JISC

 

JISC and SURF are partners in the e-Framework, an international initiative which is developing a service-oriented approach to the integration of IT systems, based on open standards. A joint session at the Online Educa conference in Berlin today addressed the question of why an international approach to such a task is both necessary and beneficial. 

Peter Rees Jones of JISC CETIS and Eric Kluijfhout of the SURF Foundation spoke about the policy context for this work in the UK and the Netherlands and in particular government lifelong learning agendas. e-Portfolios, they suggested, which are electronic records of student achievement, can offer a means of widening participation by allowing students to gather evidence of their learning gained through different episodes of their education and empower them to progress further, and therefore answer certain aspects of these agendas.

But current commercial e-portfolio systems are often highly specialised tools and lack flexibility, they continued. The e-Framework, however, offers a solution to the task of making a set of personal e-portfolio tools interoperable with institutional, national and international systems, and enable e-portfolios to support learner progression. Delegates heard about examples of implementation of such systems and were shown an animation, developed by JISC to show how service-oriented architectures can support education and research. 

JISC and SURF presented together again for a session on access management and national and international trust federations. With both countries currently establishing access management federations, Jaap Kuipers of SURF began by explaining that online identities need to be established to enable us to access the content and resources we need for education and research. Passports and bank cards are examples of expressions of identities which are based on trust federations, he said; they are interoperable (passports are usable in other countries, for example, while bank cards can be used at cashpoints belonging to a variety of banks) and are based on the principle of ease of use as well as security.  

Federated access management is similarly based on simplicity and security, he continued. A federation is made up of 'identity providers', such as universities and colleges, and 'service providers', such as publishers of online resources. It establishes a way of exchanging information between individuals and providers of digital resources which protects the security of both individuals and resources. 

Nicole Harris of JISC followed and spoke about trust federations in the UK. The access management system Athens has been in place since 1998 and although it has worke‘By knowing who your users are you can better support them through their learning journey’d well, she said, institutions had a clear demand for ‘a more encompassing system’. Wider changes in education and research, such as increasingly complex user groups within institutions, increasing numbers of visiting staff, shared courses and commercial collaborations, mean that new approaches to access management are needed. There is also the increasing need to manage identities across institutions, through e-portfolios for example. In addition, said Nicole, international standards and a joint understanding of possible ways forward had emerged in the last few years.

The UK federation is, Nicole said, technology-neutral, that is to say, it does not prescribe a particular system, although whatever system is employed by institutions should be based on open standards. International cooperation is a major benefit of federated access management; working to the same standards means both countries and institutions can work together more effectively. 

Nicole concluded by saying that access management is not about restricting but enabling access. Federated access management opens up new opportunities. Because a federation devolves authentication back to the institution, the latter need to know who their users in fact are. ‘By knowing who your users are you can better support them through their learning journey,’ she said.

Grassroots is a Dutch development programme which aims to develop ICT skills for staff who for whatever reason experience difficulties in using technology in their teaching. The SURF Foundation’s Ria Jacobi, manager of the programme, told the Online Educa conference in Berlin today that 16,000 Euros were given to each participating institution to support members of staff incorporate use of Powerpoint, discussion boards, mobiles and PDAs (personal digital assistants), blogs, wikis, audio and video, into their teaching. 

She reported that there could be tensions between the new practices piloted under the programme and the sometimes poor institutional infrastructure. Technical support, she said, was therefore vital to the programme, as was the rewarding of staff who undertook the development activities.

There was a significant impact on both teachers and their institutions, delegates heard. ‘The teacher becomes the owner of the idea. They experience the possibilities and the barriers of ICT. There is then a snowball effect on other teachers, and good practice becomes passed on beyond just the individuals undertaking the programme.’ 

The conference comes to a close tomorrow.

For further information please go to: Online Educa