Last month Helen Clare, was joined by Stuart Fancey, Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Ben Raynor, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), to discuss the future research assessment programme (FRAP), why it was initiated, its scope and the key aims of the programme.
Together they delve into why it’s important that the UK has a way of assessing research on a national scale, what has changed since REF2021 and how FRAP aims to listen to the views and concerns of the sector.
Finally, this episode gleams insights into how the FRAP team are planning to get an understanding of international research assessment practice and the alignment between FRAP and Jisc’s priorities.
Stuart Fancey
Director of research and innovation at the Scottish Funding Council
Ben Raynor
Senior research manager at Higher Education Funding for Wales
Helen Clare
Senior e-infrastructure strategy manager (skills), Jisc
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
Jasmin Standish
Marketing officer, Jisc
via Jisc news
The Publications division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and Jisc consortium have reached a transitional agreement which will serve researchers in the UK across all fields of chemistry.
The three-year agreement, which will last through 2024, provides the ability for all scientific articles published by researchers at UK universities and research institutes in ACS journals to be open access (OA) at no cost to the researcher.
Anna Vernon, Jisc’s head of portfolio, content licensing, said:
"We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the American Chemical Society that will enable UK researchers to access and publish OA in all ACS’s journals.
“This new agreement extends OA publishing opportunities to more institutions, authors and publications and will enable UK researchers to share their findings more easily, aiding collaboration and accelerating new discoveries in chemistry and beyond.”
James Milne, PhD, president, ACS Publications division, said:
“We are delighted to partner with Jisc in this transformative agreement. Scientists in the UK are performing world-class research and regularly publish their best work in ACS journals.
"This agreement will help them to easily and effectively communicate their discoveries to the global chemistry community in a way that is aligned to both funder and institutional requirements.”
Over the past several years, ACS has expanded its read and publish program significantly as it supports researchers in the transition to an OA future. Researchers at more than 400 institutions in more than 20 countries are covered under a read and publish agreement, resulting in a rapid growth of OA articles published by the Society. ACS is committed to continuously innovating new open science solutions to serve its growing author and reader community.
via Jisc news
UK institutions are in negotiation with Springer Nature to secure a transitional open access (OA) agreement for the Nature, Nature research journals and Palgrave journals. A proposal that meets the requirements of the sector has not yet been provided.
In accordance with UKRI OA policy, while Springer Nature provides a compliant route to OA publishing in Nature, Nature research journals and Palgrave journals via immediate publishing of the Version of Record OA under a CC BY licence, authors (and their institutions) who submitted manuscripts after 1 April are not able to use UKRI OA funds to pay for article processing charges (APCs) in these titles as they are hybrid journals and not part of a transitional arrangement that meets the sector’s requirements.
In recognition that negotiations are ongoing, Springer Nature is seeking to register these titles as Jisc-approved transformative journals and to meet requirement 1.2 for UKRI-funded authors during the period 1 April 2022 to 31 December 2022.
Springer Nature is currently in the application process for approval of these titles to become transformative journals.
If the application is successful, two routes will be available to UKRI authors: deposit of the accepted manuscript with no embargo and with CC BY or gold OA (paying an APC).
If the title is a Jisc-approved transformative journal, UKRI OA funds may be used for associated OA charges. If the title is not accepted as a Jisc transformative journal, UKRI OA funds may not be used. Authors are advised to consult their institution regarding use of UKRI funds to cover APCs.
Springer Nature has also stated that it will ‘guarantee a compliant route to publication for UKRI-funded corresponding authors submitting to these titles from 1 April 2022 to 31 December 2022’. Prior to any accepted transitional arrangement, authors will need to follow Springer Nature’s process to take advantage of this guarantee, as set out in the Springer Nature frequently asked questions.
Since a compliant route is not necessarily a route that is eligible for UKRI OA funds, it is advisable for authors to include the licensing notification statement in their article submissions if they wish to make use of this guarantee.
Authors can check the status of Nature, Nature research journals and Palgrave journals at Sherpa and Journal Checker Tool.
via Jisc news
Jisc and the Royal Society of Chemistry have extended and revised their transformative agreement until the end of 2024. Now utilising all previous expenditure to support open access (OA) publications, the deal covers all expected publishing output in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s hybrid journals portfolio.
Rapidly increasing OA publishing in the UK and offering full funder compliance, the deal means that authors at qualifying institutions can make articles publicly available in the society’s hybrid portfolio at no cost to them.
Researchers at participating institutions can also benefit from fast publication times, a reduced financial and administrative burden when publishing, and a substantial boost to their own profile as a scientist.
Paul Lewis, chief operating officer at the Royal Society of Chemistry, said:
“Supporting our valued community in the UK with a transitional publishing model is an important stepping-stone on the journey to open access, so I welcome the extension of the agreement with Jisc and the institutions it represents. More than ever, we need science to deliver solutions to the global challenges we all face, so I am proud to see the RSC play its part in supporting OA publishing and empowering UK scientists to showcase their cutting-edge research to a global audience.”
Emma Wilson, Royal Society of Chemistry director of publishing, said:
“The relationships we have with our publishing community in the UK are integral to our purpose as an organisation, so I am enormously pleased to be extending the agreement with Jisc. We know that our transformative approach supports both individual researchers and the world-leading institutions where they work, so this is an important step forward.”
Anna Vernon, Jisc's head of portfolio, content licensing, said:
“This agreement builds on our work to support institutions and research funders in a rapid and cost-effective transition to open access. We are very pleased to have extended our OA agreement with the Royal Society of Chemistry, which means that all UK authored research in RSC’s hybrid journals will be published OA from 1 January 2022.
"This, combined with the fact that OA articles are used and cited more, means even greater reach and impact for UK researchers and the chemical sciences.”
via Jisc news
Jisc’s national centre for AI launches pilot of Graide, a digital assessment platform developed by students at the University of Birmingham.
Jisc is helping UK universities explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can reduce workload for their staff by piloting Graide, an AI-based digital assessment and feedback platform.
