Shafi Ahmed is a cancer surgeon at the Royal London and St Bartholomew’s Hospitals and, thanks to the global virtual reality live streaming of one of his operations, is also the most watched surgeon in human history.
The award-winning doctor, teacher, innovator, entrepreneur and evangelist for augmented and virtual reality was the closing keynote speaker at Digifest 2018; here he shares his thoughts on the power of virtual reality, robots in the operating room and the future of medicine.
More than five billion people around the world do not have access to safe surgery. How do you see virtual reality and other technologies changing that?
The first thing that these technologies allow us to do is to connect humankind. The 3G, 4G and wifi connections we have around the world are quite simply connecting people. From there, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and other technologies allow people not only to connect but to share knowledge on a broader scale.
Conventionally, surgeons are often teaching or training just one or two people who are in close proximity to the surgeon in the operating theatre. I believe that knowledge could be shared much more widely with many more people. Wouldn’t it be great to share it with tens of thousands rather than a few?
That’s what I’ve been doing with these technologies – VR and AR – that allow people to be immersed with me in my operating theatre and allow knowledge to be shared around the world, scaling up education and training to a global level. It provides one of the solutions for the deficiencies and inequalities in health care around the globe.
What about closer to home, in the UK: what’s the benefit for surgeons and students here?
Looking at where we are in terms of education, we see a continuum.
Let’s go back to the beginning – thousands of years ago we were drawing on stone walls, some of which still remain. Then came papyrus with the ancient Egyptians and then the printing press - Gutenberg was a seminal moment in the dissemination of knowledge. Now we have e-books and e-learning on online platforms.
AR and VR are an extension of those new ways of learning. Our students and trainees are digital natives, they can access information much more readily and they need to be taught in different ways. Learning itself is going to evolve in different ways and I think the UK will benefit hugely from access to AR and learning platforms.
There are a number of areas in which we can use virtual reality in learning here, particularly in medicine. One of the basic areas of learning is the examination of patients, and that could be done much better virtually, with added assessment and gamification. In my field of surgery, it’s about replicating operations and simulating them in VR and AR.
I think the whole world of simulation will change when we add haptic feedback in the future. There will be interaction and assessment tools within the VR environment allowing people to simulate not only surgery but all procedures, such as drug taking, putting cannulas into patients, taking bloods, putting in gastric tubes or whatever.
What opposition, if any, did you face when you first brought VR into the operating theatre or suggested bringing it in?
I’ve been very fortunate in that the hospital I work in, The Royal London Hospital, which is a part of Barts Health, the biggest hospital in the UK, has been very supportive of innovation. If I have an idea, they haven’t said to me ‘go and think about it for a while and do the due diligence round it’ because when that happens it delays things or simply stops innovation in its tracks, because innovation has to move quite rapidly. Instead they’ve said, ‘great idea, let’s look at how it works, let’s take the hospital and patients on this journey, let’s talk about the ethics and the confidentiality issues that might ensue’.
We talked to the legal team to ensure that we were doing the best that we could and mitigating the risk as far as possible. So the hospital has been very supportive of innovation and that’s been very helpful for me.
Watch Shafi's closing keynote at Digifest 2018However, other people are nervous of innovation. You have the inventors and the early adopters who are going to drive change and, in medicine, sadly those people are in a minority and most people are slow to adopt new technologies and adapt to change. I think that’s one of the problems we have in medicine as a whole. We accept dogma and tradition. I want to challenge that on a daily basis and part of my work is to show that we can challenge it in a way that’s effective.
Then there are the big global companies and we need to help them shape and support technological advances in a way that’s safe and considered, particularly when it comes to health and patient safety.
The other thing I think we need to think about carefully when bringing innovation into our setting is the end user, the patient, who is most important of all. I’ve always been very clear about taking patients on the journey with us, to make sure they have consented properly and that they understand what you’re trying to achieve. You’d be surprised at how kind and amazing our patients are when you are trying to do something to help humanity and to improve quality, safety and outcomes. Patients are our partners in the hospital environment and, throughout the whole process of innovation, you have to take all those people with you otherwise it will never work.
What has the reaction been from the patients involved, their families and patient advocacy groups more widely?
Moving forward, VR will be very useful for education purposes for patients. Imagine, for example, that you can be connected to VR as a patient to see how you will be treated – say, going from the ward to the operating theatre and back again. That’s the kind of thing we’ll be doing in the future.
Patients themselves are very warm to that – many of the patients that I have operated on while recording it in VR have later watched their own operation in VR to see what it showed. I used to think that was quite strange but then I thought why not? We often give patients videos of operations or pictures and this is just the next step. Patients have been very interested in this process.
Ultimately, what patients want is openness and transparency but for years and years we’ve been shying away and keeping the operating theatre private and surrounded in a kind of mystique. This is opening it up and making it more transparent. Ultimately, we’re all human beings and people can see that.
Live screening and live operating has its own issues and I think that, for training medical and healthcare professionals, it is entirely appropriate. I think the issues around live operating for viewing by the public can be more controversial. I am keen to demonstrate the power of what we’re trying to do and to showcase new technology and I think we’ve had very good feedback. I’m also cognisant of the fact that patient organisations might not think it’s the right thing to do.
Most organisations are risk averse and it’s challenging to think about how technology can be used in this way because it is new. I think it is empowering for people but I also think we still need to think very carefully about how technology might be brought into that kind of scenario.
Do you think that being able to see their own operation afterwards helps patients to feel a greater sense of empowerment around their own bodies in what can feel like a very disempowering situation?
Yes, certainly. Additionally, when you’re watching it in VR it’s not just about the actual operation, which you can watch on any YouTube video. It’s about the whole environment, the team working around you, seeing just how many people are involved in improving the outcome of your treatment, seeing how the whole system and team around you is working, not just the surgeon. I think that’s quite important.
When I did the live VR that I recorded two years ago, with the explicit consent of the patient and his family, I came out of the operating theatre and met the family – the wife and son of the patient. I told them that the operation had gone well and I was happy with it and they replied that they knew because they had watched the operation live, in VR. I was quite shocked. I hadn’t expected them to watch it live but they said thank you, it had helped them to get through the procedure.
Normally when your loved one has an operation you sit around worrying about what’s going on for hours on end and go for cups of coffee, so they said that they felt reassured that, while their loved one was having the operation, they were watching it, seeing what was going on, the ability of the surgical team and could see that he was doing well. I think we underestimate how people will respond and assume they will respond in a negative way but I’ve been surprised by the positivity of patients around these kinds of things.
You’ve used Snapchat Spectacles and Google Glass for this work. Does the type of technology you use affect what you do in any way? Do you behave or respond differently, beyond performing the operation in the usual way?
Now that we’re used to doing live recordings for training purposes, whether using Snapchat or HoloLens in the theatre, the team know how to behave – you are on show, you are visible, people are learning so you have to make sure that you are exemplary in the way that you work in theatre.
When we first started we didn’t really know what to expect but now, with the different platforms, we try to engage through each platform. So, when you’re doing Snapchat it’s quite different and I was nervous when I first started doing that, I wasn’t sure how that would pan out on social media but I was pleased that people do interact. Interaction is important and I have a moderator, who is my trainee in the operating theatre, who makes sure he tracks the discussion and the questions so it’s a way of interacting, not just showing a video.
Similarly, with Google Glass or other kinds of glasses, we have a system where we moderate and make sure that there’s a learning around it so it’s not just viewing that’s going on but interacting with people around the world – they ask questions, we share information. Remember, when we’re operating normally without the glasses and the technology, we’re teaching anyway – I’m a teaching surgeon so I’m used to constantly explaining, answering questions and training my juniors. All that is different now is that it is being transmitted and there are interactive elements within that.
So it’s taking what you are doing already and moving it on. I’m not sure it’s for every surgeon, it’s different, you’re engaging with the public and you have to be very careful about making sure that you’re professional in your work, that the whole team is working well and have an understanding that you are being broadcast and teaching people on a global level. It is also important to showcase what the NHS is doing and pioneering.
Beyond VR, what’s next? How do you see this work developing, in the short term and looking a few years further ahead?
First of all, VR needs to create enough content. At the moment is it largely hardware driven and content is at a premium so we need to make sure that content drives VR. Once you’ve done that, you can engage a community that improves over time. You also need to create a learning environment. It’s not just about the video, it’s about the whole learning environment – you navigate through a platform, you learn, you have assessment tools, you get learning materials as well as the video. That’s what we’re trying to create.
Going forward from that in the medium to long term, it’s going to be about adding photo-realistic imagery, avatars that look like real people rather than the cartoonish ones we have now. Then there is haptic feedback – creating a realistic sense of touch and feel, and that’s going to be a game changer for a lot of people.
We’re not quite there yet, a lot is promised, but for me it’s a no-brainer to try to create a device, like a glove, with a motion-sensing capacity in virtual reality and a sense of touch so you can do a virtual operation if you need to, or a procedure, using that tactile feedback that you get. That’s where we’re heading towards and, fairly soon, it will become available.
The other area is mixed reality. When you work with people from across the globe, you’re having to physically transport yourself. Wouldn’t it be a good idea if you could put on a HoloLens or other mixed reality headset and virtually transport yourself to an operating room in the middle of Africa somewhere? You’d appear as your avatar, looking like a real person, walk around the operating room, have a look over the shoulder of the surgeon, give advice and then leave again. It’s not quite hologram but, rather, holo-transportation and that’s where I think we should be getting to. It would also change how we connect at conferences – instead of having to travel to conferences, you could immerse yourself in that environment virtually.
