Following feedback from the content expert group on its author facing communications and workflows, Springer Nature submitted a revised application for Jisc-approved transformative journal status for their Nature Research and Palgrave titles.
The application, which includes revisions to the author journey and communications, has been reviewed and approved by the content expert group. Once the changes have been implemented, expected to be 8 August 2022, the costs of APCs for papers submitted to the Nature Research and Palgrave journals after 1 April 2022 will now be eligible for?UKRI OA funds. As institutional OA funds are limited, authors should continue to discuss submissions and publishing options with their institution.
The ability to deposit author accepted manuscripts under CC-BY terms without charge continues until 31?December 2022.
The necessary changes to workflows and communications have now been made by Springer Nature. The costs of APCs for papers submitted to the Nature Research and Palgrave journals after 1 April 2022 will now be eligible for?UKRI OA funds, and UKRI funded authors will now be given the option to deposit their author accepted manuscripts under a CC-BY licence with no embargo.
via Jisc news
As part of our mini-series Podcast in AI in Education: Pedagogy first, senior AI specialist Tom Moule speaks with Mutlu Cukurova from University College London about how AI can support collaborative problem solving.
We chat with Mutlu Cukurova from University College London about why collaborative problem solving is an important skill and how we can use AI to support this activity. We also discuss:
Associate professor at University College London
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Senior AI specialist at Jisc's national centre for AI
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
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During this episode of the Research Talk, Helen Clare was joined by professor of physical chemistry and head of computational systems chemistry at the University of Southampton, Jeremy Frey.
As well as his conducting his own experimental research he is; investigating how e-Science infrastructure helps make an intelligent laboratory; an enthusiastic supporter of interdisciplinary research, the PI of the EPSRC Network+ on artificial intelligence and automated scientific discovery.
Together they discuss digital research infrastructure, how the current systems and tools need to change to better support research and the opportunities that could be realised with these advancements.
Jeremy Frey
Head of the Computational Systems Chemistry, University of Southampton
Jeremy Frey | LinkedIn
Helen Clare
Senior e-infrastructure strategy manager (skills), Jisc
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
Jasmin Standish
Marketing officer, Jisc
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In this episode, we’re joined by Simon Walker, director of programme development at University College London, to discuss how they have moved to digital assessment by default.
Simon starts by talking through the challenges they have been facing with assessment, including how they had previously recognised that it was out of kilter with the student’s expectations for a modern education system. The pandemic enabled them to take a bold step toward adapting their practices, adopting an end-to-end digital assessment platform.
We then discuss how they have supported staff with their assessment and feedback practices, adopting a team of digital assessment advisers who help onboard faculties and share best practices.
Simon Walker
Director of programme development at University College London
Sarah Knight
Head of learning and teaching transformation, higher education, Jisc
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Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
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There’s a disconnection between the increasing digital and technical needs of employers and the skills of today’s college and university leavers.
Better links with cutting-edge industry could help guide the education sector through the kind of technological transformation and narrow this gap: to innovate and upskill teaching staff, to harness emerging technologies and advance the march towards carbon net zero.
To this end, Jisc is arranging visits for education leaders to cutting-edge businesses. Recently, a group of higher and further education leaders went to Amazon’s London base; this followed a visit to Siemens’ Connected Curriculum centre in Manchester.
Of course, there’s much the education sector can learn from Amazon’s approach as a wholly digital business and, as you’d expect, it is evangelical about the potential of cloud computing as a cost-effective alternative to traditional IT infrastructure in colleges and universities.
Other topics for learning also emerged from the visit, especially Amazon’s leadership principles and the need to equip staff and students with the right technical skills to meet the demands of UK plc.
Among the 11 delegates on the visit were Paul Cox, chief executive at Eastleigh College; Nancy Buckley, director of career pathways at Activate Learning; Jackie Grubb, CEO and principal at City College, Plymouth; Mark Hunter, vice-principal, Royal Central School of Art and Drama; and Dr Awel Vaughn-Evans, associate pro-vice-chancellor, Bangor University.
Agreeing that the visit was a great learning and networking opportunity, Paul, Nancy and Jackie are particularly inspired by Amazon’s culture of innovation, which could also be applicable in a college or university setting.
Nancy says:
“I found the staff culture piece fascinating and enjoyed the conversation around how Amazon sets goals and brings ideas into reality through pitching and writing ‘press releases.
"So, from the outset, they aim high, at an ideal, and work backwards, rather than beginning with a problem. It’s a more positive way of working.”
And Jackie adds:
“Amazon demonstrates clear values and purpose within a culture that enables risk taking without fear of blame or failure. I also support the idea that innovation should come from more senior leaders.”
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A DNA helix structure listing Amazon's leadership principles.All rights reserved
A DNA helix structure listing Amazon's leadership principles, which include:
Amazon is organised for innovation, as its leadership principles, above, illustrate. Its leaders create a culture that is ‘obsessed’ with customers in the same way that principals and VCs are focused on their students.
Their leaders are people of action: they are curious and brave. They seek talented staff who are expected to experiment. They organise small, empowered, multi-disciplinary teams that own what they create. They are frugal and find ways to simplify and speed up processes because time is money.
In Amazon’s digital environment, speed and success are dependent upon robust technical architecture. As the owner of the UK’s national research and education network, Janet, Jisc concurs. Likewise, Jisc aligns with the Amazon principle that digital transformation is not about technology – it's a way of thinking and operating that requires leadership.
The visit also included presentations from Amazon on topics including building cloud skills for the digital economy and building digital skills - a strategic city approach (based on a case study of Dundee.
Responding after the visit, the HE and FE leaders spoke about introducing cutting-edge, industry-standard technology into the curriculum. For FE in particular, balancing capital investment and operating costs is a constant battle.
Paul Cox feels that uncertainty around funding and ever-changing qualifications are holding back the kind of investment and strategic planning necessary to make holistic changes. He acknowledges though, that technology and innovation could help reduce the licensing and staffing costs of managing data, which is a sector-wide issue for colleges.
While recognising the value of learning from industry, Nancy Buckley is frustrated that the current curriculum doesn't require it. Teaching these ‘new’ skills would rely on students wanting to go the extra mile in their own time.
Mark Hunter adds:
“Finding teachers and professional services staff with the right skills is a constant challenge, and there’s a lack of project planning expertise to implement new practice and systems”
Awel Vaughn-Evans agrees:
“We need to ensure that staff have the time within their workloads to engage with emerging technologies, and we need to work on upskilling staff and students so that these technologies are used effectively and efficiently in teaching and learning.
“Tools are available to facilitate this, but in practical terms, we need more staff to support the digital agenda, which is challenging in today’s climate.”
