the attitude or the technology?

Just noticed this short article on Wired Campus 


So I've just copied it >>>

"Faculty members and information-technology staff members alike say technology is useful for teaching and learning, but professors take a narrower view of what technology belongs in today's classroom, according to a report released on Monday by the technology company CDW Government Inc.

Eighty-eight percent of the 303 faculty members surveyed said technology was essential or useful for student learning, and over 60 percent said they used electronic materials in their teaching, according to the report.

The most popular tools cited by professors were e-textbooks and online documents, with faculty members reporting far less enthusiasm for other electronic tools. Under a quarter of faculty members surveyed use wikis or blogs in their teaching, and only 31 percent of professors surveyed considered online collaboration tools "essential" to today's classroom, compared with 72 percent of over 300 IT employees surveyed.
That suggests an interesting gap between technology staff members and professors when it comes to how smart classrooms need to be. How wired should teaching spaces be?
"

It's only a short article but really resonates with the situation here in the UK education arena. i.e. some see the benefits of the technology, and strive to create environments to nurture 21st century learning expereinces. This is often hampered by differeing levels of support (both IT and senior management) .

The comments about the reluctance to grasp the significance of collaborative platforms also does not surprise me - sadly.  The thread of comments posted under the article could have been penned by any UK educator - which is also quite scary. I advise you to read them - very insightful to see the interpretation of technology enhanced learning from differing perspectives. I especially like this comment :

If you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

My advice is to get back to basics and work from curriculum up - redesign to incorporate these (collaborative) learning methods - or they'll always be bolt-on. And also ensure the support mechanisms are in place - implementing technology is so about the people and so not about the "systems"
Use the JISC infokit to help redesign your courses - you know it makes sense !o) , it really is very good :

Transforming Curriculum Design and Curriculum Delivery through Technology

distance nursing

At last, a positive report on a real success story of how distance learning can really make a difference to education. Lead by the UK's most experienced distance learning organisation.  Take note all - distance learning actually works if well designed (using synchronous + asynchronous modes) and very well supported.

Read the full story.>>>>>>>>>>


"...The quality and consistency of support provided on distance-learning programmes is crucial to minimise dropout rates. On the OU nursing course, students are assigned a tutor for each module they take, while another supports individual students throughout their four-year period of study. OU-trained personal mentors, typically a registered nurse, support and assess students in the workplace.

"The workbooks direct your learning, but you got a tutorial every month by video link. We also met our tutor face-to-face once a month with the rest of the group," says O'May. "There were also phone tutorials, emails and online forums. It worked fantastically well."

From 2012, the OU will offer nursing degrees as part of the government's policy to make nursing training degree-standard. But entry criteria will remain the same so that healthcare workers seconded by their employers are still able to study for the degree."

e-safety tips

I attended a very informative e-safety CPD session the other week. All based in Second Life. It was a standard type session using PPT (see below), but enhanced with some videos and peppered with live chats discussing topics in question. Thanks to Jane Edwards and Carol Rainbow for running the engaging and informative session.  We advise that organisations put some guidelines and protocols (see links below) in place for staff and students, don't just ban everything as knee jerk reaction to the onslaught of web 2.0 use. 

E safety-course_2010

View more presentations from kevinbrace.

Related e-safety links:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-81qwY_nTlo
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/07/sexting-teenagers-mobile-phones
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071106133103.htm
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDBDUX7KPT0
• http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ManageContent/ViewDetail/tabid/243/ID/1317/e-Safety-Background-Video-for-England.aspx

Just passed onto me : Reading University have developed a suite of resources, (a game & exercise) that help to understand how to manage your digital identity. Called This Is Me.