Supported by Jisc’s national centre for AI in tertiary education, teachers of STEM subjects at four universities will test how Graide, which uses AI to automate repetitive marking tasks, can help them cut marking times and respond to learners faster.
Manjinder Kainth, Graide’s CEO, says:
“We built Graide while working as teaching assistants in the University of Birmingham. Based on our own experiences, we designed it to be as flexible and easy to use as possible.
"It accepts handwriting, doesn’t require programming, and fits into existing workflows – all of which saves time and effort. Our studies have shown that it can speed up marking by up to 89% over paper-based methods.”
Graide, which is now in use at the University of Birmingham, gives students quality feedback at pace whilst also optimising the grading process for educators.
The platform uses AI to analyse student responses during marking, allowing teachers to give feedback anywhere on the student’s approach, not just the final answer. It also learns how educators give feedback, so they never have to mark the same method twice. The ability to mark multiple responses in parallel saves valuable time.
Creative Commons attribution information
An example of the Graide interfaceAll rights reserved
Graide also aims to boost staff responsiveness by providing rapid feedback and, unlike fully automated solutions, it gives the formative feedback that students need. In addition, it provides aggregate class analytics so that educators can see where students are struggling and update their teaching accordingly.
In the first stage of the pilot, Jisc and participating universities will work with Graide to pinpoint where it could add the most value. Participants will then use Graide directly while Jisc evaluates its benefits. On completion of the pilot, a report will be published so that other institutions can learn about the effectiveness of using AI in digital marking and assessment.
Jisc’s head of edtech, Sue Attewell, says:
“This work with Graide is part of Jisc’s program to increase the skills, understanding and readiness of the education sector for a digitised future.
"The pilot will enable all participants to find out more about the positive impacts of using AI. At the same time, implementing Graide will help staff increase their confidence and skills in using the AI tools needed for Education 4.0.”
via Jisc news
In this episode, host Helen Clare is joined by Donna Swann, chief of staff, Advanced Research Computing Centre at University College London to discuss UCL's review of their research management systems, what they learnt and what their biggest challenge is moving forward.
In this episode we also delve into what Donna believes the research community at UCL is looking for, what impact she believes this work will have on the wider research sector and the technical challenges faced in managing an interconnected research ecosystem.
Donna also provides advice for other institutions on how they can conduct a similar review, the barriers she envisions universities will face in sustaining an effective “digital research ecosystem” and where she thinks Jisc is uniquely placed in helping.
Donna Swann
Chief of staff, Advanced Research Computing Centre, University College London
Helen Clare
Senior e-infrastructure strategy manager (skills), Jisc
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
Jasmin Standish
Marketing officer, Jisc
via Jisc news
JMIR Publications, a leading publisher of digital health research, and Jisc, have entered a two-year pilot agreement offering member institutions unlimited open access (OA) publishing for a flat fee.
This agreement, around the JMIR family of journals, is an important step to preserve author choice in light of increasing consolidation within the publishing ecosystem, allowing UK institutions to support both their researchers and independent OA publishing in the rapidly-growing digital health space.
The collaboration between JMIR and Jisc – incorporating feedback from consortium members – has produced a deal that combines a seamless process for authors and value in article processing charges (APCs) for librarians, while encouraging innovation.
In addition to a simple pathway to publication in high-impact journals and quality copyediting offered to all JMIR authors, institutions enrolling in the agreement will also benefit from:
Jisc and JMIR share a commitment to leveraging digital technologies in scholarly communications to meaningfully advance the transition to OA.
Anna Vernon, Jisc’s head of portfolio: content licensing, said:
“Jisc is committed to helping its members publish and provide open access to research by securing deals on their behalf with a wide range of publishers. This pilot agreement will enable UK researchers to publish in their journals for a flat fee. From digital health in the broadest sense: ranging from apps, wearables, to medical informatics and more traditional disciplines, such as cardiology and oncology, this agreement will lower barriers to publishing.”
Adrian Stanley, General Manager at JMIR Publications, said:
“We’re delighted to partner with an organization as innovative and respected as Jisc. This is an exciting opportunity to protect diversity in the publishing landscape and to offer members a simple path to OA publishing in high-impact journals.”
If you are interested in learning more about the agreement and how your Jisc-affiliated institution can participate please email jisc-partnerships@jmir.org and copy Harriet Notman (harriet.notman@jisc.ac.uk).
Are you a non-Jisc affiliated author or librarian? JMIR would love to hear from you as well by emailing them at partnerships@jmir.org
via Jisc news
In this episode, we chat with Dimitra Simeonidou, a professor at the University of Bristol, about the future of 5G and 6G connectivity.
Dimitra explains how 5G has caused digital transformation and revolution, and how 6G will enable great advances such as smart cities and kick off another generation of innovation. She considers ethics and digital accountability, and how we need to innovate responsibly for the future. We also delve into areas such as the Metaverse and immersive living, and how this could impact our future.
We conclude with a look into the near future with smart cities, smart universities, and smart campuses and how infrastructure is key to offer end users the many benefits these innovations can provide.
Professor Dimitra Simeonidou
Head of Bristol Digital Futures Institute, and director of the Smart Internet Lab
Andy Powell
Cloud chief technology officer, Jisc
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
via Jisc news
Jisc announces today that its newly designed managed firewall service for UK colleges, universities, research centres and the public sector will be built and operated by KHIPU Networks.
Developed in response to sector need, the service will help protect organisations connected to Janet, the Jisc-run national research and education network.
A leading managed security service provider (MSSP) with experience in the delivery of UK services, KHIPU is already familiar to the sector as it also runs Jisc’s simulated phishing and training service.
Jisc’s chief information security officer (CISO), Steve Kennett, said:
“We know that security posture across further and higher education varies and that some organisations lack the skilled staff and resources required to implement the right controls and processes.
“This is where the new managed firewall service can take the strain and provide peace of mind by implementing best practice configuration and ongoing management, 24/7.
