Annual review 2001
I am pleased to introduce the first JISC Annual Report in this new style designed to attract the interested reader across the post-16 education and research sectors.
A far-reaching vision
Contents
Introduction: Faster and further towards the future
The past three years have been a period of considerable growth for the JISC. Our range of funding partners now includes further education. This has provided us with an exciting and diverse range of new issues to address. The range of activities the JISC promotes has also increased, most notably to include the opportunities and complexities of helping colleges and universities develop and implement Managed Learning Environments (MLEs) to integrate student support systems and learning and teaching applications. The infrastructure provided to institutions has also improved enormously; SuperJANET 4 now makes broadband access widely available and the collection of online scholarly and educational resources made available by the JISC continues to grow.
In the coming year I look forward to further developments. In particular, I look forward to working with the research community in improving the e-science base and supporting the research grid programme, and identifying ways of improving the range of our services and development activities to the wider post-16 education community.
Finally may I take this opportunity to thank the many members of the JISC and its sub-committees that devote considerable time and enthusiasm to the work of the JISC - their efforts are crucial to the success of all that we do.
Maxwell Irvine, JISC Chairman
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Overview: The way forward
Post-16 education is changing. Institutions are having to juggle a whole range of new realities.
At a time of diminishing funding, more students from a wider range of socio-economic backgrounds with more reasons for wanting knowledge and skills training will require a more flexible response. One that enables them to manage their studies in terms of time, place and pace.
In a climate of apparently irreconcilable factors the way forward will demand cultural change along with new processes and delivery systems that can improve upon existing practices. Information Communications Technology (ICT) and especially Web-enabled ICT provides the solution. It is one full of promise for learners, teachers, researchers and administrators. Many institutions do not have sufficient expertise to implement change. This has to be done through collaborations with similar institutions and external suppliers. The Internet provides a global 24/7 playing field and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) can help to make it a level one.
The JISC was established to support further and higher education sectors in the use of ICT. Through high quality initiatives and services the JISC provides the expertise, independent advice, guidance and resources to help institutions achieve more effective and innovative results. During the next five years the JISC will help the post-16 education community adapt to the vision of a single, worldwide information environment and benefit from the advantages it offers. This is the way forward and the JISC is undertaking numerous programmes of work that are helping to facilitate:
- an "open architecture" delivery system
- the information environment
- an expanding collection of quality digital resources
- more flexible learning and teaching
- extensive community support
- a partnership approach
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Infrastructure: Opening all the right routes
By continually embracing advances in technology the JISC seeks to utilise new opportunities to improve access to a broadening range of information resources. Part of this strategy is to provide the UK tertiary academic sector with an innovative and stable information system today that is capable of delivering world-class services for tomorrow.
One of the main responsibilities of the JISC is to fund the Joint Academic Network (JANET). JANET links all further education, higher education and research council sites. This IT infrastructure is managed and developed by the United Kingdom Education and Research Network Association (UKERNA) under a service level agreement (SLA) with the JISC. The network now consists of two core backbones running in parallel that link to Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs). Strategic technological and administrative milestones have been achieved throughout 2001.
State-of-the-art technology
The most visible achievement during this period was the rollout of the resilient, high-speed SuperJANET 4 backbone. This network went live on 1 April 2001. It is highly responsive, handles higher volumes of traffic and incorporates state-of-the-art technologies operating at 10 Gbps during 2002 and 80 Gbps by the end of 2004. The higher specification will satisfy the bandwidth requirements for the new generation of online distance learning strategies as well as meeting many of the requirements of the network research community.
SuperJANET4 provides international connectivity with Europe, the United States and the rest of the world and is used for both research and teaching. The backbone has been constructed as a set of inter-linked "Core Points of Presence" housed in resilient locations.
The provision of the parallel network should enable the UK to remain at the leading edge for the foreseeable future - and ensure that UK further and higher education establishments have access to a world-class network.
Better information management
The introduction of formal contracts between UKERNA and the MANs is a significant administrative development. They are designed to ensure consistent high levels of performance right across the network, satisfying the benchmark set by UKERNA and the JISC.
A rolling programme to connect further education colleges that began in 1999 has now been completed and the network now connects 714 sites:
HE 173
FE 508
Other 33
Total 714
Superior international links
The JISC has partnered with other European countries to fund GEANT, the new pan-European research network that replaces the Ten-155 system. The network will initially provide connectivity at speeds of at least 2.5 Gbit/sec. GEANT complements and interconnects the equivalent research networks in various European countries at Gigabit speeds. The new service is funded in part by the European Commission as part of its Information Technologies programme and in part from contributions from member countries.
