JISC

Here is a sample of how our work is contributing to the success of universities and colleges around the UK.

If you’d like more information on these, or examples of other case studies, please email press@jisc.ac.uk 

Horizon scanning for the sector

Plagiarism advice: from identifying a need to providing a much-valued service (PDF)

In early 2000, JISC identified that although there was no statistical evidence that plagiarism was on the increase, anecdotal evidence suggested that this form of cheating was increasing, particularly from electronic sources. Following recommendations from the project, JISC established the National Plagiarism Advisory Service. In 2007 the use of the service was such that it was able to become self-sustaining and operate independently of JISC as PlagiarismAdvice.org. Currently 97% of universities and over 100 colleges, as well as a growing number of schools, make use of the service.

Developing strategy

Burton and South Derbyshire College: staff and student confidence grows

Staff from Burton and South Derbyshire College invited the JISC Regional Support Centre (RSC) West Midlands to carry out an independent review of the College's ILT provision and strategy. The outcome of the review led to a clearly defined ILT strategy, a greatly improved IT infrastructure, and an increase in staff and student confidence in using technology for teaching and learning.

Innovating across teaching and learning

Universities of Hull and Loughborough: new ways to approach assessment (Google Doc)

David Willetts highlighted this project in the education white paper in June 2011.

A peer assessment tool developed at Loughborough was tested out with undergraduate scientsists and is now being used across Hull and Loughborough for the peer-moderated marking of group work.

Oxford Brookes University: using e-portfolios for personal development (PDF)

Resources available through the JISC e‐Learning programme have provided invaluable support to the development of a wide range of initiatives at Oxford Brookes university and have been influential in shaping their learning and teaching policy - including adopting ‘digital and information literacy’ as one of the university’s five graduate attributes.

Coleg Llandrillo: integrating web 2.0 tools into teaching and learning

Coleg Llandrillo has used the JISC funded service UKOLN extensively in the recent past to help with the integration of Web 2.0 technologies into the college’s teaching and learning infrastructure. Staff at Coleg Llandrillo are now documenting how to address institutional objections to the use of Web 2.0 technologies in order to help other colleges that want to adopt these applications.

Fostering collaborations

University of London: Demonstrating the value of shared funding (PDF p9)

In 2008 the six Bloomsbury Colleges within the University of London collectively received JISC funding to show how online Web 2.0 tools (such as Google Docs) can be used to encourage collaboration between staff and students to directly benefit their teaching, learning, administration and research activities. The shared funding meant that the benefits of the project were felt by a wider number of people than would have been possible if a single institution was funded.

Supporting advanced research

Institute of Medical Physics and Engineering: reducing calculation time during cancer treatment using the National Grid Service (PDF p36)

Radiotherapy is a critically important tool in the treatment of cancer. To get the most effective treatment possible, we need to simulate the interactions between the radiation and the tumour. A radiotherapy treatment consists of approximately 100 trillion such interactions, and as a consequence, the full simulation requires an excessive amount of computer time. Using the National Grid Service has reduced calculation times by a factor of ten.

Driving efficiencies

Kingston University: easier access to resources (PDF) 

Kingston’s Learning Resources Centres contains a very large number of resources, including subscriptions to 32,000 e-journals. With such a large investment in e-resources, the Information Services staff need to ensure that they are used. The biggest advantage of joining the UK federation has been the simple fact that students only have one password. Though it sounds like a small thing the cumulative benefits make it much bigger, with knock-on effects like fewer helpdesk enquiries, less to acquire and less to forget. Fewer barriers means increased use of resources

Sharing knowledge

UK-wide resources: World War I archive brings learning to life for students (PDF p54)

The 90th anniversary of the Armistice in November 2008 saw the launch of the University of Oxford’s First World War Poetry Digital Archive.  As well as being referenced by the BBC Learning Zone, since November the site has enjoyed 200,000 hits and over half a million (550,000) page views. The site’s dedicated education area allows teachers to create tutorials and slideshows as well as use podcasts to engage A-level and university students.

Delivering advice and guidance

Richard Huish College: using JISC Netskills training to help support ICT

The comprehensive training offered by JISC Netskills enabled the college information services managers to develop and implement a working system on the college servers by accessing a virtual machine remotely whilst still on the course. The college has realised a number of impacts as a result of adopting Shibboleth; access to resources has been made much simpler and now more students access the resources.

Opening up resources

St Helens College: JISC Collections supporting learners with anytime access to online resources

The introduction of a new Moodle virtual learning environment at St Helens College was a timely opportunity to review and integrate the JISC collections service using Shibboleth on Windows. It was hoped that the new system would be simple to use, reliable and accessible to both students and staff at times and locations to suit their individual needs.

JISC Collections is now being used to deliver a range of quality, cost effective, on-line digital resources that can be easily accessed by a single log-in and are supportive of the college curriculum.