“We have chosen KHIPU Networks to operate our service because, having worked together on other services, we have confidence it has both the right expertise and a first-rate platform to best serve our members and customers.”
David Spence, account director at KHIPU Networks, said:
“We are very pleased to have been selected by Jisc as its partner to deliver a managed firewall service. Our broad experience in the delivery of cyber services means we can support the sector at scale, while keeping pace with the ever-changing threat landscape.
“Having already established a long-term, successful partnership with Jisc, our combined experience and capabilities will offer the community a trusted, flexible and cost-effective managed firewall service that will meet the needs of any sized institution.”
Intelligence accrued from the firewall service will be analysed through Jisc’s security information and event management (SIEM), and will provide Jisc's cyber threat intelligence team with further insight into the wider threat landscape affecting members and customers.
The project now moves to the design validation and build phase ready for launch in the summer. Development will be shaped by selected early adopters from the sector.
Members wanting to hear more about the managed firewall service should visit the Jisc website, sign up for Jisc’s annual Networkshop conference (8-10 June) in Nottingham, or get in touch with their account manager.
via Jisc news
UK universities have reached a three-year agreement with Elsevier providing both unlimited open access publishing and access to paywalled journal articles for a significant reduction on current institutional spend.
Jisc’s managing director of higher education and research, Liam Earney, said:
“We have achieved an outcome that meets the requirements of UK institutions. This is thanks to the hard work of the sector and the negotiations team and the strong partnership approach adopted throughout the process.
“This agreement meets all the core requirements of the sector and the contract has now been signed.
“This is the world’s largest Open Access (OA) agreement with Elsevier and is unique both in the level of savings and the access it delivers and is a major step in the transition towards full, equitable and affordable transition to open scholarship.
“The agreement provides unlimited and immediate open access to Elsevier ScienceDirect’s publications, as well as significant savings on total sector spend. This means that, alongside the sector’s other open access agreements, 80% of UK research can be made open access at no cost to authors.
“However, there is still much more work to be done and Jisc will continue to work with the sector through the negotiation of transitional and OA agreements which enable UK research output to be published OA in accordance with UK funder policies.”
Find out more about the negotiations.
via Jisc news
As part of our rethinking assessment and feedback mini-series, Sarah Knight is joined by Gill Ferrell to chat about the newly released review into the UK assessment and feedback landscape in higher education.
This episode forms part of our mini-series ‘rethinking assessment and feedback’ hosted by Sarah Knight. Over the next few months these episodes, Sarah will chat with experts from universities across the world about how they are rethinking their assessment and feedback practices.
Gill discusses the results of a survey of 46 higher education providers on what aspects of assessment and feedback they are currently supporting with technology, what has changed over time, and their current use of online submissions and marking.
Sarah also chats with Gill about the principles of good assessment and feedback featured in our new guide. Gill shares some real-world examples from universities across the world of how some of these principles are effectively being applied today.
Gill Ferrell
Consultant
Sarah Knight
Head of learning and teaching transformation, higher education, Jisc
Follow Sarah on Twitter
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
via Jisc news
The shift towards online and blended learning has increased the need for library and learning resources to be more widely available in electronic format, which creates both opportunity and challenge in equal measure.
Jisc hears anecdotally that economic and technological changes in the current publishing market have led to libraries being increasingly priced out of providing e-books and e-textbooks for students and library users.
A recent example is the short-term notification from the publisher, Pearson, to universities and colleges that subscription models and price increases (as much as 500%) would be implemented mid-academic year.
Jisc’s head of sector strategy (teaching and learning), Karla Youngs, says:
“The pandemic highlighted the challenges institutions are facing to balance the increased demand for digital and other resources against shrinking budgets.
“The library staff we work with tell us that finding the right balance is becoming ever more difficult, given the financial stretch that institutions are dealing with because of the long-term impacts from the pandemic.
"Consideration of these issues is important as we approach the planning activity to put in place budgets and activity for the next academic year.”
Jisc has pledged to help students and teachers in higher and further education to gain equitable and sustainable access to digital teaching content. It has also lobbied publishers about changes to pricing and subscription models, representing the voice of the sector with a view to changing approaches and impositions made to libraries.
In the meantime, Youngs says that collaboration across campuses is crucial to purchasing and overall institutional efficiency.
Library budgets are generally used to support multi-subject resources as well as core resources for subject disciplines. Specific learning resources are often bought by the specific department or faculty, sometimes outside of any library procurement workflow and without any discussion/reference point. This can cause problems, as Youngs describes:
“If disparate purchasing is widespread, the institution, as a whole, may not understand the full cost of library and learning resources and cannot ensure that best pricing, and terms and conditions are achieved across the board for license subscriptions. Costs may spiral out of control.”
The solution, she says, is collaboration:
“To tackle these problems, teaching and library staff must work together, deepening relationships that were formed during the pandemic, when library staff were under immense pressure to produce digital learning resources for all.
“Consolidating purchase requests can enable cost-effective procurement of resources, and cross-team working should also work to bring together access technology systems, so individuals, both staff and students, can get what they need with ease.”
Laura George, a tutor librarian at City of Plymouth College, has a remit that includes liaising with staff and students to ensure that learning resources are fit for purpose, relevant and accessible. She says:
“I realised that forming relationships with managers and lecturers was important. I knocked on doors and invited myself to academy meetings to meet the staff, talk about the library and make connections with people.
“There were gaps in the links between learning resources and staff, and this showed in our stock. Most of the spending choices were made by other library staff without consultation with lecturers and reading lists were not prioritised for lecturers. Similarly, lecturers knew very little about e-books and other resources.
“I put myself forward as a staff trainer so that I could teach lecturers how to use e-books and understand the benefits to students. I invited staff into the library to review the collection and encouraged them to tell us about the topics they covered and point out material that was out of date.
“I also liaised with higher education lecturers, asking them to share their course or module guides with me. Armed with all this knowledge, I could start refreshing the whole collection.”
