An in-depth look at cyber security, the types of attacks targeted at colleges and universities, and the measures taken to mitigate them.
Jisc’s chief security analyst Lee Harrigan-Green joins us this week to give insight on the cyber security threats facing institutions and their students.
In a fast-moving sector where preventative measures must stay ahead of new and evolving threats, Lee takes us through what individuals and organisations can do to stay secure online. Apprentice developer James Hodgkinson also joins the panel to discuss his experiences during his apprenticeship.
In a special expert practitioner segment, Jisc’s Matthew O’Donnell reveals the work of a penetration tester attempting to uncover chinks in the armour of institutions security.
For a comprehensive collection of resources and further information on cyber security, take a look at our cyber security pages.
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This May bank holiday weekend, 20,000 festival goers gathered in South Park in Oxford as part of the Common People festival, all waiting to see bands from Maximo Park to Morcheeba and the Jacksons, sample street food and maybe have a go on the world’s biggest bouncy castle.
DJ and Bestival co-founder Rob da Bank has said of the festival:
“All of us at festival headquarters love kicking our year off with Common People – it’s such an easy formula, turn up for lunchtime, have a great day and evening listening to great bands and DJs and eating some of the best festi-food around and then be in your own bed before midnight. Simple.”
This time around, ‘Instagrammable’ moments were captured without a hitch, snaps were swiftly sent, and the #commonpeopleox chat flowed freely, all thanks to Oxford Brookes University sharing their Janet Network connection with festival planners. Provided by Jisc, Janet is a research and education network that’s 200,000 times faster than the average home broadband. Event planners were pleased with the speed of the network, which allowed them to share communications with ease and ensured a great event all round.
The connection was tethered to the festival using 700 metres of single mode fibre from the university and up a hill to the festival venue. The fibre ran over a field, through trees (suspended around 15 metres above the ground), and into a university communications room in Cheney Student Village. Working together, Jisc, Pinnacom and Oxford Brookes University set up a network for the festival in only four hours.
Martin Stevenson, from Pinnacom said:
“At Pinnacom we facilitate internet connections for remote sites such as outdoor television broadcasts and events. Having been let down by an initial provider, we turned to Oxford Brookes for support and worked with them to tether their Janet connection to the festival. We couldn’t be more pleased with the result and are glad the festival had access to the fastest broadband in the city.”
Tim Loveday, network and security manager from Oxford Brookes said:
“We were very happy to be able to share our internet connection with the Common People festival. When we learnt that organisers were experiencing some issues we immediately notified members of our IT staff who were happy to help out and ensure a successful outcome. We are pleased to have been able to support this popular local event.”
Christian Evans, customer director at Jisc said:
“We were thrilled to bring the Janet Network to a festival, and are thankful to those who worked so hard to make it happen. Ordinarily Janet is used for UK education and research, but has been known to appear at festivals, and has even been used at the Edinburgh Fringe before. We look forward to bringing the Janet connection to more events in the future, in particular those aligned with education and research.”
A spokesperson from Common People said:
“Common People would like to thank Oxford Brookes University for bringing the Janet Network to South Park. Their superfast internet helped us showcase our festival to a huge audience”.
via Jisc news
Celebrating the careers of female tech experts, their motivations and the challenges they’ve faced in an industry where in the UK just one in six specialists are women.
Female representation in the tech sector has stalled over the last ten years despite efforts to encourage more women into the industry. Our panel this week, editor of Education Technology magazine Charley Rogers and Jisc training director Shirley Wood, discuss their careers, motivations, and what can be done to create a more diverse tech workforce and why this is important.
Our expert pratitioner this episode is Helen Richardson, learning, innovation and IT manager for Gateshead College, who gives us an insight into her career and the innovative work she's leading.
In the podcast Shirley mentions the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and host Laura refers to a previous episode of What the Edtech?! with Kenji Takeda and Daniela Duca discussing AI and bias. At the end of the episode our guests give their tech role models: Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Dame Stephanie Shirley (aka Steve Shirley), and Kate Bellingham.
@charley_rogers
@Educ_Technology
Take a look at the Education Technology website
Read Helen's LinkedIn profile
Take a look at the Gateshead College website
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Our experts explore the fascinating (and mind boggling) world of artificial intelligence (AI), and how cloud computing is changing how we think about access to technology.
In this episode Daniela Duca, a former Jisc senior co-design manager1, and Kenji Takeda, director of the Microsoft Azure for research program, have a fascinating chat about some pretty big ideas; the equipment data project, post-quantum cryptography, big data, the Cambrian explosion, AI and cloud and quantum computing.
We also hear from Miranda Mowbray, lecturer in Computer Science at University of Bristol, who dispels the magic surrounding machine learning. She also discusses her work identifying a tax on computer networks, discovering previously undetected malware.
Daniela mentioned Zooniverse, Galaxy Zoo and Citizen science. While Kenji spoke about the quantum development kit, Microsoft AI school, Microsoft/Internet of Things smart water system in India and, of course, the excellent Microsoft quantum cat video.
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An analytics service for universities, bringing together vast amounts of data to inform their business decisions, is one of the runners up at the 2018 National Technology Awards.
The Analytics Labs and community dashboards were jointly developed by Jisc and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), in collaboration with higher education professionals.
They bring together a vast amount of useful information, including:
The dashboards also allow universities to compare how they stack up against each other on measures such as race equality and income generation from research and businesses.
They were developed through a series of Analytics Labs made up of higher education professionals with the most promising ones published through HESA’s Heidi Plus service.
Myles Danson, senior co-design manager at Jisc, attended the ceremony along with HESA’s head of digital services Nicola Phelps at a venue in central London on Thursday.
Myles Danson said:
“On behalf of the Jisc team I’m delighted that we were in the running for a National Technology Award. Along the way we’ve coached and mentored 244 analysts from 96 universities and related organisations. We’re really proud of them.
“Their creativity coupled with our legal and technical framework is helping to deliver data derived business intelligence insights to the whole UK higher education sector. It’s fostering improved strategic decision making, ultimately striving towards better student experience, research, workforce, finances, estates and libraries.
“It’s a fantastic shared service to be involved in and we’re grateful for the recognition the project has had from being shortlisted.
Nicola Phelps of HESA said:
“The nomination of the Analytics Labs and Community Dashboards project for this award recognises the hard work and creativity of colleagues from across the higher education sector. Diverse groups of colleagues from different universities have come together to solve their common problems for the good of the whole sector.
“Using data from HESA and many other sources the teams have put together some incredibly innovative dashboards. It’s been a privilege for HESA and the Heidi Plus team to prepare the best of these to share on the Heidi Plus business intelligence service so the whole HE community can benefit from them.”
The first dashboards were published in September 2017, the second set following in January 2018, with more in the pipeline. The project seeks to help universities and colleges as they face mounting financial pressure and increasing overseas competition.
Find out more about the dashboards and how to access them.
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Student contracts, data collection, the ideas of students as customers, and the employability agenda all take a turn under the microscope...
Do the things students need match what they're telling us that they want? Sarah Knight, our head of change - student experience, and Paul Humphreys, CEO of StudentCrowd, explore the ways we find out, and discuss why it's so important that a culture of collaboration between staff and students is encouraged.
We also hear from expert practitioner Steve Frampton, principal at Portsmouth College, who shares his innovative vision for the college, and what the outcomes were after asking students what they wanted from their FE experience - timetables were shifted, budgets re-focused on different technology and more time was allocated to work experience, which has contributed to 93 young people volunteering in local primary schools.
