The details of the RSC Support Services are given in a word document and can be downloaded - RSC Services Descriptions 2004-05.
JISC's Guide to Bidding and information about JISC's Evaluation Process have been updated and can be found on the website at:
The NLN Materials Team is pleased to announce that contracts to develop a fourth round of high quality e-learning materials have now been awarded.
This time the free interactive materials are specifically tailored to the Adult and Community Learning sector, although they will also be made available to the FE sector.
Now here's your chance to get involved -
The NLN Materials Team would like to hear from anyone interested in contributing to the development of the materials. Opportunities exist for organisations to act as trial institutions, providing valuable feedback on the materials at different stages of development. Individuals are also needed to act as quality assessors to review materials, and user representatives, to sit on project boards to monitor progress.
This event is part of a JISC funded project called VideoActive (or Click and Go Further) which looks at the production of video and multimedia for learning and teaching.
Workshop Title: VideoActive Summer Series Workshops
Location and Date: Glasgow Caledonian University, 15 and 16 June 2004
Cost: £100 per head including lunch and refreshments on both days
Workshop Description: A 2-day workshop that takes the participant through the process of designing and developing video for use in learning and teaching.
This **FREE** conference will be take place on 3 June 2004 in central London and will explore support models for open source deployments in UK higher and further education.
It is aimed at:
Please register to attend today http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/events/2004-06-03/
As capacity for this event is limited, OSS Watch reserves the right to limit the number of delegates attending from a single institution.
If you are not from a UK institution of further or higher education but would like to attend this event, please contact OSS Watch prior to registering, info@oss-watch.ac.uk.
JISC invites you to participate in a consultation workshop on the above topic.
To meet the Government's Widening Participation agenda there are some challenges involved in the provision of resources and support for higher education (HE) students based in further education (FE) colleges. Issues such as the funding, quality control, sharing of electronic resources and student support are key to ensuring that these students are not disadvantaged. It will also look at the sharing of resources between institutional partners in FE and HE through shared systems such as Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and the implications for administering such systems to ensure appropriate access and security.
The workshop will be of interest to the DfES, Government agencies, heads of support services (libraries, learning resource centres, IT), HE co-ordinators, senior administrators, heads of departments and other senior staff in universities or colleges.
In conjunction with colleagues in the RSC Scotland North & East and SFEU, we are pleased to say that we will soon be presenting a wide range of Staff development opportunities aimed at embedding ICT into the FE curriculum. These activities have been subsidised by SFEFC.
While we will offer our normal programme of workshops and JISC events, we aim to extend this to include new workshops and project based training for a wide range of college staff.
To broaden the scope of our provision, we will be offering the following training opportunities:
We will soon be publishing a full programme of events to facilitate staff development planning for next academic session. Already some technical training events have been scheduled and our first project based training for teaching practitioners is scheduled for June.
An online assessment management system called TOIA has been developed under the JISC's X4L Programme. The software is being made freely available to all UK FE and HE Institutions and is now available for beta testing.
The system allows teachers to create questions and tests, to deliver them to students for automated marking, and to monitor results. It can also be used for collecting assignments which require manual marking and for delivering and processing questionnaires.
Question types include multiple choice, multiple response, pull-down list, fill in the blanks, matrix, essay, Macromedia Flash, Java applet and file upload.
Further information can be found on the TOIA website at - http://www.toia.ac.uk
Friday, 21 May 2004 - Barber Surgeon's Hall, Central London
Brief description
An effective records management programme is now an acknowledged pre-requisite for enabling an institution to meet its legal requirements, protect its assets and to function as an effective organisation.
For the past two years JISC has been actively engaged in raising the profile of records management within institutions and providing support for those charged with its implementation. This conference will draw together many of the strands and initiatives which JISC has supported and will be of direct relevance to both professional records managers and those who have found themselves with responsibility for such matters within their institution.
The emphasis for the day will be on providing practical advice and answers to some of the key issues faced by record practitioners today and providing delegates with a fresh perspective to take back to their institutions. There will also be the chance to try out some of the toolkits JISC is currently developing as well as the opportunity to find out more about related JISC Services and relevant commercial vendors.
Who it is aimed at?
The aim of this event is to consider supporting student needs and focuses on the 'First Year Experience'.
