How we support things may need to change
• Anytime, anywhere, anyplace – puts new demands on our traditional 8x5 support infrastructure
• Timeliness – perform activity on location as it happens – requires highly available and responsive networks as well as infrastructure like servers etc
• Technology that we manage and support (traditional in-house e.g. Blackboard), technology that we source from others via a contract (traditional out-source e.g. Pebblepad), emerging technology platforms sharing resources and support (or none at all e.g. second life)
• We appear to be gaining real benefits through collaboration with others and networking which means that the support could potentially be managed and shared in some innovative ways.
The infrastructure must be robust
• Is it useful – would you use this sort of technology. Needs to be more robust and ubiquitous – not an early adopter so it’s a leap of faith. Someone has to do it – should it be us?
• Next year going back to the drawing board and start again – tech has moved on from where we were with the ALPS initiatives.
• Lots of various tech niggles throughout the day – needs to be seamless and robust
There is likely to be a debate about standards
• Standardised Infrastructure - Is there any guidance to students on buying a device – we don’t currently do this for students for PCs, laptops etc – however, there are some Institutions that are choosing to be prescriptive (some schools, some FE, some HE quite a few Thinkpad Universities in the US a few years ago. Looking back did that approach work?
• Different learners make progress in lots of different ways and have different learning styles – which tech may be able to help us manage. So the content will not be standardised and the delivery platform may not be standardised. IT people (and accountants) tend to like standards
We are likely to use tools in unexpected and unanticipated ways
• Sometimes tools can be exploited and used in a range of expected and also unexpected ways ie there may be different ways to do the same things, e.g. Pebblepad we could use the tool for staff performance review (not just students). And this may have additional and unexpected support implications.
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
E-Learning Showcase - Afternoon Session
Afternoon Session
e-portfolios and Personal Development Plans (PDP)
· Unable to connect to preferred wireless network room 1.7 during this session
· Example of an action plan for clinical placement monitoring and progress – used as a review tool mid way through placements – personalised and updated feedback
· Need accessibility on and off campus – presumably need extended hours access too (not normal office hours)
· Preparing the student for mandatory CPD upon registration – Nursing is ahead of Pharmacyin this respect and it provides a smooth transition – also benefit of replacing a paper-based system with electronic capability
· Using the tool for IT NVQ process has provided a structure and process (competence based approach) has helped to speed up the process noticed that this year
· Also used as a collaborative tool between groups – better than sharing different versions of documents via email etc
· Sometimes tools can be exploited and used in a range of expected and also unexpected ways ie there may be different ways to do the same things, we could use the tool for staff performance review (not just students)
· Probably get a richer and more individualised (personalised) approach and it also identifies where there might have been collaboration or sharing of activity.
Virtual Environments
· Bradton at the School of Health – a virtual community – differentiating between visitors to the community (real people and stories) and members of the community (actors representing real people and stories). A platform for sharing patient experience in a safe environment. Looking to develop further – significant potential for further development.
· Opportunity for students to understand case studies and also explore many issues around communication with patients – a collaborative project
· Second Life – Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE – new acronym to me). A research project established to create a University of Bradford space (island) with various buildings, activities and links to virtual resources etc. Still very much under development.
· Now looking at whether these two things could potentially be pulled together in a virtual clinical setting.
E-learning Showcase - Morning Session
Session on Mobile Learning and Assessment
• Focus on infrastructure – mobile technology simple definition “something that fits in your pocket”. What is mobile learning – “learning on the bus”
• Smart Whiteboard didn’t work first time....need for a paper backup?
• Anytime, anywhere, anyplace – puts new demands on our traditional 8x5 support infrastructure
• Timeliness – perform activity on location as it happens – requires highly available and responsive networks as well as infrastructure like servers etc
• Where are we with lots of individuals having lots of different devices – one way to do this is via “the web” whether displays on PC, netbook, mobile device etc, key issue is displaying web content re-purposed for the different devices. Standards still emerging in this area.
• University mobile web site www.mobi.brad.ac.uk – same web content re-purposed for a smaller screen – little used – limited marketing and communication to students
• Is it useful – would you use this sort of technology. Needs to be more robust and ubiquitous – not an early adopter so it’s a leap of faith. Someone has to do it – should it be us?
• Standardised Infrastructure - Is there any guidance to students on buying a device – we don’t currently do this for students for PCs, laptops etc – however, there are some Institutions that are choosing to be prescriptive (some schools, some FE, some HE quite a few Thinkpad Universities in the US a few years ago. Looking back did that approach work?