Jackie Grubb feels that red tape holds back education from operating and innovating in an agile manner and offers a solution. She said:
“There is often too much talking about what is wrong and what should be done, and not enough focus on making transformational change. The only way forward is to gather the right people with the right skills together to focus on outcomes and impact, with voices from both education and industry represented.”
Doing nothing though, is not an option, as Cox points out:
“If we are unable to keep pace with industry 4.0, what we teach will be out of date and students will not have the required skills to become valuable employees.
“For our teaching and training to remain relevant, we need employers to commit for the long term to co-design curriculum. In addition, we all need to recognise that, in certain sectors, schools and colleges cannot match salaries of industry - and industry experts may well be needed to support delivery in certain specialisms.”
Awel Vaughn-Evans underlines employers’ dissatisfaction with graduates’ skills, quoting a Deloitte report from 2018, which shows that, pre-pandemic, only around 12% of business leaders believe that graduates had the digital skills need to thrive at work. She adds:
“The biggest risk is the employability of our students: we need to make sure they acquire the right skills so they can enter the workforce with ease.”
Mark Hunter feels the HE sector is already under scrutiny from students and their parents concerned about the value of degrees. Universities that fail to prepare graduates for employment will be less competitive.
And Jackie Grubb says:
“Recruiting the right staff with the right skills is key here, so that skills providers can respond to employer needs.”
Perfectly summing up the purpose of the visit, Jackie concludes:
“I’d like to learn more from visits like these to industry. How can we embed AI in the curriculum? What can we co-create and co-design with industry partners? Which industry experts can staff shadow?
“In essence, how can we work together to create a sustainable, fit-for-purpose workforce for the future?”
Still to come: a blog following the visit to Amazon will focus on the topic of artificial intelligence.
via Jisc news
Ground-breaking publishing platform Octopus is being launched next week on 29 June and researchers are invited to attend the online event to find out more.
Octopus aims to enable fast, free and fair publishing of research that is open to all and focuses on the intrinsic quality of research. It sets out to avoid researchers being tempted to ‘sell good stories’ in their work, and instead rewards them for rigour and specialism.
Whilst traditional journals will remain a way for research findings to be disseminated, Octopus will provide a primary research record for publishing and research as it happens. It will be the place where the research community will be able to record full details of ideas, methods, data and analyses, for these to be peer reviewed and assessed for quality. It will allow faster sharing of results with credit given to individual work at all stages of the research process – including peer review.
Last year, Octopus Publishing Community Interest Company (CIC) was awarded £650,000 funding over three years in collaboration with Jisc from Research England’s emerging priorities fund to support the technical development required to move Octopus from a prototype to a global service. Unlike a traditional research publishing model, Octopus breaks down the publication of research into eight smaller modules or elements:
These elements are linked together to form branching chains, but each can be authored by different people. As Octopus’s director and creator, Dr Alexandra Freeman, says:
“Octopus is designed to shift the whole incentive structure. By changing what they’re being assessed on, we can allow researchers to concentrate on the quality of their work, not the way they ‘sell it’ to others.
“The platform will remove the judgement of work based solely on the ‘findings’, which can lead researchers to prioritise impressive-sounding results over solid theory and methods. It will encourage researchers to specialise in their skills as theorists, methodologists, data collectors, analysts, implementers or critiquers, rather than try to attempt all of these at once."
Thanks to the funding from UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) and the design of the platform, research recorded in it is free to read and free for researchers to publish, in an attempt to break down barriers to research for researchers with fewer resources. It also builds in ways to try to minimise bias in the assessment of work based on a researcher’s gender or the institution they work at. The emphasis is on speed, openness, fairness and ease of use, in order to prioritise pure, intrinsic quality of research.
Jisc’s director of open research services, Liz Bal, says:
“The vision for Octopus is strongly aligned with Jisc’s overall mission in leveraging technology to improve research. Open by design, Octopus represents an entirely new publishing model, with the potential to transform research communication and research culture.”
Research England’s director of research, Steven Hill, says:
“The funding to support Octopus aligns with Research England’s strong commitment to open research and the government’s People and Culture Strategy.
“There is real potential for this service to positively disrupt the publication landscape and provide a tool for the research community, which is owned by the community.”
Dr Freeman adds:
“Octopus is something very different for the research community, and I expect it will be hard for many people to adjust their mindset to the new way of approaching research work that it encourages.
“At the moment it’s as if we are encouraging researchers to build their own tall towers, and judging them on how high they can reach, but ignoring the towers’ strength. It doesn’t result in a solid edifice – reliable findings that we can continue to build on and use – it’s not collaborative and it’s not using everyone’s strengths and skills to best effect.
“Instead, Octopus encourages every researcher to think of each piece of work they do (like coming up with an idea or collecting some data) as a brick that they are placing in a wall. They are incentivised to make each brick as solid as possible, and make sure it’s put in the right place. That way, out of all the solid bricks, will emerge solid towers on firm foundations: research integrity in the fullest sense, and findings that society can rely on.
“I think many people recognise that in order for research to serve society, and to tackle the problems such as reproducibility that we’ve seen grow over the years, something like this needs to happen. And I’ve been thrilled to find that many working in journals, funders and institutions are rallying round Octopus and want to see it succeed, as well as researchers themselves.”
Researchers are also welcome to join the Octopus user community and can join the conversation and keep up to date with activities through the Octopus user community JiscMail list, or can join the discussion via Twitter @science_octopus.
Initially, Octopus’s eight publication types are most closely aligned with the scientific research process. However, researchers from all disciplines have expressed interest in extending the platform and are invited to get involved in the work to do this.
via Jisc news
As part of our mini-series Podcast in AI in Education: Pedagogy first, senior AI specialist Tom Moule speaks with Scott Hayden from Basingstoke College of Technology about they are using AI to support personalised learning.
Scott talks about how the college is using Century Tech, an AI teaching and learning platform, to support students who are studying GCSE maths and English. This platform analyses a student’s strengths and identifies where they need extra support, helping teachers facilitate a more personalised approach to learning.
We discuss the lessons Scott and the team have learned when adopting AI technology, including how to embed these tools strategically so that they become an integral part of teaching and learning. We also discuss the benefits he has seen from using AI, which include improved attendance and the freeing up of teachers’ time to focus on tasks that only they can do, such as providing direct one-to-one support.
Lastly, Scott shares other exciting applications of AI, and his aspirations for how AI could be used in the future.