George extended her learning to external contacts, too, making an effort to visit other colleges and inviting reps from publishing companies to showcase new material. Her hard work paid off:
“The benefit of this effort to our service has been tangible. We have increased the number of visitors, increased the use of resources and the library has a better reputation as a service within the college. Student feedback has been more positive too. It feels like our library is progressing rather than stagnating.”
As learning resource facilitator at Fareham College, Ant McNulty manages the use of devices, books and other printed materials, supports curriculum staff to find hard-copy and digital resources, and helps to build resources for online courses.
He says that the learning resource centre has become the hub for learning materials and the ‘go-to’ place for online resources.
“Curriculum staff know we are here to provide advice and support and students know they can ask questions and get advice to find what they need. We also help them research topics online.”
Like George, McNulty sees the benefit of cross-campus join-up:
"If the learning resource centre didn’t collaborate across the college, the system would be disparate, and resources and effort would be duplicated.
“While I am aware of the range of resources, other staff may not, and it's important to ensure that existing resources are fully utilised."
To support and build a community of sharing good practice, Jisc has sponsored the FE learning resources and library services community of practice, which, in its first year, has more than 250 members.
This community has ownership of its community of practice and determines which subjects and activity it covers. ‘Building a learning society through curriculum engagement’ is one topic, which supports the development of relationships with curriculum staff.
Mishka Fielding, Loreto Sixth Form College, chair of the leadership group managing the community of practice (CoP), explains:
“The CoP understands that building a learning society in our colleges is as much about educating teaching staff about the value of a library service and its team, as it is the students.
“The CoP is building a bank of tried and tested methods and resources that will encourage teaching staff to work with library staff, realising the advantages and benefits of their expertise and positive impact on teaching and learning.”
Anyone interested in joining the conversation, can sign up to join the FE learning resources and library services community of practice.
via Jisc news
Jisc has partnered with Wazoku to launch an innovative competition for students, who could win up to £5,000 or an internship.
Jisc and Wazoku have launched an innovative competition for students, who could win up to £5,000 or an internship.
The Open Innovation competition gives UK students the chance to tackle several ‘challenges’ created in collaboration with international organisations the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory, Thales and the New Zealand Defence Force.
Innovation scale-up Wazoku will help bring the winning students’ ideas to market through its powerful open innovation platform and community, InnoCentive. Jisc, the UK’s edtech not-for-profit for tertiary education, will make it easy for students to access the platform.
Andy McGregor, director of edtech at Jisc, says:
“This initiative is designed to help students improve their employability. It’s a great opportunity for UK students in further and higher education to enhance their CV and make valuable contacts at major employers. At the same time, they can make a difference by trying to solve important problems that could have a real impact on the future of work.”
Open to undergraduates and graduates, the challenges invite individuals or teams of four to submit innovative solutions to a wide-ranging set of complex real-life business challenges as specified by industry leaders:
With a global community of almost 500,000 on-demand expert problem solvers from within and outside industry, Wazuko empowers organizations to solve complex problems and continually drive innovation by helping them find, capture and share ideas.
Simon Hill, CEO, Wazoku, says:
“Open innovation is a way for organisations to look beyond their own boundaries for ideas and inspiration and access a much broader set of skills, experience and expertise. It’s already used in many areas of industry, and this competition is a unique opportunity for the companies involved to tap into the brainpower of UK students. There is huge value in the collective crowd, and I can’t wait to see what the UK student body comes up with.”
Find out more about the competition.
via Jisc news
Lord Knight outlines his views on how the effective use of technology can improve the human elements of learning.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but technology really can make learning a more profoundly human experience, says Lord Jim Knight.
“We must never lose sight of the fact that learning should essentially be a social activity. Used well, technology can take away the routine didactic elements of education, freeing lecturers and learners to focus on making the whole process more joyous.
"There are barriers to be overcome, but the prize is so great that we can’t allow resistance to change to stand in the way.”
That prize, according to Knight, is an education system designed with heart, wellbeing and humanity right at its core. But, he warns, we need to move fast if both learners and employers are to benefit from it.
Change in education needs to happen on a sectoral, not just an individual basis, argues Knight.
Partnerships are essential for collaboration and sharing. Both further and higher education need to tie in more closely with business and industry. Employers need to play their part by ensuring that they connect with education at an earlier stage.
Students should probably, he admits, have more of a say in what technology is used so that we can take advantage of their alternative viewpoints, which in turn requires students to be more active in their participation in the whole education process.
Do FE and HE meet the skills needs of industry? It’s a huge challenge that needs to be addressed very quickly, says Knight.
“Agility is critical. The system is currently too wedded to formal qualifications and too slow to adapt to the needs of a rapidly shifting labour market. The best way to address this is through partnerships and sharing across the whole sector.”
Change is happening fast, he says. The current difficulty of finding low-wage workers is accelerating a new wave of automation that is set to transform areas like auditing, and Knight finds it puzzling that growing trends such as AI are not sufficiently reflected in the curriculum.
“We need to go much much faster to achieve agility and tightness with the future labour market. For example, electric cars are now everywhere – but are institutions producing candidates to meet the demand for people to work on them?
"It’s the same with AI. Businesses can’t wait around for people to acquire formal qualifications; they need to identify learners with the right skills early and bring them to market. And we need to provide a home for that talent so we don’t lose it elsewhere.”
Partnerships are key here – both between industry and education, and between the different sectors of education. FE and HE need to partner more to reach all areas - both in terms of geography and diversity.
The pandemic has shone a light on digital poverty and it’s now more profoundly important than ever to resolve issues around connectivity, says Knight.
“More than 2million households in this country still have no internet access. There has been more resource applied to helping these people get online, but so much more can be done. For example, some US school libraries now lend students devices with connectivity.
"Access to knowledge is what libraries are all about, so this is a natural extension. We need more of that sort of thinking.”
Digital equity is constantly being redefined, however. While the metaverse might enable education in a virtual world, the wider use of VR/AR could simply magnify the issue of digital poverty. In the past, learners started with a book list; now they need a laptop; in the future, will they also need to buy expensive headsets, haptic gloves etc in order to keep up?