E-Learning lessons from the private sector

My attendance at the biggest UK coporate e-learning event earlier this year promised to be full of pragmatic tips and inside advice from companies¹ still suffering from recessional induced cuts in training² budgets.  What I discovered was a refreshing undercurrent, whereby companies are adopting new technologies, such as; Huddle³ and blogs⁴, to create internal knowledge sharing communites. These types of innovative approaches e.g.Dare2Share⁵, were spreading like a viral ad, as most in the UK are reappraising their underacheiving Learning Management Systems (LMS), or adding (free) Web 2.0 tools into the mix.  Companies such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers were making significant training savings using live webinar tools⁶ such as Adobe Conenct, or Elluminate.  Technolgoy is being used to save money, improve both business and training effiencies, but it’s needed a recession to literally force this! BECta⁷ in conjunction with the Towards Maturity project⁸ have released two new related reports on Work Based Learning. They both stress the importance of measuring impact⁹ and sharing effective practice¹⁰ to help us all implement and embed ILT effectively.

Useful links:

1. http://www.elearningage.co.uk/
2. http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/
3. http://www.huddle.net/
4. http://wordpress.org/
5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtVYkEdGtfo
6. http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Synchronous_webcasting_tools
7. http://www.nextgenerationlearning.org.uk/
8. http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/02/what-every-ld-professional-needs-know-about-e-lear/
9. http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/28/towards-maturity-efficiency-indicator/
10. http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/12/evidence-change/

1. 

new ways for HE?

Lord Mandelson’s 11th Feb Dearing speech defends the government’s record on HE funding, commits to “sustainable expansion” and urges HE to source other forms of income and consider alternative modes of provision.  


Lord Mandleson, continues the debate and defends his Higher Ambitions report, by facing critics and outlining new ways that UK HE needs to respond to market trends, competition, student needs, and maintaining quality.
He said...

" For universities Lord Dearing had a clear message that the institutions needed to focus on distinctive missions, diversified sources of income, a new recognition of the value of teaching, a constant focus on the quality of the service to the student."
and in regards to improving flexible provision he said...
 "along side traditional three year full time degrees, I want to see more part time study, I want to see two year Foundation Degrees and three years Honours courses delivered intensively over two years expand as part of the mix. Not creating a single blueprint in which everyone is made to conform. We’ve got to create a mix to take higher education forward"


..."And because these flexible kinds of education and training are vital for those who miss out on higher education straight after school the push for two year degrees and wider part time or work-based study should be at the core of the wider participation agenda. Those who argue against it risk painting themselves as defending an institutional inflexibility that doesn’t serve students, and doesn’t get the most out of public investment that we make in higher education."


...."All these apprenticeships will earn UCAS points so that they act as a ladder into university."

In respect of UK HEIs diversifying to attract private investment he said..


"The first is on the need to seek out alternative sources of funding. The best university systems in the world are defined by a wide range of public and private funding and British universities need the same diversity."


..."Part time degrees, shorter and more intensive courses all offer the potential to lower student support costs, use resources more intensively and improve productivity."

And finally...


"I passionately believe universities cannot stand still. Universities must adapt to new times, to new sorts of courses, to new ways of delivering and teaching. This is where I will continue to lead the debate and policy. "


All I can say is that distance and blended learning is the answer, using the VLE, eportfolios and cloud computing methods. This mix of flexible approaches and a (less resource based) curriculum rethink will give UK Higher Ed' the edge we need. My view is backed up by Dr Tony Bates in his comments on eLearning progress in HE, Dr Bates recognises the importance of e-tutoring & sound instructional design models to move online/blended delivery to a more "active" realm of student-tutor interaction.  And David Lammy also throws his two 'penneth in by stating the following at a recent conference


“Students are all on Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, i-Phones and i-Pads for their social life and their university experience is still divorced from that […]  Universities have to be advancing technology.”


Tho' ,  as we are all well aware UK HE is a slow beast to move and react to change and forcing UK HEIs to simply adopt ICT as the panacea to cure all ills is a road well trodden and resisted 'afore. Innovative teaching, improved CPD, and adoption of flexible (blended) curriculum delivery is key, so says Drew Whitworth in his insightful comments on Should e-learning change university management blog post. And, as Drew also states in his posting, not all students are demanding unfettered access to a pletohora of social networks, as we know, poor digital literacy is an issue to be addressed by generations X,Y and baby boomers alike. As we are well aware the term digital natives is a misnomer perpetuated by the media, and JISC have done quite a bit of work in this area to try and find out how a modern student studies.