The way we undergo clinical practice would change, the way we connect with our patients in the virtual world and the way we connect with our colleagues would change – we could discuss cases with different people from different parts of the world in a virtual space. It could also help with surgical planning – you can walk around the ward and access information being broadcast to your headset. In the operating theatre itself, you could access artificial intelligence that gives you clues about what you’re looking at, ideas about strategy in the operation, and quantifies all that with data that allows you to improve your standards. Those are all things I see happening in the next five to 10 years.
You’ve also talked about ‘surgical singularity’ – can you tell me more about that and what it means? And when will it happen?
When Ray Kurzweil wrote his book The Singularity is Near (2005), about the point at which robots will become as good, if not better, than humans in function and behaviour, he said that it would be about 2030 and then pushed it back to 2040. In the intervening years we will see the rapid advance of computational power.
Surgical singularity looks at the point at which a robot with an interface can perform an operation as well as a person. As a surgeon we take history from a patient, we use knowledge and experience gained over 20 or more years. Computers can learn more quickly, so at what point will they be better at making that diagnosis, picking up on the clues that are there? Then, would you trust a robot to perform an operation?
[#insertinlinedriver twitter#]This is the year of robot wars – there are about ten of them coming out into general surgery to support and augment our practice. As they become smaller and more intelligent they will become better at supporting us. In the next 20, 30, 40 years could we have an autonomous surgeon working in theatre? It is very possible. It’s exciting.
I think it is up to clinicians to understand the limitations, and control what we do in the future, to work in partnership with the big global companies and startups to figure out that future for ourselves and make sure that we do the right thing ethically and morally and that we are improving standards. I think we should embrace it to get improved outcomes. If it democratises training and clinical practice around the world then that’s a good thing.
What has surprised you most as you’ve been doing this work?
The pace of technological progress. This has been called the era of the fourth industrial revolution and I think that really applies to medicine. In medicine so many developments are coming together – AI, robotics, blockchain, AR, VR, nanobiotechnology, sensors, big data. All of those things have come together quickly and in the last couple of years we have seen such immense change.
It’s our challenge as clinicians to see how we bring that all together to have a positive impact on healthcare. The sheer pace of change has been surprising but also incredibly exciting at the same time.
Watch Shafi's closing keynote from Digifest 2018.
via Jisc news
If data about struggling students is to be used in a way that supports their mental wellbeing rather than harms it, what kind of data do learners want to see and what actions do they want it to trigger? We find out from projects that have talked to their students to discover just that.
Student mental wellbeing is an increasing concern for universities. A 2015 National Union of?Students?(NUS) survey1 found that eight out of ten students (78%) said they experienced mental health issues in the last year. A third said they would not know where to ask for mental health support at their college or university if they needed it, with 40% reporting feeling nervous about the support they would receive from their institution.
Poor mental health has an impact on every aspect of a student’s life, from feelings of social isolation to academic failure. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), 1,180 students who experienced mental health problems left university early in 2014-15, the most recent year in which data was available. That’s a 210% increase from 380 in 2009-10.
However, students tend not to ‘drop out’ of university without any warning. The final decision to leave is likely to be preceded by a period of dwindling attendance, late submission of work and falls in grades. If these signs were picked up sooner by personal tutors, or another member of university staff, there’s a chance that at-risk students could be better supported. Could learning analytics help to alert tutors earlier to struggling and vulnerable students?
Samantha Ahern, learning technology project officer at University College London (UCL) believes so.
“Learning analytics can be used to help to address some of these inadequacies by providing timely and meaningful data to personal tutors about their tutees [which] is in alignment with the Universities UK guidance…to align learning analytics with student wellbeing,”
she says. However, she warns,
“there are legal questions still to be answered around negligence and failing to act on or engage with information provided via learning analytics.”2
Julia Taylor, Jisc subject specialist in accessibility and inclusion, highlights that Jisc has a learning analytics code of practice, providing an ethical approach to gathering student data, and suggests some of the questions that might enable the right metrics to give early warning of mental health concerns, allowing timely responses.?
For example, has a student stopped attending? Or stopped using the VLE? Is there a declared disability or a known risk? Are there factors in course design or content that created stress and contributed to the change in behaviour? How best should it be responded to? How do known patterns of engagement correlate with wellbeing?”3
However, care must be taken that neither the data use nor any interventions put in place as a result of it exacerbate the issue. Some researchers have warned that misguided use of comparisons in learning analytics dashboards could be an additional source of stress for vulnerable students.
It’s a topic that the University of Huddersfield’s director of learning and teaching Liz Bennett has been exploring. In a small-scale, qualitative study with students from the university’s School of Education, she focused on the design of dashboards and how students understood and interpreted the data that they presented.4
“We know there can be a huge amount of emotional response to getting feedback on assessments and I was interested to see how they responded when it was in a dashboard format,”
she explains.
What was unusual about the dashboards in the study was that they presented the data – third year students’ grades across their degree – in a comparative format, showing each student how they performed in relation to the rest of their cohort.
Surprisingly, perhaps, although the impact of seeing grade feedback was indeed emotionally charged for some students (“The saddest one is the core summary overall because looking back on grades that you’ve previously had - you can’t really change them any more so you can’t really do anything,” says Ingrid, who came 168th out of 178) the overwhelming impact was motivational, particularly for the lower performing students.
“You might think that if you came first out of 178 you’d be pleased, which indeed that student was, but it was also true that when people were coming near the bottom they weren’t pleased, necessarily, but they were motivated by seeing it and it gave them an insight,”
says Dr Bennett.
“There were some students who didn’t want to see the comparison but there was also evidence that it was motivating.” As one student, Marcia, who came 53rd out of 178, says: “I think as soon as I saw it I decided I’m taking a month off [paid] work to just get on with my dissertation”.
As a result of the study and the feedback from students Dr Bennett strongly believes that such dashboards need to be customisable by the student so that they can choose whether to compare themselves to the whole cohort or the top 10% or the bottom 10% – or to see no comparison data at all – to avoid any negative impact on a student's wellbeing or reinforcing any feelings of negativity.
“I think we need to give students choice about what they see to make sure those who are vulnerable have got some control over whether they see themselves compared to other people or not. There is potential for it to go wrong because you are dealing with emotionally charged information so it does need to be scaffolded and supported in the way it’s rolled out,”
advises Dr Bennett. She also notes that, in her study, the students’ reactions were gathered through face-to-face interviews, and further research is needed on what might happen if students were to get such dashboards unmediated, without the opportunity to talk through their emotions about them immediately.
How and when students might want to talk through issues relating to their studies has interested Sarah Parkes, tutor for transition and retention/foundation year tutor at Newman University Birmingham. Working through the university’s student-staff partnership framework with three 'Students as Partners' projects, she’s been surprised to discover that, overwhelmingly, what students want is tutor and peer proactive mentoring systems that respond when data is suggesting that someone is falling behind or in need of support.
“Peer mentoring came out as a key intervention that students thought would be valuable. They would be happy to have other students get in touch to support them,”
she explains.
“Coming to university is quite a big step for a lot of students and so I think they feel better about the idea of us using other students to support students as they felt like they wouldn’t be made to look silly – if it was a member of staff it may have felt punitive but if it’s another student they felt more comfortable talking about things.
Our focus on analytics has to sit with our ethos about being student centred with the person at the centre. Whatever we do in terms of an intervention needs to be supportive – and part of a wider mechanism for support – rather than potentially feeling like it was punitive.”
Students also had strong feelings about who they wanted to contact them if the data flagged up that there might be an issue. Any communication triggered by the data had to come from someone they had heard of – a member of staff or student from within their own department with whom they might have had previous interaction – rather than at the broader institutional level, such as student support or registry.
While students were, perhaps surprisingly, mostly relaxed about the use of their data – if the right people were getting it and using it appropriately then they were, in principle, happy – Sarah Parkes is keen to stress the sheer complexity of this kind of work in terms of achieving a holistic sense, through the data, of who the student is and what they are doing and where collaborations are needed. However, the benefits – for students, for tutors and for the wider mental wellbeing agenda – are undeniable.
“Talk to your students! That’s been a real test of what we’ve done and helped us to understand how our students feel about this work,”
urges Sarah Parkes.
“Don’t try to deal with it in isolation.”
via Jisc news
In the highly-competitive environment we’re all working in now, how do you make important, potentially transformative decisions? You can’t go with your gut feeling or just do what you’ve always done, and even making a calculated guess is risky. This is why more and more organisations are putting their data to work to help them make better, carefully thought-out choices. We can help you do the same.
The student data that you already gather can help you plan your responses to big strategic issues – including retaining students, maximising their attainment and delivering a high quality learning experience.
We’ve developed a learning analytics service (currently in beta) that enables you to work with your data efficiently and cost-effectively whether you’re new to data analytics or you’ve got projects already under way.
It provides architecture, data standards and tools that can also interoperate with leading commercially developed products and services so that you can add on solutions as your projects take shape.
The learning data hub is our storage solution, offering a more cost-effective alternative to hosting and managing your own in-house data store. It uses data from your student record systems and live student activity data – and does it using consistent, defined standards that will support data analysis.
The learning analytics predictor can help you to identify which students may struggle. Combining historical data sources with live study and engagement data it flags the early warning signs of disengagement so you can plan timely interventions before students fall behind or drop out completely.