Now more than ever, FE and HE staff need to use the right blend of technology and personal contact to ensure the right outcomes for students. It’s clear that we should be looking to the future while retaining the best bits of what we have already learnt.
As Knight points out:
“Simply replicating pre-pandemic programs and translating them to online learning will always be sub-standard. Different media can be used to capture innovation.
"At the most basic level, a lecturer could use video posted on Youtube to capture instructional elements and share them with learners, allowing them to absorb the information at their own pace. Then they might use a survey app for rapid formative assessment so that when face-to-face meetings do take place, both lecturer and learner are aware of any problems and they can be quickly addressed.
"In the future, AI can be used to build a more granular profile of the learner and their progress.”
According to Knight, one of the main blockers to the adoption of edtech in general is accountability. Edtech is dependent upon data for intelligence, and we need to take into account the ethical issues of using the data that has been collected - for example, guarding against algorithmic bias when profiling learners. But these issues should not stand in the way of embracing technology.
In Knight's view:
“The goal is achieving a balance in the transactional value of learning: what are the students getting back in benefits from what they are giving to the system?”
“We must keep on challenging in order to get the right ethical solutions in place so that we can all go ahead on the basis of consent. We need transparency and accountability for users. We need more bandwidth and more capability.
"None of this is simple - but we can’t let the complexities of the problem hold us back from adopting technology as an enabler for an improved education system.”
Ultimately, says Knight, technology can take away the routine and drudgery from learning, making it a richer, more social and more joyful experience.
Lord Knight is speaking at Digifest on 8 March at 10:30.
via Jisc news
With the expansion of T-levels and the technology revolution driven by industry 4.0, preparing learners for placements and careers beyond is a high priority for the further education (FE) sector.
FE providers must help learners develop a wide set of technical know-how, soft skills and behaviours they will need to thrive in a competitive workplace.
To support this, Middlesbrough College, working in partnership with Discover eLearning, four other Teesside colleges and local employers, has designed the Skillspace web app.
Designed as part of a College Collaboration Fund project, Skillspace takes learners on a digital journey - encouraging them to develop, hone and record skills applicable to their course and to showcase these skills in multi-media. It acts a bit like an interactive CV and, once complete and polished, can be uploaded and shared on social media.
The app was born from a piece of work that Middlesbrough and other colleges were doing around developing learner wellbeing, when the link between resilience, wellbeing and employability became apparent.
Middlesbrough’s director of teaching and learning, Gordon Duffy-McGhie, explains:
“We were picking up frustration among employers about learners’ inability to stick with a problem through to the end, to find multiple solutions, and to relish failure as a learning experience. The lack of resilience is part of the reason we started Skillspace.
“Students missed out on using and honing many skills during the pandemic lockdowns and they’re left with a lack of confidence. A large number of learners lost their Saturday jobs because of COVID-19 and nearly all missed work placements.
“When looking for placements, we were finding that learners were still sending off written cover letters and paper CVs, which feels quite old and flat. Skillspace changes that.
“The front face of the app is a digital CV. It’s a video, where students introduce themselves on camera, they can showcase their work on a green screen, talk through the things that they've created and explain their career aspirations.
“Through creating that presentation video, and a digital portfolio of work, they're learning a wide range of technical and soft skills.
“At the end of the process, learners can choose to post their app and its contents to LinkedIn and be ‘discovered’.”
Learners’ Skillspace journey begins with an employability questionnaire, where learners self-assess against a range of skills, workplace behaviors, and English, maths and digital competencies.
This initial benchmark is timestamped and recorded, and activity and resources automatically suggested to help them work on weak areas. As they progress, learners can gain skills ‘badges’ which are also recorded in the app and give potential employers a clear idea of competencies.
The bonus is that Skillspace technology works just as well for those learners who find it difficult to present well on camera. One learner created a voiceover integrated with pictures. Another replicated the cards-on-the-doorstep scene from Love Actually, and one animated an avatar of themselves so that their mouth moved in time with the audio. There’s also text to speech functionality.
When exploring how to creatively upskill learners, the college started to look at Lego serious play theory and constructionist education theory, which assumes that if someone can build something they probably understand the processes involved in doing it.
In groups, and outside any formal coursework, the learners are set challenges, such as to build a robot from a limited number of Lego pieces and coding scripts and set it to tackle a course in the fastest possible time.
Duffy-McGhie says:
“We started to find that this kind of physical, active play helped learners feel better, helped them grow in confidence and to think and work together to problem-solve as they would in a workplace.
“The learners develop soft skills like collaboration, communication and presentation skills and a sense of responsibility, autonomy and independence.”
Creating a final presentation in Skillspace gives learners rich digital experiences such as script writing for an autocue, presenting to camera and adding background effects to a green screen. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) play a significant part, too.
Duffy-McGhie adds:
"The physical active play sessions and the use of AR/VR opens learners’ minds to the fact that there are multiple ways of tackling everything, and that builds collaboration and communication skills and boosts confidence, too.
“The AR/VR suite has become a drop-in space where learners can book a slot, learn a bit more about block coding, or rich html or java script, or something else that they're interested in.
“One of the biggest areas we identified for development is the ability to communicate in different forms to different audiences. To help this, we created a haunted house world in Minecraft and, using a VR headset or via a desktop, learners explore the space and look for a series of sentences.
“The challenge is to use the sentences to construct a short story, which is then submitted to a panel. We offer Amazon vouchers for the best story, the chance to read it out in front of a guest audience and we publish it within the college, too, so there’s a sense of achievement.
"Some of our childcare students created a virtual forest school, with embedded content of them presenting activities for young children. In the background are the sounds of water, fire and the crackle of the leaves. Bringing a forest school to life in this way is powerful.”
Another development area was the ability to meet and engage with new people.
Duffy-McGhie says:
“We're finding that, through the video creation process, that's being developed organically because learners have to liaise with the content developer, with the cinematographer, with the people who are uploading their work.