Interestingly The 2010 Horizon Report  also highlights some key trends facing education across Europe, which echo some of the innovative approaches UK HE need to address, as mentioned above. They are;

1. The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators in sense-making, coaching, and credentialing.
2. People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to. 
3. The technologies we use are increasingly cloud-based, and our notions of IT support are decentralized.
4. The work of students is increasingly seen as collaborative by nature, and there is more cross-campus collaboration between departments.

• And, not so coincidently JISC have just announced a suite of resources for universities on employing technology to support their business goals.

Under the JISC and Leadership Foundation partnership, this interactive publication highlights the characteristics of an agile university and how to achieve a dynamic business environment.

Ewart Woodridge CBE, Chief Executive of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, says, “The ‘Agile University’ is about the capacity to innovate, particularly in new business or operating models. It requires a creativity in how an institution is structured and people are equipped to lead and manage it. It also requires a strategic and entrepreneurial approach to the use of technology.”

future proofin'

Two local Universities (BCU & WLV) have made early steps to address the employability issues outlined by Lord Mandelson last year. He stated 


"Set out how and what students will learn; their own study responsibilities; what that knowledge will qualify them to do…. Students should know about the opportunities for international experience, and how new technologies are integrated into their programmes. All universities should also be expected to demonstrate how their institution prepares its students for employment."  (Lord Mandelson, 2009)


So now employers and employability is set to mould the way of Undergraduate study in this era of austerity we are now in- especially in the post '92 Universities.  With the recent HEFCE announcement in cuts to HE funding, Universities are now having to look at what they are offering to their local and global economies.  No longer can we expect students to roll out of Uni' with a good degree in yurt weaving (or similar),  they need to have some real saleable skills in this competitive market place.  IMPACT will have to be measured.

BCU have their Creating Futureproof graduates - project 


..which is choc' full of useful methods, approaches, case studies and critical interventions to help prepare Undergraduates for the wider world of work, critical reflection, and autonomy.

while Wolverhampton have their Learning Works agenda


This approach is based on 3 primary student attributes;

• Digital Literacy
• Knowledgeable and Enterprising
• Global Citizenship

It's all being pushed forward as apart of a re-jigging of the whole curriculum with a move to 20 credits. This also involves moving towards a more blended delivery whereby the VLE, eportfolio, and other "e" tools are being blended with F2F delivery over a range of methods (e.g. e-submission, assessment, ePDP).

I sat through a presentation about this the other day, and it seems that the underlying tenet appears to be to redesign curricula to ensure previously seemly unconnected modules are now working in harmony, to "un-stuff" current content heavy delivery, and a streamlining of learning objectives. So the course is king, made up of less , but more focussed modules.  It's all good.  I hope that this means an new pedagogic approach in designing student centred activities?  Let's hope so.

A BCE update

 

Business and Community Engagement encompasses four institutional strategic areas:

• knowledge exchange - see also the DIUS funded knowledge transfer networks
• employer engagement
• public engagement 
• lifelong learning

• Lis Parcell of RSC Wales blogged about this subject recently after attending a workshop on the topic. Well worth a read to get a first hand insight into important developments in this new arena.

This post covers the JISC agenda Business and Community Engagement (BCE), which is a relatively new agenda for JISC developed in response to the strategic aim 5¹ of the 2007-09 strategy – ‘developing and implementing a programme to support institutions' engagement with the wider community’. The BCE programme is designed to support institutions in their strategic management of relationships with commercial, public sector (including charities and trusts), cultural, social and civic organisations, in order to deliver services which benefit the economy and society.





A call for joined-up services to help businesses out of recession

• Sharing business information more effectively, particularly through colleges, universities and major reference libraries, could help recession-hit companies out of crisis and stimulate innovation, according to a JISC report undertaken by the British Library Research Service.