Drill deeper into the detail with data explorer, a visualisation tool that enables you to identify at-risk students, manage and record your interventions and understand how the curriculum is meeting student needs (or not).
Often, students have imperfect knowledge of how they’re doing. But most of them like a mobile app and study goal is one that gives them clearer insight into their own engagement and performance.
They can use it to view the activity data you are using for learning analytics. They can also review the engagement data about attendance at lectures, assignment marks and online activity to check they are on track and then set targets to improve their engagement, motivate and reward themselves.
We’re all about helping you to work smarter and cost-effectively so we’ve developed a learning analytics purchasing service to help you make informed buying decisions and simplify procurement.
When you buy products and services from commercial vendors on our accredited list we’ll do the due diligence for you. We’ll also help you get the contracts right so that you have the products, services and support that you need, as well as assurance that legal issues such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)1 are taken care of.
Members have often told us that the technical aspects of a learning analytics project can be less tricky than the cultural ones. If you’re planning to implement learning analytics you’ll need staff, students and various other stakeholders to be fully behind you. Our learning analytics consultancy can help you to uncover stakeholder attitudes to analytics, formulate plans to demonstrate its benefits and allay any worries they have.
Our consultancy is for universities and colleges that want a tailored programme of more intensive support. The consultants can help you with a range of issues, including assessing institutional readiness for learning analytics, developing an implementation strategy, and learning more about intervention planning and managing culture change.
Find out more about our learning analytics beta service.
via Jisc news
What are students looking for in a university? Paul Humphreys has the ear of students – as the MD of StudentCrowd, an online review community for students, he’s privy to thousands of reviews of universities, courses and accommodation by the 750,000 students using the site last year. He shares his insights into students’ wants and needs, and we suggest how universities can help meet them through the use of digital technologies.
"I could not have chosen a better course! The course content is incredibly interesting, the lecturers are very passionate and any student is welcome to approach them with a question."
StudentCrowd review of University of Aberdeen
All students are, of course, concerned about what they are going to learn, how they are going to learn it and, at the stage of choosing a university, the grades they need to get on it.
Our StudentCrowd reviews suggest that universities are improving their communication around what modules are on offer for courses and are getting better at giving students the information that they need. That teaching will incorporate digital technology – whether reading lists on the VLE or online submission of coursework – is taken as given by today’s students.
Our research finds that students are upbeat about the use of digital technology to support their learning, with around six in ten feeling that use of digital technology on their course results in better understanding, greater independence and allows them to fit learning into their lives more easily.
However, while over 95% had produced work in a digital format, half had never used an educational game or simulation for learning, or a polling device or online quiz to give answers in class, suggesting that more can be done to use technology to make teaching and learning more interactive, collaborative and responsive.
"While I do realise it might sound like a cliche, I actually feel like I belong here."
StudentCrowd review of University of Aberdeen
Students want to feel like they ‘belong’ at a university. That comes across clearly in our data – when students are writing and reading reviews they are keen to know “will I fit in? Are there students there like me?“
When you put yourself in the shoes of a 17 year old who is leaving home for the first time, it’s very natural to be concerned about belonging. There is also anecdotal evidence that many students cite ‘not belonging’ or ‘being lonely’ as a reason when they decide to leave university before the end of their course.
Universities are becoming much more aware of the importance of mental health for students. There are some interesting technologies to aid in that, including using data to alert university staff to students who may be struggling in some way. However, this kind of technology has to be used sensitively. While there is certainly a role for learning analytics in flagging up when a student’s attendance record is dropping, it’s important to intervene in an appropriate and non-intrusive way.
There is also a danger that digital technologies can serve to isolate students. With access to e-books and other e-resources they no longer need to go to the library and mix with other students, they can sit in their study bedroom instead. Take recorded lectures. Imagine you’ve got a 9am lecture and a costly 20-minute bus ride. You can get up, get showered, get dressed and make it in…or you can open your laptop at 11am and watch it instead – with no need to interact with your peers. However, we also know that recorded lectures are very popular with students.
Universities need to decide on an appropriate use of technology to help with belonging alongside encouraging real-world activity to offset any digital isolation.
According to our 2017 student digital experience tracker, on the whole, learners do not believe that the use of digital technology – for example to give access to course resources and recorded lectures – makes them less likely to attend class. However, learners overwhelmingly ask that digital technology does not replace face-to-face teaching as they value the social and collaborative aspects of learning from their lecturers and from their peers.
The digital confidence and capability of teaching staff is significant to students’ overall digital experience. An exciting development is the growth of interest in the idea of the ‘sticky campus’: creating a campus that students want to stick around in, even if they haven’t got a lecture to go to, and which increases students’ feelings of belonging and connectedness.
Universities have a clear role to play in mental health and digital wellbeing, especially when only 67% of students know where to get help if they are being bullied or harassed online and just 57% feel their university helps them to stay safe online.
"Gill Street South is a great accommodation, the location is very handy as it's central to all the lecture halls."
StudentCrowd review of Gill Street South, Nottingham Trent University
"Excellent wifi, easy to connect to in every bit of the campus."
StudentCrowd review of University of Birmingham
This a huge area and includes factors a university can do relatively little about, such as location, and some that it can, such as the quality of accommodation and state of the campus. I want to focus on what might seem a minor element but is crucial. Wifi.
At StudentCrowd we didn’t have wifi as a review area to begin with but had to add it because so many students were mentioning it in their reviews. It’s a cliché but it’s true: students see superfast wifi as a basic human need. Universities must ensure their students can connect to superfast wifi on all parts of campus.
Most universities now provide free wifi, so that students can connect to the internet on their own device. On campus, many universities offer eduroam, the European-wide wifi service for the academic and research communities, managed by Jisc, while university accommodation is generally served by different providers. Most students report a positive experience - the average rating for university wifi on StudentCrowd is 4.04 out of 5 – and Durham University is top of the ratings.
With students relying on digital devices for study, personal organisation and leisure, it's no wonder they see good wifi connectivity as a key aspect of their study environment. 88% of students use their own laptop and 84% their smartphone as part of their learning.
With an average of 2.72 personal devices per learner, wifi connectivity is an essential service that supports students’ education. Generally, universities are responding well to this challenge, with 80% of students reporting that they have access to reliable wifi at their usual place of study.
"Teaching quality is good, personal tutors always happy to help, content fascinating and you'll almost always get a job straight out of uni."
StudentCrowd review of midwifery, Sheffield Hallam University
Students are, of course, concerned about their job prospects at the end of their course and will use graduate employment data and league tables to help them choose a university. At the other end of the university journey, we are seeing comments from students that institutions do seem to be improving their career services.
A good example is the University of Leicester. Its career service calls all of its graduates just after they graduate and supports each one of them in job hunting. That service helps Leicester graduates and it helps the university to improve their graduate employment rates. More universities could explore that kind of very proactive support.
Universities have a responsibility around employability and ensuring that their graduates are equipped for the digital age and have the digital skills that employers need. Most universities have an employability award in a digital format that they encourage students to complete to ensure that they come out with work-related skills. Some universities are making it a compulsory part of the curriculum.
According to our 2017 student digital experience tracker, students do not feel their courses are preparing them well for the digital workplace: 82% of HE learners feel digital skills will be important in the workplace, but only 50% agree their course prepares them for the digital workplace.
There is work to be done here. Incorporating opportunities to embed digital skills into the curriculum (as well as technology into the delivery) doesn’t only improve the experience for learners, it also enhances the professional development of staff.
"Amazing place, with incredible people. The university is extremely high on league tables and is very academic, however, there is a fantastic balance between work and play!"
StudentCrowd review of University of St Andrews
Students are using league tables to help them to decide which university is for them, especially if they are looking for prestige. But how helpful are the tables really for students? Do students understand where the data comes from and how can they use it to make a decision?
There is a role for crowdsourced review sites, such as StudentCrowd, alongside universities’ own communication and social media channels in helping potential students get an insight into what their chosen university is like, feel reassured about what to expect and prepare themselves for their life at university. Video can be particularly effective when it shows students talking about their real student experience at the university.
Given the importance of league tables and rankings to potential students, it is essential that universities understand the ways in which their data feeds into these rankings.
Through our business intelligence work we’ve collaborated with HESA, the Guardian and the Times to combine both publication’s league table data into one dashboard, making it easier for universities to accurately and rapidly compare and analyse the information.
via Jisc news
Digital used to be an add-on to core business but those are days behind us, now. It’s time for universities and colleges to stop treating digital as an accessory and to integrate it fully within all aspects of their business activities.
We’ve just produced a briefing paper for senior leaders called delivering digital change: strategy, practice and process (pdf) offering practical approaches to integrating digital in your key organisational strategies. A powerful message emerges that digital capabilities are critical to success.
We have also just finished a new suite of case study videos as part of our work on building digital capability. Two universities and two colleges describe how they are ensuring that all staff and students have the digital skills and the confidence to make best use of existing and emerging technologies.
You can watch a playlist of the films below:
Together, the briefing and the films offer some useful pointers for other organisations to follow. Here’s a taster...
“It’s only by understanding the motivations of all parties that you can develop a digital vision that has purchase and buy-in across the whole institution. This is something that every institution has to embrace and engage in”
Professor Malcolm, Todd, pro vice chancellor, academic and student experience, University of Derby
Now that staff and students have access to technologies that enable them to work when, where and how they want to, they’re far less reliant on organisational infrastructure and tools. While this offers rich opportunities for learning and attainment it also presents risks that your university or college must plan for.