“Before they meet an employer, we take learners through a mock interview and these are proving easier now because they've got the video they’ve already made playing in their head as a reference.”
At the end of the process, the college finds that any initial anxiety around appearing on video has dissipated. Instead, Duffy-McGhie says, the learners feel “enlightened and invigorated” and are happy to share with friends and family and online.
Find out more at Jisc’s edtech conference, Digifest, where Gordon Duffy-McGhie is speaking at 12:30 on Tuesday 8 March. While registration for Digifest has closed, you can still sign up for post-even access to selected sessions online.
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For the past two-and-a-half years, Siemens’ Connected Curriculum initiative has partnered with universities to help equip graduates with a broad range of cutting-edge, industry-relevant skills.
Primarily, Connected Curriculum is focused on engineering and links a range of topics, including software engineering, mechanical production, automation and PLC programming.
Under the leadership of former FE assistant principal, Dr Steve Jones, the scheme has, to date, worked with students from Level 4 upwards.
Now expanding to include the further education sector, a new link has been forged with an Institute of Technology (IoT). This will bring on board three FE colleges and four more universities, with additional IoT partnerships in the pipeline.
Recognising the important role colleges play in preparing the next generation of technically skilled workers, Jisc is encouraging FE leaders to link curricula with the emerging technologies of the fourth industrial revolution (industry 4.0). Connected Curriculum fits perfectly with that aim.
Explaining the reasoning behind Connected Curriculum, Jones’ says:
“Siemens takes graduates into the business annually and we notice there is a shortfall in their understanding of digitalisation. Often, we have to retrain these young people to align with our business interests and the technology that we deal with.
“Connected Curriculum aims to provide students with industrial experience. We demonstrate the technologies that we want academia to consider in curricula. It makes sense for us to help teachers, lecturers and students see the industrial world from our perspective and to support learners in making a smooth transition into the workplace of industry 4.0.
“Siemens’ roots are in vocational training and, as well as graduates, we take on a lot of apprentices. We’re about applied engineering after all, which is what colleges do well, so we're looking to IoTs to help us connect industry with higher and further education.”
Among the ‘new’ approaches to engineering that Siemens demonstrates under Connected Curriculum is virtual commissioning and the concept of the ‘digital twin’.
Jones, who says this will “predominate” in industry, explains:
“It’s about working smarter and more efficiently by building virtual machines, complete with computer-controlled systems, which can be tested and tweaked prior to commissioning the real thing. Because we make automation products and own software to emulate that automation, we can emulate this process virtually.
“We are leaders in this area and see digitalisation and virtual commissioning as a general direction of travel for the industry.
“As a global enterprise, Siemens is at the forefront of developing a lot of technologies and has invested billions in automation and digital twinning approaches.
“We've made huge acquisitions of aligned companies and knitted all the software together to realise the digitalisation dream of data integration through the design to manufacturing process and the supply chain.
“This is something that any sector, including education, can appreciate. It takes work, but integrating systems and connecting data flows can lead to all sorts of positive outcomes, including savings and efficiencies, better-informed decision-making, and better feedback for staff and students.”
Students benefit from Connected Curriculum in a variety of ways, bringing together a bundle of Siemens’ hardware, software, curriculum examples, case studies, and real-life problem-solving tutorials.
Now resuming post-COVID-19, Siemens offers physical tours of its Digital Experience Centre in Manchester, where automation experts talk about digitalisation and demonstrate these key technologies.
Engineers also engage directly with students on projects. For example, they worked together in 2020 on the government’s challenge to massively upscale ventilator production. This is when digitialisation and the digital twin came into its own – making virtual collaboration possible when physical contact was impossible.
Some of the students who have been through Connected Curriculum now work directly for Siemens, while others, says Jones, are able to use their experience and examples of how they’ve worked on cutting edge technology to successfully apply for jobs after graduation.
Jisc’s MD of FE and skills, Robin Ghurbuhurn, has arranged for college principals to visit the Connected Curriculum centre and Jones will be presenting at Jisc’s Digifest 2022 event at 14:00 on Tuesday 8 March 2022.
While registration for Digifest has closed, you can still sign up for post-event access to sessions online.
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Today, Jisc launched a new tool that will help UK further education (FE) and skills providers to benchmark – and so improve - their digital status.
The interactive and online FE and skills digital elevation tool allows providers to review where they are on the journey towards being a fully digitally capable organisation.
There are three levels of ‘digital elevation’ that organisations can benchmark against:
The purpose of the tool, which has been co-designed with providers and piloted by 30 colleges, is to help providers self-assess, to identify next steps towards improvement, and to signpost to helpful resources.
Among the pilots is Edinburgh College, whose assistant principal (quality and improvement), Kerry Heathcote, said:
“We utilised the digital elevation tool in a collaborative manner, systematically cross-referencing each of the assessments with the themes of our digital strategy 2020–2025. The accessible, intuitive platform and iterative nature of each element means that it has been highly effective at informing robust self-evaluation, action-planning, and review activity.”
Matt Tudor, director of commercial development, strategy and partnerships at Bridgwater and Taunton College, which also took part in the pilot, added:
“We decided to use the digital elevation tool to understand where we are on the digital transformation journey. What surprised us when we used it were the questions it raised that we hadn’t even thought of when embarking on this journey. We have now completed the assessment tool, have a clear action plan and are advancing at a far greater pace than we ever imagined.”
The tool is available now to all FE and skills Jisc members, regardless of their digital starting point, as part of their membership.
Jisc’s director of FE and skills, Paul McKean, who has largely overseen the development of the tool, said:
“The pandemic has really kick-started the process of digital elevation for FE and skills providers, but the use of technology across the sector remains mixed, with pockets of truly innovative practice. We hope this tool will drive strategic decisions and, ultimately, boost providers’ ability to prepare learners for an increasingly digital workplace.”
To find out more about the digital elevation tool and how it can help colleges improve institutional performance and outcomes, join Jisc's community fringe event, The uplift: elevating and transforming digital success, Friday 18 March 2022.
