Mobile University. Royal College of Physicians, London

Mobile technology will play an increasingly important role in the delivery of UK higher education in the future. What does this mean for UK higher education institutions and their members? Find out more here http://www.eduserv.org.uk/events/esym10

Employer-responsive provision: designing, delivering and supporting flexible learning opportunities’
27 May 2010, Aston Business School

This e-Learning led event will be aimed at JISC projects working across Curriculum Design, Curriculum Delivery, Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development, Business and Community Engagement plus related HEFCE-funded programmes. The event will enable projects who are working in employer engagement/workforce development to come together to share experiences, discuss issues of interest and consult around emerging outputs.

To register, visit http://www.jisc.ac.uk/…/eventmay10.

Reports

CRM Self Analysis Framework

BCE Employer Engagement Reports

CETIS briefing paper on distributed learning environments

Could the eportfolio could be the new PLE?

XCRI at the University of Huddersfield

Success of XCRI at MMU

XCRI enabling wider access to FE programmes within Cheshire and Warrington

Guide to using Schematron with XCRI-CAP documents

Publications

QAA’s Employer-responsive provision survey: A reflective report

Becta’s report Delivering results with learning technology in the workplace

If you have any news or information you would like to share, please contact emma@jisc-ssbr.net

March sees the end of the JISC-funded XCRI Support Project as it signs off leaving the development of the XCRI (eXchanging Course Related Information) specification for sharing (and advertising) course information looking very healthy indeed.

The support project picked up where the original XCRI Reference Model project left off. Having identified the marketing and syndication of course descriptions as a significant opportunity for innovation – due to the general practice in this area being one of huge efforts around re-typing of information to accommodate various different systems, sites and services…then to have that information maintained separately in various places – the XCRI Reference Model project mapped out the spaces of course management, curriculum development and course marketing and provided the community with a common standard for exchanging course related information. This would streamline approaches to the syndication of such information and give us the benefits of cost savings when it comes to collecting and managing the data and opens up the opportunities for a more sustainable approach to lifelong learning services that rely on course information from learning providers.

Over the course of the next three years the XCRI Support project developed the XCRI Course Advertising Profile (XCRI-CAP), an XML specification designed to enable course offerings to be shared by providers (rather like an RSS feed) and by other services such as lifelong learning sites, course search sites and other services that support learners in trying to find the right courses for them. Through the supervision and support of several institutional implementation projects the support project – a partnership between JISC CETIS at the University of Bolton (http://bit.ly/PZdKw), Mark Stubbs of Manchester Metropolitan University (http://bit.ly/PZdKw) and Alan Paull of APS Limited (http://bit.ly/cF6Fhd) – promoted the uptake and sustainability of XCRI through engagement with the European standards process and endorsement by the UK Information Standards Board. Through this work the value of XCRI-CAP was demonstrated so successfully as to ensure it was placed on the strategic agenda of national agencies.

Hotcourses manages the National Learning Directory under contract from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). With over 900,000 course records and 10,000 learning providers the NLD is possibly the largest source of information about learning opportunities in the UK, which learners and advisers can access through dozens of national, regional and local web portals. Working with a number of Further Education colleges, Hotcourses is now developing and piloting ‘bulk upload’ facilities using XCRI to ease the burden on learning providers supplying and maintaining their information on the NLD. UCAS also continues to make progress towards XCRI adoption. Most recently, at the ISB Portfolio Learning Opportunities and Transcripts Special Interest Group on January 27, 2010, UCAS colleagues described a major data consolidation project that should pave the way for a data transfer initiative using XCRI, and cited growing demand from UK HEIs for data transfer rather than course-by-course data entry through UCAS web-link. The project is a two-phase one, with XCRI implementation in phase II, which is due to deliver sometime in 2011.

