Spotlight

The New Year gives us the opportunity to reflect on some of our projects and initiatives from 2009 and consider how we move forward into challenging times in 2010.
Last year saw a number of innovative developments as well as the addition of a significant volume of new resources. Highlights include:

• the launch of this very blog in February, followed later in the year by our move onto Twitter
• resources on the wider strategic implications of the Bologna Process were launched (with more to follow in 2010 on HEAR)
• a wide range of activity in the Information and Records Management arena saw not only the local hosting of a very successful nationwide conference (’Building Bridges’ held in NewcastleGateshead in March) and the annual run of the Information Legislation survey, but significant new work on Measuring the Impact of Records Management which has rapidly gained momentum in the sector
• In the e-Learning sphere, exciting developments for the JISC’s Curriculum Design and Delivery programmes saw the beta launch of the ‘Design Studio’, and a significant addition of materials to our e-Portfolios resources
• Our work on providing resources to help with external engagement progressed with the relaunch of our Business and Community Engagement (BCE) ‘hub’ and the addition of new resources from institution-based projects on Embedding BCE
• The shaping of our Strategy infoKit (launched November 2009) marked an ambitious but hugely successful development in our resources, with the 15 colleges and institutions involved at the heart of the review process helping us create a package of materials that are truly ‘of the sector’

The service achieved recognition by being shortlisted amongst the 16 finalists for the inaugural World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Awards in the sustainability category and the launch of JISC Advance in September saw JISC infoNet come together with the collective expertise of: JISC Digital Media, JISC infoNet, JISC Legal, JISCMail, JISC Netskills, JISC Procureweb, JISC RSC UK and JISC TechDis to address the new and challenging requirements emerging within the education and research communities and beyond.

The service achieved recognition by being shortlisted amongst the 16 finalists for the inaugural World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Awards in the sustainability category.

On the ‘business as usual’ front, we continued to provide our popular workshops across the UK, and a JISC publication highlighted the experience of one college in maximising the combined use of our workshops and online resource. We also contributed workshops, presentations and seminars to a range of external events, delivering face-to-face support for the sector.

We have worked with numerous partners including many organisations and institutions to help co-fund and support projects and we look forward to further opportunities for collaborative work in 2010.

Some recent changes have also taken place within the team. We said a fond farewell to Joanne Hyslop earlier in the year, who left to pursue an exciting opportunity at Sunderland University. We also have a new addition to the team as Adam Hiles joined us in December as Administrator.

Some of the aforementioned strands of work continue during 2010, with institutional pilot work shortly to commence relating to the Strategy infoKit and the Impact Calculator. With the JISC Curriculum Delivery programme ending later this year, the support work for the Curriculum Design and Delivery programmes enters a new phase. A new strand of work on managing research information will kick off shortly, and in what will undoubtedly be challenging times ahead, the service’s materials and support on optimising processes and managing change, risk and projects effectively should be of particular use to the sector.

Keep an eye on our blog for news of what we’re up to in 2010!

“I hope that the material, when fully launched, will be used extensively in the sector”

Such were the sentiments of one of the fifteen members of the panel charged with reviewing and commenting on an early draft of our new Strategy infoKit, officially launched today.

The Strategy infoKit is a culmination of a 2-year project funded by the JISC Organisational Support Committee and is based on the often overlooked premise that planning and implementing strategic activity is something which affects everyone who works within an institution.

The Strategy infoKit is based around four main, but interconnected stages:

1. strategic planning
2. environment scanning
3. managing strategic activity
4. monitoring

A key message underpinning this resource, however, is the importance of taking an integrated approach to all four stages within the context of an inclusive, institution-wide and ongoing ‘strategic conversation’ – now far easier to achieve if institutions successfully utilise the potential offered here by technology.

Members of the senior management team are an important audience for this resource and will appreciate the opportunity to reflect on and compare their institution’s current approaches and the challenges they face with those outlined in the infoKit. But it is also anticipated that middle and junior management with responsibilities for undertaking strategic operations within faculties, departments and teams will welcome the practical, hands-on approach taken and the ‘pick and mix’ style packed full of often simple, but effective, tools and techniques.

Where possible we have sought to illustrate the guidance being given with links to exemplars of good practice from across the sector and beyond. However, we are also aware that many more examples exist out there that we would love to hear about and perhaps use to add further value to this resource. If you think your institution falls into this category and you feel you have some experiences it would be useful to share, why not tell us about it?

Another member of the review panel expressed their intention to “discuss using the infoKit with the senior management team, possibly on an away day”. Again, we’d love to hear of your own plans for using the infoKit and experiences of doing so in due course…

JISC infoNet is pleased to announce the launch of its Records Management Maturity Model for the Further & Higher Education Sectors

This Maturity Model is designed to help further and higher education institutions to assess where their institution currently sits in relation to meeting the recommendations set forth within the revised Lord Chancellor’s Code of Practice on the management of records issued under section 46 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 issued on 16th July 2009. The Code is a supplement to the provisions in the Freedom of Information Act and its adoption will help authorities comply with their duties under the Act. Consequently, all relevant authorities are strongly encouraged to pay heed to the guidance in the Code.

