Assessment forms a critical part of the learning process. Making use of e-Assessments has a number of benefits for both the learner and lecturer. These include the ability to provide immediate feedback to the learner, assessments can be linked to other online course materials being used and lecturers are likely to spend less time marking assessments. Bank on Success, a project focusing on e-Assessment, is being piloted by us here at the JISC RSC Scotland South & West during the summer term. Find out more on our Bank on Success pages
The RSC Scotland S&W have been publishing podcasts on Apple's iTunes Store since last October and our video podcasts are currently featured on the iTunes Store under Education. There is a selection of 17 audio and video podcasts from the RSC Scotland S&W, freely available to subscribe to and enjoy.
AccessApps won a prestigious IMS Leadership Award at the IMS Global Learning Impact Conference in Barcelona, 11th - 14th May 2009. Amongst stiff competition from North & South America, Australia, and elsewhere in Europe AccessApps scooped best in class award for Best Accessibility Solution.
In April 2009, the RSC held a major conference in Edinburgh called Smarter Greener Learning, bringing the latest strategic thinking and practical advice on sustainable issues to managers in colleges and universities. All of the presentations were recorded and are now available to view online. Go to presentations. Please note you need Internet Explorer to view the presentations.
Bookings are now open for the fourth JISC international online conference. Themes for Innovating e-Learning 2009 reflect the challenges facing further and higher education in the 21st century and explore the increased options offered by technology for meeting those challenges. Find out more and book your place
The JISC and Higher Education Academy outputs from service collaborative projects which comprise of online resources for learning, teaching and assessment are now available and have been launched at the Higher Education Academy conference in Manchester. Find out more and try the resources.
This new report from JISC's Technology and Standards Watch service (JISC TechWatch), entitled "100G Ethernet and beyond: preparing for the exabyte Internet", explains the background and technical development to the next upgrade of the thirty-year old Ethernet family of networking standards which will be formalised in 2010. Read the full report.
A new organisation called JISC Advance launches this week which will bring together eight established JISC services as part of JISC's ongoing strategy to deliver world-class support to colleges and universities. Dr Malcolm Read, JISC Executive Secretary, said: "JISC Advance brings together a team of experienced professionals, many of whom we have worked with for many years. We aim to join these services more closely together so that their combined weight will enhance the services provided by JISC Advance to people working within universities and colleges on a whole range of issues." Read the full report.
Four thousand images from the Design Council slide collection were launched with JISC support, providing a unique insight into the history of British design and its promotion by the UK government from the 1940s to the early 1990s. From teacups and tricycles to clocks and cola bottles, the images provide valuable visual evidence of the ways in which design has been evaluated and promoted throughout this period, through the Design Council which is the UK's national strategic body for design. Read the full story.
Briefing papers have been prepared by Naomi Korn Copyright Consultancy on behalf of the Strategic Content Alliance, so that public sector agencies can learn more about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management on an operational and strategic level as well as having links to sources of other essential information. Suitable for librarians, human resources professionals, senior policy-makers or those involved in digital content provision at any level , these briefing papers provide tailored guidance at a glance. Download them here as PDFs, and find more resources like this on the SCA Blog/
UK education is to benefit from over £7 million in grants and funding opportunities, as JISC launches its investment plan for the academic year 2009/2010. Over the next nine months JISC will be investing in a range of projects across universities and colleges to support innovation in research, teaching and learning to aid the management of institutions. Projects will range from 12 months to three years in duration. Read the full story.
An online version of the latest JISC Inform is now available. Inform Plus showcases extra content, an interactive timeline, podcasts and videos as well as the usual spread of news from across JISC's work in universities and colleges. Read Inform Plus.
Have you been involved in an outstanding ICT initiative? JISC is now encouraging entries for its sponsored category at the Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards from universities across the UK. The awards showcase leadership, management, financial and business skills in universities, so the judges will be looking for an initiative that can demonstrate not just an effect on its institution, but also potential for impact across the UK.
Find out more and submit your entry by 29 January 2010 through the THE website.
JISC is putting the spotlight on the education community in a blog competition, with the chance to win a flip camera and inclusion in a JISC publication. As part of the JISC Conference 2010, JISC is asking teachers, learners and researchers to share their experiences of technology around the event theme: 'technology - at the heart of education and research'.
Entrants should write a blog post or produce a short video explaining how important technology is to their work in education and research. For example, have you been using web 2.0 tools to get in touch with or engage students or colleagues? Perhaps technology is helping to make your research quicker and easier, or maybe you've found a whole new angle of inquiry because of it? Whether it's about getting in touch with far-flung colleagues, presenting your work in a new way, or working in an innovative area, JISC wants to hear from you.
See the Blog Competition details on the JISC Website and submit your entry via the online form before the entry deadline of Friday 19 February 2010.
JISC TechDis Rewiring Inclusion Conference 9th Feb 2010 will focus in particular on browser technologies, Web2.0, e-Learning, and mobile learning, and on the benefits these can offer to all users, including those with disabilities or learning difficulties.
See the JISC website for further information and booking details.
From 5 January 2010, JISC postponed all current capital funded calls and invitations to tender (ITTs), pending decisions on funding allocations from the HEFCE board meeting on 28 January 2010. Regrettably no new capital funded calls or ITTs will be issued until the funding situation is clearer. What this means is that any capital funded ITT or funding call which has been issued, but for which grant letters have not yet been issued, will be put on hold until after the HEFCE board meeting.