The Jisc student tracker that Sarah mentioned is a short survey gathering students’ expectations and experiences of technology, and the student mental health charity that Paul spoke of was Student Minds.
Take a look at the digital student blog
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We explore the mysterious world of learning analytics, and how it can be used to enhance the student learning experience.
Paul Bailey, our senior co-design manager and Samantha Ahern, project officer at UCL, join us as the learning technology experts for episode four of What the Edtech?!
They discuss what data institutions are currently collecting on their students, consent and boundaries, and what the future holds for learning analytics.
Samantha mentioned a digital detox kit from Mozilla’s MozFest and a data playground project.
She's also written a series of blog posts on learning analytics as a tool for supporting student wellbeing, including:
Earlier this year we put together a guide to learning analytics which hopefully provides a useful overview of the subject.
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Jisc launches Global Connect and Global Partnership at TNC18.
The demand for UK transnational education (TNE) programmes has seen unprecedented growth in the past decade, with an 81% increase in the number of UK higher education (HE) TNE students since 2008-09.
According to the 2018 report from Universities UK, this equates to 1.6 times the number of international students studying within the UK in the same year.
While this growth presents huge opportunities for universities, it also presents some new challenges. One of the key challenges to meet at the outset is providing seamless connectivity between home and overseas sites.
One solution is Global Connect, a new service which is already successfully linking UK institutions with branch campuses in Malaysia and Malta, providing students and staff with the connectivity they expect.
Global Connect will ensure students can access course materials in real time, and not be waiting for better bandwidth out of hours.
Esther Wilkinson, head of international at Jisc, said:
"We know from the student digital experience tracker, a recent survey of more than 22,000 UK students, that 80% of HE students believe reliable wifi to be critical to accessing digital services. With TNE, the connectivity needs of students are no less, and these students are more likely to be reliant on virtual learning environments, powered by their internet service.
"Our members know how important it is to get the learning environment right and to deliver a seamless experience, which is why we’re launching both services now."
Global Partnership, also being showcased at TNC18 in Trondheim, is the second new service from Jisc to help provide the swift internet access expected by students and course tutors.
Designed to reduce the risks and challenges of working internationally, the service:
Esther Wilkinson added:
"The Janet Network, is one of the only national research and education networks (NREN) and internet service providers (ISP) in the world to offer dedicated services to support transnational education. We are encouraged by the ongoing requests for collaboration and look forward to working closely with in-country NRENs to deliver these new quality services to members."
The Global Connect and Global Partnership services were developed as pilot projects with Jisc members, through the TNE support programme. More services will be developed through this process to support UK higher education institutes with their ongoing TNE needs. The current TNE licensing pilot, which is due to finish in July 2018, will launch as a further new service shortly after.
For further information about these services, please contact transnational@jisc.ac.uk.
Esther Wilkinson and Richard French will be running a GÉANT-supported Special Interest Group meeting and a stand at TNC18, where delegates can find out more about Jisc’s work in supporting transnational education.
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Jisc has today recommended to the government that better use and investment in digital technology and skills can help reimagine the way teaching and learning is delivered across the post-18 education system for the benefit of all.
“Driving up quality, increasing choice and ensuring value for money are at the heart of the government’s post-18 review. We believe technology can transform each of these areas so that students get an education that is digitally enabled, flexible, and driven by their individual needs.
“However, there are barriers to technology fulfilling its full potential. Teaching staff and learners need the skills and support to fully embrace technology. Regulatory strictures can be ambiguous and discourage providers from using technology to best effect. Funding mechanisms can prevent providers developing more flexible and innovative approaches to post-18 provision.
“The potential for digital technology to support the transition from education to employment by sitting at the centre of technical and academic education, skills, and apprenticeship design is yet to be fully realised.
"We explained that technology can enable a more flexible, student focussed ‘anywhere, anytime’ approach to education. It can underpin innovative approaches to teaching and learning, and ensure students are better equipped for the workforce needs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution."
Paul Feldman, chief executive, Jisc.
Some independent education and training providers may not have the necessary technical infrastructure in place to realise the benefits of a technology enhanced approach to learning and teaching.
To ensure learning opportunities across the system are of high quality and deliver the best outcomes for students, the government could explore the introduction of a small number of technology ‘fundamentals’ benchmarks.
These could include:
The government could help support providers to take a data driven approach to curriculum planning to meet the needs of the local and national economy.
The Department for Education (DfE) data collections are often presented in a way to ease on-screen display, rather than for interrogation by data manipulation. This means anyone wishing to utilise the data must spend time and effort reshaping data to be compatible for use with analytic tools.
Longitudinal educational outcomes (LEO) data is a good example of how useful it can be to combine data across departments, and this should be expanded.
For example, it’s not currently possible to identify the sources of the apprenticeship levy, and therefore likely demand for new apprenticeships, as the relevant data is based on company payrolls and only held by HMRC. Combining this data with other datasets held by government could give providers invaluable insights to help them plan accordingly and address skills needs.
The government’s Industrial Strategy states that “within two decades, 90% of jobs will require some digital proficiency, yet 23% of adults lack basic digital skills”.
Our 2017 student digital experience tracker survey of more than 22,000 learners found that while 81.5% of university students feel that digital skills will be important in their chosen career, only half believe that their courses prepare them well for the digital workplace.
Elsewhere, while we welcome the inclusion of digital skills within the common core of T-levels, all FE courses should contain a digital element.
The Institute for Apprenticeships should therefore ensure appropriate digital capabilities are incorporated into new apprenticeship standards.
The concept of lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important to the future workforce.
More short courses aimed at upskilling people in work at level 2 and 3, as opposed to 2-3 year commitments, could provide a solution to help address the UK’s skills gaps.
Funding will be needed to support increased provision of short courses and a better system is needed to support the accumulation and transfer of credit between courses and providers.
The process could benefit from improved information transfer arrangements. When learners are transferring between courses and providers, they should be able to take with them a record of the credits they have achieved to date.
Technology and more accessible data and information flows could support providers to address skills shortages and better enable students to gain access to their verifiable achieved credits and search for the most appropriate fit with a short course delivered by any provider.
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Research data management comes under the spotlight in episode three of What the Edtech?! How is data collected, used and stored?
Data research champion Terry Clark, research fellow in performance science at the Royal College of Music, is joined by Jisc’s senior co-design manager Caroline Ingram for episode three of What the Edtech?! Research methods and data management are the hot topics today as the pair discuss best practice and what resources are available to support researchers.
Firearms and ballistics specialist Dr Rachel Bolton-King of Staffordshire University delivers an explosive expert practitioner segment as she talks about her forensic investigation work and the link between academic research and advancing practice.
We joined Terry and Caroline at the Jisc London office where the Research Data Champions Day was taking place - a collorative event run in partnership with University of Cambridge, Lancaster University, Royal College of Music, University of St Andrew, and University of Leeds.
Caroline mentions the research data toolkit, which you can read more about on our managing your research data quick guide. You might also find our research data shared service project useful.
Terry refers to his research at Royal College of Music which you can read more about on his profile page. We also hear about the Imperial College Business School Impact Lab.
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Rarely a day goes by when data isn’t in the headlines, but for librarians and senior leaders at universities, there’s a lot to get to grips with if we’re going to be able to deliver on the promise that open data will revolutionise research.
