Hawkridge, David and Ng, Kia and Verjans, Steven ALT-C 2011 Proceedings Papers: Editorial. In: ALT-C 2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate.
Gorjian, Bahman ALT-C 2011 Proceedings Papers: 0001 Using Hypermedia Annotations to Teach Vocabulary on the Web. In: ALT-C 2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate.
Kohl, Kerstin Eleonora ALT-C 2011 Proceedings Papers: 0079 Fostering Academic Competence or Putting Students Under General Suspicion? Voluntary Plagiarism Control of Scientific Papers by Means of a Web-based Plagiarism Detection System. In: ALT-C 2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate.
Smith, Andrew ALT-C 2011 Proceedings Papers: 0081 Development of a simulated Internet for education. In: ALT-C 2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate.
Strachan, Rebecca and Liyanage, Lalith and Casselden, Biddy and Penlington, Roger ALT-C 2011 Proceedings Papers: 0126 Effectiveness of technology to support work based learning: the stakeholders’ perspective. In: ALT-C 2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate.
Bain, Yvonne ALT-C 2011 Proceedings Papers: 0136 Learning Through Online Discussion: A Framework Evidenced in Learners' Interactions. In: ALT-C 2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate.
Kheir Abadi, Maryam and Alsop, Graham ALT-C 2011 Proceedings Papers: 0137 Analysing tools to support future learning Programming. In: ALT-C 2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate.
Bacon, Liz and Windall, Gill and MacKinnon, Lachlan ALT-C 2011 Proceedings Papers: 0151 The Development of a Rich Multimedia Training Environment for Crisis Management: Using Emotional Affect to Enhance Learning. In: ALT-C 2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate.
Arati, Danny and Todorova, Albena and Merrett, Ruth ALT-C 2011 Proceedings Papers: 0160 Implementation and sustainability of a global ICT company’s programme to help teachers integrate technology into learning and teaching in Germany, France and the UK. In: ALT-C 2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate.
Colleges and universities now have a toolkit to help them make confident, informed decisions about the legal issues surrounding cloud computing.
JISC Legal has responded to a growing demand for guidance on cloud solutions by creating a comprehensive ‘Cloud computing and the law’ toolkit. The aim of this resource is to guide educational professionals through the legal aspects of implementing cloud computing solutions in their institutions.
Dr Stuart Brough, director of Information Services at the University of Strathclyde, welcomes its release: “Up till now it’s been difficult to find a practical toolkit on cloud computing and the law created specifically for the education sector. This timely new JISC Legal resource will fill that gap,” he said.
Colleges and universities have a particular responsibility to protect the intellectual property, research data and confidential records of staff and students. Compiled by JISC Legal’s team of ICT law experts, the toolkit contains accessible, up-to-date information about cloud computing in an educational context. It’s designed to meet the needs of a range of educational professionals, including academic, research and support staff.
Alex Hawker, JISC programme manager, said: “In this challenging economic environment, universities and colleges are now looking at new ways to provide services for their students and staff including using cloud-based technology. At JISC we’re aware that with innovative new technologies like cloud, many organisations will need support to understand the intricacies of how it works and what the legal implications are - so this guidance aims to build confidence among staff in working with a cloud provider.”
According to JISC Legal service director, Ralph Weedon: “We created this toolkit in response to a growing demand from the FE and HE sectors for up-to-date guidance on cloud computing in this area. It’s designed for a range of educational professionals and we hope that it will help them to feel more confident in their understanding of the legal aspects of cloud services.”
The five publications in the toolkit are:
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JISC Advance is furthering its work with adult learning providers by signing a memorandum of understanding with The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE).
The memorandum sets out how the two organisations will work together to raise the quality of learning experiences for adults across the UK.
Guy Lambert, Managing Director of JISC Advance, said: “It is particularly important for JISC Advance to work in a complementary manner with membership organisations. Combining our expertise in technology with NIACE’s deep understanding of adult learning provides a unique capability to support learning providers and learners to get the best results from their endeavours.”
JISC Advance and NIACE already share a common commitment to ensure that adult learning, and access to it, is enhanced and enabled through the use of technology.