The morning session will be used to discuss good practice in induction and share activities that have been shown to improve student progression and retention. There is a choice of workshop in the afternoon session.
A Town Meeting for JISC Circular 1/04: Call for Projects in Core Middleware was held on Friday, 6 February 2004 in London. A copy of the notes and the slides of the presentation made at this meeting can be found on the JISC web site at:
Notes of the Meeting: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/NotesoftheTownMeeting.doc
The deadline for receipt of proposals is 12 noon on Wednesday, 3 March 2004. Technical queries about the programme should be sent to Nicole Harris (n.harris@jisc.ac.uk, 020 7848 1802) and general enquires about the proposal submission process should be sent to Ann Lloyd (a.lloyd@jisc.ac.uk, 0117 931 7124).
A copy of the full text of the call can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/01_04%20Circular%20Full%20Text.doc
Interested in how Information and Communications Technology can be used in your organisation?
The JISC Conference 2004 has an interesting and interactive programme which covers the following three core areas:
In the all day conference exhibition, JISC services and initiatives will be able to provide you with advice and guidance on a range of support and resources available to your institution. This free one day event will be of interest to all those in further and higher education and research involved in planning for and supporting the use of ICT.
Bookings are coming in thick and fast now, so please book which sessions you are interested in participating in to avoid disappointment.
Want to take an active part in how Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is being developed or concerned about the issues that the use of ICT presents in your organisation?
JISC welcomes participation from senior managers in schools, post 16, higher education and research to take part in the following consultation workshops:
Building Collaborative eResearch Environments
Information as a Strategic Resource
Bridging the Divide: Transition between schools, FE, HE and Research
The workshops are free of charge, however delegates will be expected to play a full part in discussions during the day and make recommendations to JISC and other organisations on taking these areas of work forward.
The Multi-site Connectivity Advisory Service (MCAS) is now fully operational and can provide advice and guidance to organisations with inter-site connectivity issues beyond their main JANET links. The service provides independent technical support to institutions wishing to connect or upgrade data links between campuses and to remote centres. Advice can be provided on technologies available and their suitability for the situation. The service can also put colleges in contact with expert advisors and suppliers and publishes technical information and case studies.
MCAS are currently looking for Case Studies where colleges have connected up various sites. There is a payment of £1000 per 12 page case study.
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Pedagogies for e-learning Programme
Proposals are invited for the following studies: E-learning Models Desk Study and a Research Study into the Effectiveness of Resources, Tools and Support Services used by Practitioners in Designing and Delivering E-learning Activities.
E-learning Models Desk Study
The purpose of this study is describe what may be understood by 'effective practice' in relation to e-learning; to develop and adapt an evaluation framework that may be applied to new instances of e-learning; to identify and describe the range of models that inform the design and implementation of e-learning activities; and to develop a modelling tool (or tools) that may be applied to new instances of e-learning activity design and implementation.
Up to £70,000 (including VAT and expenses) is available for this study over a 5 month period (March - July 2004). Hyperlink to further information
Research Study into the Effectiveness of Resources, Tools and Support Services used by Practitioners in Designing and Delivering E-learning Activities
The purpose of this study is to evaluate practitioner needs in relation to the application of e-learning pedagogy and expertise. The outcomes of this work will be used to inform the design of a series of practitioner-focused resources, drawing on the findings of the overall Pedagogies for e-learning Programme
Up to £40,000 (including VAT and expenses) is available for this study over a 5 month period (March - July 2004).
Tenders for both studies should be submitted no later than noon on Friday, 30 January 2004.
The JISC invites tenders to provide written reports on the JISC Consultation Workshop series, covering the following topics:
Building Collaborative eResearch Environments Information as a Strategic Resource Bridging the Divide: Transition between Schools, FE, HE and Research
Bidders may submit tenders for one or more workshop topics. However, these should be submitted as separate tenders. The tenders should demonstrate the knowledge and expertise of the bidder in the relevant topics.
The deadline for proposals is: 12 noon on Monday, 19 January 2004.
All enquiries should be addressed to: Jane Charlton (j.l.charlton@bristol.ac.uk, tel: 0117 954 5085) or Matt Jukes (matt.jukes@bris.ac.uk, tel: 0117 954 5080).
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has issued an Invitation to Tender to undertake an investigation of possible data management, hosting and delivery solutions for content created through the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) Digitisation Programme.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 12 noon on Monday 12 January 2004.