Jisc and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) are bringing together leading UK and US experts in digital scholarship, for the 12th biannual conference, which will grapple with some of these challenges for libraries and share best practice with delegates.
The event this year takes place on 2 July, at the impressive University of Oxford grade two listed Examination Schools.
Speakers already confirmed include Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s librarian, University of Oxford, and Roly Keating, chief executive of The British Library.
Roly Keating said,
"The CNI and Jisc conference is a great opportunity to advance the conversation about the radical changes to research, education and information that are being driven by fast-evolving technology. The event will help spark new connections and innovative thinking, to ensure that libraries continue to meet the needs of researchers, for example by being more data-driven and open. I look forward to speaking about the ways the sector will need to adapt to meet future challenges, as well as sharing how we at the British Library are responding."
From the other side of the Atlantic, Susan Gibbons, university librarian and deputy provost from Yale University and Dan Cohen, vice provost for information collaboration and dean of the libraries from Northeastern University bring their experience of research and digital scholarship to the programme.
CNI’s Clifford Lynch said,
"We aim to bring individuals who represent cutting edge programs in the US to the Jisc and CNI leaders conference. We have an outstanding group of US colleagues who will be making presentations at this event. The cross-fertilization of ideas can lead to lasting international collaborations. This conference has been an important mechanism to forge links between US and UK programs over the years. And, of course, it’s a fantastic opportunity to learn from each other."
Open scholarship is one of the key themes for the conference, which examines the evolving roles of the library within the research university. Sharing research data for the greater good could not just revolutionise research but reach far beyond academia, making science truly ‘open’.
Sir Nigel Shadbolt’s talk at the CNI and Jisc 2016 conference focused on the importance of open data and developments in artificial intelligence – another topic very much in the headlines. But with these opportunities come issues such as the cost of managing data; and as research becomes more complex, the simplified solutions for libraries become more pressing.
The Jisc and CNI conference is a bi-annual opportunity to engage with thought leaders and experts in the field and is particularly relevant for:
For more information and to book your place at this year’s conference, visit the event page
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When it comes to online safety, seven-year-old Natalie Ody is already security-savvy. She can talk about wifi, describe a cyber attack and even resist interrogation from a Jisc security expert. Meanwhile, ten-year-old Eva Banks now knows how Jisc protects the network and its members from harm.
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Eva Banks and Natalie OdyAll rights reserved
We think it’s essential that young people are well educated on using technology, including the internet, and that they know how to protect themselves online. Early interest in all things digital will also help the UK to produce a workforce with the technical skills to support the future economy.
That’s why we invited Natalie and Eva to visit our Lumen House office on April 26 as part of Take Your Daughters And Sons To Work Day, which proved a fun and insightful day for both parents and children and is part of our commitment to the Tech Talent Charter, which aims to drive diversity and address the gender imbalance in technology roles.
Natalie’s dad, Nelson Ody, had almost as much fun as his daughter and thought the day was productive for them both. He explained:
“We’ve always had a joke at home that, if anyone gives the children any trouble, they’re to say that their dad works in security, but I don’t think Natalie had any real idea of what I do before she came to work with me.
“She had a long day, but she loved it. Everyone was fantastic and really positive about her visit. She was a little bit shy at first, but I think it was a real boost for her self-confidence and I’m really proud of her.
“I think it is also important for Natalie to be exposed to female role models, like my boss, security services group manager, Frances Burton. I’ve learned loads from Frances and it’s a good lesson for Natalie to see strong and capable women in the workplace; it’s something she can later emulate.”
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Nelson and Natalie OdyAll rights reserved
Among Natalie's insightful observations, were:
“At Jisc, people have massive computers and most people have mobile phones for work. I also really like the spinning chairs.
“People in cyber security defend other people. Jamie and Ant showed me their big TV, which had a map on it with bad things that happen.
“I spoke to the security analysts called Ben and Alex, but I’m not allowed to tell you what they do.
“Then I spoke to Tim and learned about DDoS cyber attacks. Tim gave me some print-outs to explain it. Stefan, Charlotte and Jason told me I am good at explaining DDoS.
“Later I went to Charlotte’s desk and I drew a picture of my house and I told her what I think keeps my house safe and we played a game where she tried to get information out of me, but I didn’t tell her anything.
“The computer in front of my dad is connected to his laptop. I saw how many emails my dad has – he has 7,492!
“Dad took me around the office to meet people. There was finance, procurement, training and the helpdesk. Ben from the helpdesk explained to me how the big map they have works. The red bits are broken and green bits are working. Some bits changed from red to green when we were talking.
“Becky from training was working from home so I spoke to her on Skype. She told me that dad and other people train people and then she marks how dad does.
“Frances is my dad’s boss. Frances’s job is to keep Steve (Kennett – security director), my dad and Henry (Hughes – deputy security director) away from coffee. When Frances is away they get up to mischief!”
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Eva BanksAll rights reserved
Eva came into work with her mum, service delivery co-ordinator, Jasmine Reid, and, like Natalie, was also fascinated by the work of the security team. This is what she learned:
“Jisc has to keep people using the Janet Network safe. They do this by putting barriers around the network to keep internet viruses out. They tell institutions how to lock their buildings and windows and then send someone round to try and break in. They tell the institutions if they need new windows, or doors or perhaps a new set of keys.
“Next, I chatted to IT specialist Jamie, who showed me the server room. It is “like a control centre, full of cables and routers. The cables connect everything up to the computer screens for everyone to use. Jamie’s job involves helping staff with the internal network and he is busy a lot.
“Finally, I worked with the service and operations team, who get notified when a fibre breaks in the underlayer of the network. They make sure that the field engineers know where the break is and that they get it fixed. If a fibre breaks, then it affects the network service and needs to be fixed quickly.”
via Jisc news
Delving into the world of edtech startups.
Our expert guests in this episode are discussing startups and how great ideas are turned into successful businesses. Sue Attewell, head of change for further education and skills at Jisc, and Atif Mahmood, founder and CEO of edtech startup Teacherly, join our host with bucket loads of tips and advice for any fledgling startup.
Vivi Friedgut is today’s expert practitioner. Her passionate account of how she founded Blackbullion will provide motivation to any startup in need of some inspiration.
Sue and Atif discuss Jisc’s edtech startup competition which Atif won in 2017 as well as the edtech launchpad which we run in collaboration with Emerge Education. Vivi mentions being a part of the Edtech50 which is an initiative run in partnership with Edtech UK.
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Cooperation between three higher education organisations has helped to create a tool allowing universities to perform an in-house quality healthcheck.
Since 2016, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), Jisc, and the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) have explored increased collaboration and cost sharing for the benefit of the HE sector through the M5 Group.
The QAA-led Provider Healthcheck was developed following a 13-week, Jisc-supported Analytics Lab and has been released to the sector as one of 14 community dashboards available via HESA’s Heidi Plus HE intelligence platform.
“This community dashboard is the latest outcome from the M5 Group’s members to deliver services for the HE sector which help improve quality, create efficiencies and reduce costs,”
said Paul Clark, chief executive of HESA.
“The Provider Healthcheck will provide a valuable resource for HE quality teams across the UK at a time when metrics are increasingly important to their work. The dashboard will be showcased at the QAA’s annual conference this week,”
said Douglas Blackstock, chief executive, QAA.