We’re working across the sector to support strategic planning and to ensure that the motivations and needs of stakeholders are factored into future strategy.
“We’ve managed to embed digital in traditional teaching, learning and assessment and we no longer call it digital learning – its just learning”
Kelly Edwards, director of professional development, Harlow College
Because learners take digital for granted, it must be integral to other strategies such as the research and student experience strategies. Digital is at its most effective when it’s deployed within core strategies rather than treated as a bolt-on.
“Over the next five years we’re working to develop digital practice and digital capabilities as a core goal. At the executive level we’re understanding that the digital experience is critical for students and for staff”
John Hill, TEL manager, University of Derby
Often, reluctance to adopt potentially valuable technologies and tools is down to a person’s lack of confidence in their digital skills or their fear that new methods will undermine their existing practice or professional identity.
We’ve created tools such as the Jisc digital capability framework (pictured below) to help organisations address these fears and identify skills needs.
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Digital capabilities framework
“The success of digital is down to people and that’s something that we have to keep in mind when we’re developing our approach”
Karen Phillips, deputy principal, Coleg y Cymoedd
We’ve developed a ‘digital lens’ approach to strategy, practice and process to help senior leaders and staff think about how they deploy digital. The lens can help staff to understand their capabilities, assess their confidence and identify new digital goals. You’ll find it in the briefing paper.
“We offer a range of support for staff including five cross-college staff development days, CPD sessions and 15-minute digital drop-in sessions where staff can look at apps and tools and think about how to use them. Staff are happy to be innovative and try things out”
Kelly Edwards, director of professional development, Harlow College
Every university and college has its key platforms and tools that staff are required to use; it’s vital to support staff to use them efficiently.
“Our student digital ambassadors work with an academic to develop some kind of digital use within teaching and learning. They get paid and they take part in a shared practice event”
Christine Percival, digital fluency manager, Lancaster University
Digital technologies develop fast and often disruptively, so staff and students should be encouraged to experiment and decide which tools they need.
More and more often, students and staff are working in partnership to co-develop their digital skills and this is driving change in many colleges and universities. Join the change agents’ network, a national community of practice supporting student staff partnerships.
Look out for Digifest sessions exploring digital capabilities, which include:
via Jisc news
The Edtech50 is a celebration of the people, products and projects shaping this dynamic and growing sector across the UK.
The Edtech50 was launched today by Edtech UK and Jisc at a House of Lords reception.
The awards recognise products and projects demonstrating effective and impactful use of Edtech in the UK, along with individuals who have played a leading role in developing this area of work.
The organisations behind the projects and products include FE colleges, an online learning community and a university spin-out. You can see the full list of award winners here.
According to the government’s Digital Strategy, published in Feb 2017, education technology is one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK, accounting for 4% of all digital companies, and UK businesses have become world leaders in developing innovative new technologies for the education sector.
The Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP, secretary of state for education, writing in the launch report, said:
“There are so many reasons to be optimistic about the possibilities for technology across education. Edtech is increasingly supporting improved outcomes across England and internationally, and in my short time as Secretary of State for Education I have already seen how it can support and transform education at every step of the journey.
“The work of inspirational leaders across the sector who are working tirelessly to support education, will be fundamental in ensuring the wider realisation of the opportunities presented by technology; to support improvements across the breadth of our education system.
“I welcome this new initiative to highlight and celebrate many of the people, products and projects that have most impacted education.”
Paul Feldman, chief executive of Jisc, said:
“A former teacher with a mission to remove homework headaches, a headteacher who used digital technology to improve special educational needs teaching and an entrepreneur who creates STEM play experiences are among those named in the inaugural Edtech50. The Edtech50 show’s how education technology can be a catalytic force for digital innovation in teaching and learning.”
Ty Goddard, director of Edtech UK, said:
“The Edtech50 has been chosen from a mixture of public nominations and the insight of our judging panel. It has been a challenging and exciting process.
“The Edtech50 helps us all celebrate a wonderful sector, whilst recognising the benefits of education technology, and acknowledging the economic advantages of the growing edtech sector to the whole UK economy.”
via Jisc news
We’re on the look-out for the most social media-savvy folk in further education (FE). Sound like you? Then you should enter our competition.
If you make our top ten list, you win a visit for your class from our Digi Lab – complete with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), an Emotiv Insight EEG Brain Reader and a robot, and hey, it’s always nice to be acknowledged for hard work and innovation!
Our UK-wide competition celebrates the excellent use of social media by sector professionals – we’re looking for the most interesting, innovative and inspiring examples of where it’s being used to add value to teaching.
We think social media has an essential part to play in informing the sector – and we’re a real advocate for using it in FE teaching. Be it Twitter, Facebook, or another platform, social is a great way to share information, start conversations, break down barriers and get your voice heard. And it makes it easy to communicate with sector professionals from around the globe, and key influencers that you wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to meet in person.
Perhaps you engage learners by running a social account specifically for your syllabus. Or you encourage them to interact with a wider community to increase their knowledge on a particular topic.
Twitter is often used to share good practice with colleagues and others in the sector, so maybe you’ve created a hashtag to kick off a discussion and it’s really taken off, or perhaps you’ve created an entirely new collaborative online movement. Whatever it is, we want to hear from you!
We ran a similar competition for the higher education sector last year, with lots of great entries, including a chemistry lecturer who encourages students to make their own YouTube videos and a software developer who’s created a private social media app for quizzes, surveys, text and more. Then there is Pablo the penguin, whose antics help build engagement between students and the library services.
After the judging has taken place, on 5 April, we’ll be sharing the success of our top ten social media superstars through our own channels and on our website.
So, which social platforms are you using? How do you reach your students? How has your use of social improved your teaching practice? Has it helped you overcome a particular challenge? Has it made it easier for students to communicate, and are they more likely to engage when social is part of the learning package?
All you need to do to enter the competition is fill out this short form before midnight on Thursday 29 March 2018.
A few years ago we published a top 50 list (via the UK Web Archive). Take a look at the line-up and, if you’re already on the list, why not enter again? Imagine the glory…
So, have a think and get started on that application – it’s a quick one.
Follow us on Twitter and join in with #JiscTop10.
via Jisc news
More publishers, more content, more savings. We've launched the second wave of our pilot which last year saved participating libraries £127,000 on purchasing digital archival collections.
EBSCO is the final publisher to join forces with Adam Matthew Digital, Brill, and ProQuest, to be part of our innovative group-purchasing pilot. The second phase of the pilot provides libraries with reduced cost bundles of over 70 primary source collections across the four publishers for libraries to choose from.
Phase one of the pilot saw 20 higher education institutions purchasing 29 products from across the three publishers. The collective purchasing power of the participating institutions, which leverages higher discounts from publishers, saved the sector just over 25% off the list price. Publishers also worked with new libraries that they hadn’t engaged with before, sharing their arts and humanities digital archival collections at a reduced cost.
The second wave of the pilot will continue to adopt a coordinated and transparent approach to the acquisition of digital archival primary source collections. Resources have been selected to meet the research and teaching needs of the UK higher education (HE) community – including librarians, faculty, and students. Institutions can easily compare products on offer, and all titles are a one off purchase with no recurrent platform/hosting fee.
Karen Colbron, digital content manager at Jisc said:
“The second phase of the pilot has come into play following demand from our members. The initial pilot was set up as a response to our members wanting more support for an efficient, coordinated and transparent approach to the acquisition of digital archival collections and to tackle the issue of expensive recurrent platform fees.
We’re thrilled that EBSCO have joined Adam Matthew Digital, Brill, and ProQuest to take part in the next stage of the pilot, which we hope will secure even more savings for the sector.”
Eleanor Craig, content delivery and access librarian at the University of Sussex said:
“Being part of the Jisc group purchasing pilot was a very positive experience. It was good to know that negotiations were being done on our behalf by people we trusted, for resources we were interested in buying.”
Neil Davies, content acquisition manager, Durham University Library said:
“The Jisc group purchasing pilot gave us transparency in pricing and a promise of no ongoing charges for archival collections when planning our end-of-year spend for 2016/17. We look forward to participating in the expanded scheme in 2017/18.”
Find out more about the pilot on the digital archival collections group purchasing pilot project page.
via Jisc news
Our Janet Network is being upgraded to provide world-leading high-capacity 400Gbit/s connectivity, making it one of the most digitally-advanced national research and education networks globally in terms of scale, automation and network intelligence.
Janet, which is already the busiest NREN in Europe by volume of data carried, and is 200,000 times faster than the average home broadband, is now deploying Ciena’s 6500 packet-optical platform powered with WaveLogic Ai coherent optics.
At present, the Janet Network is already operating at 400Gbit/s capacity in places, but using 100Gbit/s technology. The upgrade, which will be in place this summer, will increase the bandwidth of the Janet backbone to as much as 600Gbit/s and will utilise Ciena’s new 400Gbit/s technology.
Jeremy Sharp, network infrastructure director for Jisc, said:
“Our vision is for the UK to be at the forefront of scientific research. To make that happen, we must have a highly robust network powered with industry-leading technology that can scale to support bandwidth-intensive applications like genome editing and The Square Kilometre Array.
Working with Ciena, the Janet Network was the first NREN to provide 100GB for users and, as demand has grown, is now the first to provide 400GB. WaveLogic Ai enables us to operate efficiently and accurately engineer the network for optimal capacity to manage massive flows from new data-intensive research activities.”
