RSC Essentials

The JISC RSC Northwest Annual Event took place on 22nd June 2010, at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton.

Attended by 264 delegates, this was the most well supported RSC Northwest Annual Event to date. It featured:

• An enigmatic key presentation from Russell Prue, ICT Evangelist, author, inventor and broadcaster
• Seminars from five educational specialists relating to the event theme of Technology Enhanced Assessment
• 60 exhibitors
• Exhibitor showcase presentations
• Pecha Kucha presentations
• Networking area

Included in the Annual Event summary online are:

• Presentations and resources – from Russell Prue’s presentation and the five seminars
• Photographs from the Annual Event
• ‘Tweets’ from the day

The summary can be accessed at http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/event2010summary

RSC East Midlands held our 6th annual e-fair at Walkers Stadium in Leicester on 22nd June. We had almost 200 delegates attending and feedback from both them and the exhibitors has been very positive.

Resources from the day have been put into the RSC East Midlands Moodle at http://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=178 including video and audio clips. Well worth a look!

The theme of the Keynote was Learner Voice and there are several film clips from learners around the East Midlands giving their views on how technology is used in their studies, what could be improved and what it might be like in the future. There is also a Learner Voice hub section which gives details on how to capture Learner Voice in your own organisation. We’re currently updating our Moodle course on this topic which will be available for other RSCs to host on their Moodles if desired.

Workshops covered a wealth of topics including:
social networking; informal adult learning; hand-held game machines; Key Skills; Learner Voice; investment choices; iPods; Additional Learning Support; animation; virtual characters; using video in the classroom; WBL; video conferencing; achieving the Training Quality Standard; working from home; mobile learning; teacher training.

Hope you find the resources useful,
RSC East Midlands team

The new email for all general adminitrative queries is: info@jiscadvance.ac.uk

The licence for Instant Presenter terminates on the 1st July so the facility will no longer be available to RSCs after that date.

The reports for May/early June can be found on JSLnet at: http://jslnet.jisc.ac.uk/goto/13632

Each month a summary is prepared of the work that RSCs do to support the WBL sector in Wales and England. The reports are all available through your WBL advisor from JSLnet. Just so you know the breadth and extent of the job that RSCs do, here is the summary of April report

RSC activity in April is delivered in the context of continuing uncertainty amongst providers about the practical consequences of machinery of government changes. The ALP also held the Provider of the Future conference in Birmingham which 6 Advisors attended as facilitators and Guy Lambert as a Keynote speaker.

1. 7 new English regional partner initiatives/collaborations are reported. In the previous month, 8 new English partnerships / collaborations had been reported
2. RSCs have planned 38 events relevant to the WBL sector, including 2 in Wales. In the previous month 42 events were being planned in England and 5 in Wales
3. RSCs delivered 31 on line and face to face events with 232 delegates. Event subjects included Safeguarding and the CIF; sustainability; Twitter; Moodle; learning objects with Xerte. In March there were 26 face to face and on-line events related to WBL, attended by 203 WBL delegates.
4. Advisors conducted 46 substantial consultations with providers with 31 involving a visit (previous month 45: 31 involving a visit). Topics covered in consultations include: strategy; accessibility; planning; mobile solutions
5. RSCs have engaged with provider networks on 15 occasions (previous month 17). This included presentations at Network meetings; contributions to working groups; demonstration of toolkits.
6. 5 WBL relevant forums were held, with 138 WBL delegates (previous month 10 forums were held with 42 delegates).
7. Requests for support from the WBL sector received by RSCs included: web 2.0; e-portfolios; MIS; staff development
8. The reported provider issues and challenges focused on re0organisation of the LSC; increase in 16-19 contracts and reduction in 19-24; functional skills; cross council borderlines
9. Other WBL activity included: Generator online update; CIF workshop; attendance of 6 Advisors at ALP’s Provider of the Future event; continuing development of TRACIO soft skills measuring toolkit.

Punam Khosla writes:
As part of the JISC Business and Community Engagement (BCE) programme, the SME e-Empowerment Project, managed by JISC TechDis, aims to support institutions who are helping Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with web technologies. As the next stage of this project, we are compiling a toolkit of freely available resources that institutions can use in their work with SMEs.

We know that many universities and colleges are already working with SMEs and start-ups delivering training, business support and knowledge transfer/exchange . The toolkit is designed to add value to this offer with resources that can be provided to SMEs as a part of your offer of support to them. These include:

• Tools and resources that help SMEs and start-ups make better use of web technology; these range from “getting started” information sheets , information that could underpin a training offer, to expert advice on the latest topics such as social media and cloud computing.
• Business advice, tools and services delivered online.