We're also running online demo sessions on Tuesday 22 March, Wednesday 30 March and Thursday 7 April where you can see a demonstration of how the tool works and ask any questions you have.
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Jisc is warning colleges and universities to ensure all possible defensive cyber security measures are in place in view of the heightened attack threat from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Director of security, Henry Hughes, warns:
“Education and research are likely targets, alongside other sectors, and reporting indicates that the chances of Russian state-sponsored action, including via social engineering, have increased significantly.
“Ensuring that fundamental protections are in place and are functioning correctly is the most important priority. This applies in normal circumstances but is now critical.
“Most colleges and universities should have already implemented the security measures described below and in the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) advice. Any that have not done so should take immediate action.
“Jisc will, as always, support members with technical advice where required, but it’s up to individual organisations to determine and fix their security weaknesses.
“Perfect security is an impossibility, but the strongest security posture is dependent upon a strategic approach. Senior leaders should be taking responsibility for the policies, processes and governance that foster a robust security culture across their organisation.”
Jisc’s computer security incident response team (CSIRT) is monitoring the situation, including known Russian groups.
The security protection check list includes:
To help harden security posture, colleges and universities can also benefit from the Janet Network resolver service, and critical services protection.
Colleges and universities that are impacted by attacks and need assistance or wish to share information about an incident, should contact Jisc CSIRT at irt@jisc.ac.uk or call 0300 999 2340.
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The latest cohort of Jisc community champions is an inspirational group of people who go above and beyond their usual roles in further and higher education to collaborate and share experiences for the good of all.
Their efforts to build communities not only cascades good practice, but also boosts wellbeing, by creating a sense of shared purpose, togetherness and support. In the words of one champion, Samantha Ahern from University College London:
“Community recognises our humanity; we are stronger together than alone. Our realities are socially constructed, and if we want to change them then we need to work together to imagine and construct new realities.”
Ahern is one of 17 champions selected by a panel of community representatives and Jisc staff from a pool of more than 60 nominations.
Paul Holland, associate dean for student learning and experience at Swansea University and a member of the selection panel, explains why community champions are so valuable:
“Some FE/HE staff have a calling to work beyond the boundaries of their paid roles. They actively bring people together and find common solutions to the wider issues that all education institutes grapple with. Recognising them as Jisc community champions helps value that extra effort and willingness to serve.
“As recognized leaders they are empowered to go further with the confidence they are doing the right thing. Emerging from the pandemic, the importance of such visible role models cannot be overstated.”
The community champions were asked what motivates them, why community is important and what it means to be recognised.
Chloë Hynes, who helped to develop PDNorth, an online community for practitioners in FE and skills, commented:
“Community is necessary for professional development (and wellbeing) because it provides a sense of belonging within a sector that can very often feel disparate, isolating, and inconsistent.”
PDNorth started as a programme funded by the Education and Training Foundation to facilitate exchange networks in the north of England. Hynes wanted to do more, so developed a space for practitioners to amplify their work via a monthly newsletter, YouTube channel and blog.
When the funding ended in summer 2020, Hynes kept giving her time because she believed in the ethos of practitioners being in control of their own CPD. PDNorth now has 100% practitioner-led content and has been renamed as FE tapestry.
Angela Dynes, from Northern Regional College, who was nominated for advocacy in the library sector, added:
“For me, community is about having a sense of belonging and bringing people together to not only achieve goals, but to feel part of something that we all care about.
“Community can help us to cultivate skills that we may not have realised we had. It’s also about being comfortable to express thoughts and generate new ideas about what we may value and how we can make things better for everyone.”
Collaboration is also important for the champions. Joshua Vicente, who works at University of Exeter and was nominated for his role as a volunteer mentor in the Prospects Discord Virtual Careers Fair, explained:
“Instead of working alone, we can achieve something far greater and more meaningful through collaboration, and that there are those out there who appreciate the work that goes into these communities.”
Vicente’s contribution aided the career development and learning of hundreds of early careers leaners. The community encourages communication without boundaries, inciting conversation between people who otherwise may not have been able to engage. Vicente is credited with inspiring pre-students and motivating graduates in sharing his knowledge of the IT careers market.
Ben Haddock was nominated for hosting meetups from Sandwell College’s ‘Fab Lab’. These live sessions and recordings share learning about teaching across a range of platforms and were a lifeline for practitioners through the pandemic. Haddock said:
“I strongly believe that everyone deserves to have a fantastic and stimulating education - and I hope that, through our work, we can encourage more educators to innovate and experiment. Little changes are no longer enough - we must find ways to deliver education in profoundly different ways than ever before.”
Community champions show us that by bringing people together we can make a difference. They do not do it for recognition, but it is important that they are recognised.
Head of community engagement at Jisc, Natasha Veenendaal, who founded the programme, explains:
“We see the power of collaboration across all FE, HE, and research. Members are supporting one another to expand learning, solve problems and improve the lives of others. It’s a privilege to get to know and celebrate those people. We hope that the community champions programme goes some way to show them how much they are appreciated.”
The benefit of recognition was echoed by champions. Matthew Deeprose, who works at the University of Southampton and was nominated for work related to accessibility, said:
“For me, the benefit of recognition is the hope that it brings validation and credibility to the work and aims of the community in the eyes of decision-makers and budget holders. Communities can build momentum from the ground up, but sustaining change requires buy-in and investment from the top.”
The champions will be coming together at Jisc’s annual edtech conference in March, Digifest, as community facilitators. They will also be sharing their experiences in an online community fringe session in early April.
Jon Hofgartner, assistant principal, digital technologies at Weston College and member of the selection panel, reflects:
“As I read the wide range of nominations for Jisc community champions, I was struck by the breadth and depth of community building activities and commitment to creating better outcomes and experiences for our students. My hope is that our selection of Jisc champions will leave a lasting legacy in FE and HE sectors, demonstrating the power of ‘community’ in education.”
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In this episode, we chat with Simon Hewitt, principal at Dundee and Angus College, about how they responded to a ransomware attack.