In the UK, all further and higher education organisations, including universities, colleges and research centres, are connected to the internet through the Janet Network, along with some alternative education providers, other public bodies and science parks.
Rod Wilson, chief technologist for research networks, Ciena, added:
“We are helping to bring a new paradigm for optical networks by making the network more programmable and responsive to changing user demands, while using less hardware. WaveLogic Ai focuses on delivering considerable digital advantage, financial savings and efficiencies.”
via Jisc news
The University of Northampton is putting active blended learning at the heart of its teaching – to the extent that its purpose-built Waterside campus will have no large lecture theatres at all when it opens next year. In this Q&A, its dean of learning and teaching, Professor Alejandro Armellini, explains the thinking behind this radical move and the benefits of taking an active blended learning approach.
What’s wrong with the lecture?
We may need to qualify the term lecture. What’s wrong with the broadcast lecture? Probably what’s wrong is the understanding that “same place same time” seems to be equated with quality.
That clearly is not the case with lectures, particularly with broadcast lectures, when one single person is delivering information to a large group of people with hardly any interaction. If we look at National Union of Students (NUS) reports over the years, the students’ criticism of lectures is consistent: should a broadcast lecture count as contact time?
My argument is that it shouldn’t, and it should not count towards “teaching intensity” either. In other words, “same place, same time” is not enough to guarantee quality when the so-called teaching method is actually “information delivery”: the notes of one person copied into the notes of 200 people without going through the brains of anyone. That is highly problematic.
How does active blended learning (ABL) fill the gap and how do you define blended learning – how does it differ from flipped learning?
A module or a programme is taught through ABL when it deploys consistent use of student-centred activities that support the development of subject knowledge and understanding, independent learning and digital fluency.
Our face-to-face teaching at Northampton, for example, is facilitated in a collaborative manner, clearly linked to activity outside the face-to-face classroom, which provides opportunities for developing autonomy, what we call changemaker attributes, and particularly employability skills. That is our standard definition of ABL.
Note that the traditional view that the blend is a combination of online and face-to-face is pushed to one side. ABL is far more sophisticated, interesting and exciting than a mere combination of face-to-face with online teaching. What matters is high quality teaching and student engagement with that teaching – in and outside the classroom, in a single “blend”.
Our approach has not been taken on the basis of cost. It is not a cost-cutting exercise. It’s a quality enhancement exercise which, by definition, requires teaching in smaller groups. It requires much more in the way of interaction of the three main types: student-student, student-content and student-tutor.
ABL provides a different learning environment where students play an active role and are given the opportunity to engage in a variety of ways in and outside the classroom, in the field, in the lab, in the studio and in the workplace. Those study modes are fully integrated into a proper blend, not different strands of a course running in parallel. The flipped classroom is one element of ABL.
Of course, you can apply the traditional techniques associated with the flipped classroom, as long as it is appropriate for the type of students, the level of the course, the discipline that you’re teaching and the context in which students and tutors operate. The flipped classroom is just one part of a bigger puzzle that contributes to the whole structure of ABL.
So it very much depends on context and learner profile and other elements?
Yes. And there is another variable there, which is the teaching repertoire of a tutor.
Each tutor will have his or her own stance on these techniques and will feel more or less confident to deploy them. It is fine and proper to ensure that the tutor experience is also highlighted. We can fill gaps in our expertise through development and further practice, while ensuring that what we do with students is what is best for them.
At Northampton you are actually killing off the lecture theatre on the new Waterside development – there will be no large lecture theatres. Can you say a bit more about the plans and the process for that new campus?
Firstly, the shift to blended learning is not related to the new campus. The shift to ABL was taking place regardless, even before the move to the new campus was firmed up.
Secondly, it is true that the new campus has one “larger” space, which accommodates 80 people. The rest of the spaces are smaller, with an average size of around 40. So over the past three years we have been redesigning our curriculum to ensure that the principles of ABL are followed but also that we review space allocation and timetabling to accommodate the students in smaller teaching rooms, which may require multiple teaching.
But what happens when we host an open day or a session with a distinguished guest speaker for which we need a larger space? We are minutes away from the centre of town, where we have access to plenty of larger spaces in which those events can take place. We use them regularly. If we had built such large spaces on the campus, we would be encouraging the teaching practices that we want to move away from. So we didn’t.
How are you preparing staff and students for the shift to blended learning?
It is true that when you change a teaching approach you’ve got to work with staff very closely so, on that front, we have a highly structured, very flexible programme of staff development which is called C@N-DO – “Changemaking At Northampton – Development Opportunities”. That leads to various levels of professional recognition by the Higher Education Academy.
Within C@N-DO, we run our course redesign workshop, CAIeRO (also known as Carpe Diem in the literature) – a standard, wellestablished, well-researched approach to course redesign that we have deployed systematically across the board since I joined Northampton five years ago.
We also have bespoke provision that addresses particular circumstances and needs. One thing is to redesign a Master’s programme that attracts 25 students a year. It is a very different challenge to redesign an entire undergraduate programme that attracts 250 students a year. We need to tailor our staff development programme to ensure that it meets those needs in the context of ABL.
Student representatives are invited to all of our redesign workshops. We have run activities at the students’ union. We have invited students to facilitate C@N-DO workshops with us. They are fully embedded in the process of change and they have been consulted in the process of change. They have expressed their concerns: we have discussed those concerns at multiple levels, in workshops, staff development programmes, in conferences, roadshows and symposia. They have been fully integrated into the process of change.
What kinds of concerns do they express?
They are mostly concerned about the perceived loss of contact time. That is a real and legitimate concern, shared by some parents too. To be clear, we are not compromising contact time. We are making sure that the two key different types of contact time are included, embedded and integrated for higher quality teaching.
The first type is face-to-face contact time, which is the one we value the most. We are a campus-based university and we will continue to be a campus-based university. The shift to ABL doesn’t turn us into anything else. Instead, it integrates the high quality contact time in the classroom, in the lab and elsewhere with high quality online contact time, which is the second type.
We have to be very, very clear about the difference between quality online contact time and independent study. And that is at the centre of the discussion with students and with parents.
What counts as quality online contact time?
If you set online activities for students to do and you as a tutor “disappear” and let them work on those activities – that is independent study. That is not online contact time at all. If you set an online task but you remain active, engaged and visible throughout – and that does not mean that you have to be online at the same time, this can and should work asynchronously – then that activity can count as part of your online contact time.
There is a huge temptation here of uploading materials to the virtual learning environment and pretending that your students “do the blended bit” because you put your content online. That is not what we want. What matters is not the content I upload; what matters is what students do with it to achieve outcomes. The activity that students do with this content must be aligned with the learning outcomes, the rest of the teaching methods and the assessment.
We're trying to discourage colleagues from running two-tier courses where there is a bit online and a bit face to face. Instead, we favour an approach in which a tutor runs a course which has a true blend of different components. The online part of the blend has to run primarily on the basis of online contact time.
Of course, there will be independent study as well, as there always has been, whether it is online or otherwise, but quality contact time has to be present, has to be prominent, both in the classroom and in the online environment. Like students, tutors must be engaged, active and visible, both in the classroom and online.
How does technology help and hinder ABL – hinder in terms of the perception people have that blended is all about online when in fact it should be about the blend – but also how it helps insofar as you could not have blended learning without the digital resources…?
The key word here is personalisation. There is a tendency to believe that doing things in a blend, which includes online work, has the risk of depersonalising the process when, in fact, if it's done well, it generates the opposite effect. It not only improves the level of personalisation – the quality, the level and depth of engagement – but it can also enhance, if done well, accessibility and flexibility. It can accommodate the needs of students in specific situations and with specific needs.
The use of technology is indeed an enabler. As such, the technology works for the benefit of all concerned, as long as one or certain key aspects are met, such as digital fluency. For the purposes of learning in higher education, but also to operate freely in life, you need increasingly sophisticated levels of digital fluency. And that's what we want to promote with our students and colleagues alike.
To be the changemakers of the future you need tools and skills. Digital fluency is one of them.
via Jisc news
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and Jisc have developed an agreement with both the Guardian and the Times/Sunday Times to publish interactive dashboards of rankings and measures drawn from their higher education (HE) league tables.
It is the first time that both sets of data, from 2015 to 2018, have been combined into one collection of data visualisations.
The dashboards are now available to all higher education providers that submit data to HESA, via the Heidi Plus business intelligence platform. The dashboards have been designed and produced by HESA based on original concepts by teams from our Analytics Labs, part of our business intelligence project.
Universities have, until now, had to manually compile the data from both league tables and undertake their own time-consuming analysis to assess how the rankings and measures change between years.
The league tables use different criteria and weightings so comparing them has been problematic and often misleading. However, the new dashboards enable universities to accurately and rapidly compare and analyse:
In May 2018, when the Guardian publishes its latest league tables, the dashboards will be updated within days.
“We are very excited to release this new suite of data dashboards within Heidi Plus”
said Jonathan Waller, HESA’s director of information and analysis.
“They are the result of a groundbreaking collaboration between colleagues from HE providers, the Times/Sunday Times and the Guardian, together with Jisc and HESA.
We believe they will provide valuable insights for UK higher education and look forward to continuing our collaborative work with the sector to develop the growing range of analytics and business intelligence resources available through Heidi Plus.”
Myles Danson, our senior co-design manager, said:
“With the importance of league table position to institutions, the data and new dashboards that this agreement makes available will give invaluable insight to vice-chancellors and senior leaders. We expect they will be widely used and will become another valued feature delivered through HESA and Jisc’s close collaboration around the Heidi Plus service."