The current transatlantic connectivity, which comprises six 155 Mbit/sec links, will be replaced by two 2.5 Gbit/sec links in early 2002. One of these will carry commodity Internet traffic and the second will be dedicated to research traffic. The latter will be upgraded to 10 Gbit/sec in due course to meet the increasing requirements of the Research Grid.
National authentication service
The JISC is exploring the development of a secure environment for the UK academic community. A robust authentication service for staff and students accessing datasets and other sources of electronic information is currently provided by Athens which is now established on a full service basis with an SLA monitored by the Monitoring and Advisory Unit (MAU). Although Athens is the preferred choice of the academic community, it is a closed, proprietary system. The JISC is therefore seeking to develop an open architecture solution. This approach will form the basis for Sparta during the development phase in 2002.
Technical support from JISC
The JISC is responsible for providing advice and guidance to the FE and HE community on networking. Much of this is provided through the JANET Customer Services Desk operated by UKERNA. The UK Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) is also managed by UKERNA and provides assistance on network security issues and responds to any network security breaches.
The SuperJANET4 contract provides a parallel network alongside the production network, enabling the development and testing of new technologies without risk to the integrity of the production services. It will extensively satisfy the requirements of the network research community whilst others, such as those expressed by the Research Councils in the context of the Grid proposals, can be met by increasing the bandwidth of the production service.
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Information Environment: The right destination
It's one thing to have a vision of the future. It's quite another getting there.
But we know the destination. The World Wide Information Environment. Information needs to be integrated with knowledge. The route is cluttered with cultural differences and technical barriers. We are using our knowledge, experience and analytical processes to help the UK FE, HE and research sectors benefit from the creation of a global, knowledge-sharing community.
Widening participation, the shift to lifelong learning, tighter economic constraints and the advance of Internet enabled ICT make the time right for developing a national information environment. This is one of the biggest challenges facing the JISC over the next five years. The entire academic community increasingly expects easier access to quality online resources and the JISC is spearheading its provision, preservation and sustainable business models.
It must be easy to use, secure and offer a comprehensive range of resources. Above all it must be sufficiently flexible to meet the diverse needs of the modern student who needs to vary the place, time and pace of study. The JISC is helping institutions to meet the requirements of the lifelong learning agenda as well as supporting national initiatives such as the e-university and the University for Industry (UfI).
E-Lib programme
The JISC has funded a number of hybrid library projects to examine the best ways to integrate digital technologies and applications with traditional library practices. The aim is to provide a single and intuitive interface that would enable the user to discover and retrieve all of a library's resources. Four "clump" projects were designed to provide virtual library catalogues that could be simultaneously searched through a common interface.
The worldwide academic community will benefit from the development of online libraries. The JISC is committed to this vision, encouraging international co-operation. The American National Science Foundation (NSF) and the JISC have funded six projects under the International Digital Libraries Initiative. These projects are in their final year and in addition a new programme with the NSF has recently been announced to run for the next five years.
Digital preservation
Digital content and information now forms a significant and growing part of the UK's cultural and intellectual heritage. The JISC recognises the urgent need to protect this material through succeeding generations of digital technology obsolescence. This needs to be pro-active and the JISC is providing coordination and leadership for digital preservation activities and fostering collaboration between the FE, HE and research sectors.
The JISC's Digital Preservation Focus has been central to the launch of the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC). A grouping of some 19 organisations was brought together to develop a long-term strategy for the preservation of digital materials. National and international partnerships are essential to addressing digital preservation issues in the long term. The JISC will therefore play a central role in the DPC and with its partner organisations and continue to provide guidance on best practice in digital archiving and preservation.
Development strategy
Piecemeal development means that the current information environment is fragmented and centres of excellence are unable to share information. The JISC is seeking to help the community replace bespoke solutions with an open architecture approach in which agreed protocols support end-to-end communications throughout and across FE, HE and research sectors and external suppliers. This will provide better student support, higher level services and more attractive business benefits with, for example, the development of seamless supply chains and the 'fusion' of content at strategic Web portals. An ambitious development programme is already underway. This covers:
- Resource discovery services which allow users to find high quality materials of interest
- Fusion services which collect content from various sources and re-present it in ways that are relevant to specific audiences
- Shared services (such as user-profiling, authentication and customisation services)
- Disclosure services that allow institutions to share information and resources
Compatible metadata
The JISC is addressing the issue of emerging interoperability standards. Its work to date has provided enhanced access to resources via Z39.50. Alternative approaches include the Open Archives Initiative. This is a framework that will provide information providers with a consistent solution for creating resource metadata (ie cataloguing descriptions of resources) and to make it more widely available. It will allow metadata to be collected by third parties and incorporated into their own services. The process is known as harvesting and it is set to become the preferred method for publishing resources. Significant funds are being requested to explore different business models.