Scott Hayden
Head of digital learning at Basingstoke College of Technology
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Tom Moule
Tom Moule
Senior AI specialist at Jisc's national centre for AI
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
via Jisc news
Jisc has launched a report that examines the impact of digital technology on the environment and offers practical steps that colleges and universities can take on their journey towards carbon net zero.
Written by independent technology analyst Scott Stonham, the report, Exploring digital carbon footprints, aims to support IT and technology leaders in their decision-making.
The report highlights best practice around procurement, on-premise IT, cloud technologies and remote working, with an awareness of the cultural, economic and practical realities within the further and higher education sector.
The report was commissioned by MD of FE, skills and member support (FE and HE), Robin Ghurbhurun, who also has responsibility for Jisc’s external sustainability agenda. He said:
“The increasing use of digital technology in education has many benefits, but it’s important that we recognise and try to mitigate its contribution to climate change. Every email, video call and social media post, every piece of content we download, and all the time we work or study on our devices, adds to the world’s carbon load.
“It’s our responsibility to reduce the impact on the environment as individuals and collectively through the organisations where we work and study.
“Not least because of pressure from students – the first generation that has grown up with the climate crisis – the issue has become a strategic priority for colleges and universities. Many already have sustainability plans in place, with measures and targets; but others are less advanced on that journey and need support.
“My hope is that Jisc’s new report will help inform and steer colleges and universities towards delivering a cleaner, greener environment for staff, students and their wider communities.”
While the report covers long-term strategies for change, there is also a list of quick wins in the report that could help make an immediate and near-term impact on digital carbon footprints. The suggestions are:
The report was unveiled on Friday at Jisc’s 50th Networkshop by Scott Stonham. In his keynote speech, Scott said:
"The key to improving our digital carbon footprint is in taking informed action, which requires awareness. This report aims to help build that understanding.”
Download the report on exploring digital carbon footprints.
Join us on 5 July 2022 for our online event net zero: understanding your needs, to reflect on the digital carbon footprint report and discuss ways that you are tackling this challenge with other institutions.
via Jisc news
Recent events have highlighted the importance of working with students as partners in digital transformation and hearing what they have to say about the impact of changes to how they have been learning.
This year’s CAN conference in May, hosted by UCL (University College London) and supported by Jisc, was a three-day celebration of student partnerships on the theme of sustaining partnerships in transformative times, hearing from students as ‘ChangeMakers’ and staff on how these partnerships are changing institutional practice.
The Change Agents’ Network (CAN), established by Jisc with the University of Greenwich in 2013, supports students working on innovation and curriculum change projects as change agents, digital pioneers, student fellows, champions, researchers and students working in partnership with staff. The network has membership from staff and students across the UK and internationally.
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Students attending the CAN ConferenceAll rights reserved
Opening this year’s conference, Derfel Owen, Director of Change and Improvement at UCL, said:
“We have to get to know our students and understand them and their lived experiences. There are opportunities to engage students in every aspect of their education and at UCL we are committed to working with our students as ChangeMakers, reviewers of teaching practice, quality reviewers, on student panels and student representation. Together with our students as partners, we are shaping the future of our university.”
Sarah Knight, Jisc’s Head of learning and teaching transformation, higher education and research directorate, said:
“UCL, like many other universities and colleges, has embedded students as partners into the culture of their organisation and this has enabled students to play an active role in the design and development of their digital environment.”
Starting with ten student-led projects, UCL ChangeMakers has grown to support around 90 projects each year and seeded a sister scheme, Student Quality Reviewers, which involves students in named and paid roles on their quality assurance processes.
This episode of Think Ahead TV welcomes staff and students from the Change Agents’ Network to discuss the importance of working together when revolutionising approaches to learning.
So, what did students attending the conference have to say?
“It is really great to see so many innovative student-staff partnership taking place in real education settings! The conference really creates a space for educators to exchange and share their practices and for students to gain confidence in the future partnership projects.” - Trista Wu, UCL student fellow
“The CAN Conference presented the potential that student-staff partnerships have and the necessity to continue reviewing and reforming those partnerships to address the challenges we currently face in higher education. It was amazing to see so many people engaged in creating opportunities for meaningful partnerships.” - Molly Edwards, UCL student fellow
“The CAN Conference provided a great opportunity for educators and students to learn more about the future of student-staff partnerships and enables the student voice to shape this future.” - Stephanie Cunningham , UCL student fellow
Several student partnerships were shared at the conference showcasing the positive partnerships in action at universities:
As one of the UCL ChangeMakers said:
“CAN is all about the student voice: I didn’t know our voices were valued so much and how we can affect change and influence institutional policy – that is the collective power of CAN.”
Student partnerships have been central to the recent Student Futures Manifesto, (SFM) initiated by UPP Foundation Student Futures Commission (2021).
Speaking at the CAN conference was independent education expert Mary Curnock Cook. As chair of the commission, she gave an insight into the SFM initiative, set up to ensure successful student futures following the pandemic.
She said their research and engagement shows that, since the pandemic, the majority of students have lost confidence in terms of their learning and mental health, and the SFM aims to address these issues
It provides a blueprint for how universities and students can work together to improve students’ experience of university and give the sector a clearer focus on students’ priorities.
Mary said:
“The sector's absolutely at its best when it gets behind an idea like this and we wanted it to be a very kind of generous and collaborative piece of work. We had fantastic engagement: we had a lot of oral sessions and vice-chancellors all gave us their input; we had over 40 submissions from different universities and student unions …. so, we have lots of material to work with.”
“The commission feels that the pandemic showed the value and necessity of listening to diverse student voices and engaging students at every stage of the student lifecycle as active partners within the institutions. This is about more than the adage of ‘Meeting students where they are at.’ It’s taking the time and initiative to meet students as equal partners in decision-making and co-creating solutions which benefit their future success.”
Sarah Knight was also involved in Jisc’s recent Connect More event, where she chaired a panel which brought into focus students’ insights into their current learning environment and the change they have experienced after two years of learning remotely, to being back in the classroom and on campus.
Students from Harlow College, the University of Plymouth and UCL spoke about the benefits of using technology to support their learning, from the ease of access; the ability to fit learning around other commitments of work or caring responsibilities; to the ability to quickly connect with their tutors through online chat. They valued the benefits of being able to revisit recorded lectures to aid with recall, understanding and revision.
Michaela Moclair, Plymouth University said:
“As a student digital champion, I’ve learned how to use technology such as Panopto for recording sessions, as well as Zoom and how to navigate breakout rooms and things like miro boards, which could be useful in the future for presentations and things like career development. All these sorts of technologies could really help me in the future.”
Rebecca Herbert, Harlow College said:
“I did my entire GCSE syllabus online and I find being able to work at your own pace really helped because if you got stuck on something you could easily message your teacher. The fact that you could do it at your own pace meant you understood it more.”