Having ensured that the specification gained traction and uptake, the project has worked extensively at developing the core information used by XCRI into a European Norm with harmonisation from other standards that addressed this space developed elsewhere across Europe. It is this process which has seen the evolution of XCRI from a stand-alone specification to a UK application profile of a recognised international standard. This could now be transitioned to an actual British Standard through BSI IST 43 (the committee of the British Standards Institution which looks at technical standards for learning education and training). At the same time adoption of the specifications were continued to be supported through engagement with policymakers and suppliers while the technical tools developed for adopters continued to be updated and maintained.

A couple of key tools were developed by the support project to assist implementers of XCRI. An aggregator engine was setup and maintained by the project and is demonstrated at http://www.xcri.org/aggregator/. This shows how it is possible to deploy an aggregator setup that pulls in courses from several providers, and offers a user interface with basic features such as searching, browsing, bookmarking, tags and so on. It also demonstrates some value-added aspects such as geocoding the course venues and displaying them on Google Maps. Once you’ve had a look at the demonstrator you can get hold of the code for it at http://bit.ly/9eViM2

XCRI Aggregator Demo

The project also developed an XCRI Validator to help implementers check their data structure and content. This goes beyond structural validation to also analyse content and provide advice on common issues such as missing information. Currently the development of this is very much at a beta stage but implementers can try out this early proof-of-concept at http://bit.ly/aeLArY. Accompanying this is a blog post describing how to use the validator at http://bit.ly/aHoJtH

Up to press there have been around 15-20 “mini-projects” which were funded to pilot implementation of XCRI within institutions. These looked at developing course databases using the specification, extending existing systems and methods to map to XCRI and the general implementation of generating the information and the exporting of this via web services. Not to say that this was the only project activity around XCRI. Various other Lifelong Learning projects have had an XCRI element to them along the way and all these have contributed to forming an active community around the development and promotion of the spec.

This community’s online activity is centred around a wiki and discussion forum on the XCRI Support Project website at http://xcri.org and while the support project is now officially at an end, the website will stay around as long as there is a community using it – currently it is maintained by CETIS. Some XCRI.org content may move to JISC Advance as XCRI moves from innovation into mainstream adoption. However, as long as people are trying out new things with XCRI – whether that is vocabularies and extensions or new exchange protocols – then XCRI.org provides a place to talk about it, with the LLL & WFD project at Liverpool (CCLiP) currently looking at how to improve the site and provide more information for non-technical audiences.

More information on the XCRI projects can be found at the JISC website, specifically at http://bit.ly/awevwQ

For those of you that are approaching the end of the project, your draft and final reports will soon be due. Make sure you get them to your nominated support project person in plenty of time for feedback. The template on the JISC website (here) is an excellent template, but you may find that some headings are not applicable and therefore it should be seen as a guide rather than prescriptive. Focus on the outputs and the learning that will be transferable to other HEIs.

Articulate in such a way as to show the benefits of the project, e.g. “as a result of implementing xxx, institutions will be able to save £xxx” or “because of this of this project there have been the following direct impact on xxx”. Currently I am working with the OUT team on some revised headings for the completion report and I will disseminate this in the near future.

Conferences

If you are presenting at a conference about your work, please send me the details (conference title, paper/session title, dates). This is so I get a picture of where we are being discussed and to look at where we could be in the future (l.phipps@jisc.ac.uk).

Senior Management videos

Is your SMT (PVC etc) involved or aware of the project? Are they impressed? It would be useful to see a few short video clips of them praising the work of the project and discussing the benefits of the project to the institution, especially as you should be nearing completion. If you can get these videos (lasting no more than 90 seconds – 2 minutes) I will get them appended to the project pages on the website.

And Finally

I just wanted to say thanks for the great participation that you gave at the programme meeting and for the high quality of benefits and products that were on show. As well as seeing this for myself at the meeting, I have also been hearing good things at various JISC meetings and from other institutions as I work on other programmes and visit senior staff elsewhere.