JISC presentation services
Recent feedback has revealed the need to develop presentation services that can coherently deliver the full range of JISC activities. The JISC has piloted two awareness-raising activities on a subject basis: the Resource Guide for the Social Sciences and the Resource Guide for the Arts and Humanities. Following an evaluation of this activity, funding for a further five Resource Guides for three years has been approved. Resource Guide activities have also been established for the FE sector through the Regional Support Centres (RSCs).
Key steps to the Information Environment
Current development projects include:
- Community resources
- Subject portals
- Infrastructure services (such as article discovery and delivery services)
- Portals for different types of data ie images, moving pictures and sound, etc
- Digital preservation
... helping the UK FE, HE and research sectors benefit from the creation of a global knowledge-sharing community
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Collections and content: Maintaining the momentum
... collecting, creating and delivering digital information to support learning, teaching and research to sustain the momentum
The popularity of the Internet and World Wide Web is making the world's knowledge more easily accessible. Creating lecture theatres without walls. As computers are used more pervasively to manage content and information, so the tertiary education sector will become more dependent upon them. The JISC meets this challenge by collecting, creating and delivering digital information to support learning, teaching and research to sustain the momentum.
Electronic information resources
JISC is providing a leadership role in the utilisation and preservation of digital information resources. The quality, quantity and availability of these resources are improving but the range is far from comprehensive. JISC will help improve it using the approach outlined in the JISC Collections Strategy and its supporting policies. These documents were recently updated and circulated to the FE and HE community and feedback has been helpful and encouraging.
Making digital resources easier to use
As electronic information proliferates, institutions need the assurance that content is supportable and affordable. This demands an agreement of standards to ensure materials are accessible to institutions and compatible. To satisfy these two requirements the JISC has produced interoperability guidelines and has also produced a coherent set of licensing principles to inform national negotiations in the UK. This work will help ensure compatible electronic information and content is available at lower cost to the academic community.
Initiatives for the FE sector
The National Learning Network (NLN) is a national initiative for England. Its aim is to help transform the learning environment across the FE sector. Through the appointment of a Collections Manager for FE content, the JISC is working closely with NLN members to identify the specific information needs of this community. It has, for example, created a number of working groups to recommend content priorities in the following areas: journals; images; moving images; geospatial resources; learning and teaching materials; research support resources; discovery tools and electronic books.
New charging model
A new charging model has been implemented following consultation with the sector. This increases the number of charging bands from four to ten across all FE and HE institutions. Banding is based on institutional income and is designed to increase the participation rate of smaller institutions.
Centralised national negotiation
Establishing a single negotiating body for the UK academic sector is a complex undertaking but it does hold the promise of attractive economic advantages. The National Electronic Site Licensing Initiative (NESLI) seeks to deliver this benefit and has already achieved a significant advance in transacting new business and developing the electronic marketplace. Its work is being closely monitored in many other countries. An evaluation of NESLI has revealed widespread support from all stakeholders. Its online journal negotiations continue on an annual basis and it has agreements with publishers such as Elsevier Science, Blackwells, Kluwer, Oxford University Press, Academic Press and the American Chemical Society. An International Code of Practice for E-Journal and Database Usage Statistics is also being developed in collaboration with publishers.
JISC content services
JISC provides a managed environment for accessing high quality information resources on the Internet, which are available from many sources. This managed environment has until now been known as the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER). Due to the growing need to present the range of the JISC's activities as a coherent and integrated whole, the JISC will no longer be referring to this infrastructure as the DNER. However, developments of this managed infrastructure continue through the creation of an information environment and the growth of high quality services and collections.
JISC funds a number of content and information services as part of this infrastructure. These range from JISC-designated datacentres to resource discovery, moving image, and advisory and support services.
Datacentres, such as BIDS, EDINA and MIMAS, and data services, including the Data Archive and the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS), provide the FE, HE and research communities with networked access to key data and information resources across a wide range of disciplines. They deliver and promote the resources the JISC has acquired and provide support and training to help users make the most of this information.
The Archives Hub performs a similar role by presenting a single point of access to descriptions of archives held in UK universities and colleges. The service is establishing a major national gateway for access to archive and manuscript collections in the higher education sector.