• Next year going back to the drawing board and start again – tech has moved on from where we were with the ALPS initiatives
• A potentially awkward not intuitive interface – not an iPod for example. Need familiarity with type of device and the user interface.
• Difficulty with screen size e.g. small size
• Potential with tech constraints and conflicts with the older technology (2G and 3G)
Interactive Learning
• Time to think and reflect and discuss and meet with colleagues old and new – events like this are valuable for a number of reasons above and beyond the purpose itself (a secondary benefit of events like this)
• A way to get students engaged and motivated.
• Reflection on interactive learning – key part of phrase is active (not passive), experimental, empowering and engaging. Whether tech is a way to support those interactions – student:student and student:staff communication.
• Focus required on the learning outcomes – through the interaction doing the learning
• Different learners make progress in lots of different ways and have different learning styles – which tech may be able to help us manage. So the content will not be standardised and the delivery platform may not be standardised. IT people (and accountants) tend to like standards.
• Flexibility and social aspect – learning at a time and place that suits us – may help engage more learners. Getting more used to JIT education.
• Asking questions about why student engagement tends to tail off over time with VLE like tools. We may not be using our assets in a way that drives the fullest cost-benefit from it
• Updates are ready for your computer – windows found 45 updates....
• Making_Uni_Work video – thought this was very well put together – simple and effective messages focused on “people” not tech.
• No headphones on the PC – no sound card bit here in this machine. Some cluster machines have sound cards switched off? It varies?
• How do you get YouTube into Blackboard?
• Some difficulties with student access at the SSH Information Skills workshop – “system glitches?” – student abilities – often those realising need for skills improvement are those who haven’t engaged.
• Focus on infrastructure – mobile technology simple definition “something that fits in your pocket”. What is mobile learning – “learning on the bus”
• Smart Whiteboard didn’t work first time....need for a paper backup?
• Anytime, anywhere, anyplace – puts new demands on our traditional 8x5 support infrastructure
• Timeliness – perform activity on location as it happens – requires highly available and responsive networks as well as infrastructure like servers etc
• Where are we with lots of individuals having lots of different devices – one way to do this is via “the web” whether displays on PC, netbook, mobile device etc, key issue is displaying web content re-purposed for the different devices. Standards still emerging in this area.
• University mobile web site www.mobi.brad.ac.uk – same web content re-purposed for a smaller screen – little used – limited marketing and communication to students
• Is it useful – would you use this sort of technology. Needs to be more robust and ubiquitous – not an early adopter so it’s a leap of faith. Someone has to do it – should it be us?
• Standardised Infrastructure - Is there any guidance to students on buying a device – we don’t currently do this for students for PCs, laptops etc – however, there are some Institutions that are choosing to be prescriptive (some schools, some FE, some HE quite a few Thinkpad Universities in the US a few years ago. Looking back did that approach work?
• Next year going back to the drawing board and start again – tech has moved on from where we were with the ALPS initiatives
• A potentially awkward not intuitive interface – not an iPod for example. Need familiarity with type of device and the user interface.
• Difficulty with screen size e.g. small size
• Potential with tech constraints and conflicts with the older technology (2G and 3G)
Interactive Learning
• Time to think and reflect and discuss and meet with colleagues old and new – events like this are valuable for a number of reasons above and beyond the purpose itself (a secondary benefit of events like this)
• A way to get students engaged and motivated.
• Reflection on interactive learning – key part of phrase is active (not passive), experimental, empowering and engaging. Whether tech is a way to support those interactions – student:student and student:staff communication.
• Focus required on the learning outcomes – through the interaction doing the learning
• Different learners make progress in lots of different ways and have different learning styles – which tech may be able to help us manage. So the content will not be standardised and the delivery platform may not be standardised. IT people (and accountants) tend to like standards.
• Flexibility and social aspect – learning at a time and place that suits us – may help engage more learners. Getting more used to JIT education.
• Asking questions about why student engagement tends to tail off over time with VLE like tools. We may not be using our assets in a way that drives the fullest cost-benefit from it
• Updates are ready for your computer – windows found 45 updates....
• Making_Uni_Work video – thought this was very well put together – simple and effective messages focused on “people” not tech.
• No headphones on the PC – no sound card bit here in this machine. Some cluster machines have sound cards switched off? It varies?
• How do you get YouTube into Blackboard?