"Having access to the data from these two league tables in this interactive format will save significant time on data preparation within my team and amongst our many counterparts in planning offices across the sector,”
said Sally Turnbull, head of planning and insight, at the University of Central Lancashire, and author of the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and Higher Education Strategic Planners Assosication (HESPA) guide to UK league tables in HE.
"Although league table position does not drive our activities, we are nevertheless conscious that they are one of the primary ways in which potential students and other members of the public form opinions about different providers. It is, therefore, essential that we understand the ways in which our data feed into such rankings.
I welcome this development and the efficiencies it will bring to our analysis and am grateful to HESA and Jisc for their work in bringing this about.”
via Jisc news
Cyber security is a top priority for the government, for businesses and for Jisc. We want to help all our members build the best possible defences against cyber criminals – and we like to lead from the front in this arena. To that end, we’ve changed and improved our approach to security over the past 12 months.
This evolution started on 3 January 2017, when all the security functions at Jisc were brought together in a single division headed by Steve Kennett, bringing together the staff responsible for providing and developing all the security services and products that we offer with the operational teams into the new cyber security division.
Within the new division we have also established Jisc’s security operations centre, integrating the Janet Network computer security incident response team (CSIRT), the DDoS analysts and a new penetration testing and security assessment team.
Over the year, the division has expanded considerably, with expert staff joining the team and several new services added to the portfolio – and more to come in 2018.
Meanwhile, Steve has been much in demand as a speaker, presenting at 18 security-themed events during 2017, and attending many more. He has forged new alliances and strengthened existing relationships within the sector, the security industry, the government and with security agencies at home and abroad. We now have a solid intelligence network and our advice and expertise is sought and respected at the highest level.
One of most significant developments now under the security operations centre’s control actually went live in October 2016, but this year we began work to enhance our Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation service.
It is delivered in partnership with a global leader in this field, Arbor Networks, and we have been working with their team to develop enhanced services, which cut response time from a few hours to a few minutes. A successful pilot has been running since September at the University of Sheffield, with the faster services due to launch early in 2018.
Development also began on a portal for this service, which, when it’s live in the early part of 2018, will enable members to see in real time any suspicious traffic on their network. Eventually, the portal will serve as a one-stop shop, where members can search for advice and guidance, see our range of security services and share intelligence.
In 2017 the security operations centre has seen more than 1,200 DDoS attacks over the Janet Network, and dealt with more than 6,000 other incidents, such as malware, copyright infringements and law enforcement enquiries. Not only have we seen an increase in the number of attacks, we have also seen an increase in their size and their complexity, with the security operations centre analysts having to respond to changes made by attackers in real time.
In March, we launched simulated phishing and awareness service delivered from Khipu Networks. Phishing, particularly via email, is a major concern for all our members and educating end users in how to spot such threats is high on their list of security priorities. It’s been a popular service, with 20 of our members so far running an anti-phishing campaign.
In May we conducted our first ever cyber security posture survey among members. Giving us valuable insight into the varied defensive landscape in our sector, we now have a greater understanding of our members’ top security concerns, which will help shape our future decisions. We know, for example, that the use of vulnerability scanning to identify weaknesses in security is becoming the main way our members are testing their exposure to cyber risk.
The previously outsourced pen testing service was brought in house from August, with the appointment of two highly-skilled experts in this field. We have been inundated with requests for pen tests and are currently looking for another ethical hacker to join the team.
Building on an inaugural event in 2016, we held a security conference in November, where we welcomed more than 200 staff from member organisations. It was the perfect platform to launch our first cyber security documentary film.
Over two days, we heard from a variety of speakers on subjects including password security, the ethics of phishing campaigns, DDoS mitigation, the government’s Cyber Aware campaign, and using best-practice cyber security as a business driver. Our 2018 conference will be held in London in November.
via Jisc news
A computer hacker, who carried out a sustained attack on the Jisc-owned national research and education network (NREN) that disrupted connected organisations for several hours, has avoided jail.
Former student Jack Chappell, 19, from Curtis Road, Stockport, was given a 16-month sentence suspended for two years.
He began his attacks in December 2015 and launched further crimes in 2016.
Chappell caused large-scale disruption to the Janet Network specifically targeted the network infrastructure, changing his attack as the result of information being provided to members via Twitter.
Our chief executive Paul Feldman said:
“As soon as we were aware of the problem, we worked hard to assist police in exposing the perpetrator and bringing him to justice.
“Cyber crime is an increasing problem (the Office for National Statistics reports that digital devices are involved in 47.4% of all UK crime) so we are very pleased to have been able to assist the police in their investigation of this case; it sends a strong message to other would-be attackers that such criminal behaviour will not be tolerated.”
Chappell’s crimes, which also included assisting attacks on some of the world’s largest organisations, including Amazon, BBC, BT, Netflix, Virgin Media, Vodafone and the National Crime Agency, were investigated by the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU) and West Midlands Police.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on 19 December, 2017. With regard to the attack on the NREN, Chappell admitted one count of unauthorised access to a computer with the intent to impair operations.
Det Sgt Rob Bryant, from SEROCU’s Cyber Crime Unit, said:
“Throughout the investigation we worked closely with Jisc. We would like to thank them for their assistance, particularly in providing key details and technical evidence which helped to locate the defendant and bring him to justice.”
via Jisc news
Demand from the sector for information and advice on the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been strong, and seems to be increasing the closer we get to the day it becomes law on 25 May, 2018.
In response, we staged a free GDPR conference on 6 December, which quickly sold out. If you missed it, don’t worry because each of the main speakers and the resulting films are online now.
Demand from the post-16 education sector is encouraging to see, but worryingly, 44% of UK businesses are under the impression that GDPR will not apply to them after Brexit.
Implications of the GDPR are important and wide ranging. For some, it could have fundamental changes, but all institutions will need to review how they collect, processes, store and share personal data of staff, and students. It also has ramifications for how all sectors implement cyber security. Our GDPR conference offered practical advice around the impact of these changes and how to plan and implement them across your organisation.
David Reeve, head of information strategy at Jisc, introduced the event with a talk on getting to grips with GDPR and the 12 steps that we are also following to ensure compliance, ahead of the new legislation coming into force.
To ensure the specific needs of the sectors were covered, we ran a session on the practical applications of GDPR for further education, presented by Joe Yeadon, head of ILT services at Godalming College, and another on the implications for research, presented by Andrew Charlesworth, reader in IT and the law at University of Bristol.
Other presentations also available from our experts include talks on simplifying GDPR, how to develop an asset register from scratch and the rights of students regarding data, under the new regulations.
The GDPR conference was designed for the following people:
There are a range of resources and guides available on the GDPR available from Jisc, including:
via Jisc news
Durham University is the top university for on-campus wifi, according to data compiled by StudentCrowd, an online review community for students.
The data has been collated from thousands of StudentCrowd reviews for Jisc, manager of the of the eduroam network within the UK, which serves more than 95% of higher education institutions.
StudentCrowd asks reviewers to rate universities on criteria including campus facilities, students union and wifi. The data, which is based on 7,348 student reviews, gives Durham an average score of 4.5 out of 5 for wifi, followed by Lancaster University and the University of Sheffield.
Wifi access has become an essential for many people and students are no exception. Research published earlier this year by facilities management company Sodexo found that wifi is of the highest importance to this generation of students, with 79% of UK students considering it the most important service in their university environment.
Jisc’s own student digital experience tracker, which surveys 8,000 students, also emphasis the importance of connectivity and digital tools. The data reveals that 97% of HE learners find information online on a weekly basis during their course.
The tracker also reveals that 88% of students who responded use their own laptop and 84% their smartphone as part of their learning. With an average of 2.72 personal devices per learner, wifi connectivity is an essential service that supports students’ education.
Here are the top ten universities for campus wifi:
Most universities now provide free wifi, so that students can connect to the internet on their own device. On campus, many universities offer eduroam, a European-wide wifi service for the academic and research communities, while university accommodation is generally served by different providers.
eduroam is a roaming service which can allow registered users to access wifi from any university campus in the UK, regardless of whether or not they study there. In October 2017, eduroam reached more than 1.3m unique devices connected during the month.
Wifi is useful for social activities, including keeping in touch with fellow students, which fosters a sense of belonging on campus. Students also rely on good connectivity for entertainment and Jisc has put Netflix servers in its Slough data centre so that students can enjoy stable and secure video streaming in a more cost effective way.
A review left on StudentCrowd by a graduate from Durham University said they “appreciated how fast / reliable” the wifi at their university was when they got their own on leaving.
There were also positive comments about other table-topping universities: “I can get fast wifi anywhere I go,” said one reviewer writing about the University of Sheffield. While a student at Loughborough University noted there was wifi access all over campus - “even the shuttle buses!”
Sarah Davies, head of higher education and student experience at Jisc, said:
“With students relying on digital devices for study, personal organisation and leisure, it's no wonder they see good wifi connectivity as a key aspect of their study environment. Generally, universities are responding well to this challenge, with 80% of HE students reporting that they have access to reliable wifi at their usual place of study.”
Paul Humphreys, StudentCrowd, founder and CEO, added:
"Some stereotypes of students make us cringe. However, we have found the following to be true - 'students see superfast wifi as a basic human need'. Universities must ensure their students can connect to superfast wifi on all parts of campus/facilities. Most students report a positive experience - the average rating for university wifi on StudentCrowd is 4.04 out of 5."
