Six student teams from colleges and universities across the UK have won support to develop their ideas for digital solutions that will transform the future of education.
Jisc will provide expert advice, technical support and funding to help build the ideas into products and services. The support is being offered through its Summer of Student Innovation competition, which asks learners to suggest new technologies and apps to improve the student experience.
Having already made it through first stage of the competition via votes from the general public, the students were invited to develop their concepts at a design sprint during the summer, before pitching their idea to a panel of judges ‘Dragons Den’ style.
The successful ideas are:
Paul Bailey, senior co-design manager at Jisc, said:
“Three years of running the Summer of Student Innovation has shown us how wonderfully creative students can be in coming up with solutions to some of the big challenges they’re encountering in learning and student life.
What all of the successful teams have brought to us are scalable ideas that have the potential to create a positive impact at other colleges and universities. We want them to help us to quickly take their ideas from the design stage and into development so that everyone can easily reap the benefits. We look forward to working with the students in the next phase.”
Jisc continues to work with six projects from the previous two years of running the Summer of Student Innovation, including: Unitu, a system to help universities structure and manage the feedback loop, from graduates from the University of Southampton; language-learning app Lingoflow, by brothers Lukas and Kamil Ondrej from Sussex Downs College; and Call For Participants, now the world’s largest open platform where researchers can promote their studies and connect with participants for free, from PhD students at the University of Nottingham.
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To celebrate International Literacy Day this September and support literacy for print-impaired learners, we look at how publishers, learning providers and libraries can make texts more accessible. Alistair McNaught, subject specialist at Jisc, tells us more. Read the original blog post.
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Throughout the summer, we’ve been conducting interviews with various projects that are part of the research data spring, to find out more about their work, their backgrounds, and how they’ve found the process.
In this series of interviews, we take the time to dig a little deeper into the thinking behind these projects, and get to know a little more about the work, and the people, behind them. Alisa Miller speaks about her project – and neologism – a consortial approach to building an integrated research data management system.
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In this series of podcasts we hear from our research data spring teams who are developing technical tools, software and service solutions to support research data management. This podcast is from Fiona Murphy who tells us about a project to give researchers credit for their data.
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We recently launched a call to find 50 of the most influential HE professionals on social media. We've been hearing from all kinds of academics and lecturers about the ways in which they use social media to generate change or improve things in their institutions - but what do the students think? We took the opportunity to speak to some students taking part in Jisc's Summer of Student Innovation to find out.
You can still nominate yourself or someone you know as one of the 50 most influential HE professionals on social media, or join in the conversation using the hashtag #jisc50social.
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Keeping your information secure can seem like a constant battle on all sides. Instead of trying to secure everything, Andrew Cormack, chief regulatory officer, Jisc technologies, advocates adopting a strategy to allow what activities you can, and defend your most valuable information assets. Read the original blog post.
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Recently Jisc opened a call to find 50 of the most influential HE professionals on social media in the UK. But what actually constitutes good practice among university and college staff? Tom Mitchell, group social media manager, offers his advice. Read the original blog post.
Listen to the podcast and then join in the discussion, using the hashtag #jisc50social.
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In the 12 months since the first shared data centre for research and education was launched by Infinity SDC and Jisc, many of the country’s top universities, colleges and research institutions have joined to improve efficiency, decrease costs and advance collaboration on world-leading research.
A year ago research in the UK was given a boost when the first shared data centre was created to support the requirements for academic research; becoming the first shared data centre of its type in the world. It is offered by specialist data centre provider, Infinity, through a framework agreement with Jisc.
Now, eleven leading UK institutions are utilising the facility for high performance computing and core IT infrastructure; resulting in increased collaboration with significant research projects, improved efficiency across core IT and on-premise data centre facilities being repurposed for teaching.
University College London, Francis Crick Institute, King’s College London, London School of Economics, The Sanger Institute, Imperial College London, Brunel University, Queen Mary University, University of Surrey and the Higher Education Funding Council for England as well as the data centre’s first further education tenants, City of Liverpool College, have all moved into the facility.
For researchers, being directly connected to the core of Jisc’s Janet network, the high capacity network for education and research, allows the quick and secure linking of large data storage and high performance computing facilities at national and international levels.
Jeremy Sharp, director strategic technologies, Jisc says:
“In the short time since launching, the shared data centre has proved a great success. Conversations with the sector show it to be in full support of the initiative, seeing it as an important step in allowing universities and colleges to be more efficient, effective and increasing collaboration that push the boundaries of research.