Lawrie Phipps

A big thank you to all of you from the LLLWFD projects who participated in the online event in Elluminate on 12 November. We so enjoyed linking up with you all online. Whether you presented, observed or entered discussions you all contributed to the day’s success. Recordings of the plenary sessions (Elluminate does not record the break-out rooms) are now available linked to the event’s program webpage. All slides of your session presentations are there too linked to the individual sessions at:

Event feedback

Feedback received up to now indicates that the Elluminate experience was generally considered more favourably with a greater sense of engagement than during the event earlier in the year. Where possible event organisers follow suggestions in the feedback provided by participants at these events. So if you have not yet completed the short (anonymous) feedback form for the 12 November event it is not too late. The form is linked at:

http://ssbr1109.inin.jisc-ssbr.net/feedback-form/ so do please take a few minutes to complete and submit. At the end of the week we will be collecting all the responses and a summary report will be included in a forthcoming newsletter.

New URL for database of emerging themes

The afternoon LLLWFD session in the 12 November event included an introduction to the searchable database of emerging themes across the programme’s projects. There is a NEW URL for this growing resource so do please change your bookmarks to: http://ssbrdb.jisclab.net . It is already possible to search across specific themes e.g. Mentoring, to see which projects have mentoring as part of their brief with some explanation of their level of involvement with the issue. The database is gradually being populated with information from submitted synthesis and interim reports as well as from visits and telephone contact between projects and SSBR team members. If you find gaps or disagree with anything there do let us know.

Assemblies

Connections made at the Assemblies Bazaar event on 12 November will contribute to future assemblies.

· Co-genT (Gloucester) and ePPSME have scheduled an assembly for 26 January 2010, to exchange ideas on the development and implementation of academic accreditation frameworks

· TELSTAR (UCLAN) has plans for an assembly in February for those interested in PebblePad.

· SMART (New Bucks) would like to encourage a project to host an

assembly on Mentoring.

More details of these and other forthcoming assemblies, including those of Phase 2 projects that may be of interest to the LLLWFD projects, are available with contact details from the Assemblies page at:

http://assemblies.inin.jisc-ssbr.net/ . There you will also find links to Assembly guidelines and the downloadable expression of interest form.

There is funding for each project to host ONE (only) assembly during the programme’s time-frame though you can of course attend any number of assemblies. There is considerable flexibility in terms of the nature of an assembly including location (e.g. face-to face, online or both).

Assemblies held so far have included different formats and goals with projects sharing expertise, helping to fill gaps, clarifying issues, or inviting an expert, and including other stakeholders/ interested groups.

The criteria to obtain the funding are that an assembly must be attended by more than the host project (i.e. at least 2 projects) and there be a shareable output that is made available programme wide.

Benefits Realisation

Assemblies may also be helpful as preparation opportunities leading to submission of proposals for Benefits Realisation funding. Full details of BR plans in the pipeline, as well as guidelines, a FAQ and calls for proposals, are available on the Benefits Realisation page (

http://br.inin.jisc-ssbr.net/) linked to the SSBR website. In order to ensure that there is funding for your project’s BR idea it is recommended that even tentative ideas be submitted by March at the latest though firming up the proposals can continue until the June 2010 deadline.

Contact

We look forward to seeing you all again at the 28-29 January face-to-face event in Aston, but we will be in touch with you all before that. In the meantime do please contact us if you have queries or specific support needs.

regards,

Patsy and Ellen

CREATE SSBR team members for LLLWFD projects

There will be chance to explore e-portfolio-based learning from pre-induction through to transition out of Higher Education. There will be emphasis on blogging as reflective critical thinking (ePDP) as an exploration of self as learner/as practitioner/as group member. There will be discussion on the potential for aligning learning outcomes, learning and teaching methods and assessment to a commitment to integrative learning (Cambridge 2008) and the exploration of the interface between the delivered, experienced and lived curriculum (Yancey 1998). Key to session will be examining the importance in supporting colleagues and students in the development of the technical skills and for some the culture shift to an iterative and dialogic learning and teaching model. We will share what we have learnt from engaging in reflective, evaluative dialogue with our students and colleagues.

Visit the website for more details http://elesig.ning.com