Sarah added:
“Students were also able to share the negative aspects of their experiences of remote learning, including the feeling of isolation, the lack of community and missing the sense of belonging after not having met their year group and feeling disconnected from their college or university.”
This feedback is echoed in the recently published HEPI/Advance HE Student academic experience survey 2022 with a recommendation that “Universities should proactively design programmes that will help build cohesion among students, especially those whose courses have been severely affected by the pandemic.”
However, Sarah reported that the feedback from students was they valued being back on campus and that technology continues to play a significant and positive role in supporting their education. The transferability of the digital skills they have developed over the past two years is seen as a positive to take forward in their future careers.
At CAN, Mary Curnock Cook, summed up the importance of the student partnership approach, saying:
“Students want to be talked to, not talked about.”
See also: Tackling digital transformation together
via Jisc news
Jisc is helping a consortium, led by the Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA), to assess the feasibility of, and scope for, a platform to help international research collaboration.
The aim is to streamline and standardise due diligence processes to increase research efficiency and quality and promote trusted research.
The project, funded by the Research England Development (RED) Fund, aims to implement recommendations in ARMA’s April 2021 report ‘Due Diligence in International Research - Options for Improved Efficiency, Equity and Quality’ to “establish a due diligence clearing house and national service in support of due diligence for international research”.
The project aims to create a process that helps researchers and education institutions comply with trusted research guidelines and legislation, such as the NSI Act, put in place to protect the integrity and efficacy of important research projects involving UK institutions.
Thanks to its expertise in providing digital infrastructure and services, Jisc is acting as technical partner, helping to assess the feasibility of a clearing house platform to help make due diligence easier, quicker and more secure.
Over the next few months, the consortium – which includes Northumbria University and the University of Stirling – will explore ownership and funding models and will produce a detailed cost-benefit analysis to quantify the potential saving to the sector.
A series of stakeholder engagement events is planned and a written report will be presented to funders, Research England, in October 2022.
Victoria?Moody, Jisc’s director of research and innovation sector strategy, said:
“Jisc is very pleased to help assess the feasibility of, and scope for, technology to support trusted research and research security, helping international research collaboration and enhancing trusted research. We are delighted to be working with ARMA to scope and design it.”
via Jisc news
Registration is now open for Jisc’s 2022 security conference, which aims to help education and public sector leaders, along with technical experts, build robust architectures to withstand the latest cyber threats.
There is one free place available for every Jisc member at the three-day event, which will be held at the ICC in Newport, Wales, from 7 to 9 November.
It will offer a hybrid experience: the first two days will be in-person, bringing the Jisc security community together for the first time since the pandemic. A virtual programme, including the exclusively online third day, opens up participation to a wider audience.
The conference will explore how, in a multi-cloud world, the education and broader public sector can achieve resilient zero-trust practices; these aim to make every part of a network architecture safe and protected by ensuring users validate their identity at every stage of their journey through a system.
It will offer talks and workshops with industry thought leaders, and will focus on four key themes:
Other topics on the agenda include the importance of information security, how best to build and use disaster recovery plans and resilient backups, and the value of an holistic, whole-organisation approach.
The latter point is particularly important for sector leaders, as Steve Kennett, Jisc’s CISO, points out:
“Cyber security is not just another IT issue: a strong security posture derives from good governance and a positive culture, alongside assurance and comprehensive technical measures.
“Security incidents happen without warning and we cannot underestimate the importance of good preparation. The ‘cure’ is infinitely more stressful and more expensive. Don’t make the mistake of thinking ‘it’ll never happen’: it’s a case of when not if.”
Aimed at senior leaders as well as IT leaders and practitioners, attendees will gain a strategic overview of the issues and a deeper understanding of the tactical responses necessary to safeguard organisations against ever-changing threats.
It’s possible to register for in-person tickets for the first two days, or for the third day, which is online only.
Every Jisc member organisation can claim a complementary ticket for the in-person event. Email secconf@jisc.ac.uk for details.
Explore how you can be more secure by downloading our cyber security checklist (pdf).
via Jisc news
A survey has been opened that will help Jisc gauge how UK education and research organisations are dealing with the evolving threat of cyber attacks.
Open to all UK Jisc members and customers, the questionnaire results will gauge attitudes to cyber security across the sector and what technical measures, processes and skills are in place to minimise risk.
The survey, which should take less than 15 minutes to complete online, provides valuable insight. Head of policy and strategy for Jisc’s Janet network, Dr John Chapman, who instigated the survey and has developed its scope over the past six years, explains why the data is important:
“Results will help steer Jisc’s future work in cyber security, informing decision-making on new services, and the type of advice and guidance we provide to support sector leaders’ efforts to build robust cyber security strategies.
“Having gathered information on the state of cyber security across tertiary education and research organisations over several years, we know that the general trend is one of improvement.
“However, the cyber landscape is always shifting and threats continue to evolve, so there’s no room for complacency.
“Ransomware remains a huge problem for organisations in all sectors across the globe, including education. In the 2021 survey, ransomware was cited as the top threat for both UK further and higher education institutions and I expect similar feedback this year.
“Alongside threat assessment, the survey enquires about security certificates, services and training that is in place. We also ask organisations to assess their security posture on a scale of 1 to 10.
“As a whole, the survey responses will show where the strengths and weaknesses lie so we can target our support accordingly.”
Survey data will be collated and anonymised, and a summary report will be reviewed by sector experts before being published in the autumn.
A summary of the findings will also be available at the Jisc cyber security conference in November. Registration for the conference opens on 8 June, 2022.
For information about ways in which Jisc helps members protect against cyber attacks, visit the cyber security web pages.
Guidance for senior leaders can be viewed in the guide 16 questions you need to ask to assess your cyber security posture and the cyber impact report, which was updated in April 2022.
via Jisc news
Thinking about a mobile phone upgrade to enable 5G? Keep up! Researchers and the telecoms industry have already moved on to planning for 6G, and the possibilities are exciting.
Dimitra Simeonidou is professor of high performance networks at the University of Bristol and co-director of the Bristol Digital Futures Institute, and she’s at the forefront of developments in telecommunications. While a clear vision for 6G is not yet set in stone, she believes that 6G could take mobile technology to a whole new level – one that has far-reaching implications for us all.
Dimitra says:
“When moving between different mobile network generations, we always talk about key performance indicators – how good our network is.
“With 6G, we need to start talking about key value indicators. It's not only the performance, it's the values that we will be measuring outcomes against, be they environmental, social or economic. For instance, how could the economy be more inclusive, with wealth more equally distributed, and how can we enable this through future network connectivity?