Wednesday 17 to Friday 19 March 2004, G-Mex/Manchester International Convention Centre
The Annual Management Conference is aimed at senior staff within computing centres in HE and FE institutions and is one of the best ways in which to find out what is happening across the sectors. This is both from the formal programme sessions and informal networking opportunities that the event provides.
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is seeking to commission a study to inform the new Frameworks Programme. The aim of the programme is to 'Develop and evaluate a framework to facilitate interoperability across learning, teaching, research and their supporting systems.'
The purpose of the proposed study is to collate, analyse, and map JISC development activity associated with the main frameworks and architecture initiatives. The study will produce a visual planning tool that supports the JISC in the prioritisation of future development activities.
This initial study will form the basis of an iterative development cycle extending over the programme's lifetime. Validation of the study outcomes through consultation with user groups is a key requirement.
Up to £75, 000 (including VAT and expenses) is available for this study over a 5 month period (March - July 2004). Tenders should be submitted no later than noon on Friday 30 January 2004.
The full invitation to tender can be found on the JISC website - hyperlink to full invitation to tender
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is seeking to procure a high quality Mirroring Service on behalf of UK FE and HE. The Service will run for a 3-year period from 1 August 2004 to 31 July 2007, with an option to extend until 31 July 2009, subject to performance and ongoing demand for such a service.
The service will include:
The closing date for Requests to Participate is 12 noon GMT on 12 January 2004.
On 17 November, invitations to participate in this survey were sent out to Heads of Computing/IT Services at UK FE and HE institutions and Research Council Units.
The JISC Monitoring Unit is currently undertaking a survey of the JISC-funded network infrastructure services (the JANET network and other ancillary services provided by UKERNA, and JISCmail), inviting approximately one third of Higher and Further Education institutions, and the Research Council sites, to participate.
If your institution has been selected to participate this year it is vital that the views of your institution are recorded to inform future developments and improvements to JANET and JISC-supported networked services.
Please note that the survey is targeted at Heads of Computing/IT Services (i.e. those in control of overall network and computing use) and that only ONE response is required per institution.
A list of institutions invited to participate, and Word and PDF copies of the questionnaire can be found here - hyperlink to Word and PDF copies
In January 2005 all institutions of higher and further education in Scotland face the full impact of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. More immediately all institutions have to prepare and submit their publication schemes to the FOI Commissioner for approval by 31 May 2004. This workshop will dealt with the Act and its implications for College managements over the next two years. It also detailed the steps that have to be taken, discussed potential problems and offered guidance about the route towards full compliance.
A draft report has been prepared by AHDS Literature, Languages and Linguistics for the JISC e-Books Working Group. The report is the result of a project funded by the JISC to investigate the potential for the use of available free e-books in teaching and learning in the UK FE and HE sectors.
The FERL website has long been an excellent source of case studies, documents, advice and resources for FE practitioners. Now the site has had a makeover and it was relaunched at last week's FERL Conference in London. The new look Ferl website offers improved navigation and search, more advice, and a revamped design. An essential site for anyone delivering or supporting teaching and learning in Further Education. hyperlink to FERL website
EDINA is pleased to announce a new image service, the Education Image Gallery, using content licensed by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) from the world-famous Getty Images archive.
The Education Image Gallery will be available for institutional subscription from 5 January 2004; one-month free trials are available from 1 December 2003 and throughout the life of the service until 31 July 2007.
Users at subscribing institutions in Further and Higher Education will have access to an exciting collection of 50,000 images for use in learning, teaching and research. An initial 40,000 images will be available at the time of launch; the remaining 10,000 images will be selected in response to user feedback. Drawing on the vast resources of Hulton Archive, PhotoDisc and the Getty Images News Service (current events and sport), the service will offer approximately 3,000 images per decade from the late 19th century through the whole of the 20th century to the present-day, the 21st century.
Selected by leading academics, the images cover key subject areas across the curriculum including history, entertainment, sport, science, fashion, politics, music, conflict, film, art, leisure and women's studies. Each image is accompanied by extensive metadata, including keywords.