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Sue Attewell, our head of change - further education and skills, chats about our student ideas competition, which launches next year; from how to work the competition into the curriculum, to what students can gain from entering (from business skills to confidence and everything in between).
Could your students come up with the next big edtech idea? Then we've got the competition for you! Together with Emerge Education, we're looking for fresh edtech ideas from students. Winners will receive £2,000 and expert mentoring. The student ideas competition is part of our edtech launchpad. Learn more about the competition and register your interest.
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Jisc is continuing its tradition of championing technology to support and transform teaching by backing a category at the inaugural Independent Higher Education Awards.
Creative Commons attribution information
KLC managing director, Will Gibbs, and course development director, Julia Begbie at the Independent HE AwardsAll rights reserved
KLC School of Design was announced as the winner of the Jisc award for innovation in digital teaching and learning, with Point Blank Music School the runner-up.
Jisc sponsored the award following a recent expansion of its membership criteria to include alternative providers.
The judging panel included Sarah Davies, Jisc’s head of higher education and student experience, who said of the winning entry:
“KLC's submission demonstrated how they harness technology in discipline-specific ways to really add value to students' learning. We were impressed by their use of technology to support both blended and fully online provision, bringing together campus-based students and those studying online.
“Technology was also used in a number of ways to support employer engagement and the development of employability skills, including through virtual work experience, and online workshops with industry as part of student projects.”
KLC also scooped a gong for breakthrough in course design and delivery. The managing director, Will Gibbs, explained:
“These two awards demonstrate our ongoing commitment to utilising the latest technologies to enhance the delivery of our courses, both onsite and online. It is a huge accolade to everything that we do here at KLC and I am immensely proud of everything we have achieved.
“KLC aims to lead with innovative digital learning methods to constantly meet the changing needs of students and creates a supportive environment for both staff and students to improve their digital skills. The innovation award is supported by the fact that KLC launched a new virtual learning environment (VLE) in 2014 – a custom blend of Moodle and Mahara, with bespoke features, while Adobe Connect provides recordable online classrooms.
“KLC teachers routinely use gamification, digital assessment, and virtual reality as part of online and onsite courses, and our state-of-the-art VLE supports both modes of teaching, and critical peer feedback. It also allows the use of e-portfolios to help online students build a one-on-one relationship with the KLC careers department.”
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As technology marches on relentlessly, digital formats are frequently updated and replaced. While this may improve visual or audio quality, or the volume of information which can be recorded, there is a danger that material from the birth of the digital revolution - and beyond - could be lost forever.
As formats become obsolete, the loss of material could have cultural, political or technological implications globally, in fields such as journalism, and for individuals’ personal records, such as photographs and social media posts. Worryingly, it also could have far-reaching effects on UK academics’ research.
To highlight the issue, the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), which we founded with the British Library in 2002, have compiled the first ever 'Bit List' of the world’s endangered digital species.
The list was unveiled this week as part of an international campaign to raise awareness of the need to preserve digital materials. It coincides with International Digital Preservation Day.
In terms of research material, the list identifies open access journals, original research data, fishbase.org, and PhD data as examples that it deems “critically endangered” among the academic community. If data is lost, researchers’ conclusions could be hard to reproduce and prove, and the data will be unable to be reused by others. This may in turn impact the likelihood of securing funding for future research in line with policy requirements.
Other types of files, recording methods or information services mentioned on the endangered list include discs (floppy, CD, DVD), Ceefax and Teletext, flash drives, files relying on software that’s no longer in use, online news and social media sites, and business intranets, to name but a few.
Jisc, which remains a member of the DPC, recognises the potential problem for researchers and is working on a shared preservation solution for its members that is scheduled for launch in spring 2018. This pilot service is being developed by us with our commercial partners, including preservation specialists Preservica, Arkivum and Artefactual Systems. It is currently being tested by 16 UK universities and will enable researchers to easily deposit data for publication, discovery, safe storage, long-term archiving and preservation. This means there will be sustainable access to research data, ensuring that research can be reproduced and data can be re-used by others.
Our director of open science and research lifecycle, Rachel Bruce, explained:
“Preservation and good processes to ensure data re-use are essential to research, to long-term access and use of knowledge for research and learning.
In particular, if you look at the very important agenda at the moment with regards to re-useable research, digital data, software and methodology formats are required for re-use and so curation and preservation techniques, as being promoted by the Bit List, are also important to that agenda.
Jisc is developing a leading digital preservation solution as part of our research data shared service. This will help universities undertake preservation actions for digital assets. In a similar way to the Bit List, we have worked with the Open Preservation Foundation to identify some of the large and diverse range of file formats that comprise research data, these are not necessarily endangered now, but they could be without action from the preservation community. We are seeking to work with The National Archives to improve the process and update of research data related file formats in their core preservation registry service PRONOM.”
Jane Winters, professor of digital humanities at the University of London School of Advanced Study and chair of the international panel of judges that evaluated the Bit List before its publication, said:
“Not everything on the Bit List will interest everyone equally, but everyone will find something on the list which resonates with them, so digital preservation matters to us all.
By the same token, not everything needs to be kept: quite the contrary. But we need to make informed decisions about what to keep, and develop coherent strategies to protect them. This is much more than simply a question of technology.”
In response to the Bit List, the DPC wants action to be taken, and in some cases urgently as the scale of the challenge gets bigger and as the importance, scale and complexity of data grows.
The DPC is calling for industry regulators to become involved to impose more onerous stipulations for the preservation of digital material. The IT industry will be asked to take responsibility for ensuring that simple preservation functions can be built into infrastructure, so that objects and code are robust at the point of creation rather than having to be reconstructed afterwards.
Regulatory reform is also required. While there is a very active and very capable global community of digital preservation expertise, their efforts to preserve digital materials are often thwarted by copyright laws. There are some exceptions to these laws to enable copies to be made for preservation purposes, but these have not always kept pace with technological advancements or apply universally to all preservation activities.
For more information about how to prevent research data becoming endangered, read our guide on how and why you should manage your research data.
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Jisc's chief executive has been voted to the board of GÉANT – the umbrella organisation for European national research and education networks (NRENs).
Paul Feldman was elected at last week’s GÉANT general assembly meeting in Prague.
Through interconnections with its 38 NREN partners, the GÉANT network is the largest and most advanced REN in the world, connecting more than 50 million users at 10,000 institutions across Europe and supporting all scientific disciplines. Our high-speed Janet Network is the busiest of its member networks and connects all the UK’s universities, colleges and research centres.
Paul’s appointment continues Jisc’s tradition at the heart of GEANT’s collective decision-making and demonstrates our commitment to boosting opportunities for UK researchers to collaborate across Europe and globally.
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Staff digital capabilities are central to student and organisational success.
It's a digital world, and in addition to a chosen subject, students are preparing for work and life in a digital society. In this podcast we take a look at what learners like and dislike. Read the accompanying blog post by Clare Killen.
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Born from a desire to change the current publishing landscape, dominated by a handful of large commercial publishers, there is an increase in new publishing models, being led by universities and academics. In this podcast, which accompanies Graham's blog post, we explore these new trends.
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Jisc’s power of procurement has landed a selection of extra cloud solutions for members.
After careful preparation we are now offering our members access to the EU-compliant GÉANT IaaS (infrastructure as a service) framework to simplify procurement of cloud services (GÉANT manages the pan-European network for research and education). The framework covers back-up and storage, computing resources, networking and professional services.
The main benefit of purchasing from the framework is that customers don’t need to run their own time-consuming procurement process because we’ve done it for them. Secondly, the framework provides favourable discounts, and the more the framework is used across Europe, the greater the discount.
In addition, our new Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute service, which provides a resilient virtual circuit between member sites and ExpressRoute point of presence for onward connection to the Azure service platform.
ExpressRoute connections ensure that Azure traffic is carried over the Janet Network to the Azure service platform via the Microsoft and Azure networks without touching the public internet, and are particularly useful for moving high volumes of data very quickly.
Among the first adopters of ExpressRoute was Staffordshire University, which is “delighted with the performance of the Azure-based services and proud to be the first UK HEI to have migrated its entire ICT estate to the cloud”.
Other Jisc members can find out more at a joint Microsoft/Jisc event on 6 December, which will focus on digital transformation in higher education and include a keynote speech from our CEO, Paul Feldman. Jisc enterprise director, Josh Fry, and a GÉANT representative will give a presentation on the benefits of the framework and ExpressRoute, while other speakers will give talks on cloud computing and data management.
Jessica Wu, group manager for cloud services, said the Jisc cloud offering was gaining momentum rapidly:
“We are introducing the new Microsoft ExpressRoute service and the GÉANT framework, which, together with our other cloud services, give our customers access to products at the forefront of cloud development.
“The cloud market has grown quickly over the past couple of years. In response to requests from the Jisc community, we are building a professional cloud consultancy service to directly support members initiatives around cloud.”
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As historic archives become increasingly digital, it's time to introduce an exciting new collection to the UK.
Libraries around the world are grappling with the challenges of digitising collections, to bring materials alive for a 21st century audience. Among the archives, the niche monographs, zines and pamphlets could all too easily be forgotten in our drive to digitise content.
A solution to this particular challenge has been found in Independent Voices, a collection of alternative press from the late 1960s, 70s and 80s, which expressed the upsurge of dissent and change within American youth culture.