• Some difficulties with student access at the SSH Information Skills workshop – “system glitches?” – student abilities – often those realising need for skills improvement are those who haven’t engaged.
E-Learning Showcase - Intro Session
Mark Cleary Introduction
• An exciting time for the University in respect of learning and teaching agenda – new senior management structure (DVC for L&T now appointed), corporate planning in progress, student experience is pretty good (NSS: but we could do better), investment in learning resources (e.g. Knowledge Exchange).
• People at this event are the missionaries/experts/innovators. Getting most of our staff and students engaged is about support. Key is providing support – discussions about buildings revert to the content – the mechanisms and people to support are the vital elements
• Using tech to potentially free up academic staff time for more face to face and academic contact – aspiration to make commitments to small group contact hours – view that most satisfying aspect is small group tutorials
• Research is in the DNA of the institution, perhaps blended learning (preferred term to e-learning) needs to recognised in the same way
Q&A Session
• STEM agenda is happening, we have had 3 successful HEFCE SDF bids in last couple of years. Need to ensure a coherent picture of our corporate initiatives – this could provide the Unique Selling Point (USP) for the Institution
• One of the Key links to the academic delivery are course managers – they are an important link between management and delivery because they deal with line management and workload distribution.
• Should talk about innovation in learning and teaching.
• We seem to have a need at Bradford (is it the same everywhere?) to prove that this stuff works in our environment – not good enough that this technology or approach worked elsewhere
• Issue about feeling safe to take element of risk – to bring things back to deal with student experience if there is a problem to ensure students get best overall experience.
• Curriculum design issue – difficulties with potentially stifling approval routes – SCART and CART can slow things down
• An exciting time for the University in respect of learning and teaching agenda – new senior management structure (DVC for L&T now appointed), corporate planning in progress, student experience is pretty good (NSS: but we could do better), investment in learning resources (e.g. Knowledge Exchange).
• People at this event are the missionaries/experts/innovators. Getting most of our staff and students engaged is about support. Key is providing support – discussions about buildings revert to the content – the mechanisms and people to support are the vital elements
• Using tech to potentially free up academic staff time for more face to face and academic contact – aspiration to make commitments to small group contact hours – view that most satisfying aspect is small group tutorials
• Research is in the DNA of the institution, perhaps blended learning (preferred term to e-learning) needs to recognised in the same way
Q&A Session
• STEM agenda is happening, we have had 3 successful HEFCE SDF bids in last couple of years. Need to ensure a coherent picture of our corporate initiatives – this could provide the Unique Selling Point (USP) for the Institution
• One of the Key links to the academic delivery are course managers – they are an important link between management and delivery because they deal with line management and workload distribution.
• Should talk about innovation in learning and teaching.
• We seem to have a need at Bradford (is it the same everywhere?) to prove that this stuff works in our environment – not good enough that this technology or approach worked elsewhere
• Issue about feeling safe to take element of risk – to bring things back to deal with student experience if there is a problem to ensure students get best overall experience.
• Curriculum design issue – difficulties with potentially stifling approval routes – SCART and CART can slow things down
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Welcome to 2009
A Happy New Year.
So the first day back was busy with visitors from the US who are touring the UK consortium member sites this week (oracle EAI consortium). We found out that there are now 260 campuses in the consortium and 120 of them have a working portal - but they have learned that a custom implementation for each of these is not the smartest way to support and implement in the medium/longer term. As some will know we don't have a single portal and we have currently suspended the portal project until March 2009. One of the phrases that I wrote down was "clicks as currency". The consortium has negotiated a deal with a well known job advertising board to get a few dollars for each click through from the portal to the site. The revenue potential across a large consortium is significant but for one insititution it is not. Then scale this up to some other service providers (e.g. Google) - the advice was think carefully about letting go of your virtual real estate when each click has potential value. Should we so easily give up potential revenue streams either now or into the future?
So the first day back was busy with visitors from the US who are touring the UK consortium member sites this week (oracle EAI consortium). We found out that there are now 260 campuses in the consortium and 120 of them have a working portal - but they have learned that a custom implementation for each of these is not the smartest way to support and implement in the medium/longer term. As some will know we don't have a single portal and we have currently suspended the portal project until March 2009. One of the phrases that I wrote down was "clicks as currency". The consortium has negotiated a deal with a well known job advertising board to get a few dollars for each click through from the portal to the site. The revenue potential across a large consortium is significant but for one insititution it is not. Then scale this up to some other service providers (e.g. Google) - the advice was think carefully about letting go of your virtual real estate when each click has potential value. Should we so easily give up potential revenue streams either now or into the future?