Paul Feldman, chief executive of Jisc, said:
“The M5 Group has saved universities time and money since it was established in 2016. This dashboard is the latest product created through the group’s collaborative approach. It offers universities a useful quality healthcheck tool to demonstrate that academic standards are being maintained, improving the quality of education for students.”
Other positive examples of M5 collaboration include the Data Matters Conference in November 2017 and OneDesk the M5 group’s shared IT service desk, which launched in March, combining resources and systems to deliver efficient support to staff and external users.
via Jisc news
Welcome to the very first episode of our brand new podcast - What the Edtech?!
We couldn’t have hoped for a better way to kick off series one, episode one, than being joined by education consultant and thought leader Eric Stoller. Eric was joined by our head of change - student experience Sarah Knight to discuss the value of social media and digital engagement and how it can transform education. We also hear from Kardi Somerfield, senior lecturer in digital marketing and advertising talking about her use of digital channels to engage students at The University of Northampton.
In this episode, Eric mentions his friend Sue Beckingham, an academic at Sheffield Hallam University who is using WhatsApp with her students and Dr David Webster at University of Gloucestershire who uses blogs as a platform. Eric also talks about Suzanne Faulkner, a tutor using Snapchat at the University of Strathclyde - you can read more about her work in this blog post. Finally, the podcast also references the #LTHEchat group on Twitter, which happens every Wednesday evening.
Take a look at the digital student blog
via Jisc news
We've been on the lookout for the top ten social media superstars in further education (FE), and we had some great entries!
A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to apply and congratulations to our #JiscTop10 winners.
The competition celebrates the excellent social media work being done by sector professionals out there – and the most innovative ways of using social media to add value to their practice. Each winner will receive an edtech visit to their institution, robot included.
The final line-up was chosen by a panel of FE and social media experts, including Jisc's head of FE and skills, Paul McKean; Jisc's digital content manager, Richard Tatnall; TES columnist, FE teacher founder of UKFEchat, Sarah Simons, and FE Week journalist Sam King.
Paul McKean said:
"It's great to see the variety of ways practitioners are using social media to support their practice. The top ten use a whole range of platforms in many diverse and exciting ways.
"It's noticeable that, while the practitioners come from across the spectrum of the curriculum, our top ten are all keen to share their own practice, either via social media, such as hosting #UKFEchat debates on Twitter, or their own blogs, but also in 'real life' by hosting local Teach Meets.
"I'm also pleased to see the use of social media is having an impact, too, for example, it is cited as a contributing factor in attracting 'a wider range of local students than our normal geographic profile'."
Richard Tatnall added:
"What stood out for me was the real-world impact these social media activities are having. Among our ten superstars' submissions were examples of social media initiating new partnerships; securing student work experience (it's worth checking out #ReadingCollegeTakeOver for more on this); and even contributing to successful project bids.
"When the impact of social media moves beyond the screen like this, its value really becomes clear. Our winners have provided many great examples of how investing in blogs and other social media channels can have big pay-offs for both practitioners and students.
"It's certainly an exciting time to be a social media advocate in FE at the moment as new practices are constantly being tried and tested and our winners are leading the way for its integration throughout teaching and learning."
Since joining Bolton College in November 2013, Aftab has kept an active blog which showcases the ILT projects underway across the college. The articles and projects are shared on LinkedIn.
This attracts attention and has led to a successful project bid to the Education Training Foundation, which promoted the use of Ada, Bolton College's cognitive assistant for students, teachers and support teams. The project, which concluded in October 2017, also attracted attention via social media of IBM's Watson Conversation Team, who visited Bolton College in June 2017 to view its work on the Ada service.
In July 2016, the Education Recording Agency did a case study on the college's use of personalised video content based on the social media posts about the service. The use of social media has also led to an increasing number of FE staff visiting Bolton College to learn more about its ILT services and projects.
Aftab says the primary aim of his social media posts is to raise awareness of how analytics and technology can be combined in radically different ways to support students, teachers and support teams.
Anshi uses social media to connect with educators across the globe and also to promote awareness of abuse and gender equality.
This year she organised a Teach Meet (#TMReading17) which was successful and will go ahead again this year, all promoted by social media.
All level 3 students interact on social media and have set up their own blogs to share and connect their learning with the real world. The hashtag #L3ClassAnshi is used to post any course-related items.
Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn/Google community/YouTube and other websites effectively extend learning beyond the classroom and Anshi uses these platforms to seek work experience placements for students. As a result, all level 3 students were able to do work experience by taking over social media accounts of local businesses.
Finally, Anshi is starting a pilot project to teach responsible use of social media to students in vocational courses.
Jade is a pioneer in the college's use of Twitter and set up @KC_BTECsport. She is active in celebrating past students' successes to inspire and motivate applicants to vocational courses and highlights present students' success as they progress.
The impact has been buoyant in terms of enrolments and applications on the sports courses and the college has attracted a wider range of students than its normal geographic profile.
Social media activity has been instrumental in securing connections with local sports clubs and universities to give the students further enrichment. Jade also retweets local community events, which has helped up-skill current students and allows them to showcase what they do via a social media platform. She proactively shares what the college does and uses it as a positive tool to advertise good practise in the institution, but also opportunities in FE more widely.
James says that social media in general and, in particular, developing a personal learning network (PLN) on Twitter and blogging has allowed him to develop as a reflective practitioner and lead the conversation around additional learning needs reform in schools and colleges in Wales.
He likes to use social media to promote, share and teach technology online, linking colleagues, parents, researchers, health and social services, edtech providers and users to think about disrupting the status quo and driving positive change.
James is a co-organiser of Teach Meet South Wales, and has led UKFEchat tweet meets around those with additional learning needs wellbeing and support for learning and used social media to link with fellow educators and change-makers. For example, he was asked to present at Bett 2018 by Microsoft on the use of mixed reality to support transition for learners with additional and special educational needs and disability.
James uses social media to keep up to date with technology tools and see how others are making use of these tools. James puts the tools he likes on his blog and YouTube channel, where he suggests how they could be used to benefit teaching and learning.
As a result, there has been an increased use of educational technology tools within the classrooms at the colleges he works at.
Colleagues across the education sector have responded by suggesting tools James should feature on his channels and what it has allowed them to achieve with their learners.
This work has resulted in Activate Learning winning an AoC Beacon Award and being shortlisted for a TES FE award for technology usage.
He also engages through Google Plus and Google Plus communities, Twitter and various Twitter chats such as #UKFEchat.
This team uses a combination of Wordpress, Twitter and Facebook to communicate across three campuses and beyond. As demand on time has increased, the team found it hard to maintain the same level of face-to-face support and saw how social media could help.
The platforms act as a shop window for the team to display learning technologies and library services to all.
Daily tweets have an eclectic style, including the odd GIF and personal news, so the account stays friendly and interesting. Specific hashtags promote various LTLS projects and initiatives. For example, #PetrocReads5 is promoting a reading challenge through a live Twitter feed on the library services Moodle page and there's been a big uptake among staff and students alike. #PetrocGoogle5 promotes online Google training as part of the college's rollout of Chromebooks and Google GSuite (Wakelet), and #PetrocLTA is a starting point for discussing learning, teaching and assessment.
The active promotion of Twitter has encouraged lecturers to create their own curriculum-based Twitter accounts and embed them within their Moodle course pages.
Lisa has used Twitter since 2010, when developing her teaching practice as a new FE lecturer.