Sal Cooke, director of JISC Techdis and the stakeholder engagement lead for JISC Advance, said: “It is vital that work continues between these two key organisations to help the education sector meet the many challenges to come. This memorandum will help create a powerful synergy and ensure that even more providers benefit from the many services offered under the JISC Advance banner.“
The commitment is proven by their strong relationship to date; the nationwide network of Regional Support Centres work together with NIACE to provide advice and guidance on how technology can both improve the learner experience and increase efficiencies for providers.
This is further enhanced by the work of the JISC Advance services, such as accessibility experts, Techdis and training providers, Netskills.
Alastair Clark, digital lead for NIACE, said: “This document really does give us a firm footing on which to continue our excellent relationship. We already have plans for a programme of activities with JISC Advance’s Regional Support Centres and JISC Techdis, and can now look forward to extending this to include more of the JISC Advance services.”
After 35 years of working in post-16 education and research, Dr Malcolm Read executive secretary at JISC will retire in January 2012.
Malcolm joined JISC in 1993 and has been central to championing digital technologies for education and research. His achievements include setting up the UK’s academic computer network JANET(UK) and being a passionate advocate of making publicly funded research widely available for everyone to benefit.
Alan Langlands HEFCE’s chief executive said, “Malcolm’s contribution both on driving policy and strategic development not only in the UK but across Europe and internationally has been tremendous. This was also recognised in 2010 when Malcolm was awarded an OBE for his services to further and higher education. We wish Malcolm well with his future plans.”
Dr Read has been central to setting up partnerships with The Knowledge Exchange, The British Library and the Higher Education Academy to create knowledge sharing as well as publishing papers and contributing to books, with his most recent publication being a chapter in The Tower and Cloud an e-book on the future of technology for education.
Upon retiring Dr Read will be following his passion for glaciology and will be travelling around Antarctica for two months.
HEFCE is now looking to recruit an executive secretary (CEO) for a fixed term for JISC’s transition period. To find out more and to apply for the post visit HEFCE’s careers website.
At a time of economic constraint it is essential that libraries can evaluate usage and make a compelling case about the value of journal subscriptions.
But obtaining and analyzing usage data can be extremely labour intensive for librarians, with each library having to visit each publisher's website and download their own statistics.
Now 100 libraries are benefiting from the Journal Usage Statistics Portal (JUSP) which offers single sign-in access to this crucial information.
The JUSP Portal provides a single point of access for usage statistics, meaning that users can easily and quickly compare usage across various publishers, subscription or academic years and journal titles.
Ben Showers, programme manager at JISC, said, "Libraries that use JUSP can now download usage statistics at the click of a button, transforming what used to be an arduous and time consuming task into an opportunity to interrogate and analyse business critical statistics. Librarians will be able to ensure that their management decisions are based on evidence and the evolving needs of their users.”
If you are a UK university and would like to participate please complete two copies of the Library Participation Agreement and return to Anna Vernon at JISC Collections.
If you are a publisher or intermediary interested in participating please contact Anna Vernon on 0203 006 6008.
The portal is a JISC-funded service which is operated through a consortium including JISC Collections, Mimas at the University of Manchester, Evidence Base at Birmingham City University and Cranfield University.
Cliff Spencer, librarian at Newcastle University, said, "Evidence-based library decisions rely on the timely analysis of usage statistics. JUSP has quickly matured into a highly valued service largely due to the team's skill in solving problems and presenting complex data within a clear and well-structured user interface.”
He added that the portal saves time and money by reducing the administration load on libraries and fitting in with workflow patterns.
Sarah Weston, data manager at the University of Portsmouth, said, “The project has a real community feel to it, in that it actively responds to user input and I think it is a really good example of collaborative working - something we should be striving towards to avoid us needing to reinvent the wheel! I think the team has worked very well with libraries in seeking their input."
"The more publishers you can get on board the better!” said Kate Newell, e-resources and serials team leader at the University of Exeter, adding, “The JUSP portal is already proving to be invaluable to us."
Visit the project website or contact Jo Lambert for more information.
MPs recently recommended improvements to the way scientific papers are checked before they are published, calling for the peer review process to be more transparent - see the BBC article.
The recommendations came out of a House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report which also urged that researchers make their scientific data publicly available, and that reviewers have formal training.