“The focus should be on how we can tackle critical social challenges - energy use and achieving net zero, for example. Connectivity and network infrastructure could really change the way we provide services that enable people and industry to behave in a different way.”
Dimitra highlights the potential for using 6G-enabled smart city technology to control CO2 emissions through traffic management and avoiding congestion peaks.
On a more personal level, the power of 6G could open up new, seamless worlds of cyber-physical interaction.
Dimitra explains:
“The 6G experience is going to be very different from what we have seen up to now. It’s about the cyber-physical continuum – how we can create ‘worlds’ where our physical and cyber experiences match, so that going from a physical space to a cyber space feels very natural.”
The potential for using these ‘worlds’ in education is thrilling, she says. A new frontier of immersive technology in learning and teaching becomes possible – think ‘internet of senses’.
“We’ll be able to start looking at immersive classrooms, where virtual students and physical students can be ‘sitting’ next to each other and having a very similar experience.
“That’s going to be transformative because, during the pandemic, students missed that in-person interaction with classmates and teachers. Moving to a cyber-physical convergence would alleviate this problem."
The question is how we take this idea and offer it to everybody. It is a huge step, but it could be transformative for the future.
While 6G is due to launch around 2030, Dimitra predicts it will take around 15 years for full physical experience through cyber presence to be widely enabled.
In the meantime, there are glimpses of the potential of 5G: universities are deploying private 5G networks to make a whole campus 5G-enabled. As Dimitra says:
"The University of Bristol, has demonstrated that its 5G network allows monitoring and control of energy consumption across all campus operations."
Jisc is working to bring these benefits to more universities and colleges.
Simon Farr, Jisc’s director of innovation, adds:
“5G offers an opportunity to look at radio as a viable alternative to fixed wired infrastructure.
“There's a very important element of 5G technology called network slicing, which allows us to define that a part of the spectrum is only going to be used for a particular application, and it's always dedicated to it. Consequently, performance can be guaranteed. This could allow us to connect other buildings on campus to the Janet infrastructure with a dedicated slice of 5G spectrum, rather than any fixed infrastructure going to it.”
Simon is quick to point out that, despite the benefits, Jisc is not suggesting every university or college build its own private 5G network. Instead, Jisc is planning to build a packet core – the internal workings of a 5G network – inside the Janet network infrastructure to share with institutions.
The performance and development improvements 5G offers would make institutions much more agile in terms of innovations like internet of things engineering or smart campuses.
For Dimitra, tertiary education has a critical role to play not only in trialling and realising the benefits of mobile technologies such as 5G and 6G, but also in helping to shape them – as creators, not just consumers.
“This is a vision that can’t be created by engineers only. We need a cross-disciplinary approach to innovation. We need teams that bring together people from humanities, social sciences, psychology and computer science as well as engineering to think about how we can make this alternative future happen, how we can get it right.”
Universities are the creators of the skills that make this happen. They must now think how to create the cross-disciplinary skills needed to drive this kind of transformation for our future.
Dimitra Simeonidou is speaking at Jisc’s 50th Networkshop which is taking place at Nottingham Trent University, 8-10 June.
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In this episode, we are joined by Professor David Nicol, Suzanne McCallum, Lovleen Kushwah and Nick Quinn from the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow to chat about how they are using comparison based feedback to improve their assessment and feedback practices.
Professor David Nicol, research professor: teaching excellence initiative at the Adam Smith Business School, starts by taking us through the research they have undertaken into feedback, looking at what feedback students generate themselves when asked to compare their work against other types of information such as videos, textbooks or lecture notes, instead of a teacher’s comments.
David’s research found that students generate significant feedback on their own whilst also reducing the need for teacher comments. He then explains the three concepts behind the work at the university:
Suzanne McCallum, Lovleen Kushwah and Dr Nick Quinn then speak about the methods they are using to bring this comparison based feedback approach to life, sharing how they have found it so far and the feedback they have had from students.
Professor David Nicol, research professor: teaching excellence initiative
Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow
Dr Lovleen Kushwah, lecturer in economics
Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow
Suzanne McCallum, senior lecturer in accounting and finance
Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow
Dr Nick Quinn, lecturer in entrepreneurship (management)
Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow
Sarah Knight
Head of learning and teaching transformation, higher education, Jisc
Follow Sarah on Twitter
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
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The Office for Students (OfS) has today launched a consultation with the higher education sector to determine the suitability of Jisc as the next designated data body (DDB).
The Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA, has been the DDB for higher education in England since 2018. Should HESA merge with Jisc – a move the two organisations have been exploring for some time - a new DDB will need to be appointed.
In February 2022, the OfS invited expressions of interest from organisations that could become the DDB – to which Jisc responded. As a result, the OfS consultation is running from 26 May until 27 June 2022.
A summary of responses to the consultation will be published by the OfS in summer 2022 before it makes a recommendation to the secretary of state for education as to whether Jisc is suitable to be the DDB.
If Jisc becomes the new DDB, it will pave the way for a merger with HESA later this year.
The proposed merger will provide significant benefits to UK higher education, combining the expertise of both organisations to create a resilient, joint capability for delivering the sector's data and digital needs.
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The Office for Students (OfS) has today launched a consultation with the higher education sector to determine the suitability of Jisc as the next designated data body (DDB).
The Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA, has been the DDB for higher education in England since 2018. Should HESA merge with Jisc – a move the two organisations have been exploring for some time - a new DDB will need to be appointed.
In February 2022, the OfS invited expressions of interest from organisations that could become the DDB – to which Jisc responded. As a result, the OfS consultation is running from 26 May until 27 June 2022.
A summary of responses to the consultation will be published by the OfS in summer 2022 before it makes a recommendation to the secretary of state for education as to whether Jisc is suitable to be the DDB.
If Jisc becomes the new DDB, it will pave the way for a merger with HESA later this year.
The proposed merger will provide significant benefits to UK higher education, combining the expertise of both organisations to create a resilient, joint capability for delivering the sector's data and digital needs.
On 13 June, the Department for Education launched its consultation regarding the potential voluntary de-designation of HESA as the Designated Data Body under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. This consultation, which runs until 10 July, is a necessary step in the proposed merger process between HESA and Jisc.
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Springer Nature has been asked to revise and resubmit an application for its Nature Research Journals and Palgrave Journals to become Jisc-approved transformative journals.
In its application, made on 14 April 2022, Springer Nature offered deposit of an author’s accepted manuscript (AAM) under CC-BY terms to authors funded by UKRI for a temporary period.
