JISC is currently undertaking a review aimed at assessing the impact and effectiveness of the range of records management initiatives it has undertaken since early 2002 within the FE and HE sectors.
The purpose of this study is largely two-fold, firstly to evaluate the perceived relevance and effectiveness in the eyes of the sector of work to-date and secondly to consider how JISC can best continue to support this area of activity over the next two years.
JISC have commissioned Cimtech Ltd to undertake this work. A key element of this review is a web-based survey designed to obtain the views of as wide a group of people from within the FE & HE sectors as possible.
This is your opportunity to let us know how you have found the work we have done to date and perhaps more importantly, to influence the direction of the future work we do. There is no limit to the number of people from any one institution that should complete the form. The closing date for submissions is Friday 8th July.
Cimtech will be building on the survey with more focused interviews (mostly by phone) with selected respondents. Unfortunately it is not possible to do so with all respondents but if you would like to volunteer for the opportunity to discuss any issues in greater depth do please contact Cimtech direct.
The results of this survey will be reported in September.
The eMerge Conference is being held in Dunfermline on 25th May 2005.
Based on the training needs identified in the ETNA Report. The eMerge programme provides a varied range of activities to address these needs, taking into account pressures on staff time and varied college contexts. The conference will describe the experiences of the agencies to date in designing and offering e-learning staff development to colleges, and reflect on how these have helped colleges to achieve their objectives in learning and teaching. It will also consider the various ways in which colleges respond to external staff development opportunities
The University of Dundee are seeking an innovative and supportive eLearning Research Fellow to play a key role in the development of the JISC eLearning Framework. This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in the development of a new Institute for Learning Technology within the University's Faculty of Education and Social Work led by Professor Allison Littlejohn. The institute comprises academic staff with expertise in the educational research and practice across all sectors of education.
You will be involved in working closely with researchers from collaborating institutions in co-developing, recording and implementing a set of cross-disciplinary usecases in 'Learning Activity Design', with academic staff from a range of subject areas. An Honours degree or equivalent and eLearning research experience are essential. You will have an appreciation of issues in relation to the use and implementation of digital repositories and virtual learning environments; a good understanding educational theory, particularly in the area of eLearning; experience of educational research methodology and excellent academic writing skills. In addition you should be able demonstrate the ability to be able to work as part of a hard-working, distributed research team.
The appointment will be for one year with a salary, depending on qualifications and experience, between point 7 (£22,507) to spinal point 12 on theRA1A scale (£27,174). A full curriculum vitae should be attached to the application form along with the names and addresses of three referees. Referees may be contacted by the University without further permission from the candidate. Potential applicants are encouraged to contact Allison Littlejohn (a.littlejohn@dundee.ac.uk) for further information.
The closing date for applications is May 27th 2005 and interviews will be held in late June.
This circular invites HE institutions funded via the UK funding bodies, to submit proposals to participate in a UK visualisation support network.
Sophisticated visualisation techniques are essential to understand the outputs of many computer applications. The demand forvisual representation continues to increase and it is important to ensure that good visualisation techniques are used, and bestpractice is encouraged. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has, therefore, decided to fund a visualisation support network service for use bythe UK academic research community. Funding of around £500,000 is available for the network over three years in the first instance.
The deadline for receipt of proposals is 13:00 hours on 18 May 2005. It is anticipated that the network will be established as soon as funding decisions have been made.
Further information including the full text of the Circular can be found at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=funding_circular4_05
Do you know someone who is transforming teaching, learning and leadership using ICT? Nominate them for an award.
They could win £5,000. And as their nominator you could win a prize too......but be quick, deadline for nominations is 31 March 2005.
The ICT in Practice Awards aim to identify models of excellent practice and use these to develop and promote effective practice in the use of ICT in teaching, learning and leadership. The Awards allow us to share this information with the wider teaching community while rewarding individuals who demonstrate exemplary practice in ICT.
For further information go to http://www.becta.org.uk/practiceawards
International Convention Centre, Birmingham, 12 April 2005
Building on the success of last year's conference, the JISC Conference 2005 programme will be built around the twin themes of Impact and Integration. Roger McClure, joint Chief Executive of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) and the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC), is this year's conference keynote speaker. The conference will reflect the breadth of JISC activities in providing guidance, advice and opportunities for the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in education and research.
Delegates will be given opportunities to learn about the full range of JISC's work by participating in seminars, debates, workshops and demonstrations. In the exhibition area, JISC services and initiatives will be able to provide you with advice and guidance on a range of support and resources available to your organisation.
A town meeting has been planned to discuss the forthcoming JISC call for proposals on Digital Repositories. It will take place on Wednesday 2 March, 11:00 - 13:00, at One Great George Street, London.
A call for proposals has been issued by UKERNA for the provision of advice to JANET connected organisations on network reliability. The main aim of this work will be to help organisations identify and understand the risks facing their local networks and their connection(s) to JANET.
A response to the request for proposals should be submitted by Friday 17th December 2004.
Three posts supported by the European Social Fund (ESF) are currently available at the RSC. Each post is on a secondment basis and is funded until 31 July 2006 in the first instance. Click on the links below for further details of each post.
The VLE Support Officer will provide staff development to college-designated staff in using the VLE deployed within their colleges and facilitate the development of institutional plans for e-learning within the curriculum.
The Accessibility Officer will provide RSC based expertise to supported institutions in the area of disability support, methods of achieving institutional adoption and integration of considerations relating to delivery of the curriculum.