Enquiries about the Education Image Gallery service should be addressed to the EDINA Helpdesk at edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 3302, or go to the service web pages - hyperlink to EDINA website
Ferl is organising this online conference, to be held 28th January to 4th February 2004. The conference is aimed at all those involved in working with VLEs, including schools, FE and HE. The conference will have two themes running through it:
As well as these, there are various other papers and presentations, and a number of Ask the Expert sessions............hyperlink to more information
As it is an area that many are concerned about, you may be interested in a paper that the JISC Legal Information Service has commissioned on the risks of liability to universities and colleges arising out of typical computer and networking activies.
The paper highlights a lot of different areas to think about. Unfortunately the civil law where most liability arises is not like criminal law so you cannot say for sure that taking certain steps will definitely mean you are not liable for something. The best you can do is judge the risk and put in appropriate measures to reduce the biggest risk. Even if you decide to do nothing, having a reasoned argument for why you made that decision looks much better in court than not even having thought about it.
There is a new and exciting opportunity, both for the JISC and the Further Education community to work with renowned [*] and highly skilled professionals in the hairdressing & beauty field. JordanBurr run one of London's leading Salons and have a long history of delivering high quality training in these fields. This is also a unique opportunity for the FE community and the JISC to draw on their expertise to help shape and develop the ultimate electronic learning resource for hairdressing courses. Therefore your input and feedback is essential in taking this project forward.
Please find attached the hairdressing-training.com consultation document for your viewing. Please feed back to JISC any comments or suggestions that will aid the development of the site to become a valuable learning tool.
This link will take you to the sample hairdressing-training.com site: http://www.hairdressing-training.com/2003/
Biz/ed wishes to appoint authors to write unique and stimulating resources to support the learning community in Further Education in AVCE related programme areas of Leisure and Recreation and Travel and Tourism. Specific areas of focus are as follows:
The outcomes of this work will help to ensure that the specific needs of this sector are supported through the resources provided by the Biz/ed service. In connection with the project we are looking to recruit high caliber practitioners to write materials for the Biz/ed site. The work will be carried out on a freelance basis and we invite applications from individuals or consortia with a high degree of expertise in their vocational area. Authors should complete an application form and submit an outline proposal using the online form. The closing date for submission of proposals is 9am, Monday 3rd November 2003.
The JISC Regional Support Centres ran a Training Needs Survey (ETNA) during May 2003. The ETNA report is based on answers received to questionnaires aimed at five broad categories of staff within the FE sector and the results will help the RSCs, colleges and other agencies plan their staff development programmes to meet the training needs of staff in the Scottish FE sector.
JISC has commissioned the Library and Information Statistics Unit (LISU) to conduct a national survey of all FE College Librarians and Learning Resource Centre Managers to determine the extent of development of on-line resources. These resources can be made available through the college web site, through the intranet, or sometimes via a designated library web site or 'portal'; a gateway to access an electronic library or a collection of electronic resources. JISC are intending that this important national survey will inform them of the current 'state of play' with the development of 'library portals' and/or dedicated library web sites, electronic libraries or 'virtual' libraries.
For further information on portals please visit the JISC web site http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=ie_portalsfaq
The University of Paisley is setting up a bi-annual event to bring together people who are active in addressing issues effecting part-time learning and part-time learners. The first event is scheduled for 14 November 2003.
OSS Watch, is a pilot advisory service on free and open source software for UK higher and further education set up by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in July 2003.
In an effort to determine how best to develop this service, OSS Watch is conducting a scoping study of all UK higher and further education institutions.
* Scoping study: http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/ The survey must be completed using this form - deadline 24 October 2003.
You may complete the survey even if you are not able to represent your entire institution - you will be able to indicate which department you are representing. Either way, we would ask you to answer the remaining questions from the same standpoint. Data from the study will be anonymized in a report, which will be made public. You may choose to have an electronic copy of that report sent to you.
If you have any questions concerning this scoping study or your participation within it, please contact Randy Metcalfe, Communications Manager, OSS Watch at info@oss-watch.ac.uk
JISC infoNet is one of the newer JISC Advisory Services. It has been established as a Centre of Expertise in the Planning and Implementation of Information Systems within Further and Higher Education.
The service's website, http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk provides access to authoritative training materials, known as "infoKits". Currently there are four infoKits covering System Selection, Contract Negotiation, Process Review and Project Management. These are designed as "dip into" resources for institutions to use how they see fit. The service also provides guidance on VLE and MLE systems and is producing materials for institutions wanting to implement and embed e-Learning. The MLE Pack, a resource being put together from a number of sources, is due for publication on the JISC infoNet website in January 2004.