"The fact that eight of the UK’s leading institutions have already moved into the facility is further support for the data centre and we are in talks to welcome more tenants before the end of 2015.”
Commenting on why they selected the data centre, Nick Leake, CIO at King’s University College, says:
“Power flexibility was a very important reason for us moving into the facility. We required a data centre to provide a range of power densities per rack, as well as the flexibility to change the power allocation within the data hall when needed to meet the processing power required for biomedical research. The facility certainly helps us with this and is a vast improvement over our previous on premise data centre.”
Spencer Lamb, business development director, Infinity adds:
"Colocation providers have rarely delivered services for research HPC clusters as the majority of these have been kept on premise by the user. The Jisc shared data centre has bucked this trend by providing a flexible home for these systems, laying the foundation for collaboration between these institutions, something that was very difficult to do in the past.
"Furthermore an ecosystem is being generated to deliver further services to all the existing and future users as the Jisc shared data centre matures."
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Dr Paul Feldman, currently an executive partner at Gartner UK, has been appointed as Jisc’s new chief executive with a start date in mid-October 2015. He has extensive experience of working at a senior level in large, complex IT organisations. Paul takes over from Professor Martyn Harrow who, over the past four years, has transformed the organisation to better meet the changing needs in UK universities and colleges.
Dr Feldman has a strong commercial background having spent over 20 years in retail financial services at Nationwide Building Society, Barclays Bank and First Data EMEA, both in IT and business roles. He has also worked in knowledge-based IT companies including Thomson Reuters Legal UK and the Intellectual Property Office.
He has a track record in introducing innovative solutions, was in the vanguard of the first moves to use the internet for commercial purposes, and led the work that resulted in same-day payments between bank accounts.
Dr Feldman said:
“Jisc plays a pivotal role in helping the UK’s higher education, further education and skills sectors reinvent, adapt to change and make savings through the shared services, collective deals and advisory support it provides. Now, more than ever, universities and colleges need this kind of body and advice to help them take advantage of the opportunities digital technology offers to transform research, teaching, learning and organisational culture.
“Martyn and his team have made great strides in transforming Jisc. I look forward to building on this success and the solid foundations he has laid.”
David Maguire, Jisc chair, added:
"Our organisation exists to help colleges, universities and learning providers to thrive and perform at the forefront of international practice by fully exploiting the power of digital technologies.
“I want to pay tribute to the work Martyn Harrow and his team have done here. Jisc today is significantly different from the organisation he came into four years ago; we are stronger, sharper and more agile, with a solid customer service ethos at our heart.
“Paul's appointment will help take us to the next level, further supporting the critical work of universities and colleges.”
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This week Jisc launched a call to find the 50 most influential HE professionals in the UK on social media. Tom Mitchell, group social media manager, talks about the initiative - which will recognise those individuals who are using social media in a way that benefits and adds value to education and research - in his blog post. The post is read in full by Ben Goodway in our podcast.
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Martin Hamilton, Jisc's futurist, looks back on his experiences at the Google Moonshot for Education Summit, where 40 edtech innovators came together to discuss the future of education. He tells us about some of the moonshot thinking to come out of the event. Read the original blog post.
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Andrew Cormack, chief regulatory advisor, Jisc technologies, has recently written a chapter on information security for the book Digital Futures, which brings together a number of expert briefings on digital technologies for education and research. In this podcast he gives us a preview of his advice. Read the original blog here.
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Vivien Ward, project manager at Jisc Collections, looks at why universities might want to look at publishing textbooks themselves, what the challenges are, and how it can add value. Read the original blog post
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In this edition, Simon Thomson, an academic specialising in digital and technology-based learning, considers how digital pedagogies can support innovation. Looking at Jisc's senior co-design manager Lawrie Phipps' recent blog post referring to digital colonialism and its power to destroy pedagogic innovation, Simon asks: if this is the case, how should we redress the balance of power? Read Simon's original blog.
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A move to an open access model in research means that developments and requirements are constantly changing. Jisc is not only supportive of this move, but is taking an active role to work with universities and researchers to help meet any new requirements in a cost effective and joined up way.
In response to the recent OA policy review by Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the release of the Higher Education and Funding Council’s (HEFCE) updated requirements for next year’s Research Excellence Framework (REF), Jisc is working to help universities and researchers reap the benefits offered from OA practice.