The e-Content and Resource Officer will raise awareness, train, advise and support colleges in the use of e-resources suitable for curricular inclusion and liaise between RSC, local and national agencies and initiatives.
The JISC invites consortia of further and higher education institutions to submit funding proposals to make available e-learning resources that are suitable for wider national use through the JORUM Repository and to explore e-learning embedding issues, to build upon the work of the current Exchange for Learning (X4L) Programme.
The total funding available for this initiative is £800,000 over 18 months, commencing January/February 2005. It is envisaged that each project will be awarded funding of between £150,000 and £200,000. Each bid must include at least one FE and HE institution. The JISC envisages that the overall bids funded will involve institutions from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The deadline for receipt of proposals is 12 noon on Friday 3rd December 2004. Projects should commence in January or February 2005 and last for a maximum of 18 months.
The Executive Committee of the US's Digital Library Federation (DLF) today announced that the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has joined the DLF as its first Ally from outside the United States.
The Digital Library Federation, founded in 1995, is a partnership organization of 38 academic libraries and related organizations in the US that are pioneering the use of electronic-information technologies to extend their collections and services. DLF currently has 33 member libraries and four other allies: the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), the Research Libraries Group (RLG), the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), and the Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library.
Stuart Dempster, Programme Manager at JISC, who works collaboratively with a number of the DLF's member organizations, said: "The JISC-DLF partnership brings together two of the world's leading innovators in the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) within education and research. This partnership will allow us to exploit the opportunities and address the challenges presented to academic libraries in the digital age through greater collaboration and cooperation. JISC is delighted to be working with the DLF which will bring real benefits to the learning, teaching and research community".
In order to improve communications between JISC Collections and the education community,the collections teamwould like to invite Learning Resource Centre and Library staff to join the JISC Collections Representatives list. The JISC Collections Representatives will act as a point of contact within their institution, ensuring that their colleagues receive relevant and appropriate information from the JISC Collections team.
The JISC Collection Representatives will be the first to receive information from JISC Collections and will be kept completely up to date about consultations, new resources and the renewal details of existing JISC agreements. You may nominate more than one person from your institution to be a JISC Collections
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is seeking to establish a pilot Assisted Take-Up Service to support the work of its Middleware Programme and the development of a next generation access management system for UK HE and FE.
The aims of the service are two-fold:
The closing date for Requests to Participate is 12 noon GMT on Monday 15 November 2004.
JISC will be hosting an event on Wednesday 17 November 2004 in London to announce its future plans for access management within the UK. The meeting will also be an opportunity to learn more about this call and the upcoming Core Middleware: Early Adopters call.
Further information including the Summary Description of the Service and the Contract Notice submitted to the European Union on 28 October 2004 can be found at the following URL: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=funding_middlewareservice
Manchester International Convention Centre - 29th - 30th November 2004
Discover more about ICT and personalised learning in the learning and skills sector. Hear about the vision for personalised learning and e-learning from key policy makers. See how other practitioners have used ICT to deliver personalised learning. Try the latest software and hardware.
Expect an engaging mix of keynote speeches, discussion sessions, interactive workshops, networking and an exhibition. Supported by the National Learning Network.
Deadline for Proposals: 27 Sep 2004, 12:00 PM
Study on how innovative technologies are influencing the design of physical learning spaces in the post-16 sector, and the production of guidelines for senior management teams on best practice in designing learning spaces to support eLearning, as part of the Innovation Strand of the JISC eLearning Programme
The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is seeking to invite tenders from consultants, and/or researchers in new physical learning spaces for education, to conduct a study on how innovative technologies are influencing the design of physical learning space in the classroom, and on campus, in the UK post-16 and higher education contexts and to produce guidelines on best practice in designing learning spaces to support eLearning.
This study forms part of the Innovation strand of the JISC eLearning Programme funded by the JISC Learning and Teaching committee. Further details of the programme can be found at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=elearning_innovation
Up to £30,000 (including VAT and expenses) is available for this project over a six month period (November 2004 - April 2005). Tenders should be submitted no later than noon on Monday 27 September 2004.
The full invitation to tender document can be found on the JISC website at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=funding_innov_space
Expressions of interest are invited from sites wishing to gain access to UKLight via the extended JANET development network.
UKLight comprises a hub in London, located at the University of London Computing Centre, with 10 Gbit/s connections to StarLight in Chicago and NetherLight in Amsterdam. Access to UKLight from institutions within the UK will be provided by an extended national development network implemented within JANET. Phase 1 of this development network is currently being commissioned and consists of connections to EastNet in Cambridge and Network North West (NNW) in Manchester. Phase 2 will extend the network to reach CLRC-RAL, YHMAN at Leeds, and C&NLMAN at Lancaster by early 2005.
A third phase of extension to the JANET development network is now being considered. In order to assess where extensions should be made, the research community is asked to submit expressions of interest for gaining access to UKLight. These expressions of interest will be used to inform the further development of the infrastructure - they are not intended to identify research proposals for any future funding opportunities
Expressions of interest, which need to reach the JISC Executive by 12 noon on 8 October 2004, will be considered by a sub-group of the UKLight steering committee augmented by invited experts. Feedback will be provided in early November to all groups who have made submissions. A Town Meeting will be held at the National e-Science Centre in Glasgow on Thursday 9 September to provide further information about UKLight and advice to those intending to submit an Expression of Interest. Information about the Town Meeting and how to register for it are available on the NeSC website at http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/457/
The applied infoKit provides a framework that institutions can follow when considering the implementation of the Ferl Practitioners' Programme (FPP).
For further details please consult the JISC infoNet website at http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/fpp/index_html.
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