Full story : http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2010/01/business.aspx

There is also a BCE blog and a JISC Infonet infokit which covers this new agenda. BCE is explained succinctly in the JISC Advance pages "BCE consists of many different institutional strategic areas/services, some of which are highlighted in the diagram below".

see also video below




Findings from the infokit  resource are based upon work carried out within our five partner institutions:

• University of Glamorgan
• Keele University
• Newcastle University
• Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology
• University of Strathclyde

So thats two organisations from the west mids region who have been  used in this new infokit! Thie idea is that you work through a diagnostic workbook, to evaluate your organisations readiness to embark upon BCE - or apprasie existing activities.  I am under the impression that JISC Infonet will provide targeted consultation type of support either directly or as part of a national events programme.

Two other local initiatives on this topic, are the embryonic Intelligent Career Development Company, and the JISC funded project of developing an eportoflio based pedagogy for workbased learners. Both are in early stages, but worth keeping an eye on.

This is very prescient considering the recently announced cuts in HE funding, as learning organisations will need to look at new and alternative streams of funding. And.... to show those funding people what IMPACT your HEI/college is having on the local community, and commerce.  Times are changing, and it's time to react.

(in)formal learning

Download the Towards Maturity Impact Indicator report

The learning technologies conf' was very interesting - sponsored by Kineo.  Expect a few blog posts on some of the tools I heard about.

Looks like LMS' (VLEs) are in gradual decline in the business arena as well as education! No one really "likes" them, tho' they all feel that the LMS is here to stay, but will be part of a larger collection (cloud) of e-systems (incl' plenty of Web 2.0 apps). The word free application seems to resonate with our cash strapped training/learning and development dept's.  Strangly tho' not many seem to understand that eportfolios are part of the answer!!  Most seem to be gravitating towards informal learning or Presonal learning Environments (PLEs ) - aggregated social networks, etc,  as an anitdote to shrinking training budgets - but not really  understanding far reaching implications. And no mention of underpinning pedagogies/scaffolding.

There seems to be a collective thought that, "if we find the right tools (Yammer, Huddle, etc), they will come - and all learn informally hapily ever after!!  Tho' many cite internal communities of practice - and knowledge of,  are needed to drive business efficiencies. Another Web 2.0 / elearning bandwagon is being jumped on, with little thought as to why - apart from most of these tools are free!

But some are more cautious tho' - citing our frivolous trends in this rapidly changing web 2.0 world, i.e. friends re-united was hot, now it's not - is that what will happen to Facebook in a couple of years time? One company blocked access to Facebook @ work and reported an  immediate 11% increase in productivity .  And plenty of talk about what impact e-learning is having on business upskilling and driving efficiencies. No one seems to be evaluating past e-learning successes, to their peril, as senior managers still don't "get it" - as the strong businesses cases are not being promoted. The age of BS "smoke and mirrors" selling e-learning to business is well and truley over. Strong tangible business benefits is what SMT are only (and have always been) interested in.

Laura Overton (see my doctored image above) did talk about a very revealling benchmarking research study Towards Maturity enterprises conducted recently.  Analysing perceived and tangible impacts of e-learning had on business' bottom line.  Unsuprisinlgy not many had really analysed these business savings as a result of implementing previous VLEs/LMS'.

IMPACT is the new mantra.  Implement, anaylse, and evaluate, or die trying.  If you don't do this, the bean counters are more likely to say, "why sould we pay for a new microblogging platform" when we've got email?"  Unless e-learning companies or inhouse dept's can present quantitave data clearly illustrating improvement in business efficiences and cost savings, those bean counters, are quite at liberty to say.

"No thanks, we'll stick with our intranet, email, free web 2.0 tools, and less (more focussed) F2F training. "

And who could blame them? That goes for UK education as well. "Will this new web 2.0/ Open Source tool save us money ? If so how much?"

A recent report will help to convince some about potential costs savings for OS tools

Informal learning, internal knowledge transfer, eliminating travel to training, Communities of practice are "trending" - but very few have cracked it - apart from BT's "Dare2Share" social networking portal. See also the vid below:




That's the main feeling - but e-learning business is still strong - as training dept's are being forced to use e-learning due to reduced budgets and reduced personell -and they are doing it well! Blended and distance training (webinars) are looking stronger - with good reports of trainees really taking to these new methods.  Pricewaterhousecoopers ran an excellent presentation on their global training stratgey - drastically revamped to use primarily webinars. So, at last, it's taken a global recession for business to start being forced to use e-learning to make significant training and devleopment savings. With the added benefit of employees actually taking to it!!  There's hope for us all, maybe the education sector is next - considering cuts in funding are iminent. HFECE has announced serious cuts today - and it's splashed all across the news.  Time to blend learning UK HEIs , time to give some serious thoughts to integrating "e" solutions into F2F delivery, rather than ignoring it/us, and hoping we'll go away to play with shiny ipads - we wish!

e-safety

http://www.o2.com/TheCybernuts/

E-learning and E-Safety (safe-guarding)

I've been keeping half an eye on this topic for a while now. And it's getting to the point where I really cannot just keep ignoring it!  Apparently most colleges are not sure how to handle the rise of web "learning/information platforms" such as Twitter, facebook and blogger!  Do they ban them all, or work out a policy for acceptable use? It's a real mess out there I can assure you.  And there's plenty of scaremongering going on.  All this is resulting in drastic  knee jerk reactions from schools, HE & FE to lock out the world of Web 2.0 until someone tells us all how to handle the torrent of Web 2.0 app's that staff & students want to use. 

RSC UK are in the process of pulling together a set of resource/links/blogs, etc, that will be the definitive RSC viewpoint. In the meantime have a look at RSC Wales blog posts on the subject, whilst RSC SW have some useful links to recent presentations & webinars, and RSC East Mid's have an entire Moodle course  they've loving crafted for your perusal.

As you may already be aware the government announced a 'Green Cross Code' for internet safety recently: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8398763.stm.

And it's also a good idea to keep tabs in JISC Legal as they are our definitive reference on all things legally e-learning.  Their section on legal aspects of Web 2.0 covers some of this remit (blogs, wikis ,social networks, etc..).

Whilst at a conference last week there was plenty of discussion on how employers now routinely use facebook accounts to screen prospective graduate applications. So, just ensure you look at those privacy settings before you post an image of yourself dancing semi naked in the pub on Saturday night - just to impress you mates! It could cost you a job/contract?!?!?

In fact art /design graduates are now using social media like face book and blogs to build a professional profile of themselves and their work during their degree studies, to get a head start in the tough job market. It seems that the magic word "EMPLOYABILITY" is starting to become very important when applying to Uni' and studying these days?

the scaling framework

This MS scaling tool was passed to me recently. Could prove useful, to move use
from the samll scale "Fred in the shed" situation, we often find ourselves in when large educational organisations fail to support or invest in innovation?

go to : http://blogs.msdn.com/ukfe/archive/2009/11/19/scaling-up-innovation.aspx ,  to find out how to use it.

"One of the things that has been done as part of the worldwide Partners in Learning programme is The Scaling Framework – an interactive tool that helps analyse how you move an innovation from being something done by 1 or 2 people, to making it widespread.

It made me think of two specific cases where today there is a challenge of scaling innovation. The first is Virtual Learning Environments, where it is proving to be difficult to take good practice from one lecturer/department/college to the whole system. And the other is taking an innovative ICT teaching initiative and spreading it to other departments.
The Scaling Framework is a simple interactive tool that explains the five dimensions of scale, and then digs down into areas such as “Traps to Avoid” and “Next Steps to Explore.”

Strategy infokit out now

The strategy infokit¹ produced by JISC InfoNet covers all aspects of the strategy process.

http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/strategy

Not much more to say here. If it's like all the rest of the infokits, we can look forward to another top quality resource.

BTW, you might also be interested to read about JISCs support for business community engagement :

• I would advise you visit the very new & very up to date JISC infonet portal that covers effective practice in this remit: http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/bce
  
  
• See also JISC BCE programme : http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/themes/bce.aspx 
  
  
• And the JISC NetSkills BCE support available : http://www.netskills.ac.uk/content/sectors/bce/

guide to funding

Looks like this is worth getting hold of for all SMT & curriculum mangers. Obtained from URL: http://www.fenews.co.uk/general/the-hands-on-guide-to-post-16-funding-with-author-nick-linford







The hands-on guide to post-16 funding, written by Nick Linford, Edexcel's Special advisor on Funding and Performance. The guide explains in simple terms what is funded and how this is delivered. It looks at the funding changes for 09/10 and the current plans for funding in 10/11.  Get it here : http://www.fundingguide.co.uk/

e-research

Richard Lambert talks to the BBC about research and innovation

This post is all about initiatives to open up the silos of traditional academic research, by taking advantage of what the web can offer. I'll cover drivers, current projects and moves towards a new open way of sharing using the Web 2.0 ethos. The Times Higher supplement called "The Data Revolution" also covers this subject.

