JISC

The shortlist for the JISC Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year Award was announced by the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) today. The six entries in the shortlist are, according to the judges, those institutional initiatives which best demonstrate an ‘innovative, strategic and potentially far-reaching use of ICT in support of the goals of that institution’.

The JISC ICT Award, one of the THES 2007 awards, was launched in April of this year and attracted a total of nearly 40 entries from around the UK.
The shortlisted entries are:

• Community@Brighton at the University of Brighton
  
• The Media Zoo at Leicester University
  
• OpenLearn from the Open University
  
• The e-course team at the School of Dentistry, University of Birmingham
  
• The Technocafe at Durham University
  
• Virtual Pedagogy Initiative at Aston University

Gerard Kelly, Editor of the THES, thanked the sponsors of the awards and praised the “diversity, scope and excellence of the activities in which British universities are routinely engaged”, saying: “Not only did the judges have to contend with many excellent entries, they also had a much larger number of them. More than 90% of UK universities entered in one category or more – a truly impressive response.”

Alison Allden, Deputy Registrar & Director of Information Services, University of Bristol, and one of the judges of the ICT award, said: “We were delighted with the number and quality of the entries in this, the first year of JISC’s ICT award. There is clearly an abundance of exciting and innovative work being undertaken in the sector and being able to recognise some of the best in this way will, we hope, encourage us all to think about how ICT can support all our learners, researchers and staff.”

The winner will be announced at a gala dinner and awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, on the 29th November. For further information, please go to: THES awards 

The shortlist – further details

Community@Brighton at the University of Brighton is an open source social networking system breaking down barriers between students and staff and giving them equal rights within the system. The emphasis is on self-management of personal learning through contributions to communities, sharing of materials and through influencing the evolution of the system itself.

The Media Zoo at Leicester University is bringing academics together to develop their approach to learning innovation and to find out about the latest research findings on the pedagogical impact of wikis and blogs, repositories, mobile learning, e-learning design and so on. The zoo's resources are available in a physical laboratory but also in an interactive website and more recently in Second Life.

OpenLearn from the Open University provides free and open access to over 250 structured media-rich study units support by a number of learning and communications tools, and published under Creative Commons licenses. The resources are complemented by LabSpace, an area for experimentation where practitioners are encouraged to download, amend and adapt course materials.

The e-course team at the School of Dentistry, University of Birmingham, has developed a Content Management System (CMS) to overcome challenges of the remote geographical location of the school, the expansion of teaching placements and a high number of part-time dental practitioner staff. The CMS allows users to drive the content through creating podcasts and interactive learning materials with staff. Interactive captioned videos of procedures help students prepare for unexpected clinical situations at short notice, while a virtual microscope was developed to run on any platform.

The Technocafe at Durham University provides a place where students can collaborate and have a full range of technologies available to them. The Technocafe has 10 pods each seating six to eight students and each providing tablet PCs, laptop and communication tools such as Skype and videoconferencing and an interactive whiteboard. Staff can use the lecture console to deliver lectures and cameras in each pod enable staff to observe the group during the lecture via monitors. Microphones allow feedback and enable conversations to take place.

The Virtual Pedagogy Initiative from Aston University is exploring podcasting and vodcasting with psychology undergraduates, promoting a sense of community and personalising student learning. Lectures also showcase the 'campus-cam' link which uses wireless networking to bring to lectures live images of experiences that were previously inaccessible for large groups of students, including a brain scan being performed remotely in real time.

The judges

The judges for the award are:

• Alison Allden, Deputy Registrar & Director of Information Services, University of Bristol and Chair of JISC's Integrated Information Environment committee (JIIE)
• Professor David Baker, Principal of the College of St Mark and St John and Chair of JISC's Content Services committee (JCS) 
• Sarah Porter, Head of Development, JISC
• Norman Wiseman, Head of Services and Outreach, JISC

For further information, please go to: Awards