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!

Delegates gathered on the 10th December for a dissemination event, to highlight outputs from the ‘Embedding BCE’ project. Delegates heard presentations from all of the project partner institutions, as well as representatives from the JISC BCE Programme.

To coincide with the event, JISC infoNet launched their Embedding BCE infoKit.

The infoKit presents all of the findings from the project, as well as some of the methodologies and tools that allowed institutions to carry out a review of their Business and Community Engagement activities.

The five partner instituions were:

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

Presentations from the event are available on SlideShare, accompanied by a Diigo list that provides links to associated BCE resources.

The infoKit is also being presented at a number of other events across the UK, including last weeks JISC Winter Fayre, and the New Engineering Foundation Conference in January.

Look out for more BCE related additions in the New Year, including some new workshops.

“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…

The JISC infoNet Information Legislation & Management survey has been run annually since 2005 and has established itself as an important reference source regarding the sector’s compliance with information-related legislation and the impact this is having on institutions. We are aware that completing the survey is time consuming and want to be sure that every question and the data it provides is considered useful by the sector. We are also aware that many institutions collect their own data regarding their own performance in this area and, where possible, it makes sense to harmonise our work with any emerging standard practice within the sector.

This review is therefore intended to give practitioners working within the sector the opportunity to influence future iterations of the survey, starting with the survey for 2009 which will be launched in January 2010. We do not expect reviewers to comment on every question (though please do if you wish) but would welcome any thoughts and comments provided. Please click the ‘Review’ button after the question you wish to respond to and complete the information requested.

We will consider all comments and suggestions received but obviously will not be able to incorporate all of them. We would also ask reviewers to bear in mind that one of the ever-growing advantages of this survey is the longitudinal picture that is beginning to emerge and which will get more illustrative each year the survey is run. This has only been possible by using the same questions each year. Reviewers are therefore asked to weigh up the advantages of changing a question against the potential disadvantages of losing any continuity and opportunity for cross-analysis with results from previous years.

The review survey is available from the JISC infoNet website

This review is open until Friday 27th November.

Please note: Due to the remit of the survey participation in this review process is only open to staff from the UK FE and HE sectors

Your participation in it is greatly appreciated.

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

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!