Resource Discovery Network (RDN)
The RDN provides free access to high quality Internet resources selected and described by specialists throughout UK academia and beyond. During the last year, the RDN has expanded from five subject 'hubs' to eight, an expansion which offers the basis for full subject coverage across both FE and HE sectors. The RDN Virtual Training Suite offers free online training for learning, teaching or research. Tutorials now include around fifty subject areas guiding users to the key sites in those subject areas along with training to improve Web searching. The FE community is also about to add another eleven tutorials specifically for this sector.
Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS)
Along with the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), the JISC funds the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) which is expanding in a wide variety of areas and developing its advisory service. It has produced three new Guides to Good Practice and provided technical guidance to the New Opportunities Fund's digitisation projects. In conjunction with the Humbul Humanities Hub of the RDN, the AHDS has begun the construction of the Arts and Humanities Portal as part of the integration of the JISC services' provision.
The British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC)
BUFVC promotes the production, study and use of film and related media in higher education and research. This service fits in closely with the JISC's strategic aims regarding the provision of moving images over the network. The BUFVC, in collaboration with the Open University, also hosts the JISC's Moving Pictures and Sound Advisory Service for UK FE and HE and the Negotiation Service to clear rights for access to moving picture and sound resources.
Promoting content from the community
The creation of digital materials within the community is encouraged by the JISC's advice and support services. These materials are expanding the variety of resources that form the JISC portfolio. For example, the Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI) provides advice and support to the community on the digital creation, storage and delivery of image-related information, while the Higher Education Digitisation Service (HEDS) supports the digitisation of resources for online delivery. HERON provides similar services on copyright clearance, and the digitisation and delivery of book extracts and journal articles. The UK Mirror Service copies free popular overseas Web sites on to its UK network to improve efficiency and reduce the time and bandwidth cost that would otherwise accrue from transatlantic browsing by the academic community.
Other services, such as the UK Mirror Service and NISS, provide a variety of functions. These include the mirroring of free popular UK Web sites and a comprehensive online information service, which provides users with comprehensive and up-to-date information about further and higher education.
What is meant by 'content'?
'Content' is any type of electronic information that is useful to colleges, universities and research councils. It includes virtual reality models, sound collections, digital video and electronic books. E-books might include dictionaries, encyclopaedias, newspapers, images, raw data, Web gateways, learning software and much else.
Latest additions to the National Content Collection
- Infotrac Onefile and Customer Newspapers for FE with Gale a unique collection of journals and English language newspapers, which is proving popular in further education colleges with around 200 current subscriptions
- Early English Books Online (EEBO) an image database with accompanying bibliographic data, published by Proquest Information and Learning, containing everything printed in English before the eighteenth century
- Crossfireplus CrossFire is a complete in-house chemical information solution, covering over 200 years of primary literature. The two databases, Beilstein (organic) and Gmelin (inorganic), collectively comprise more than nine million organic, inorganic and organometallic compound.
- Index to the Times, 1790-1980 an index to articles published in The London Times newspaper between 1790 and 1980, which incorporates content from the Official Index to the Times and Palmer's Index to the Times
- JSTOR Ecology & Botany Collection JSTOR's third archival collection of scholarly journals to UK institutions. The collection contains some of the most essential journals published in the environmental sciences. Ecologists, conservationists and scholars in related fields will now be able to research journal literature in the environmental sciences going back more than 130 years
- British Standards Index Online and related resources an agreement for Technical Indexes UK info4education portal or modular subscriptions to British Standards Maintained Set; Construction Information Service; Occupational Health and Safety Service; and E4data and Specify-it
- ZETOC The British Library's electronic table of contents and the Inside alerting service. The database contains approximately ten million records of the contents of 20,000 journals received at Boston Spa over the last five years together with about 100,000 conferences, and approximately two million new records added every year
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Learning and Teaching: Mobilising the community
In the move to support students more efficiently throughout a lifetime of learning, the JISC is spearheading progress through various programmes of work. These will make knowledge, student information and post-16 education more accessible. Achieving this vision requires a paradigm shift where the student and not the physical institution is the centre of focus. The future solution is the Managed Learning Environment.
Managed Learning Environments
Managed Learning Environments (MLEs) embody the whole range of information systems and processes used by an institution to contribute to learning and management. The JISC is funding two MLE programmes of work: "Building MLEs in Higher Education" and "Building MLEs in Further Education". These are two very different sectors with different cultures and different systems but they share the same objective. Any work undertaken in one area therefore has spin-off benefits for the other.