See the JISC website for further details.
The UK is at risk of losing its world-leading reputation for education, unless it continues to invest in digital technologies to meet the ever-changing needs of modern learners, researchers and the academic community says JISC, in its new three-year strategy.
The strategy outlines a vision of the future whereby a robust technological infrastructure is required to meet the shifting needs of the 21st century education community. JISC believes it is crucial that the UK's education system continues to compete on the international stage by investing in innovation, research and increasing the availability of online resources.
JISC Chair Professor Sir Tim O'Shea commented: "The UK's learner base is changing at great speed. Students are increasingly demanding that universities and colleges provide flexible and personalised learning which makes full use of the internet and IT applications. Such demands and expectations are set to increase as we move through this decade and into the next. If we fail to sustain the required research and investment to assist universities and colleges in their drive to improve their efficiency, effectiveness and to manage their costs, the UK risks losing its reputation for world-class education."
Read more about the new JISC Strategy
Read the JISC Strategy 2010-2012 online
For those new to writing and developing strategy, a new JISC briefcase of resources has been launched to support people through the increasing scale of challenges facing universities and colleges.
The 'strategy infokit' produced by the JISC-funded advisory service JISC InfoNet covers all aspects of the strategy process: from articulating your institution's vision and the characteristics of a good mission statement, to advice on effective use of key performance indicators and a checklist for what to monitor.The advice is based on the premise that planning and implementing strategic activity is something which affects everyone who works within an institution.
While members of the senior management team are an obvious and important audience for this resource, those responsible for strategic operations within faculties, departments and teams will welcome the practical, hands-on approach taken in the guide and the 'pick and mix' style of tools and techniques.
Children will be encouraged to follow an online "Green Cross Code" and block and report inappropriate content. The "Zip it, Block it, Flag it" campaign is intended for use by schools, retailers and social networks, although it will be up to individual sites to choose how they use it. A large scale public information campaign based around the slogan will be mounted from February 2010.
Read more about the Safeguarding topic
Technology: at the heart of education and research is the title and theme of this year's JISC conference to be held in London on 12-13 April 2010.
Bill St. Arnaud, P. Eng. President, St. Arnaud-Walker and Associates Inc, and Martin Bean, Vice Chancellor of The Open University, will be giving the keynote speeches, both bringing different perspectives on putting 'technology at the heart of education and research'.
The conference will see experts from across education and research answer questions, solve delegates' problems and showcase the latest examples of how using a simple solution can save time, money and resources as well as in many cases, create inter-department working.
Among the topics are:
See the Conference Website for further information.
JISC's annual review has been published online and shows 12 months of achievement across innovation, education and research. Among the highlights of the year are:
Read the JISC Annual Review online.
JISC is publishing advice to help IT managers and information officers cut carbon emissions as UK universities and colleges come under mounting pressure from government, regulatory sources and the public, to cut their carbon emissions. Its 'Top Tips for a sustainable IT department', identifies 10 simple steps for saving energy and money, whilst still responding to users' needs:
1) Enable PC Powerdown for devices not in use.
2) Investigate moving to thin-client devices or more efficient thick-client devices.
3) Extend life of equipment.
4) Consolidate and virtualise servers. Get servers out of departments and offices into properly designed data centres.
5) Implement Hot/Cold aisle separation and containment. Look at the possibility of direct cooling of racks.
6) Install more efficient power supply units (PSU) and uninterruptible power supply systems (UPS).
7) Consolidate printers and enable duplex and monochrome printing by default.
8) Reduce travel by maximising the opportunities for remote conferencing and flexible and home working.
9) De-duplicate and rationalise data storage.
10) Rationalise and simplify IT systems and architectures
See the JISC website for further information and download the report.
JISC Techdis has mapped their highly respected resources to ITQ units, bringing them together to form ITQ for Accessible IT Practice. Find out more details on the JISC Techdis Moodle (http://tinyurl.com/techdisitq - log in using the "guest" button).
JISC TechDis is pleased to announce the new TechDis Toolbar. This free application can be installed on a website or downloaded onto an individual PC, working seamlessly across all operating systems to provide significant benefits for everyone using the internet, especially those involved in education or with a disability.
The new JISC TechDis Toolbar provides a range of productivity and accessibility tools and aids to help users customise the way they view and interact with web pages. Features include a text to speech function, spell checking and dictionary facilities, and a feature for gathering referencing information within a web page. It also provides simple ways to adjust the magnification or font used on web pages.
See the JISC Techdis website for the full story.
This webcast is designed to assist institutions meet their legal duties and inspection needs in relation to safeguarding and e-security. It offers viewers the chance to select individual and dowloadable segments and covers the following subject areas:
- Legal Overview
- Legal Liability and Liability Scenarios
- Framing Your e-Safety Policy and Procedures Checklist
- Building e-Safety Into Your Infrastructure and Policy and Infrastructure Scenarios
Further information and downloads on the JISC Legal Website.
Even if you weren't able to attend the JISC Conference this year you can still get your goody bag. The bag is packed full of free digital resources relating to sessions and activities from the conference. You will find links to useful websites, blogs and electronic documents as well as speaker presentations, keynote videos and much more. See the Virtual Goody Bag on the JISC website.
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