Monday, 22 December 2008
No more news until 2009
But in the meantime here is a picture which was taken by my father last week in Ripponden and was used by Look North for the weather picture on the 6:00 news. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.
Friday, 19 December 2008
IT Services Newsletter Christmas 2008 edition
Feedback on one-to-one meetings
In earlier newsletters there has been some general information about the feedback that I received directly during the one-to-one sessions with everyone in IT Services. When I met with a number of you I promised to provide an anonymised summary of the information and the issues that it raised. I have done that now and it is attached to this newsletter in a tracker format. During 2009, we will begin to work our way through the 71 challenges that you raised with me. I hope that you are able to see your words and phrases in this document directly but let me know if you feel anything has been mis-interpreted.
Change Management Programme
This programme is now up and running and Peter Bollands has begun introductory meetings with some of us. You can find the documents at H:/Exchange/ProjectManagement/Projects/IT Services Change Management/. There are going to be a lot of discussions in January and February and a program for this will be published to this directory shortly. One of the first things that Peter is going to facilitate is a self-assessment workshop over four half days based on the Information Systems Management and Governance framework published at http://www.ismg.ac.uk/. Philip Briggs attended a one day event hosted by Manchester University and UCISA which showcased this framework and its use in several UK Universities and a commercial organisation (Hewlett-Packard) and we feel that it will highlight strengths we already have as well as areas for improvement. Robina Chatham begins working with LSS Board members at an event on January 9th. We are all busy completing Myers-Briggs assessments at the moment. Jermyn Consulting are also now contracted to work on the service and business continuity work and will meet with Jeff Lucas towards the end of January to begin that process.
Student PC cluster provision
In the last newsletter there was an update on a review conducted with the student union of current provision. As a direct result we have been obtaining quotes from two University-approved furniture companies for replacement chairs and new mobile/flexible furniture for group study space. Budget has been agreed to begin the process to improve some of this facility especially in terms of "health and safety" and it will improve our student experience. If you haven't had the time, I would urge everyone to visit F Floor Richmond Building to have a look at the brand new thin client student cluster facility where the old refectory used to be located. This is a fantastic environment and sets a high standard for future student PC cluster provision on campus. Many thanks to Sara Eyre and the team in technical services who are bringing all this online for January 2009.
Consultation on Making Knowledge Work - corporate planning event
Thank you to those who took part in Wednesday's consultation events around the University's values and internal communications. This was a face-to-face meeting rather than an email! If you are interested in the feedback from the two sessions or making comments then its all posted here
Regular Meetings with PVC Rae Earnshaw
These weekly meetings have continued. Rae has been working on a couple of priority areas for the next Information Strategy Committee at the end of January. The first of these relates to information access/security recommendations and is a joint piece of work with Susan Mathews. The other area is a proposal to ISC that the University undertake an "options appraisal" for providing its student email - which includes continuing as we are, but also introduces the options of outsourcing student email, as well as not providing it at all (students bring their own). This is a developing area in the sector with about 15 UK Universities choosing to outsource student email to Google or Microsoft. It is important that we evaluate and respond to what is going on in the sector - especially when it directly impacts student experience. Some email facts that you may be interested in thanks to Geoff Bell:
We delivered around 400,000 messages last week, so around 22 million this year.
We currently reject around 95% of email that is sent to us because it is spam. If we didn't do this then we would have to have a much larger primary email system. The AntiVirus software and hardware system costs us around £10k/year.
Total cost ~£70k/year, or about 1/3p per delivered message.
There remains a standing invitation for anyone who wishes to use this meeting as a way to communicate with the PVC and senior management to just let me know.
Some other bits of news in the last month
Thanks to Mark Jones, new data storage capacity was added for our G and H Drives in Learner Support Services and the rest of Corporate Services over last weekend without service interruptions.
Thanks to Rick Graves and colleagues for the first time we have been able to publish individual web-based personalised student exam timetables. These have been issued to all students for January exams.
Following discussion at the LSS Board meeting a number of cases for training support were approved within IT Services. This process is open to all and four staff in IT services made proposals. As a result Ray Brown and David Dodwell will be completing the Comptia A+ network and certification courses, Mahmood Tariq will be undertaking a Part-Time BA in Computer Systems Administration (at Bradford) and Andrew Nicholson will be taking part in a German Language BA module (at Bradford). Look out for the next round of proposals if you wish to pursue further training opportunities funded by the University
And Finally
A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all readers.