Jisc has worked with Reveal Digital to bring this innovative crowd-funded model to the UK, with 10 universities signed up so far. The project with this US-based publishing innovator allows UK universities to purchase early access to these resources, otherwise unavailable to students or reserchers in any format.
Researchers and students at participating universities will have early access to 750,000 pages, documenting movements such as the LGBT community resistance to police harassment at Stonewall, the civil rights movement’s struggle against the Vietnam war, the various stances of a radical women’s liberation movement and the dissident voices of GIs drafted to fight in Vietnam.
Dr Ann Kaloski Naylor, lecturer at the Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of York, is passionate about preserving access to this type of content:
“Independent Voices is an exciting and important initiative for feminist scholarship. Although there is now a huge array of easily accessible work on women’s lives, gender theory and feminist perspectives, the discipline is still very young, and often rooted in grassroots movements from the 1960s onwards. The community nature of these ideas means that much significant work was produced in pamphlet form and, later, zines and in short-run magazines and books. This work is easily lost and key ideas are misrepresented.
"Current feminism has a strong relationship to (and perhaps even reliance on) the internet, and digitising material will allow recent history to become visible as well as accessible to younger scholars. The potential of exposing such material outside of small-scale archives and localised groups will likely be felt in related intellectual work in cultural and literary studies, history and sociology.”
Through the agreement between Jisc and Reveal Digital there will be access to a huge range of content which is not available elsewhere in the UK. At present, 10% of the collection is open and by January 2019 the entire collection, including print runs of 1,000 titles, will also be accessible to the public.
To increase the resources available, Jisc has decided to designate 50% of the revenue from UK institutions to undertake the digitisation of similar underground and independent press content from UK sources. This activity will enhance the US offer and the digitised content will be available from Jisc, in addition to the Independent Voices website.
Following the interest in the Reveal Digital collection, Jisc will be inviting UK universities and research institutes to propose similar collections for digitisation. This offer is available to universities until 31 December 2017.
The categories of historical underground press material being considered are feminism, LGBT rights and the struggle for racial equality, although others such as punk zines may be considered.
For any initial enquiries, contact Peter Findlay, digital portfolio manager at Jisc.
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Portsmouth College has won this year’s Beacon Award for the effective use of technology in further education, which is sponsored by Jisc.
Organised by the Association of Colleges (AoC), the annual awards celebrate the best and most innovative practice among UK FE and sixth form colleges.
Announced on 14 November, the winner was chosen for its Curious and Creative project. This involved providing all full time 16 to 18-year-old students with iPads, creating a sophisticated yet personalised learning experience. It improved the digital literacy of learners, raised attendance by 6% and boosted enrolment from 900 to 1,400.
The project was combined with a radical change to the college timetable, redesigned learning spaces, high density wifi across the campus and the ability to mirror iPads to classroom projectors and large-format display screens. The result was an anytime, anywhere learning culture and new, engaging, interactive, opportunities for active learning and teaching, improving one-to-one support, assessment and feedback.
The judges were impressed by the college’s focus to become a more digitally capable institution, continuously focusing on improving the delivery of the curriculum and focusing on how students learn in the 21st century.
Among the judges was Jisc’s head of FE and skills, Paul McKean, who said:
“Portsmouth College’s approach to the implementation of iPads for each full-time learner is an excellent example of how the effective use of technology can transform pedagogy and improve learning outcomes.
“The use of iPads is embedded across the curriculum and well supported by the college management team. There are a number of examples of exemplary practice where the use of the iPads and supporting technologies are enhancing learning, motivating learners and improving the quality of teaching.
“One particular example that stuck out was the engagement and motivation to learn shown by those in an English GCSE resit class, even during the first few weeks of term. Every learner was immersed in learning, communicating in small groups verbally and via a shared document on their iPads, while each group’s work was also being simultaneously shared via a projector with the whole class. This enabled the class tutor to instantly identify when groups needed support and opportunities to highlight to the whole class either areas for improvement or good learning points.
“The blend of the tutor’s face-to-face interaction with the groups and the whole class and the learners’ use of technology was seamless and complementary. It is pleasing to note that the college’s success rate for English GCSE resits is 72%, which puts it in the top 10% nationally, suggesting this type of delivery is impacting on learning outcomes.”
Harlow College, the runner up in this category, also use iPads for each learner and teaching staff. It invested heavily in its digital infrastructure, including campus wifi to run 3,000 devices simultaneously and established a mobile device management system. The college submission said:
“We changed the curriculum structure and our modes of teaching, learning and assessment to better prepare people for their digital future and adapted learning spaces. Our initiative has resulted in the improvement in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and a technology enriched curriculum. Predicted pass rates have increased by 7.4% to 96%.
Paul McKean described it as “an excellent example of how to achieve a major cultural shift in teaching and learning through the use of technology”. He continued:
“The iPads are used across the curriculum and it is pleasing to see that all the teaching staff are engaged and enthusiastic about the initiative. They have embraced the opportunities to improve both their personal technology skills as well as their skills in teaching, learning and assessment. Students are highly motivated by the style of learning that takes place and, as a result, there has been an impact on learning outcomes.
“The sponsorship of this award highlights our commitment to digital transformation in post-16 education. Colleges provide high-quality technical and academic training and education to around 2.2 million people each year. The innovative approaches they use make a real different to students, employers and communities.”
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Jisc is setting an example to the sector by taking on two apprentices, which also means we are doing our bit to promote women in STEM and helping to plug the UK’s technical skills gap.
Nicole Stewart and James Hodgkinson are both studying for a level six standard (equivalent to a BA degree) which, when completed in 2021, will qualify them as digital and technology solutions professionals.
Based with the security team at Harwell, Nicole is a trainee cyber security analyst, who studies through training provider QA, while James is a trainee developer, reporting to the futures team in Bristol and attending Weston College one day each week.
Jisc’s head of delivery, Kathryn Jeacock, said it was important to give Nicole and James all the support they need. She explained:
“We’ve started with two, but I’ve put forward a proposal that next year we take on another two apprentices, so we are taking an incremental approach; we want to learn from the experience and make sure it’s an amazing experience for them.
It’s really important that we support our apprentices well – it takes a lot of resources and it is quite intensive because they need a lot of mentoring and time.
Each of them has multiple mentors – a main mentor and other subject specialists in areas specific to them.”
Kathryn added that recruiting Nicole is an especially positive move for Jisc.
“I’m particularly pleased to have Nicole because there is a shortage of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). At Jisc we have a lot of technical roles, but very few of those are occupied by females. We want to use our apprenticeship scheme to support women in technical and leadership roles here.
The focus on apprentices going forward will be how we can increase that support to women; it also fits with our diversity, equality and inclusion agenda and our sign-up to the Tech Talent Charter, which brings together industries and organisations to drive diversity and address gender imbalance in technology roles.”
But creating these new roles is just the start of our journey in supporting young people and developing staff. Kathryn explained:
“We’ve decided to do this now for several reasons. Firstly, it’s an amazing thing to do and, secondly, we are providing products and services to the sector for apprenticeships, so it’s important that we are seen as a role model to our members.
Thirdly, as an apprenticeship levy-paying organisation, we pay every month and if we don’t use that money it goes to the government, so there’s also a financial element to our choosing to take on apprentices now. The first step was to recruit our own apprentices, which we’ve done, and the next step is using the levy money to develop our existing staff.
James Clay and Rob Bristow, both senior co-design managers, and head of further education and skills, Paul McKean, are really keen to understand the experience of our apprentices so we can use that knowledge to develop our products and service in this area for our members.”
Nicole Stewart, 18, started with Jisc on 2 October after taking A-levels in physics, maths and biology at college. Prior to that, she took a GCSE in ICT (information communications technology) and became more interested in computing during her second year of college.
Choosing a degree apprenticeship was a “no-brainer”, as she explains:
“You have university rammed down your throat as the only option after A-levels, then I heard about apprenticeship degrees in my first year of college.
You can get real experience rather than sitting in a classroom every day for three or four years, or come out of university with no experience in the working world. Taking an apprenticeship means I can get a degree and the experience at the same time and I won’t be getting into debt. It seemed like a no-brainer.
There isn’t much choice for my degree – there are only three companies that do it and two of them are very big companies where I knew I’d just be a number. When I researched Jisc I was really interested in the fact that it’s a hands-on not-for-profit and after I came here for an interview I was so much more interested than in any of the other options. It’s good here; each of my team can teach me different things and I’m learning an awful lot, which is what I wanted.”
James Hodgkinson, 22, has been with Jisc for just a month. He’s had no formal education in computing, but landed his placement with us having taught himself web developing skills. James said:
“After I left school I went to Weston College to do a BTEC in sports. After that I was a bit stuck on what I wanted to do as a career. I realised I wasn’t going to progress in that area and my father works in IT, so I taught myself web development. I volunteered to create a website for a friend of a friend’s shop, with no previous experience other than what I had taught myself.
This led to a contract with an insurance company making changes to their website. I was there three days a week, so for the other two days I was still practising and gaining more skills in that area. Then I heard about the Jisc apprenticeships on the college website, which was more focussed on software development than what I had been working on.”
James considered going to university, but would first have had to return to college to complete A-levels, which seemed rather long-winded.
“I thought a degree apprenticeship was a brilliant way to learn and earn money at the same time. I chose Jisc because I can work on a lot of different projects here. A lot of the other courses were just focused on one project for all four years. Here, I work on various projects, languages, methods and techniques and I thought that would benefit my career more in the long term.”
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