At the start of the academic year she encourages students to follow her and arranges them into course groups in the List feature, without following them back. This way, she can look at student tweets when required, or converse if need be without seeing their tweets in her feed. Those students who have graduated go into a list of alumni so that she can maintain links with them in their careers.
Lisa regularly posts relevant articles and identifies stand-out advertising campaigns and refers to the tweets in class. Frequently, advertising agencies involved in the campaigns will engage with the post, giving an opportunity to promote the course and the students as informed future professionals.
Recently, when undertaking an educational podcasting project known as Retail Chat she created a separate Twitter account to promote the work, and hopes to expand this as a way of further engaging students.
A social media and edtech advisor to The Education Foundation and Edtech UK, Scott is in charge of a team that trains staff in creative and innovative approaches to teaching and learning.
All students now use social media and digital technology in a professional and responsible way that enhances their digital reputation and employability skills.
The techniques Scott has developed have been cited by Edexcel and Ofsted as outstanding practice of engaging both students and industry and he was shortlisted this year for the TES FE award for outstanding use of technology.
Simon's use of social media to help engage apprentice plumbers was born from his 2014 PhD on college courses and apprenticeships in plumbing. The study found the plumbing curriculum in FE was dislocated and important aspects of apprenticeships were being ignored, including the experience of being part of a community of workers.
On returning to practice as an FE plumbing teacher in 2015, Simon noticed apprentices were distracted with smart phones, so he decided to capitalise on this.
He formed closed Facebook social media groups, with tutors, assessors, college managers, directors and apprentices. The apprentices put pictures and videos of their work on the Facebook group, and in classroom sessions other students instantly engaged with their own pictures and critical comments.
The students' responses were "extraordinary". They were interested in learning more, and continually compare/correct their own work performances with peers, which drives up standards.
Simon says the use of smart phones and social media communities shows that assessment can now be easily collected digitally and that students are more engaged and able to form professional communities, while emphasising practical work.
It's also worth noting that tests use employers' resources, so colleges don't need to buy expensive materials for assessment.
Tony is a regular contributor to #UKFEchat and has co-hosted the #UKFEchat podcast this year.
He also leads and runs @lvpnet, which is a network for Learner Voice practitioners across the UK. Its Facebook community, with more than 200 members, is a place to collaborate and share best practice.
Tony also hosts regular networking events around the UK to ensure technological innovation is at the heart of Learner Voice.
Tony has recently completed a year's secondment with NUS, where he supported the development of an online Learner Voice Framework to allow institutions to self-assess their collaboration with learners and build an action plan to expand work into new areas of development.
via Jisc news
A free online course designed for adults who want to improve their grasp of maths at GCSE level has been transferred to Jisc.
The move from Calderdale College means that the Citizen Maths course will remain freely available to all and will be updated and developed in the future.
Citizen Maths is a good match for our existing content for further education colleges, such hairdressing training and an e-books collection that includes text books for compulsory English and maths GCSE retakes.
The transfer of Citizen Maths took place earlier this year and our initial focus will be on ensuring the continuation of all its current features and on maintaining excellent support for learners and partners.
In the future, we plan to improve Citizen Maths to meet the needs of a wider range of learners.
Karla Youngs, head of digital content services for further education and skills at Jisc, said:
“This maths course is a good fit with Jisc’s existing offering to further and adult education and we have worked closely with Calderdale College to ensure a smooth transfer of the service and to make the transition invisible to learners and to partner organisations.
We now have a team in place to support the service into the future.”
John Rees, principal and chief executive of Calderdale College, said:
“We are pleased that Citizen Maths has now transferred to an organisation which provides digital solutions for the whole of UK education and research. We can’t think of a better long-term home for the project, which has seen steady growth in number of users since its launch.”
Citizen Maths was developed in between 2014 and 2017 by Calderdale College, with funding from the Ufi charitable trust, working with the UCL Institute of Education and OCR.
Citizen Maths is aimed at people who want to improve their grasp of maths, and become more confident in using these skills at work and in life.
Maths may have passed you by at school, or you may be rusty. Maybe you’ve passed maths exams, but find it hard to apply what you know to the types of problem you need to solve now – like using spreadsheets, judging amounts or assessing odds.
The course uses practical problems to help people learn and is pitched to meet the standard of maths that a 16-year-old should achieve.
There are five modules which should take between five and ten hours each to complete.
While the course does not result in a formal qualification, a statement of participation is available for people who successfully complete the whole course.
via Jisc news
Leaders in further education (FE) must sometimes feel like they’re at sea, navigating waves of new policies and sometimes sailing dangerously close to the financial wind.
It’s part of our job to help steady the ship – to provide help and support to our members by assessing need and guiding them forward on a path of technological transformation that will improve the learning experience and benefit the organisation.
To help senior leaders make good choices, we’ve come up with a series of priorities we think colleges should address if they are to make the best use of technology.
Aimed at providing clarity and direction, there are two documents, one with a list of questions for principals and the other a checklist for governors.
Both have been written by our head of FE and skills, Paul McKean.
As a kick-off, we ask whether the senior management team (SMT) and governors have a strategic understanding of the benefits and value technology can provide. Things to consider include:
Jisc offers a massive range of products and services and we know that can be confusing, so there is a question asking whether you know which services are available as part of your membership, and which others may be of benefit. For example, we offer specialist advice for colleges going through mergers. There is also a link to our guide on fundamental technologies for colleges.
Other questions cover the use of tech to improve learning, teaching and assessment, compliance on accessibility and Prevent duty, and the importance of improving digital skills for both students and staff.
We also ask how prepared colleges are for the introduction of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018, and whether there is a robust cyber security strategy in place. The latter is particularly important as we know that colleges are an increasing target for cyber criminals.
Not sure where to start? Your account manager will be able to help.
via Jisc news
Danny Moules, Jisc’s security assessment specialist, sets out the pitfalls of wifi complacency and offers some practical tips for real-world wifi defence.
In 2010, Firesheep was released. It was a tool that allowed anyone using the Firefox web browser to read anyone’s data, such as passwords, private messages or cookies, going across a public wifi network.
This wasn't new at the time. In fact, hackers had been able to do this for a long time. However, it hit the news, and people had to change how they used wifi networks.
Public wifi (wifi without a password) isn't secure. Adding a password to public wifi, even a password that everyone can read, helps protect against the theft of sensitive data. It's why, when we visit a coffee shop, we can't just connect to the wifi without getting the password.
On the face of it, it seems silly to have a post-it note on the counter with the wifi password which everyone knows, but that keeps your data safer.
Back in 2010 not many sites had HTTPS either. When Sophos rode a bike around London with an open wireless network in 2014, 78% of connections were unprotected by a VPN or HTTPS. When somebody used Firesheep, the data they stole from you wasn't protected.
But we've come a long way since then. When you visit Facebook or Twitter or your corporate sites, most of the time your connection will be encrypted to protect you from this sort of tomfoolery.
Firesheep was scary but you don't have to worry about your data getting sniffed off the wire anymore.
Except... are you connected to a network running older security protocols? Then a hacker might pull out attacks like chop chop, caffe latte, p0841, hirte (also known as cfrag) and other creatively-named mischief.
But probably not. Most wifi networks can't be hacked this way anymore either.
It helps to understand the warning signs that lead to these attacks (in the case of the above, WEP = very bad) but protocols only help so much.