Following a?review by the content expert group against the sector’s requirements it was agreed that the application did not currently meet the sector’s criteria. This is because the information presented to authors does not?equally signpost the option to deposit the AAM alongside the option to publish the Version of Record and pay an article processing charge (APC).
Following receipt of the group’s feedback, Springer Nature has indicated it will be revising its application before it is again considered by the content expert group.
As such, the costs of APCs for papers submitted to the Nature Research and Palgrave journals after 1 April 2022 remain ineligible for?UKRI OA funds. Authors should continue to discuss submissions and publishing options with their institution.
SN continues to guarantee a compliant route to publication for these UKRI corresponding authors by offering them the ability to select to deposit their AAM during the period of 1?April to 31?December. This guarantee is independent of these journals being approved as Jisc-approved TJs.
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A project developed by Edinburgh College that uses virtual reality (VR) to teach healthcare students how to care for and empathise with dementia patients has earned a Jisc-sponsored award for innovation.
One of several winners at the 2022 Higher Education (HE) Awards, run annually by The Herald, and announced at a ceremony in Glasgow last night, the project is described as ‘an inspiration’.
To develop the VR Dementia Experience, the college partnered with Cadpeople, a ‘visual communications agency’, to build a VR system that took student carers into an immersive world. It better prepares them for professional situations involving the condition than classroom work alone.
Using real-life interviews with those living with dementia and those caring for them, the team created a realistic and empathic experience. Students learn important facts about dementia, and ‘experience’ life as someone with the condition, building their understanding and empathy.
Implemented as part of the college’s new digital care hub, the project has formed a key element of its health and care curriculum and immersive training programme.
Jason Miles-Campbell, head of Jisc Scotland and Northern Ireland and a member of the judging panel, said:
“I’m absolutely delighted for all the winners of The Herald Awards 2022, whose creativity showcases the strength of Scottish higher education today at one of the most challenging times.
“An exceptional example of how technology can support the development of essential skills that employers value, Edinburgh College’s VR Dementia Experience is an inspiration.
“It meets a clear, enduring need in the healthcare industry, encouraging understanding and empathy in a manner that would be difficult or impossible without technology. At the same time, it’s been delivered in an accessible way that provides a model for the development of similar VR resources to support other subject areas.”
Running for seven years, The Herald HE Awards celebrate outstanding and inspiring initiatives from institutions across Scotland. The award for innovative use of technology has been sponsored by Jisc since 2016.
Find out more details about the awards and see all of the winners.
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The 49th meeting of the Jisc student experience experts group brought together representatives from across the tertiary education sector to discuss digital transformation: what it is (and what it’s not), how to put essential building blocks in place, and how to optimise success.
Chaired by Liam Earney, Jisc’s managing director of higher education and research, the group shared experiences and offered valuable insights into how each is tackling digital transformation at their college or university - from advice on senior leadership advocacy and developing the digital confidence of staff to enabling data-informed decision making.
Educause defines digital transformation as “a series of deep and coordinated culture, workforce and technology shifts that enable new educational and operating models and transform an institution's business model, strategic directions and value proposition.”
So how did the panel characterise digital transformation? They agreed that:
Dan Perry, chief information officer and university librarian at Keele University, said:
“This may not be the most fascinating of topics, but mature identity and access management (IAM) capabilities are foundational. That way you can ensure that the right individuals can access the right resources at the right times and for the right reasons."
"Not having IAM, cyber security, systems integration and data integration in place before you even start starves the lifeblood of any digital transformation.”
Mark Stubbs, professor and assistant director responsible for learning and research technologies at Manchester Metropolitan University, advised that robust, secure, scalable systems supported by a technology-enhanced learning advice capability are key, along with well-defined processes, particularly those focused on supporting the assessment lifecycle.
Jonathan Hofgartner, assistant principal for digital technologies at Weston College, added:
“In addition, you need a dusting of experimentation and creativity, along with a certain level of resilience.”
Dan Perry said:
“Digital transformation requires a wider view of how technology affects change across the organisation and the society within which we work. It requires a re-think on how we deliver education and training, how we explore opportunities, how we innovate faster and better.”
The panel offered several key points to keep in mind from the very start of the process:
The message came across loud and clear from all panel members: The biggest asset of any organisation is not its technology but its staff.
Deborah Gray, principal and CEO of Hull College advised:
“Technology can be scary, so don’t force it on people. Instead of imposing it, equip staff with the environment, the context and the tools to succeed. Leading by example and demonstrating that technology is a tool to help them evolve and be better helps staff see the tangible benefits that it can bring to their own work and life.”
Awel Vaughan-Evans, associate vice chancellor for flexible learning and outreach at Bangor University, agreed:
“Fundamentally, engaging students and staff, and supporting them to develop their digital capabilities, is crucial. Digital transformation can’t happen if you don't go back to basics, and if you don't focus on developing those core skills.”
Developing staff to fulfil their roles and feel confident with technology are key ingredients of initiating and sustaining digital transformation, so extensive training and support are absolutely key to ensuring that staff are engaged. This also applies to senior management.
Dan Perry asked:
“How do you move an organisation with an historical, retrospective view of data to one that actually uses data to drive transformation? The trick is developing digital capability in the senior management team, so that they can use data analytics and business intelligence to make data-informed decisions. It also minimises the digital divide between senior management and staff.”
Again, everyone agreed that digital transformation is one part of a broader transformation process, which should be driven from the top and embedded into the organisation’s culture.
As Deborah Gray said:
“It’s a hearts and minds exercise as much as a technology one. Digital transformation must be driven by the organisation’s core values.”
Jonathan Hofgartner added:
“It should also support key agendas like sustainability and inclusion.”
This culture change must also extend outside the organisation, looking at the wider employment landscape and tuning in to industry and employers’ changing needs.
Deborah continued:
“We need to integrate digital technology into all aspects of our business – not only to provide better, faster, more efficient support services, but to underpin a curriculum that’s fit for the digital economy that’s upon us right now.”
“What is driving all the work we’re doing to get the curriculum ready is the need to meet the skills requirements of our businesses and industry – locally, regionally and nationally. Our job is to mirror the trends in skills and ways of working so that we turn out professionals with the right level of digital skills.”
Awel Vaughan-Evans emphasised that students are also key stakeholders in digital transformation and it’s essential to include their perspective:
“We've talked about a digital divide between senior management and junior staff, but there's a huge difference between what academic and professional services staff think is going to work and what students actually want."
"More focus on student engagement is the crucial thing for me moving forward.”
Leadership buy-in is essential - but it needs to be collective leadership, involving stakeholders from all areas and levels of the organisation in order to reflect a holistic view of transformation.