The resources in the toolkit represent a mix of projects from the higher and further education sector, and third party open source content. We have also included tools and resources developed by JISC Advance as part of our ongoing commitment to e-enablement in the higher and further education sectors.

For ease of use, the resources have been organised into the following themes:

• Starting a business
• Getting started with IT
• Online marketing
• Business efficiency and effectiveness
• Specialist services and information

The tools will be made available to universities and colleges through a dedicated website with suggestions for their use and institutional case studies. A series of themed guides and accompanying CDs will also be produced for use by SME’s in partnership with HE/FE institutions. These will be distributed free of charge to colleges and universities from JISC TechDis to pass on to partner SMEs.

You can help by suggesting resources that you have found useful when working with SMEs, and examples of effective practice that could be used as case studies. Please also let us know if you would be interested in user-testing the resources.

To get in touch, or if you have any queries about the project, please contact sme@techdis.ac.uk, or telephone 01904 717580.

Heads up re forthcoming activity for JA/RSC internal use only: on behalf of John Davey

OER
• JISC infoKit , currently based on wiki, being launched at HEA conf in June https://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/ Password = oer for comments
• OER showcase event with possible radio show at Holborn Bars, London 230710
• Publication based on early adopters experiences , possibly with video case studies, to be jointly JISC/HEA badged, aiming for end 2010, ideal world by Nov 2010.
• Related resource – Digital Repositories infoKit is to be reviewed to include wider learning and teaching focus.

E-learning future publications
• Effective Assessment in a Digital Age – Sept 2010
• “Effective Practice with Mobile Technologies” – working title only, for July 2011
• Both may link to potential events through RSCs as previously with e-portfolios

LLLNetwork – projects ending
• Exploring what next, how best to synthesise and make the most of outputs, not clear yet of links to ACL and WBL sector and partners but aware of the need to explore.

Curriculum Delivery (and Design), work on the Design Studio continues alongside gearing up for the culmination of the Delivery projects later in the year.

Learning Spaces – 2 case studies ‘live’ on the infoNet website – Coventry University’s Start-Up Café and the University of the West of England’s UWE Ventures in Bristol

JISC on-line conf 23-26th Nov

JISC Conf 2011 – Liverpool, 14/15th March 2011
• 2010 facts: 750 physical attendees, 1250 on-line, mostly in UK, caused some difficulties with accessing streaming video, 249 in social network

Simon Ball at TechDis has asked for our support with a project they are running as part of the JISC Business and Community Engagement programme. He writes, “As part of the JISC Business and Community Engagement programme JISC TechDis have engaged Sero Consulting to undertake a review of university and further education college engagement with small and medium sized companies (SMEs). This builds on work Sero has also undertaken recently, producing a review of education institutions’ support for SMEs’ use of technology. The aim of this current piece of work is to gain further knowledge of the extent to which universities and FE colleges are currently engaging with SMEs, to find a range of models of institutions working with SMEs, and to analyse what makes for effective engagement and the impact that different models can have. It is part of a larger initiative designed to improve the support resources offered to universities and colleges to develop their work with SMEs. If you know of any good examples of institutions forming effective links with SMEs then JISC TechDis and Sero would be pleased to hear from you: please contact BOTH Ian Chowcat ian.chowcat@sero.co.uk and Punam Khosla sme@techdis.ac.uk.
NB – Although JISC TechDis are leading on this piece of work it is NOT focussed upon inclusion – ALL examples will be useful.”

The JISC press office have advised of the following regional news press releases.

An e-celebration for Lesley Beasant

Basingstoke Gazette (Monday Gazette)  27/04/2010  Page Number: 25,908  Circulation: £00.00  AVE: 26-Apr-2010…to her by Dr Malcolm Read OBE. She said: “I was really proud to receive the award. It’s always inspiring when your work and college are recognised by your peers.”

Fishing school lands prize-winning catch

Scarborough Evening News and the Whitby Gazette on the 23rd April

…Joint Information System Committee (JISC) Regional Support Centre. The school scooped the Technical Award, receiving a certificate a ADVERTISEMENT nd a plaque and was runner-up for the Innovation Award, receiving a further certificate. Last year, the school received a substantial grant from the Association of Learning Providers which enabled them to completely refurbish their resources and to take…