...'Supporting the science community and maintaining our excellent research base is critical to the UK's future economic growth and prosperity. This is why the government will invest a record level of almost £6 billion in UK science and research by 2011.' ......

So says Lord Drayson in the latest JISC Inform publication which is loaded with some interesting articles on moving research firmly into the 21^st C. There is a article & podcast by Professor Robert Darnton of Harvard University discussing their move to an Open Access policy.

JISC are also spending 10 Mi££ion on a 3 year e-research programme.

For those who are ne wto this area of Open Access, there was an open access week – supported online @ URL: http://www.openaccessweek.org/ , plus this 2007 paper on THE EMERGENCE OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES, will help contextualise the subject.



I've collated a number of established & new Open Access / research portals and repositories to give you an idea what innovations are already in operation;

• The Directory of Open Access Repositories - OpenDOAR
  
• Welcome to WIRE - Wolverhampton Intellectual Repository and E-Theses - an open access repository
  
• Welcome to Worcester Research and Publications
  
• Welcome to Association of Learning Technology Open Access Repository
  
• Pioneering collaboration between publishers, repositories and researchers – PEER (project)
  
• The Depot is an assured gateway to make your research Open Access – EDINA project
  
• JORUM is a free online repository service for teaching and support staff in UK Further and Higher Education Institutions
  
• EThOS aims to enable end-users to access the full text of electronically stored UK theses, in secure format, via a single Web interface.
• E-Evolve Repository. This repository is a free online service for UK Higher Education Institutions 
• The Academy Evidence Net - find current evidence relating to teaching and learning in Higher Education. 

Methods of giving busy academics "Web 2.0" spaces to share and collaborate over research projects are gaining popularity. Here are some I've stumbled across recently;

• Google knol – publish and share your research
  
• Concept Linkage In Knowledge Repositories – C-LINK
  
• Dr. Richard Price, post-doc, Philosophy Dept, Oxford University has started http://www.academia.edu/ - which looks very interesting
  
• myExperiment makes it easy to find, use and share
  scientific workflows and other Research Objects, and to build communities.
  
• The Teaching and Learning Research Programme database
  
• Participate is a large-scale research project, which explores at how we can use new and emerging technologies to encourage people to engage in environmental issues.
  
• Science Shops are not "shops" in the traditional sense of the word. They are small entities that carry out scientific research in a wide range of disciplines – usually free of charge. The Scienceshopswales is a good examples of what can be achieved with this micro (social) research model
  

This 21^st century open (web 2.0) ethos of sharing and collaborating is exemplified in the real world examples in the wikinomics (free ebook), of how modern business is responding and exploiting the networking afforded by Web 2.o social tools. And, if you want to get some pointers into communities of practice collaborating online, this new (free ebook) called The Art of the Community will help.

highly ambitious?

Lord Mandelson's Q&A session at AoC conference  

The most interesting comment is the reference to ensuring a rich IT infrastructure can help to provide a collaborative and quality provision in these tough times. Hurrah for e-learning?

Recently Peter Mandleson released the Higher Ambitions framework . As it states

"The higher education blueprint, Higher Ambitions, sets out a course for how universities can remain world class, providing the nation with the high level skills needed to remain competitive, while continuing to attract the brightest students and researchers."

 The QAA has added its support by stating

"The framework challenges QAA to develop further its work in three key areas: the student experience of higher education; public assurance of quality and standards; and robust arrangements for dealing with complaints."