Benefits for further and higher education
The "Building MLEs in HE" programme is evaluating the generic deployment of technology. Fourteen projects of one or two years duration have been funded under four different themes: "Joined up System for Learners", "Joined up System for Institutions", "IMS" and "Roundtables".
- Joined up System for Learners projects address the issue of cultural change and will develop learner-focused Managed Environments that link an institution's Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) to other student support systems.
- The Joined up System for Institutions projects look at ICT issues to integrate different types of information systems, such as student records and VLEs.
- IMS Global Learning Consortium is the major producer of e-learning and a technology specification. The "IMS" set of projects will test and explore the feasibility of its implementation to enable the transfer of data and content between different VLEs.
- The American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) is using Teaching and Learning Technology Roundtable methodologies to improve the use of technology in teaching. Roundtable methodologies are a means of bringing people together within an institution who have an interest in a particular subject and who would otherwise not meet. The JISC's "Roundtables" projects are seeking to evaluate this approach and discover whether it is suitable for the UK.
Many of these one- and two-year projects will come to completion by July 2002 and feedback from them is already being disseminated across the FE and HE communities to help develop good practice and allow ideas and experiences to be shared.
The JISC is also helping the FE sector achieve an open architecture solution. The "Building MLEs in FE" programme consists of 12 interoperability pilots to establish the feasibility of linking systems within an MLE using the international IMS standard with FE extensions. This programme was a unique joint venture between the JISC, the FEFCE and agreed Management Information System (MIS)/VLE vendors. This work began in England and is now being extended to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Learning and teaching programme
The 45 projects currently ongoing within the JISC's Electronic Resources for Learning and Teaching Programme are both catalysts and accelerators of change. Projects are clustered according to media type (static images, moving images and sound, access to museum resources) or aim of project (enhancing JISC-funded data services, infrastructure, virtual environments, access to learning and teaching resources) as well as projects in the e-books and pricing strategy areas.
These projects are designed to improve and expand the applicability of the JISC collections and resources and they are already delivering benefits to the further and higher education sectors.
An open community
Standards can be a blessing or a curse. When everyone uses the same standards there are no barriers to communication. Without them there would be no World Wide Web, no way of sharing information or re-using material developed by others. As the latest channel of communication, the Internet is introducing new standards that need to be agreed to ensure effective communication. The JISC is helping to define these standards to ensure they meet everyone's needs. Currently the JISC has major initiatives in three key areas. IMS is being developed for learning materials. This not only applies to metadata for searching and retrieving material but also network integration for linking back office systems such as student records. The UK Web Focus represents us at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to ensure the Web continues to meet the needs of the tertiary education sector. The JISC also works with the UK Interoperability Focus which is a joint initiative with Resource to share knowledge and expertise across sectors.
Standards are of strategic importance. The JISC-funded Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards (CETIS), represents the UK further and higher education sector and it is well respected by the standards-setting agencies within Europe and the USA. A number of Special Interest Groups have successfully increased the knowledge base and understanding about standards within the community. A review of CETIS will be undertaken in 2002 to ensure it continues to meet the community's needs.
Technologies Centre and Technology and Standards Watch
The Technologies Centre investigates the suitability of new and emerging technologies, provides technical expertise and coordinates intelligence regarding emerging learning technologies. It was established in 2001 and co-located with the Learning and Teaching Support Network/Generic Centre in York.
The JISC plays a vital role in tracking technologies and standards of major interest to the academic community. It operates through the Technology and Standards Watch Group whilst a Web standards office, located at UKOLN, works on Web standards issues.
Plagiarism
With the ease of access to the World Wide Web it is tempting to use or adapt information and unintentionally or otherwise plagiarise the content. What are the acceptable boundaries? To answer this question the JISC has commissioned a study into the issues surrounding plagiarism and will support the plagiarism advisory service and software detection service currently being procured for the community.
Legal information service
There are many complex legal issues surrounding the provision and use of information. To help everyone involved with information services in the post-16 education community, the JISC established a legal information service in 2001.
The new "Information Services" covers Networking and Computing Services, Library Services and Media Services as well as those using information technology for educational purposes in general. It is researching eight main areas of law including Freedom of Information, Copyright, Disability Discrimination, Human Rights, Internet Service Provider Liability and Regulatory Investigative Powers.