According to Dan Perry:
“Collaboration is key. Unless the entire organisation is working together, you can end up with systems that don’t integrate and aren’t harnessed in a strategy that covers business and curriculum.”
Awel Vaughan-Evans concurred:
“For us, creating that strategic group of key stakeholders means that we can all work together and make sure that the entire organisation is working effectively to really drive digital transformation.”
Mark Stubbs said:
“In that sense, Jisc has been a real catalyst for digital transformation at MMU. Jisc-funded projects have played a really important role because they brought together key individuals from different levels across our internal structures. The need to meet a set deadline, the awareness that we would be subject to external scrutiny, and the absolute commitment to sharing the lessons learned with the wider community all combined to its success.”
A key question to ask, suggested Dan Perry, is whether the IT function is still seen as a cost-centre. If so, that perception needs to change:
"Everyone needs to know that IT isn’t just about boxes and wires - it’s about supporting the business, driving financial growth, reaching new markets and training more people."
Challenged to write a digital strategy for his institution, he said, he informed the senior management team that he would take the education strategy, the research strategy, the student engagement strategy and the estates strategy, and show how the IT team would support, enable and help drive each one with a data and infrastructure strategy, creating a unified core that would take the organisation forward. As he explained:
“Digital strategy is not a separate thing. It’s just part of what we do every day.”
On the question of how Jisc could help support the sector to achieve digital transformation, one thing was clear.
Mark Stubbs concluded:
“The sheer scale of the challenges we face is going to need a pooling of effort, bringing in talent from all areas and levels of the sector.”
“This is where Jisc can really help – by acting as a unifier. Jisc’s strength is its broad connectivity in that it operates across the whole education and skills supply chain and can bring this together as a united collaborative sector.”
Feedback from the student experience experts groups plays a key role in informing community consultations and influencing the direction of Jisc’s future work in learning, teaching and assessment.
For more information on Jisc’s strategies to support the sector, see:
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During this exciting episode of the Research Talk, Helen Clare was joined by Tony Hey to discuss current and future research environments.
Tony’s extensive career began in 1970 as a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Since, he’s worked with Nobel Prize winners in physics, been a professor and head of department at the University of Southampton, held the position of corporate vice president of microsoft research and is currently the chief data scientist at Science and Technology Facilities as well as senior data science fellow at the University of Washington eScience Institute.
Tony talks through the research environments of today and how they need to improve, the role of AI, how it needs to evolve and his vision for the research environments of the future.
Tony Hey
Chief data scientist at Science and Technology Facilities
Helen Clare
Senior e-infrastructure strategy manager (skills), Jisc
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
Jasmin Standish
Marketing officer, Jisc
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Keele University has pledged to reach net zero by 2030. Alex Goffe and Mathew Bailey from the university’s information and digital services team explain the vital role technology is playing to make this ambitious goal possible and offer their top three tips for starting your carbon neutral journey.
Spread over 600 acres, Keele is one of the largest university campuses in the UK and is already a sector leader in sustainability – last year it was named Global Sustainability Institution of the Year at the Green Gown Awards. But bringing such a large site to carbon neutrality by the end of the decade – sooner than most universities – is no small ambition. Success depends on technology and, not least, Keele’s network infrastructure.
Alex Goffe, Keele’s associate director, operations and infrastructure, says:
"We’re in a really good position – you might almost say a unique position – to do this. Keele is effectively a self-contained town and we have almost end-to-end control over the entire estate – all the buildings and all the utilities: power, water and gas.”
SEND - Keele’s Smart Energy Network Demonstrator - is a cutting-edge, real-time energy management system designed and installed in partnership with Siemens UK. The largest of its kind in Europe, its role is to intelligently optimise energy generation, distribution, storage, forecasting and balancing across the campus.
Mathew Bailey, head of network services, says:
“Keele has all sorts of different types of buildings: anything from a house up to large teaching and business complexes, all with completely different sets of requirements. And that's where our SEND project gained a lot of momentum, as we started to understand how those different buildings operated and what the requirements were for heating and lighting.
“We got involved quite early on to put infrastructure in the ground, so that all these things could start talking to each other. We now understand when people are arriving on campus, what they need to do and how they can use energy more efficiently. We can use the network underneath that to drive changes and make things happen, such as turning things on and off.”
Then in April this year, Keele opened its pioneering renewable energy park, an array of 12,500 solar panels and two wind turbines generating clean, renewable energy. With combined battery storage, the site supplies up to 50% of the campus’s electricity requirements and any excess is fed back into the local power grid to serve neighbouring communities. The energy park, built in partnership with low-carbon technology specialists Equans, is linked to SEND.
Mathew Bailey says:
“When we started to network all that, it was apparent that we could generate quite a lot of power, but then you've got to use it. So before we got battery storage on campus, there was a big push to start heating water, cooling buildings and spaces ahead of people arriving so that they could use that energy rather than it just going back into the grid, offsetting Keele's actual energy usage.”
The next step is using that energy in IT, as second largest consumer on the campus after estates, to power the data centres and the comms rooms. Goffe says:
“We've invested in new UPS (uninterruptible power supply) systems for data centres. They are not really expensive, bleeding edge systems, they’re just really good, energy efficient, new ones. Compared to what we had previously, that's helping reduce our consumption. And the data centre now being built to house our new high-performance computing cluster is going to be powered by our renewable energy park. So we're able to power one of the most intensive, power-hungry systems via renewable energy, which is unique at the moment."
He adds:
“Some of the things we’re doing are revolutionary but, with all the groundwork that's been done, some of it is also basic, like turning off aircon units in data centres at night or when it's minus 10 in the winter, which we can do because all our aircon is monitored through our building management so we've got visibility of temperature changes.”
The team’s sustainability ethos extends to the whole supply chain, from the plastic used in hardware packaging to the choice of cloud suppliers, where they make conscious decisions about who to use based on their sustainability plans. They make a point of talking to suppliers such as Amazon Web Services about those plans – and to smaller companies about packaging policies – so that the concern about carbon footprints can be fed back into those organisations as something high on customers’ agendas.
Bailey concludes:
“We're not there: it's a journey, but every step of it, we're trying to chip something off and say, ‘We can now do that in a more renewable way, and we can use the energy better’.”
With its self-contained campus, Keele has a head start on some other universities, not least those that are city based. So what elements of Goffe’s and Bailey’s experience might work for any university’s IT team? They offer a top three:
- Take small steps that you can control. If you've got onsite data centres, can you invest in a more efficient UPS system? Are your suppliers carbon neutral or working towards that? Instead of having deliveries all the time, could you have a one day a week when all your deliveries from a supplier come in? What sort of packaging is being used? There are lots of small changes you can action immediately.