• ‘Aiming Higher’: Read the digested report on the Edexcel policy Watch site
• And a recent comment by Peter Mandelson refers to the new policies as a cohesive  "single higher skills system"
• All looks rosy? Not so, says the new LSC chief. He warns of a rough ride ahead:

"In my view, before very long, the cost effectiveness bar will rise so that only colleges with strong leadership and management will thrive. The incentive for those that do will be more autonomy - for those that do not, we will act decisively to encourage better performance and if necessary, to insist on new governance and management."


Tho' not all of academia share Lord Mandelson's views!  recent letters by highly regarded academics to the Guardian, responding to the new framework, are less than complimentary.


This is my favourite:

"In my experience, the two main obstacles to good teaching are bureaucracy and research. Maybe the government should require universities to release figures of how much time their staff spend filling forms, attending meetings, compiling reports and responding to initiatives. As for research, the situation is quite simple. Since the inception of the research assessment exercise, the majority of academics in the UK are obsessed with publications on which academic careers are built at the expense of teaching. There has been a proliferation of academic journals making profits for publishers on the back of "free" academic time. A large part of this published work goes entirely unread and unnoticed. If the government wants to enhance the quality of teaching in universities, there is a simple way: scrap the research assessment exercise."

Professor Yiannis Gabriel
School of management, University of Bath



my opinion>>> Is it not time we spent some money on conducting a series meta analysis of the vast swathes of research done so far?

ILT research & bids

Technological innovation in universities in the UK has been supported by
the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). In its role as a university think-tank, million+ has investigated the impact of funding awards from JISC to 28 UK universities over a six-year period. Published October 2009. Download the report from
www.millionplus.ac.uk/research/index

To overcome barriers in achieving JISC funding, it was suggested that a single named
person in each HEI be identified to ensure effective communications between the HEI
and JISC, thus offering the potential for more constructive feedback to be given over a
period of time, which could be assimilated and disseminated within that institution. For the future, it is clear from our research that collaborative working between universities
is likely to be crucial, to maximise co-learning and to ensure cost-effectiveness.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/research/2009/millionplusfundingimpact.pdf

• Many of the project teams were successful in obtaining further funding or generated associated projects (36% of the case studies).

• those HEIs which have a formal or co-ordinated approach to responding to calls for bids, with appropriate facilities and staff, tended to have a higher likelihood of obtaining JISC funding.

• My observations : what about those who have problems in obtaining funds!!  I have often been on the receiving end of comments hinting at a "closed shop", and "the same old faces"! But as one very successful JISC project bidder pointed out to me, "it's (the bid calls) not a secret - all you have to do is keep an eye on the JISC funding road map." 

And more importantly he said  "bid for projects to ensure that they align with existing internal project proposals.  So in effect you are getting money for what was part of your ILT strategy anyway."

Often organisations fall down by not placing enough emphasis on the planning and management of sed plans , etc. i.e they either underestimate or under resource the project in hand.

• nb : Just got note of a new JISC report relevant to this this posting :  Understanding Global Activity in Higher Education and Research: Primary, desk and web-based research. Report of Findings (abridged version)- it says 

" Although this study did not set out to „benchmark‟ the UK against the other study countries, it is nevertheless impossible not to consider in very broad terms the UK‟s position on the world stage. Clearly the UK enjoys several key advantages: its compact size; the English language; and the UK‟s system of powerful central government to name but three. JISC is seen by other countries as a strong centralizing force and, largely as a result of JISC‟s role, the UK is viewed as being a leading player in most areas of e-Learning and e-Infrastructure development. Various reviews of specific areas of e-Learning and e-Infrastructure identify the UK as amongst the leaders in areas such as digitisation, data repositories and co-ordinated Web 2.0 enablement strategies, paving the way for the opportunities it opens up to be successfully and consistently introduced into learning and teaching practices."




Useful bidding resources

• jisc guide to bids :http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/bidguide.aspx

• http://www.fundingguide.co.uk/  

• http://www.planningandfunding.co.uk/training.asp  
• Our workshop bidding & planning resources we ran last year: http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Bid_writing_for_e-Learning_projects,_2nd_December_2008
• RSC Easterns 2006 workshop resources : http://info.rsc-eastern.ac.uk/events/event_details.asp?eid=293
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