JISCMail
Electronic List Management services provide excellent benefits and efficiency gains for the education community. JISCMail allows members (academics, librarians, etc) to share ideas, collaborate on projects, announce events, seek advice and generally keep up-to-date with new ideas. List Management also helps to prevent duplication of effort, isolation and add a sense of immediacy and excitement to the development of ideas. They cover a vast range of subjects from scientific, literary and administrative to environmental and many other subject classifications.
JISCMail replaced the former Mailbase service in November 2000 and is run by the Council for the Central Laboratories of the Research Councils (CCLRC), based on LISTSERV software.
Achieving this vision requires a paradigm shift where the student and not the physical institution is the centre of focus
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Community Support: A shared journey
The speed of change across the post-16 education sector is driven by the electronic revolution. Institutions riding the crest of change are propelled ahead. Those still seeking to embrace the new opportunities are being left behind in the wake of progress. With a vision for uniform advancement, the JISC is developing a wider portfolio of community support services to help institutions maximise the benefits the new institutional models for learning offer.
JISC Assist undertakes research to help senior managers make better informed decisions
Understanding JISC
The JISC is a complex organisation that supports the education community through interaction with it. Feedback is translated into ICT advisory bodies, informative materials, training opportunities and through other communication channels. How thoroughly do you know it?
The role of JISC Assist
JISC Assist is primarily responsible for clarifying and raising awareness of the range of activities JISC offers. During 2001 it fulfilled its remit through the production of professional publications, the JISC Conference, "Working Together", setting up a JISC enquiry service, the redevelopment of the JISC Web site and representing the JISC at key conferences.
Keeping ahead of newly-emerging trends and developments in the use of ICT to support learning, teaching and research can be daunting. JISC Assist helps with the distribution of Senior Management Briefing Papers (SMBPs). During the last year these have included "Developing an Information Security Policy", "Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000" and "Disability, Technology and Legislation". It also ran Strategic ICT Workshops to understand the needs of institutions more clearly. These included: Developing an Information Security Culture; Technology Watch; Disabilities and Technologies: Rights and Implications.
JISC Assist works closely with the new Regional Support Centres (RSCs) established in May 1999 to coordinate publicity and events. Its tasks included the provision of promotional materials and training for the further education community. JISC Assist collaborates with professional bodies and agencies that undertake complementary activities to bring the benefit of their expertise to the community.
Drawing up an ICT specification raises big issues. Will the strategy satisfy today's requirements as well as those of tomorrow? What is the least disruptive approach or most cost- effective solution? JISC Assist undertakes research to help senior managers make better informed decisions. With the permission of CNI in the US it adapted its "Working Together Package" to satisfy UK conditions. This package is designed to bring academics and administration staff together to agree an ICT implementation plan more easily. Its accessibility audits and workshops help ISPs ensure their Web-based services comply with the new Disability Discrimination Act. JISC Assist's research also covered guidelines for tender documents and a Communications Framework for the JISC.
Information strategies initiative
Not every institution has all the relevant specialist in-house skills to develop an information strategy. The Information Strategies Initiative (ISI) was set up to fill the gap. It provides advice and assistance to institutions in a variety of ways, including workshops and focused conferences. Its experience comes from the JISC's in-depth involvement across the entire spectrum of tertiary education. The ISI is currently helping a group of Welsh FE colleges develop a range of information policies and procedures as required by their funding council. The final workshop took place in July 2001.
The Sixth Information Strategies Conference entitled "Focus on Funding" was held in December 2000 and a series of five workshops entitled "Developing an Information Strategy" was held throughout 2001 and, to satisfy popular demand, the "Information Audits" workshop was repeated. Another workshop organised jointly with the MLE Steering Group, called "ILT Strategies for the Whole College Approach in the Learning and Skills Era", was held in March 2001 and generated considerable interest from the FE sector.
Evaluating e-learning
The ISI is evaluating the business process changes required to enable institutions to incorporate VLEs effectively. Six case studies have been produced from a variety of institutions. These include the "Evaluation and Utilisation of Learning Materials" (online evaluation toolkit) and "Sharing Information with FEIs". The IS Coordinator is working with the University of East London, the University of North London and Anglia Polytechnic University to follow their progress in implementing new systems.
Corporate Information Systems focus
Suppose a college wants to integrate a student record system into its ICT - what might be the best solution and how have other educational institutions tackled the process? The Corporate Information Systems (CIS) Focus provides the necessary guidance. It was set up to facilitate a single point of contact for the community. By consolidating the experience of the JISC it is able to advise and to bring together similar institutions with similar goals, enabling one to benefit from the experience of the other.