Thank you for all that you have achieved in 2008 - have an enjoyable break and see you in 2009.
In earlier newsletters there has been some general information about the feedback that I received directly during the one-to-one sessions with everyone in IT Services. When I met with a number of you I promised to provide an anonymised summary of the information and the issues that it raised. I have done that now and it is attached to this newsletter in a tracker format. During 2009, we will begin to work our way through the 71 challenges that you raised with me. I hope that you are able to see your words and phrases in this document directly but let me know if you feel anything has been mis-interpreted.
Change Management Programme
This programme is now up and running and Peter Bollands has begun introductory meetings with some of us. You can find the documents at H:/Exchange/ProjectManagement/Projects/IT Services Change Management/. There are going to be a lot of discussions in January and February and a program for this will be published to this directory shortly. One of the first things that Peter is going to facilitate is a self-assessment workshop over four half days based on the Information Systems Management and Governance framework published at http://www.ismg.ac.uk/. Philip Briggs attended a one day event hosted by Manchester University and UCISA which showcased this framework and its use in several UK Universities and a commercial organisation (Hewlett-Packard) and we feel that it will highlight strengths we already have as well as areas for improvement. Robina Chatham begins working with LSS Board members at an event on January 9th. We are all busy completing Myers-Briggs assessments at the moment. Jermyn Consulting are also now contracted to work on the service and business continuity work and will meet with Jeff Lucas towards the end of January to begin that process.
Student PC cluster provision
In the last newsletter there was an update on a review conducted with the student union of current provision. As a direct result we have been obtaining quotes from two University-approved furniture companies for replacement chairs and new mobile/flexible furniture for group study space. Budget has been agreed to begin the process to improve some of this facility especially in terms of "health and safety" and it will improve our student experience. If you haven't had the time, I would urge everyone to visit F Floor Richmond Building to have a look at the brand new thin client student cluster facility where the old refectory used to be located. This is a fantastic environment and sets a high standard for future student PC cluster provision on campus. Many thanks to Sara Eyre and the team in technical services who are bringing all this online for January 2009.
Consultation on Making Knowledge Work - corporate planning event
Thank you to those who took part in Wednesday's consultation events around the University's values and internal communications. This was a face-to-face meeting rather than an email! If you are interested in the feedback from the two sessions or making comments then its all posted here
Regular Meetings with PVC Rae Earnshaw
These weekly meetings have continued. Rae has been working on a couple of priority areas for the next Information Strategy Committee at the end of January. The first of these relates to information access/security recommendations and is a joint piece of work with Susan Mathews. The other area is a proposal to ISC that the University undertake an "options appraisal" for providing its student email - which includes continuing as we are, but also introduces the options of outsourcing student email, as well as not providing it at all (students bring their own). This is a developing area in the sector with about 15 UK Universities choosing to outsource student email to Google or Microsoft. It is important that we evaluate and respond to what is going on in the sector - especially when it directly impacts student experience. Some email facts that you may be interested in thanks to Geoff Bell:
We delivered around 400,000 messages last week, so around 22 million this year.
We currently reject around 95% of email that is sent to us because it is spam. If we didn't do this then we would have to have a much larger primary email system. The AntiVirus software and hardware system costs us around £10k/year.
Total cost ~£70k/year, or about 1/3p per delivered message.
There remains a standing invitation for anyone who wishes to use this meeting as a way to communicate with the PVC and senior management to just let me know.
Some other bits of news in the last month
Thanks to Mark Jones, new data storage capacity was added for our G and H Drives in Learner Support Services and the rest of Corporate Services over last weekend without service interruptions.
Thanks to Rick Graves and colleagues for the first time we have been able to publish individual web-based personalised student exam timetables. These have been issued to all students for January exams.
Following discussion at the LSS Board meeting a number of cases for training support were approved within IT Services. This process is open to all and four staff in IT services made proposals. As a result Ray Brown and David Dodwell will be completing the Comptia A+ network and certification courses, Mahmood Tariq will be undertaking a Part-Time BA in Computer Systems Administration (at Bradford) and Andrew Nicholson will be taking part in a German Language BA module (at Bradford). Look out for the next round of proposals if you wish to pursue further training opportunities funded by the University
And Finally
A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all readers.
Thank you for all that you have achieved in 2008 - have an enjoyable break and see you in 2009.
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