So, now let's ask:
The interlocking layers of security that make up your wifi connection all rely on you being able to correctly identify the computers you connect to. Yet your operating system is constantly working to prevent you from the 'confusion' that comes with being able to see what's really happening under the hood.
In fact, the modern operating system often hides the details of when and where you connect, opting to use credentials shared across the cloud to maintain your connection transparently, even if this means walking right into a trap.
The prevalence of capture portals, where a wifi service demands credentials or other sensitive information to let you access the system, creates an ecosystem where you expect to be challenged. This plays directly into a phisher's hands,
What's even worse, even legitimate wifi services typically demand that you can't access any HTTPS site because they need to hijack your insecure HTTP connection (in itself a man-in-the-middle attack!) in order to provide the capture portal service.
Although this isn't necessary anymore, as browsers offer better ways to do this, the practice persists and the risk remains.
Even if you know you're on a valid connection, what happens if an attacker launches a de-sync attack to disconnect you? Will your operating system just connect to the attacker's network automatically? Most likely. Managed frame protection adoption in the sector appears to be very low, as I've also noticed in other sectors, despite being very easy to achieve for most institutions.
Do the same problems apply to your corporate wifi, protected by ‘enterprise’ security? Some of them do, some of them don't. WPA2-Enterprise is technically complex to configure and there are lots of pitfalls that provide different levels of exposure.
Now what happens when our attacker combines this with other phishing or social engineering attacks?
Technical controls only achieve so much. Without threat modelling and a training element, expect to be outmaneuvered by penetration testers - and any of your own students with the knowledge and the inclination – pretty quickly, with criminals inevitably not far behind.
What if our attacker foregoes the wifi for your mobile phone network's base station instead? Hackers, as well as the authorities, have had the capability to hijack our calls and phone internet connection for a decade, while the price and technical complexity has dropped dramatically in the intervening years.
Android apps such as AIMSICD work for incident responders confirming an attack in progress but when every business call you make could be intercepted, how do you manage that everyday risk?
The introduction of WPA3 will shift the wifi security landscape but simply implementing it blindly will not address all these issues. Fundamentally, wireless technologies can't handle the load of the risk people often burden them with.
We need to think about how we can sustain digital enablement while accepting that we haven't educated users on all the risks, and nor can we. We need to consider whether IT's race towards reduced friction for users has led to greater risks. We also need to sustain a discussion about how wireless infrastructure is designed to meet the needs of different use cases, instead of a one size fits all, bring your own device (BYOD) approach.
via Jisc news
The skills shortage in the technology sector is acute and growing. New training options could enable more people to choose tech careers – and bring more diversity to the sector.
For employers and for the UK as a whole, the stakes are high. In the area of cyber security, for example, Lloyd’s of London’s 2017 report 'Closing the gap – insuring your business against evolving cyber threats’ estimates that a serious cyber attack could cost the UK economy £92bn. That’s a compelling reason to step up the search for appropriately skilled cyber security workers.
What’s more, most of the UK’s current cyber security specialists are aged over 45 and skilled replacements must be ready to step into their shoes when they start to leave the jobs market.
Traditionally, our universities and colleges have been the obvious place to look for recruits. A full-time university or college degree has been the clearest route into a technology career and that won’t change.
But what about the people who don’t want to spend three years in an academic environment or who would find it hard for personal or practical reasons? What about people who have a stereotypical image of what a tech-whizz looks like and think they don't fit the mould?
It’s up to employers and educators to cast their nets wider and devise new ways to reach and train raw talent.
That’s one reason why at Jisc we’ve signed up to the Tech Talent Charter (TTC). It’s a government-supported employer initiative to improve diversity and address gender imbalance issues in technology, which we experience at our cyber security centre in Harwell.
By signing the charter we are taking steps to bring more women into technology roles.
We have formally committed to following inclusive recruitment processes and to implementing policies and practices that support the development and retention of a diverse workforce. The new National College of Cyber Security is also intended to provide a new route into specialised tech careers when it opens – probably late next year. Based at the famous second world war code breaking site Bletchley Park, it will select talented, logic-minded 16-19 year olds from across the UK and train them as cyber security specialists.
And then there are degree apprenticeships.
Many large businesses are using them already to grow their own talent. IBM, John Lewis, PwC, motor manufacturers and several high street banks have all taken the leap. Evan Davis looked at degree apprenticeships recently in his Radio 4 business programme The Bottom Line.
The employers he interviewed said that their degree apprenticeship programmes offer them a wider choice of recruits and are bringing them very ambitious, driven youngsters. They also said that retention rates for degree apprentices seem to be high. Crucially, these employers are enjoying a faster return on investment. Their apprentices contribute to real projects almost from day one.
All these employers (as well as your organisation, if its pay bill is more than £3m per year) are already paying the apprenticeship levy. It is 0.5% of the total wage bill. The levy is part of the government’s programme to get 3m apprenticeship starts by 2020.
The good news is that, if you are paying the levy, you can receive levy funds to spend on training apprentices. For every £1 you pay, you get back £1.10 to spend on training – another powerful reason why it could be time for you to look closely at degree apprenticeships.
Nicole Stewart is Jisc’s security degree apprentice. Nicole joined our security team last October as a trainee cyber security analyst and she's already working on a variety of projects including testing for endpoint security solutions and the ongoing development of our DDoS mitigation services.
Nicole said:
"I'm getting lots of practical experience to back up the theory. I get a new module from my learning provider QA every week and attend a workshop in London with them every five weeks. But for the rest of the time I'm working at Jisc.
"My mentors and colleagues are working right alongside me so I can ask for input and then apply what they've told me straight away. The knowledge and techniques stick with you when you're using them on a daily basis."
Nicole is working towards her bachelor's degree. She is earning a salary and will emerge from her apprenticeship well equipped for a career in cyber security - and without any student debt.
We’re developing a solution that will enable our members to use student data to optimise the learning experiences of apprentices at all levels (and in all industry sectors) – and to help apprentices achieve the outcomes that they and their employers want.
Our digital apprenticeships project is building a system to track, monitor and report on each learner’s progress so that employers, providers and the apprentices themselves have an accurate idea of what’s really happening. It’ll provide insights so that it’s possible to make timely interventions or tailor a more personalised learning experience.
It uses the same key infrastructure as our learning analytics service.
We will extend the learning analytics service’s learning data hub so that it can gather in data on attendance, topic coverage and progress as well as information from organisational systems such as student records and the virtual learning environment (VLE). We’ll provide advice and guidance on how to structure data for the hub so that it’s suitable for analysis.
We’ll also provide advice and guidance on the ethical issues around gathering and using personal data and on embedding digital into the apprenticeship journey. And we will develop analytics algorithms so that you have the tools you need when you’re ready to use them.
Join our community of interest to find out more.
via Jisc news
Designing and developing a learner-centred digital campus has been a goal of HE and FE technologists for years.
Now, with the imminent commercial arrival of 5G, the time is ripe for curriculum experts and technologists to work together to plan how hyper-connected devices can transform the campus of the future.
That’s the view of Andy Sutton, visiting professor in the School of Computing, Science and Engineering at the University of Salford – who spoke at the "mobility” session at Networkshop46.
As a low latency mobile network technology many times faster than long-term evolution (LTE), 5G is heralded as the enabler of the Internet of Things.
Sutton said:
"While 2G was about voice, 3G gave us data and 4G made video an absolute pleasure, 5G is about things.