Simon talks through the devastating effects a ransomware attack had on his college, why it was able to happen, and what Dundee and Angus have put in place to deal with ransomware attacks in the future. He also discusses the impact the attack had on staff and how the experience has brought the team closer together.
We also consider how the attack was in some ways a blessing in disguise, as through developing a whole new system, Dundee and Angus College were in a much better place to deal with the pandemic.
Simon Hewitt
Principal at Dundee and Angus College
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Andy Powell
Cloud chief technology officer, Jisc
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
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Jisc and OCLC, a global library organisation, have signed an agreement meaning academic and specialist libraries across the UK will have better access to fit-for-purpose catalogue records and an enhanced ability to share and reuse bibliographic metadata.
Building on the aims of Plan M to streamline the metadata marketplace in the UK, this transitional agreement, which runs until July 2022, will allow subscribing libraries to access OCLC WorldCat cataloguing services - a comprehensive database of information about library services.
It will also enable all users of the Jisc Library Hub Cataloguing service to download full OCLC records. It also increases the global visibility of subscribing libraries by enabling catalogue data to be shared with WorldCat.
Neil Grindley, Jisc’s director of content and discovery, said:
“Aligned with community goals and based on extensive consultation, this first transitional phase of agreement represents an important step towards designing a more open library data ecosystem.”
David Prosser, executive director of Research Libraries UK, said:
“RLUK very much welcomes the agreement that has been reached between Jisc and OCLC. In addition to the benefit it will provide to libraries by making high quality catalogue data more accessible and shareable, it will also facilitate more effective partnership working to explore evolving challenges and emerging opportunities in relation to the data.”
The agreement provides a foundation for Jisc, OCLC and participating libraries to work closely together on shared challenges, towards the goal of more openly shareable data
The partnership will be used to accelerate the shift towards using linked data approaches to empower new research; and to undertake collaborative explorations of bias and misrepresentation in the discovery of resources to ensure diversity and inclusion.
OCLC is a global library organization that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large. With thousands of library members in more than 100 countries, OCLC comes together to make information more accessible and more useful.
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Today, Thursday 17 February, HESA and Jisc confirm that the two organisations are exploring a merger.
The proposed merger will provide significant benefits to UK higher education, combining the expertise of both organisations to create a resilient, joint capability for delivering the sector's data and digital needs.
HESA has been the designated data body (DDB) for higher education in England since 2018. Should HESA merge with Jisc, a new DDB will need to be designated. The Office for Students (OfS) is therefore launching a call for expressions of interest in becoming the DDB, to which Jisc will respond.
The OfS intends to consult further with the sector in spring 2022, following receipt of expressions of interest.
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GIDEON Informatics has partnered with Jisc for a one-year pilot agreement. Jisc members get an exclusive discount to access the GIDEON comprehensive infectious diseases database as part of the subscription offer.
Subscribers can leverage GIDEON’s web application and API (with a free R statistical package) to enhance their training, education, diagnostics, and research efforts.
The GIDEON database is a source of information on:
Kristina Symes, Managing Director of GIDEON Informatics stated:
“GIDEON’s partnership with Jisc arrives at the perfect time. Now, UK academics and educators get in-depth epidemiology data at the click of a button.”
She added:
“In the past few years, the UK’s academic bodies have had to adopt fully-online or hybrid learning models rapidly. Educators and students urgently need advanced digital resources to learn about, and fight against, infectious disease outbreaks.”
Caren Milloy, Jisc’s director of licensing, said:
“The GIDEON partnership is another significant agreement that enables our members to access critical health information that supports education and research.”
GIDEON offers a wide berth of data and tools like simulations for educators and students to explore. To benefit from the new GIDEON-Jisc partnership, visit Jisc’s catalogue.
For more information, email: info@gideononline.com
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In this episode, we chat with Rob Blagden, director of libraries, technology and information at the University of Gloucestershire.
Rob talks through the steps his university took to bring over almost all of their exams online, sharing the successes and hurdles they encountered along the way. He also goes through the feedback received from staff and students on the process.
We also discuss the future technologies that excite Rob, including artificial intelligence, machine learning and how cloud computing can help enable these.
Rob Blagden
Director of libraries, technology and information, University of Gloucestershire
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Georgie Myers
Senior media and communications officer, Jisc
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
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Jisc and Coherent Digital, a digital content and information services group, have signed an agreement to offer Mindscape Commons virtual reality (VR) content to both FE and HE institutions in the UK.
Mindscape Commons allows future counsellors, social workers, and psychologists to explore a variety of mental health experiences and to help students build empathy and develop critical clinical skills in a safe and repeatable setting. Content is enhanced with interactive quizzes, book chapters, discussion questions, and other tools to facilitate teaching and improve learning outcomes.
Launched in November 2020, Mindscape Commons is a source of VR and interactive video content for teaching and learning mental health. It offers hundreds of immersive and interactive, short-form, 360° and 2D videos for teaching and training. In service to the community, Mindscape Commons also aggregates and preserves open-source, research, and commercial VR content for free.
The agreement allows Jisc members to become members of Mindscape Commons. Elizabeth Robey, Publisher of Mindscape Commons, said:
“Jisc knows that digital technology has the ability to transform the student experience. We are honored to partner with Jisc in offering Mindscape Commons to members."
Joe Pettican, Jisc’s licensing portfolio specialist for learning and teaching, said:
“There is huge potential to make greater use of new virtual reality technologies, offering students and learners with the opportunity to access immersive, engaging learning experiences and experiential learning that is not otherwise possible. As such, Jisc is committed to supporting institutions in providing innovative resources for learners and students.
“We are looking forward to working with Coherent Digital on this exciting opportunity for both FE and HE colleges in the UK to expand their digital resources in the increasingly important areas mental health and emerging technologies.”
The agreement began on 1 February 2022, and all participating Jisc member institutions and affiliated researchers are eligible.
Read the Jisc report on AR and VR in learning and teaching.
via Jisc news