Neil Jacobs, head of scholarly communications at Jisc tells us more:
“There are many benefits offered from an OA model, increased author visibility and improved accessibility to research outputs to name a few. But with such a new and evolving systems we need to get the infrastructure in place to ensure researchers and universities gain the maximum benefit.
“RCUK’s policy review offered various recommendations which will help us to continue to build this infrastructure; including immediately exploring how they can incorporate the use of ORCID, a research identifier that allows you to track research outputs by individuals, in their systems. At Jisc we have recently established a national consortium for ORCID to make it simpler for UK universities to start using it, we already have over 22 universities signed up.
"Alongside this we have been working closely with RCUK, SCONUL, ARMA and UKCoRR to ensure there is join up about what is needed and how it is developed. Today RCUK have released a template which we were heavily involved in developing. It provides details on what is required and a means for HEIs to supply data to them and a range of other funders, about compliance with their OA policy this year. I hope you find it helpful.”
Some current Jisc tools and solutions to support a cost effective and sustainable OA model:
For more detailed information on Jisc activity support OA for research papers take a look at their scholarly communications blog.
Neil concludes,
“There are still additional areas of uncertainty around OA, including around systems interoperability, measures to support compliance in subject repositories and the expectations around staff movement between institutions. I would like to assure those involved that these and other concerns are being considered and say that we will be working with others over the coming months on a common approach.”
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City of Liverpool College has this week become the first further education (FE) provider to move into the UK’s dedicated national shared data centre for education and research.
The data centre – which is offered through a framework agreement by digital technologies charity Jisc and specialist data centre provider Infinity SDC – will house the IT infrastructure for a new shared service venture the college is launching to support its core business strategies.
It was selected for offering a resilient service, all via direct connections to the core of Janet, the UK’s education and research network. The data centre will also allow the college to achieve significant cost savings by not having to set up and run a whole new data centre themselves, as well as giving them the flexibility to scale up requirements as needed.
Tim Kidd, executive director Jisc technologies, said:
“We are really pleased that the City of Liverpool College is taking advantage of the Jisc shared data centre.
“What we are offering through the framework with Infinity is a world-leading facility where users can store their data in a secure, safe and scalable environment, and allowing access to that information quickly and easily via the Janet network.
“There’s a big cost benefit, which will come as welcome news to FE colleges with ever-tighter budgets. Moving equipment off-site means reduced operational costs and allows better use of campus space and resources for teaching and learning. Savings are set to increase even further as more colleges and universities take up the offer and we’re able to provide economies of scale at a larger level.”
Alasdair Redmond, group CIO of City of Liverpool College, added:
“As a top ten national FE provider with over 22,000 students, we need to continually review how we deliver teaching and learning so that we can offer the best possible experience under increasing financial pressures. Using the Jisc data centre will allow us to achieve both aims, while passing the management of this service over to people who are experts in their field.”
City of Liverpool College will use the data centre to launch a new shared service for accelerated transformation of FE organisations, called SharEd. Made up of a portfolio of services – including HR, facilities, finance, IT and management information systems, as well as professional services and consulting – SharEd is designed to free up staff time to concentrate on delivering excellent services for students.
As well as supporting through the data centre, Jisc is actively looking at other ways it can support SharEd and other shared service schemes for the benefit of UK education and research.
Alasdair continued:
“Our SharEd offer is developed for the sector, by the sector. It will give organisations the tools they need to be able to achieve positive change and transform their operations at an accelerated pace, ensuring they are able to survive and thrive in such a challenging environment.”
Run out of Infinity’s flagship data centre in Slough, Jisc’s data centre service has the capability to grow to more than 800 racks. In just under a year since launching, the initial data hall dedicated to Jisc customers has reached full capacity, featuring 84 racks with a total power requirement of 732kW, and the charity is now filling its second data hall.
As well as City of Liverpool College current occupiers include University College London (UCL), Kings College London, The Sanger Institute, The Francis Crick Institute, Imperial College London, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and Brunel University London are among the organisations due to move in over the next three months.
Find out more about the data centre or to make an enquiry about joining contact 0300 300 2212.
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Deborah Millar is head of e-learning at Blackburn College. In this podcast she talks about the value of Twitter for continuing professional development, and why people are sometimes reluctant to embrace it. Read the original blog post.