“It’s about connecting things, bringing the Internet of Things alive with massive machine-type communication. It will do previous things better, but it’s an enabler for the fourth industrial revolution.”
So what do Jisc member organisations – many of whom already benefit from eduroam, offering reliable wireless LAN access in multiple campus locations – need to know about 5G?
It seems we're only just starting to explore how staff and students can benefit in practice from high-data-rate applications and the Internet of Things.
Remote learners, for example, might benefit from the experience of tactile responses over a low-latency 5G network. This could have implications for courses involving manual tasks or muscle memory – from robotics or medical training to the creative arts.
5G could enable learning through virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR), suggests Sutton – for example, allowing students to virtually attend lectures from academics all over the world or even go on virtual visits to major museums.
Sutton said:
"We’re always keen to organise industry days, where you can take students to a real-world environment and let them see how study is applied.
"Nothing beats visiting these places and seeing them, but there’s only so much you can do. If a student wants to spend time outside of a formal visit, or ‘walk around’ that factory or lab and find out more, how can they do that? We could build applications in VR or AR. We’d need a very high data rate and relatively low latency.”
There could also be opportunities to increase access to learning – whether by allowing people to study from globally remote locations or by using cloud-based apps that support inclusivity, perhaps using robotics.
Or UK students and staff could access cloud-based resources and VLEs reliably and securely from a wider range of locations – potentially useful for courses involving any kind of outdoor study, from earth sciences to sports science to veterinary medicine.
With the ability to carry more data on learning platforms, moreover, comes the ability to personalise learning further, to meet individual student interests and needs.
A much-vaunted benefit of 5G is not just that it will offer faster mobile broadband and help enable the Internet of Things – but that, thanks to the advantages of “network slicing”, it allows operators to optimise virtual network for multiple use cases, with different “slices” meeting the needs of different users at the same time.
This might be of value to HE technologists who have specific demands for a low-latency, highly secure, highly available network.
In the fullness of time, suggests Sutton – whose research at Salford focuses on the propagation characteristics of millimetre wave radio for 5G backhaul applications – universities might deploy private 5G networks in licence-exempt spectrum for applied research.
This might follow the example of MulteFire, which today operates in the LTE space.
In the meantime, 5G brings HE organisations the immediate opportunity to support research into technologies such as robotics, remote haptic feedback and, of course, driverless cars.
Theoretically, 5G is capable of reaching 20Gbps – but while such speeds are difficult to achieve beyond the testbed, the prospect of hugely faster mobile broadband speeds is still enough to be excited about, in urban locations at least.
Simulations by Qualcomm in San Francisco and Frankfurt found that median browsing download speeds were 1.4Gbps and 899Mbps for users accessing a network consisting of 5G co-sited with LTE macro and small cell sites. Compared to LTE alone, this meant that speeds increased by a factor of 20 and five, respectively.
The government has already invested £16m in 5GUK – a collaborative project between the University of Surrey, King’s College London and the University of Bristol – to develop three connected 5G test networks, and the three universities duly showed off their achievements at Mobile World Congress in 2018.
Late last year, the government also held a competition for £25m to invest in 5G testbeds and trials – to create a “5G ecosystem” and develop use cases.
As far as education is concerned, the time to start planning is now. By 2020, says Sutton, commercial 5G networks should be in operation – while, according to mobile company Ericsson, there will be one billion 5G subscriptions by 2023.
Above all, technologists and curriculum experts need to get talking about the possibilities.
“We need to take this technology and talk about it in medical schools, engineering colleges, in humanities, in tourism,”
urges Sutton.
“How do you engage all the different faculties, to explain to them the technology and allow them to use their imagination to develop use cases?
“I’m enthusiastic about 5G – and we’re just starting to scratch the surface.”
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2018, the University of Surrey, King’s College London and the University of Bristol showed off the world’s first 5G end-to-end network – with an apparently simple demonstration of a remotely controlled robotic foot stroking a football into a goal.
The kicker – if you can call it that – was that the robot was replicating the actions of an invited human player in another exhibition hall.
In education, one might imagine a lecturer in one room demonstrating anatomical movements or the effects of forces in physics – as students in different parts of the country, or the world, interact in real time.
via Jisc news
Paul McKean, head of FE and skills at Jisc and a former teacher at Bolton College, explains how further education helped him through a very dark time in his life.
My 20s are a period in my life that are difficult to recall because of the physical and mental debilitation I suffered. I lost my independence and dignity and became isolated, and depressed.
Several discs in my back had collapsed, requiring three operations over a period of about eight years, which left me in chronic pain and unable to walk easily or work. I had a pair of walking sticks for five or six years, so was very restricted in my mobility and pretty much housebound at my home in Rochdale for months at a time.
It was a dark time, but I found solace in computing and further education at Bolton College. An advert for a short computer course inspired me enough to make the effort to get out and go to college. I went on to complete other courses over the next couple of years at the same college and, as it turned out, I was pretty good at computing. The teacher asked me to start helping other learners and encouraged me to take a teaching qualification.
The college launched a project supporting people in the community to start using computers and technology, and I got the job. It was about engaging with people who were disadvantaged and disengaged with education, like I was when I was suffering with my back.
I had to come up with the curriculum myself, and designed web pages and online tutorials, similar to an FE practitioner today, staying up late researching what I was going to teach the next day. So, I’m very aware of the kind of commitment that teachers have and of the benefits that technology can provide, and not just in a computing curriculum.
On the back of the success of that project, I got a job as the college’s first information learning technology (ILT) leader. By the time I joined Jisc in October 2013, I had been at the college for 14 years and left with a comprehensive understanding of the needs of both learners and the organisation.
I do miss teaching, but the position I have now with Jisc means I can positively influence all learners, and that’s far more powerful than helping one person in one class. In a way I’m still teaching on a daily basis because there’s always someone in the sector who has an issue they need our help with.
In an ideal world, post-16 education would be accessible to all in the UK. In the real world, there are still obstacles that make studying difficult for some learners, particularly those who are disadvantaged by their income, ability, mental or physical health, or location.
For all these people, the ability to connect to a college network when on or off campus could make all the difference. Enabling online or blended learning means that, even if a student is dealing with a critical problem in life, has caring duties, or needs to fit a course around work, they can still study at a time, place and pace to suit their individual needs.
I know from personal experience how invaluable that can be. At that very difficult time in my life, access to further education gave me a purpose, I regained confidence, shook off depression and earned qualifications that have formed the basis of a career in FE that I love. It’s not going too far to say that FE saved me.
I passionately believe in technology as an enabler – it provides opportunity – whereas a lack of technology and connectivity can be a blocker, as I have also experienced. While at Bolton College, I took a master’s degree course in e-learning, but I had a relapse with my back and couldn’t travel. Ironically for an e-learning course, it wasn’t all delivered online, which made studying too difficult, so I had to delay finishing that course for a year.
In terms of how the sector is responding to the need for technology-enabled learning, it’s a mixed bag. Even in the same college there may be some teachers who’ve completely embraced technology, using videos, games, and 3D animations to show how an engine works for example, and there will be others who prefer to teach using a real vehicle.
Those differences are not just about age – lots of people embrace change, not just the younger teachers – but if all teachers are to get comfortable with new tech it’s important the sell-in is positive: technology makes teaching more efficient; it’s not about replacing teachers, but about giving them more opportunity to concentrate on learners who need most help.