The CIS staged a number of events in 2001 to raise awareness of its activities. The "Student Systems Seminar" was held jointly with the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA). Other events included the "Facilities Management Seminar" at the CIS Focus/UCISA MISG Conference. In response to requests for further advice, the CIS has produced three case studies: Specification and Procurement of Student Records and HR Systems, the University Corporate and Administrative Information System and the Development of Electronic Registration and Enrolment Systems.
Regional Support Centres
Thirteen RSCs were established in May 1999 to help the FE community take full advantage of the JISC's services. Key aims include:
- Connect the FE sector to the JANET (working with UKERNA)
- Provide ongoing technical support
- Encourage take up of JISC services and ICT-enabled learning processes
The RSCs promote the JISC's services to the colleges. They have been working with BECTa, Netskills, UKERNA, the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) and other organisations. The UK Advisory Group was established to help the UK-wide coordination of the RSCs. It supervised the creation of performance standards for monitoring RSC performance and coordinating the work of the RSC steering groups. The processes involved have been used to aid planning, to tackle problem areas and to share best practice. An interim evaluation of structures by the FE Research Network has provided valuable information to corroborate the self-evaluation reports from individual RSCs. A full evaluation of the programme will be undertaken to inform forward planning from 2003 onwards.
An RSC UK Services Coordinator has been appointed to aid the improvement of service quality with special emphasis on technical support, Web site and helpdesk services. This post is also coordinating the University for Industry pilot scheme currently ongoing in six RSCs.
TechDIS - Technologies for Disabilities Information Service
This service is designed to enhance access for staff and students with learning difficulties or disabilities through the use of information and communication technologies. The service was established in February 2001, following the three- year DISinHE project run by Dundee University, and is co-located with the JISC's Technologies Centre in York, to make best use of synergies.
In its first year of operation, the service has established a Web site complete with a helpdesk, best practice guidelines and articles, as well as two databases. One database, TechDIS Connections, is a searchable register of expertise, which aims to identify individual members of staff or organisations who are willing to share their experiences and expertise with others. The other, TechDIS Accessibility Database, provides an online resource of information about suitable products.
The service is funding a number of small projects and gathering case studies of good practice as a means of sharing expertise and advice. TechDIS will be the primary source of information and advice for institutions on the use of ICT to support students and staff with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities (LDD).
Staff development and training
Netskills provides training throughout the UK to support more effective use of the Internet for teaching, research and administration. Its work helps to maintain a reliable, low-cost service to the community and encourages the development of self-paced materials. Netskills' latest Internet Training Materials modules are Dreamweaver, BlackBoard, E-Commerce and XML. It re-launched the TONIC interactive Web-based tutorial (introductory Internet training) which has over 35,000 registered users.
The JISC has commissioned a number of studies to determine whether it needs to play a central role in supporting Internet-related training. In March 2001, it commissioned an FE Needs Analysis, to establish the FE sector's requirements and identify how these needs are currently met by various agencies such as the JISC, BECTa, NILTA, LSDA and the Association of Colleges, and to suggest what future services should be developed. The work was undertaken jointly by the LSDA and the Tavistock Institute. The final report was presented to the JISC in December 2001 and the outcome will be implemented in 2002-03.
Monitoring and evaluation framework
The JISC Monitoring and Evaluation Framework was established in July 1999 as a three-year initiative to investigate and profile the use of electronic information services (EIS) in the HE sector. It is also developing a tool institutions can use to monitor the impact of EIS on their students and staff. The Framework has now been extended into the FE sector and its overall aims will be reviewed during 2002. The JISC is investing up to £12m in the development of EIS and the Framework can be used to monitor the impact of this investment.
A network of 13 RSCs was established in May 1999 to help the FE community take full advantage of the opportunities of ILTs
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Partnerships: A partnership with the future
The JISC ... an enabling body with an ambitious and far-reaching vision
Through a network of strategic collaborations the JISC is building mutual understanding and complementary working relationships on a global scale. As an enabling body it has an ambitious and far-reaching vision. The objective is the equitable provision of online materials released through a seamless network to the education community.
In practice this means expanding access to the JANET community; making resources more affordable and putting the UK at the forefront of the new generation learning environments. With its broadly-based involvement across the education sector, the JISC is ideally placed to support existing ventures and initiate new ones.
Expanding the network
JANET is available for virtually anyone engaged in tertiary education and research. Local education authorities are already connecting schools to the network and its success is attracting major industry players along with small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).