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In this podcast, Sarah Fahmy talks about our open access (OA) good practice pathfinder projects including the latest developments in other OA services and projects highlighted at this year's Digifest event. Read the original blog post.
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Inspired by Jisc’s change agents' network, a number of universities have come together to form the London Digital Student Meet-Up, an event that brings together students and staff to work together across institutions. Moira Wright, digital literacy officer at University College London, and one of the meet-up founders, discusses the learnings from the first event and what’s in store for the future.
For more information or to sign up to the next event, visit the group page on LinkedIn.
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Our final 'connect more with Jisc' event took place in London on 15 July, giving people from the south east the opportunity to hear from experts and try out innovative technologies, with plenty of time for networking. In this podcast we hear from delegates and Jisc colleagues about their experiences.
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Lisa Featherstone is a Jisc subject specialist advising on accessibility and inclusion. In this podcast, she offers her tips on using technology to create more flexible resources that can meet the needs of students with disabilities and learning impairments. Read the original blog post.
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Jisc was a sponsor of the Herald Higher Education Awards for its Technology Innovation Excellence category, which recognise best practice in Scottish universities and colleges. Here, Jason Miles-Campbell, head of Jisc Scotland and Jisc Northern Ireland, looks at the shortlisted entries. Read the original blog post.
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In June, The Open University's production portal was named the winner of the Times Higher Leadership and Management Awards 2015 Digital Innovation category, sponsored by Jisc. Here, we speak to Glen Harding, solution architect on the project, about how the portal is making it easier to discover, manage and re-use audio/visual material.
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We've been touring the UK this summer with our connect more events, which offer people in education and research a chance to learn about best practice, network with peers and get hands-on with the latest technologies. Matthew Ewens, community engagement officer, Jisc, reports from Bristol, speaking to colleagues and delegates about their experiences.
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With cost efficiency and collaboration big themes in higher and further education, Jisc has undertaken a study to look at where cloud can meet the needs of the education sector and if there is an appetite for it. The results were divided.
The study - which surveyed IT and library leads in UK higher education (HE) and further education (FE) – found that although 45% were using cloud for business applications, such as payroll processing and management software, 31% had no plans to deploy cloud for this purpose.
The most popular use of cloud based systems was for student email. 80% of respondents were currently deploying this, with only 5% not having plans that took them in this direction in the future.
Jeremy Sharp, director of strategic technologies, Jisc says:
“The findings, although they do seem divided, provide some clear messages: one being that through maturity in the market there are now a huge number of cloud services available, offering different benefits to colleges and universities.
It’s only natural then that these services are being deployed by these organisation for sometimes very different reasons, depending on their needs – whether that’s better integration between the cloud and other software products, or because they offer flexibility to scale up or down as requirements change.
Email cloud based systems in particular were shown to be popular because they are not only more flexible for a normal user accessing their account from a range of devices and locations, but they are also a more cost effective solution for the organisation.”
Another popular area was cloud to support research outputs, with 53% of HE providers using private cloud and 34% using public cloud. There was also a clear trend for use in learning spaces and platforms, such as Canvas or hosted Moodle.
Jeremy elaborates:
“Popularity in these areas makes it clear that collaboration and the sharing opportunities offered by the cloud are a key benefit and driver for adoption in both further and higher education. Collaboration saves both time and money and the cloud supports this approach.
By sharing data and resources tasks organisations are able to learn from each other, supporting innovation and quality. We have seen this for ourselves in the Jisc data centre, which has been established specifically for education and research organisations.
Some of the biggest names in UK research have co-located their data to our centre, awarding them opportunities to be more collaborative and improve the speed and quality of research – for example, the creation of eMedLab, a high performance computing cluster that’s improving medical bioinformatics research.”
61% selected financial issues as the main challenge faced when trying to use cloud technologies. The second largest issues was security concerns, 48%, closely followed by legal concerns, 47%.
Lastly, respondents were asked if there are any other cloud services they would like Jisc to provide. The most popular response was ‘disaster recovery.’ Jeremy concludes:
“At Jisc we will be using these findings and the findings from the full report to develop services for the future. This information will allow us to continue to broker deals with cloud providers that better meet the needs of our customers and reduce their concerns.”
The survey was completed by 38 HE and 37 further education FE providers.
This study was undertaken due to recommendations by the Jisc technology consultative forum.
Download the raw data from the cloud survey (.xlsx)
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