Executive secretary at JISC, Dr Malcolm Read, said, “At JISC we strongly support the recommendations of the House of Commons Committee report. Though most researchers agree with the principles of peer review, many feel there is room to improve how it is implemented. Recently there have been suggestions about alternatives, like open peer review and JISC has funded universities to look into open access academic journals which are compiled from other openly available material.”
JISC is already acting on a number of the recommendations - including funding the Dryad project mentioned in the report. Dryad-UK provides a repository for the data underpinning research articles, encouraging greater research openness. The BMJ Open journal and titles from BioMedCentral and PLoS have become partners, integrating their submission process with Dryad and strongly encouraging authors to deposit research data.
Neil Jacobs, programme director at JISC, said, “We are also engaged in productive collaboration with innovative publishers such as PLoS, as well as industry bodies, for example on standardising the way usage statistics for articles are reported.”
The government report describes access to data as ‘fundamental’ for researchers to reproduce, verify and build on each others’ results.
This spirit of openness is something JISC supports, through its work with the UK Research Councils.
However, there are challenges, as JISC’s programme manager for data management Simon Hodson explains, “These objectives will be difficult to realise unless research practice and supporting systems and infrastructures are developed to make good practice easier. Similarly, researchers will feel little motivation to make data available in a timely way unless conventions of recognition and reward evolve to encompass the effort required to ensure data quality and reusability. The JISC Managing Research Data Programme is helping universities support researchers in responding to these challenges.”
What does JISC think about open-ness in research?
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JISC is delighted that the Government has decided to endorse all the recommendations made by Professor Ian Hargreaves outlined within his independent review of Intellectual Property (IP) and Growth.
The fundamental aim of the consultation was to identify barriers to growth within the IP framework, which consists of the rules and regulations covering how IP is created, used and protected in this country. Using evidence based responses, its aim was to create a picture of how well the current IP system serves to help promote entrepreneurialism, economic growth, social and commercial innovation.
Dr Malcolm Read, executive secretary at JISC says, “We submitted an evidence-based response to the consultation and are encouraged that crucial recommendations have been included. Such as the need for exceptions for data/text mining, library archiving and parody to support research, teaching, learning. We also highlighted the need to prevent contracts from over-riding the exceptions to copyright, possible solutions for orphan works as well as the streamlining of the processes to clear rights - which have been supported by the Government.”
Copyright law risks becoming a law that is ignored, or viewed with contempt by users in the near future if policy measures and legal reform are not put in place to reflect education’s and research’s bona fide use of digital media and technologies. Ultimately, copyright law needs to be re-cast in order to reset the balance between the public and private sector, creators, educators, researchers, the creative industries and end-users.
Ultimately, the UK needs a modern copyright system that puts economic growth, competitive markets and commercial and social innovation at its heart. It should ensure creators, innovators, researchers and consumers can all capture the full range of benefits offered by the Internet and digital technologies. UK copyright law needs to be modernized and simplified to recognize and enable British entrepreneurs and creators to make the most of the opportunities provided by the digital age.
Dr Read added, “We believe that the implementation of the recommendations such as including the commitment to furthering easy, widespread access to information and resources, will ensure that technology and information management are placed at the heart of research and education.
“JISC supports the swift implementation of these recommendations to help create a robust IP framework which can optimise the impact of UK research and enable our world class universities to fully contribute towards the UK’s innovation and growth.”
| Read JISC’s previous statements on the Hargreaves report. See the Government’s response. |
@Comcultgirl #mscidel sunny and cold but only patches of snow in fields. a report from Scotland though: http://bit.ly/5D4pth
@Comcultgirl #mscidel Happy New Year too from slightly-snowy Leith.
#mscidel happy new year everyone - is it snowy where you are?
unlike @sbayne @claraoshea no leave left. Happily working my project with only virtual elves to help. Merry Christmas! #mscidel #ededc
like @sbyane I'll be on leave from today and back on the 5th January. Joy and felicitations to you all. :) #mscidel
I'll be on leave from the end of today - back online during the week of the 5 January. Merry christmas everybody! #ededc #mscidel
RT @flittleton #Edublog winner: http://bit.ly/7mFGSo Virtual Graduation at the Uni of Edinburgh http://bit.ly/6FFGNK #edslgrad #mscidel
#Edublog winner: http://bit.ly/7mFGSo Virtual Graduation at the University of Edinburgh http://bit.ly/6FFGNK #edslgrad #mscidel
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