These companies, whether connected through colleges and universities or dedicated gateways to other relevant networks, such as the People's Network, bring added value to academic establishments. One of these benefits is, for example, technology transfer. The overall quality and effectiveness of education is improved and the JISC is able to support students and research collaboration nationally and internationally.
Better content, lower cost
How do you budget for the use of online content if the means of measuring its use keep changing? The answer lies in developing important collaborative links with commercial publishers to deliver collections and resources that are supported within educational institutions.
Following on from previous successful collaborations, representatives from the JISC, the Publisher's Association and the Association of Learned Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) formed a Working Group in September 2000 called the Publishers and Libraries Solutions (PALS). Its aim is to foster mutual understanding and to collaborate on the development of mutually acceptable approaches and solutions to issues related to electronic publications.
Strategic partnerships, future benefits
The JISC collaborates with organisations in the USA, such as the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Mellon Foundation and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Together with UKERNA it is also actively engaged in the US Internet2 project. The JISC also participates in joint networking programmes in Europe, particularly in support of the Research Grid.
Internet2
Internet2 is a major US-based development programme, funded by a consortium of universities, commercial suppliers and network service providers. It is managed by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID).
The aim is to create a world-leading, high performance IT infrastructure together with a range of leading-edge applications to support higher education across North America. Much of this work is relevant to the UK's need for advanced networking and applications for the education sector. Collaboration will bring many benefits home and so the JISC and UKERNA have signed Memoranda of Understanding enabling them to participate in the initiative.
The JISC has already funded several projects related to the Internet2 initiative to encourage the exchange of ideas and information. This has created greater awareness of UK activities within the US Internet2 community and that of the Internet2 programme within the JANET community, strengthening relationships between all the organisations concerned and setting ideal precedents for future collaboration.
These projects cover a wide range of activities, ranging from VIDOS, which aims to provide a Web- based digital video editing and customisation service for the academic community, to a global supercomputer, running a live demonstration of a radio-astronomy application between Manchester, Pittsburgh and Stuttgart.
Other projects have investigated issues such as quality of service on high-speed networks, the networking implications of virtual environments and aspects of middleware applications.
Common information environment
There is an urgent need to establish a common information environment to maximise the benefits of scholarly and educational online content. The JISC is actively pursuing partnerships with many types of organisation to agree interoperability standards to fulfil this ambition.
For example, since the JISC has a major presence in the FE and HE sectors, it is able to promote collaboration in the effective and innovative use of ICT to the benefit of both communities. The JISC is taking a lead in this area, working with the British Library, Resource, the National electronic Library for Health (NeLH) and others in the UK. Over the next few years the JISC will be heavily involved with the information grid aspects of the Research Grid with the Research Councils, the Office of Science and Technology, and be equipped with a funding programme of around £3million a year.
The JISC is in the final year of a joint funding partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the International Digital Libraries Initiative. This successful project will be followed up with a joint £6million programme to develop ways of integrating online resources with virtual learning environments and through funding for projects involving UK and US universities.
Online information resources
Online information resources are transforming the effectiveness of learning and teaching by helping teaching staff organise course materials and supporting students' project work and studies. As part of a VLE their use is greatly enhanced. Consequently the JISC is working with the major suppliers to ensure long term compatibility based on the international IMS standards. This will mean that colleges and universities can choose learning and teaching applications and corporate information systems from different suppliers. Their intrinsic compatibility will provide the flexibility needed to support students as they progress from one institution to another.
Dramatic progress
Over the past few years the JISC has worked with the FE agencies such as BECTa, LSDA, NILTA (National Information and Learning Technologies Association) and similar organisations in Scotland (Scottish Further Education Unit) and Wales (fforum). By combining experience of higher education and research with an extensive background in further education, the JISC has been able to broaden the understanding of issues and improve the services and developments funded.
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Financial activities for the year ending 31 July 2001
Income from funding body (£)
HEFCE 25,639,006
SHEFC 3,798,371
HEFCW 1,582,655
DEL 633,062
LSC/FEFC 13,778,405
SFEFC 1,400,000
NCETW 819,257
DEL 297,911
Total income 47,948,667
Expenditure by programme area (£)
Networking 28,390,576
Electronic information 11,849,988
Human & Organisational issues 4,657,529
Authentication & Security 1,220,039
Learning & Teaching 1,830,535
Total expenditure 47,948,667
Network Charges and Subscription income are collected by JISC Services and amounted to £6,100,000. This income is used to supplement JISC grants to these services.
Through high quality initiatives and services the JISC provides the expertise, independent advice, guidance and resources to help institutions achieve more effective and innovative results
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