Records Management, a role and process becoming a hot topic because of the Freedom of Information Act, is also supported by JISC infoNet. Records Management Consultant, Alan Cameron, is setting up events around the country to talk about how Records Management techniques can help ensure legal compliance with the new legislation.
A series of events covering Project Management is being offered during Autumn 2003, giving College Managers an insight into and grasp of the skills needed to manage large scale projects across multiple teams and involving several skill sets.
For further information please contact John Burke FE Liaison Manager via email on j.burke@northumbria.ac.uk or call 01995 642118.
The Model Publishing Schemes together with explanatory notes for FE andHE are now online on the Information Commissioners website: for more information - click here
SLIC, the Scottish Library Information Council is holding this free event in September at the Stirling Management Centre. This event is likely to be of interest to a number of college staff including: library/learning resources staff, flexible learning managers, quality managers and senior managers who may have responsibility for the strategic development and management of the college library/learning centre. Further details regarding this event can be found from the link below.
Ask and HMIE: questioning the college review process.
22 September 2003 - Stirling Management Centre, University of Stirling This free event has been organised by SLIC on behalf of the SFEFC self-evaluation project. A chance for library staff to question HMIE on the college review process and learn about anticipated changes to the review framework.
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) have agreed to fund the establishment of a UK Centre for Text Mining.
Funds totalling £1 million have been made available by these bodies to fund the Centre as a 3 year proof-of-principle service. The Centre will initially focus on biological and biomedical science as this area of science has the largest user community, the fastest growing literature, and the area where most applications research in text mining is being undertaken. It is anticipated however that the tools developed by the Centre will be of interest and relevance to the needs of the wider academic community.
Expressions of interest are invited to host the Centre from UK Higher Education institutions. Those short listed will then be invited to make full bids. The deadline for expressions of interest is 12 noon on Friday 24 October 2003.
The circular invites bids to establish a national Digital Curation Centre (DCC) to lead research and development into key areas of digital curation for data and publications, and to pilot the development of generic support services for maintaining digital data and research results over their entire life-cycle. The DCC is intended to provide a national focus for research into curation issues and expertise in the processes of digital archiving, preservation and management. Particular emphasis will be placed on the needs of users of the Centre's outputs.
The funding for the DCC will be for 3 years and made up of a grant of £250,000 pa (plus overheads, paid at the standard Research Council rate of 46% (ie up to a total of £365,000 pa) from the eScience Core Programme to support the needs of the research activities of the Centre, and a further £750,000 pa from the JISC to fund the development, service and best practice activities.
A town meeting will take place on Monday 8 September at the Regent's College Conference Centre, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4NS (from 10.00 am and concluding with lunch) where further details of the circular will be available together with the opportunity to ask any questions about the bidding process.
The deadline for receipt of expressions of interest in establishing the Centre is 12 noon on Friday 26 September 2003 and the deadline for full proposals is 12 noon Thursday 13 November 2003.
The JORUM+ project has been asked by the JISC to scope the requirements of a long-term repository service for learning objects, and to identify potential software repository systems for consideration by JISC. This work is to be done by the end of 2003.
The national learning materials repository service will facilitate the deposit, re-use and sharing of learning content in UK tertiary education. The questionnaire will be used to gather information and to identify members of the UK FE and HE community willing to take part in focus groups and interviews, which we plan to run in October/November 2003.
This workshop provides training and guidance for technical staff of institutions that are considering implementing a digital repository using the 'DSpace' software. The workshop, organized jointly by the DSpace@Cambridge project and ERPANET, will enable participants to develop a knowledge of, and practical skills in the installation and implementation of DSpace, which they can then utilise within their own institution.
Please note that as from 1 August 2003 the RSC will operate a combined Technical and Information HelpDesk Service. The telephone number for all enquiries should be directed to (0141)-558 4098.
More free e-learning materials are now available from the National Learning Network, offering more scope than ever before to integrate e-learning into post-16 teaching and learning.
Environment Conservation and Sport and Recreation are available online now and Engineering, Maths and Performing Arts are on their way.
More information about the materials is available on the NLN materials website - click here
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