I’m an Association of Colleges’ Beacon Award assessor for the effective use of technology and the majority of FE organisations that do well in those awards have a culture of innovation – the senior management team encourages practitioners to take risks, to try new technology.
[#insertinlinedriver digitaltracker#]
A supporting culture is important – college leaders need a digital strategy in place to understand what they are trying to achieve, when they’ve got there and how and when to evolve. To begin with, there’s an investment in infrastructure, resources and training and also in understanding the needs of learners, and that’s where Jisc’s student digital experience tracker can help.
Everyone needs digital skills to operate in today’s ever-more connected world and colleges have a responsibility to produce the digitally capable workforce of tomorrow. For me, it always comes back to the needs of the learner and colleges should be designing digital-first courses at the outset.
Colleges that follow this strategy are providing what students want, expect, deserve and need.
via Jisc news
A business analytics service developed by Jisc and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) for use in higher education has been shortlisted for the 2018 National Technology Awards.
The analytics labs and community dashboards project is one of five services shortlisted for Analytics Project of the Year. The winner will be announced on 17 May 2018 at a ceremony in central London.
Myles Danson, Jisc’s senior co-design manager, said:
“On behalf of the Jisc and HESA team I’m delighted we’ve received this nomination.
“The initiative has engaged 246 staff from 95 universities to date, delivering data derived insights to improve the whole of UK higher education, from student recruitment, graduate employability, course provision, staffing, estates, research, finance and much more.
“It’s something we are all very proud of and we’re only just beginning the journey.”
The analytics labs and community dashboards are part of a collaboration between Jisc and HESA to build a business intelligence shared service for education. The project enables higher education institutions to use a series of dashboards to review comparative data from a number of sources, compare their performance with peer organisations and identify trends and gain insights.
The dashboards were developed through a series of analytics labs made up of HE professionals with the most promising ones published through HESA’s Heidi Plus service.
The first dashboards were published in September 2017, the second set following in January 2018, with more in the pipeline.
The project seeks to help universities and colleges as they face mounting financial pressure and increasing overseas competition.
Find out more about the dashboards and how to access them.
via Jisc news
This year Digifest saw nine startups in a battle to bag up to £10,000 per company, and earn expert advice to improve their products to benefit students and institutions alike.
Each startup pitched their idea to a panel of expert judges, as well as presenting to an audience of Digifest delegates who were waiting to hear how each startup could help to tackle sector challenges.
Students were a key theme at Digifest from the off, with NUS president, Shakira Martin, featuring as the opening keynote speaker. Martin said:
“I’m optimistic about how digital technology can help students across tertiary education. It is vital that we have an education system that is adaptable and flexible for all students.”
Together with Emerge Education, we run the edtech launchpad, a group of annual competitions designed to support students, startups and companies to develop new edtech ideas.
So who are the winning startups, and how could their ideas work for you?
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Vivi Friedgut, CEO & founder Blackbullion
Blackbullion is an award-winning startup on a mission to raise the financial capability of students and support student service departments to ensure student success. This learning platform is for students who want to take control of their money and reduce debt-related stress. Students can tune into four-minute sessions delivered on a variety of media.
Vivi Friedgut, CEO and founder, said:
“Jisc, as a champion of digital excellence and innovation in the UK education sector, is a natural partner for Blackbullion, and the support and scale-up knowledge and experience of Emerge would be of huge benefit… We aren’t the first company to work towards solving financial illiteracy, but we hope to be the last.”
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Adam Pennycuick, CEO Oslr
Using the principles of social networking, Oslr connects medical professionals to reinvigorate the community, allowing them to share resources and learning opportunities.
Adam Pennycuick, CEO, said:
“Bedside teaching with real patients is a crucial part of any doctor’s training. In recent years this has reduced dramatically due to financial pressure, shorter patient stays and changes to working patterns. The medical community is increasingly fragmented, leading to fewer teaching opportunities for students.
“Through commercial partnerships we will allow users to connect their real-life learning around a patient with a wealth of existing high quality online resources. The data we collect is valuable to medical schools and trusts, it will inform curricula and improve future teaching. In the future we plan to involve patients directly in our platform.”
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Melissa Mitchell, CEO VOLO
This digital career development platform aims to improve student employability through matching them with volunteering opportunities. VOLO's cloud-based administrator dashboard allows university teams to manage and view live, aggregated data on all extracurricular activity for individual students or cohorts. This enables the provision of more enriching career-targeted experiences, while monitoring the efficacy.
Melissa Mitchell, CEO, said:
“VOLO simultaneously enables students to find career-focussed skilled volunteering roles, as well as providing a VOLO profile where career development hours, learnings and reflections can quickly be added from anywhere in the world. This profile includes their personal recommendations and earned awards, which are then presented in easy-to-navigate format, which can be sent to potential employers, or to support future interviews.”
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James Gupta, Founder & CEO Synap
Synap is an intelligent online learning platform that lets people study with short, impactful sessions, using memory science to focus on the areas they need to practice, and helping students to study more effectively.
James Gupta, founder and CEO, said:
“After developing the product over years to prepare for our own university exams, and attracting tens of thousands of users in the process, we are now able to offer universities and colleges their own study platform, powered by the same technology and user experience that made Synap so popular.
“From the institution’s perspective, this means they can set up their own formative assessment or study platform, which integrates with their existing systems, complete with mobile apps, at a fraction of the cost. It also means they can improve student satisfaction, reduce the number of people failing exams, and have access to extremely valuable ‘low-stakes assessment data’ which will inform how their curriculum is implemented, and can be used as part of 360 degree feedback.”
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Tripti Maheshwari and Dhruv Krishnaraj, Founders Student Circus
For international students in the UK, this niche job search platform has the ultimate aim of helping UK universities grow and sustain enrolments by leveraging employability. Student Circus finds filtered jobs from companies which can sponsor Tier-2 work visas in the UK, as well as providing immigration assistance to students with visa-related enquiries, and even nudging students as they come closer to their visa expiry date.
Tripti Maheshwari and Dhruv Krishnaraj, the founders of Student Circus, said:
“We came to the UK as international students and struggled to find jobs. We faced the challenges we are now trying to tackle first-hand drove us to bring about a change. We went back to India, formalised the idea and applied for the graduate entrepreneur visa to begin our venture back to the UK. We are building this platform for graduates who are highly motivated and bring in much desired diversity to organisations.”
Are you a student over 16 years from a sixth form, further education college or university? Have you got an edtech idea that would make life better for learners, teaching staff and researchers in the UK? The student ideas competition, also part of the Jisc Edtech Launchpad, is now open.
Join in the conversation on Twitter using #studentideas.
via Jisc news
Jisc has announced that it will be introducing a charge for FE colleges in England.
The Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed that it intends to change how Jisc is funded for general further education colleges within the sector. Having already experienced significant funding cuts over the past five years, and in order to continue to deliver a world-class digital offer to our colleges and further education providers in England, we will be introducing a subcription from August 2019.
DfE will continue to fund a proportion of our services for our members, who have told us that our unique Janet network, protection from cyber attacks and e-books have transformed digital teaching and learning for their students. We are fully committed to working with our members, DfE and the Association Of Colleges to ensure that they get even more value from Jisc services as we move toward subscription.
Paul Feldman, CEO of Jisc, has written an open letter to the FE sector to explain and set out the changes.
via Jisc news