- Monitor. Understand where and how you're using power. Because IT is everywhere, try to use your infrastructure as sensors and get the data in so that you can understand how buildings are being used and then go from there. If you can, get your IT infrastructure or power requirements integrated into building management systems.
- Ensure that IT is in the conversation about green or sustainability policies as early as possible. Work with academic and estates staff to help drive through change, supporting as much as you can and not being a blocker.
Alex and Mat will talk about how Keele University is targeting to be carbon neutral by 2030 and the role infrastructure plays in achieving this at Jisc's 50th Networkshop event. In their session on 9 June 2022 at 16.45 -17.30, they will be looking at how technology is helping to drive these changes, from cloud to cables and relationships between departments.
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In this third episode of our mini-series on rethinking assessment and feedback, we are joined by Karen Barton, director of the learning and teaching innovation centre at the University of Hertfordshire.
Karen shares some of the feedback they have had from students on assessment including, providing authentic assessment, providing personalised assessment where possible and changes to the workloads/phasing of assessment.
We then discuss a recent consultation and review that the university has taken to help identify the changes needed to support their vision for teaching, learning, and assessment. The review helped develop the ‘Herts learning principles’, which were created to help address some areas that the university sees as important in the future, with one of these principles being around how they harness technology to support their strategy.
We also discuss how the university is supporting staff to take these new assessment practices forward, discussing how they created an assessment experts group within the university to provide policy outputs, direction, and guidance for staff.
Lastly, Karen shares what she thinks are the critical success factors that need to be in place within an institution to help realise affective assessment and feedback.
Karen Barton
Director of the learning and teaching innovation centre at the University of Hertfordshire
Sarah Knight
Head of learning and teaching transformation, higher education, Jisc
Follow Sarah on Twitter
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
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Publishing on 19 May, a collection created by Wiley Digital Archives in partnership with Jisc and the British Science Association, has accumulated more than 930,000 pages of scientific archive material.
For the first time researchers, teachers and students can access digitally more than 90% of the British Association for the Advancement of Science - Collections on the History of Science (1830s-1970s).
Free to Jisc members and affiliates, the move to digitise this collection, much of which was previously unpublished, began in 2020, when leading UK university libraries and archives were invited to put forward their archives. This was the first time they had an opportunity to influence a commercial publisher’s decisions about what to digitise.
The collection includes maps, photographs, slides and documents from the core years of the British Empire, documenting the efforts of the British scientific community to establish science as a profession and establish Britain as a world leader in science. It connects the works, thoughts and interactions of some of the most influential scientists of the time, from Charles Darwin to Sir William Ramsay.
The academic community now has access to this rich source of material, the impact of which has already been highlighted by King's College London, the University of Birmingham and the University of Liverpool.
Paola Marchionni, Jisc’s head of product,?said:
“We are pleased to have reached this milestone in the archive, which is a major resource for the academic community and, importantly, puts it within reach of students, who wouldn’t otherwise be able to easily access this material. The digitisation of archive material is more important than ever if we are to support new models of scholarship and research-led teaching.”
Simon Bell, publisher of the Wiley Digital Archives programme, said:
“Wiley is delighted that this major project is coming towards final publication. This resource, rich in primary source material, will be of high value to all of those interested in the history of science. We anticipate that the archive will provide a wealth of research material for scholars for many years to come.”
A free webinar to launch the collection is being hosted by Jisc on 19 May. The event will include a discussion on research in the history of science with Professor Emeritus Robert Fox, PhD candidate Amanda Faulkner and head of archives at King’s College London, Geoff Browell.
The event will be of particular interest to researchers, teachers and students of the history of science; academics with an interest in research-led teaching and using primary sources; and also:
Register to attend the webinar or contact events@jisc.ac.uk for further information.
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In this episode of our rethinking assessment and feedback mini-series, Sarah Knight chats with Danny Liu and Benjamin Miller about how they are adapting their assessment and feedback practices at the University of Sydney.
Danny and Benjamin start by sharing some of the issues and challenges that an institution-wide review into assessment picked up, including assessment weighting, group work and assessment feedback.
They then talk about how the development of the student relationship engagement system (SRES) has helped solve the problem of engaging a large number of students with personalised feedback and personal care.
Finally, they share their tips and advice on the steps UK universities could take to improve their assessment and feedback practices.
Danny Liu
Associate Professor at the University of Sydney
Dr Benjamin Miller
Lecturer at the University of Sydney
Sarah Knight
Head of learning and teaching transformation, higher education, Jisc
Follow Sarah on Twitter
Mark Lennon
Digital campaign manager, Jisc
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Weston College wins award for effective use of digital technology in further education for its innovative virtual classroom project.
Weston College has been recognised for its pioneering virtual classroom project, which has improved the lives of its learners and teachers by boosting their digital skills.
The college’s innovative work has won this year’s Association of Colleges’ Beacon Award, sponsored by Jisc, for its effective use of digital technology in further education.
Based in Weston-super-Mare, Weston College provides education and vocational training to approximately 30,000 enrolled learners annually from age 14 to adult across three main campuses and several satellite centres. Using the concept of ‘classroom fusion’ to create a virtual classroom, the college has revolutionised online teaching and learning by replicating the feel and interaction of the classroom when learners may be geographically spread.
Paul McKean, director of further education and skills at Jisc, and a member of the Beacon Award judging panel, says:
“Weston College won this award by reimagining online learning for the future. Excellent learner and staff feedback demonstrated the impact this model has had, with clear positive effects on attendance and engagement, especially with lower-level learners. This is a great example of a college of the future that will provide learners with the digital skills required by the world of work.”
Born out of a college-wide focus on inclusion and innovation, Virtual classroom is part of Weston College’s plan to create a blueprint of remote teaching excellence for a “college of the future” model that can be replicated across the further education sector. It has created an immersive learning environment that also fosters the development of multi-skilled teachers for the future.
Virtual classroom has enabled the college to increase learners’ engagement and participation through building learner-centric online communities and extending remote and blended learning excellence.
Paul McKean says:
“By embedding digital capabilities in study programmes, the college has ensured digital practices and skills development are now a key aspect of the student experience. As a result, Weston College learners are skilled digital practitioners, ideally placed to fill employers’ digital skills gaps.”
The college has also prioritised the upskilling of its workforce, which it says is key to attracting, motivating and retaining staff. Digital inclusivity and digital pedagogy are key components of development programmes for academic staff, who now have the capability and confidence to operate seamlessly between physical and virtual teaching environments.
via Jisc news