JISC

 Two JISC-funded projects which make life easier for students have won accolades this week as examples of international good practice.

Sarah Porter, JISC head of innovation, said: “Good use of innovative technology can have a positive impact on the way students perceive an institution and on their learning experience.  We are delighted to see innovation being recognised and anticipate that other universities will glean useful findings and inspiration from these JISC projects.”

A clever mobile app which gives University of Oxford staff, students and city residents real-time transport information, find local amenities and leisure facilities has won the 2010 UCISA Higher Education Award for Excellence sponsored by Eduserv.

Mobile users can also find books by library location, access the University’s iTunes U podcast catalogue and get notifications when their exam results are released.

On hearing of the Mobile Oxford success, Dr Stuart Lee, director of computing systems and services, commented: “We are thrilled at Oxford to receive such an award as it shows that our work has been valued by our peers. We hope that this leads to more people looking at the free source code behind the project, and would like to thank JISC and the funders within the University for allowing us to take this innovative service forward."

Meanwhile another JISC project at the University of Newcastle has received US acclaim for allowing students flexible and detailed control over access to their personal information on the web.

The ‘student managed access to online resources’ or SMART initiative allows university students to log their preferences about security in a single authorization manager – an idea which other universities can now use as it is open source.

The SMART project won the Kantara Initiative identity deployment of the year award in the emerging applications category which showcases innovation in digital identity management.

Maciej Machulak who leads the project said: “With the increased number of services available on the web, the end user is no longer able to easily control access to their distributed data and is often paying the price in both privacy and convenience.  User-Managed Access and SMART aim to provide a solution to this problem. These approaches allow people to apply the necessary security and privacy controls to their personal data while retaining all the benefits of social interactions and data sharing that the web environment offers.”

Find out more about how JISC can help you better support your students