The Model provides statements summarising 4 levels of ‘maturity’ against 33 aspects of what constitutes a records management programme appropriate for ensuring compliance with the Freedom of Information Act taken from the Revised Code of Practice.

Upon completion of the Model you will be in possession of an accurate, reliable and honest summary of the current level of maturity of your records management measures within your institution to assist with auditing, planning and resource allocation.

JISC infoNet is keen to hear your thoughts about and experiences of using the Maturity Model and is also very keen to have access to a copy of your completed Maturity Model. Any completed Models submitted will be treated confidentially and used to enable JISC infoNet to gain a picture of the overall maturity of records and information management across the sector, thus enabling us to better target our future work in supporting its development.

Further information on the background to the Maturity Model and the factors which influenced its development is provided in my RMfuturewatch blog for those interested

You can now follow JISC infoNet on Twitter.

As mentioned in a previous post, many of the team now actively use Twitter and have found it a useful communication tool.

Twitter has been successfully used to create communities and networks within both JISC and the education community, providing access to great discussions and resources, giving instant feedback and proving useful at conferences and events.

Link: http://twitter.com/jiscinfonet

We are pleased to welcome Joanne Hyslop to the JISC infoNet team. Joanne joins infoNet from the University of Teesside, where she was Performance Information Analysis Manager in the Corporate Information Analysis Unit, within the Academic Registry. As part of her previous role Joanne’s main responsibility was for the HESA Student Return, ensuring that the submission maximised on funding and related outputs. Part of Joanne’s remit covered analysis of various sector-wide performance measures including the National Student Survey, HEFCE Performance Indicators and various published league tables.

Joanne’s new role at infoNet will see her take on new challenges, working closely with Steve Bailey on the ‘Creating a Common Research Framework for Measuring the Impact of Records Management’ project. Initially Joanne will undertake desk-based research to ascertain the current evidence base for demonstrating the economic benefit of implementing records management processes. The later stages of this research will include an online survey to discover relevant unpublished sources of evidence which may have been established for internal purposes within organisations. Joanne will support Steve as he formulates the framework for measuring the benefits to records management.

Joanne will also be responsible for collating the responses to the Information Legislation & Management Survey conducted each year in association with Universities UK and GuildHE.

This latest appointment sees Joanne joining our busy and dedicated team.

We are pleased to welcome Joanne on board and look forward to working with her on our exciting new project.

With a position on the project board, JISC infoNet is pleased to announce its involvement with the JISC Identity Management Toolkit project.  The project began in January 2009  aiming to provide UK Further and Higher Education (FE/HE) institutions with a toolkit that allows assessment and progression of internal identity management (IdM).  The following outcomes are expected:

1. Wider awareness of the e-Framework
2. Greater use of the e-Framework
3. Improved awareness of IdM issues in FE and HE
4. Improved IdM practice in FE and HE institutions
5. Increased use of federated access management (FAM) for single sign-on (SSO) and secure data-sharing

John Paschoud (LSE Library Projects Manager) is managing the project, due to complete in the summer of 2010.  This project will build upon experience gained from the Identity Project (Cardiff University, LSE) with relevant outputs tested by Bristol University and Kidderminster College.  We look forward to keeping you informed of its progress!

Do you have experience of strategic planning issues? Are you interested in how institutions make progress towards their strategic goals? Would you be willing to review and comment on a new draft resource supporting this area? If so, you sound like just the kind of person we are looking for!

JISC infoNet are currently looking for up to ten institutions from across both the further and higher education sectors who are willing to review the draft content of their forthcoming ‘Strategy infoKit’. Those selected will be given access to the draft content via a private URL, asked to consider the appropriateness of the content, format, structure, ease of navigation and overall usefulness of the resource from their perspective and to provide structured feedback and suggestions by completing an extensive evaluation form. All comments and suggestions made will then be considered before the production of the final version due for launch in November 2009.

Access to the draft version will be available from May 2009 and the evaluation template must be completed and returned to JISC infoNet by the end of August 2009. A grant of £5,000 will be paid to each institution selected to take part upon receipt of their completed evaluation form.

Anyone interested in participating should send an email to Steve Bailey (steve.bailey@northumbria.ac.uk) by no later than Friday 10th April 2009 providing a summary of their current role and outlining their experience in the areas of strategic planning within the further or higher education sectors. It should also include confirmation that they are authorised to undertake this work by their appropriate line management and a commitment to completing the process by 31st August 2009. Those institutions selected will be informed by Friday 1st May and will receive further instructions, the evaluation form and a link to the draft content by no later than Friday 29th May.

We hope to hear from you soon!

As we have spent the last few years talking up the potential of blogs, we thought it would be a good time to start our own.

Spotlight will keep you informed of all the latest news and developments at JISC infoNet, as well as items of interest you may find useful. We hope you enjoy reading our blog and will post comments and contribute so that we can grow as a community.

Further information about us can be found at our website www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk

Enjoy!