JISC Inform 24
Green and more sustainable technologies are the focus of spring's Inform, which also introduces new JISC Chair Professor Sir Tim O'Shea. The economic benefits of Open Access publishing are explored in an interview with researcher John Houghton, and we introduce AccessApps, an award-winning software solution developed by a JISC Regional Support Centre.
The Green issue: Using ICT to further environmental strategies
Contents
THE award for Open Access innovator JISC award winner describes how life has changed since his award
News
JISC welcomes its new Chair The JISC community introduces new Chair Professor Sir Tim O’Shea
Traditional subjects, new technologies Studying choreography, curation and archaeology in the digital age
What’s powering the ‘Green ICT’ agenda? New briefing paper and strategic overview published
A searchable century of satire Iconic cartoon archive now digitised featuring the work of Giles
Access all areas John Houghton discusses the economic benefits of Open Access
Improving the student experience JISC campaign and ‘Digital Student’ Guardian supplement
Sustainable access to digital assets Why the digitisation of key resources is critical to the future of HE
The ‘Accessibility’ Files Assistive technologies made easy with AccessApps
Debate Should UK universities outsource their email?
Five-minute interview eReturn with Clem Herman
JISC dates for your diary Information on the JISC Conference and upcoming events
A word from the Editor
There have been several significant changes at JISC this year. In addition to the introduction of new Chair Professor Sir Tim O’Shea, Inform has experienced a visual overhaul, as our regular readers will have noticed.
In this, the ‘Green’ issue, guest specialist Sally Whittle investigates what practical steps institutional managers can take in terms of ICT provision, to make their campuses and colleges greener. We also talk to renowned researcher John Houghton in Australia, whose timely report discusses the economic impact for universities of Open Access resources.
Hugh Daily, from a JISC Regional Support Centre (RSC) in Scotland, demonstrates the sterling work being done around the country. His report on AccessApps, an award-winning software initiative, exemplifies a successful collaboration between JISC RSCs and JISC Services, for the benefit of the wider education community.
Featuring news of the JISC Conference 2009 and with many multimedia extras accessible online courtesy of Inform Plus, welcome to the new edition and to spring.
Kerry O’Neill
Editor
If you would like to comment on this issue of JISC Inform, please press@jisc.ac.uk
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JISC / Times Higher Education Award
THE award for Open Access innovator goes to…
An initiative that created a wealth of openly available multimedia content won 2008’s JISC/Times Higher Award for ‘Innovation in ICT’. Kerry O’Neill caught up with the winner at 2008’s Online Educa conference in Berlin.
University of Westminster lecturer Russell Stannard received the ‘Innovation in ICT’ award from former JISC Chair Sir Ron Cooke, for his website, www.teachertrainingvideos.com. Using screen recording software Camtasia, Stannard recorded himself talking through various technologies to create around 40 online tutorials. He also uses this software to provide audio-visual feedback to individual students at Westminster University.
‘The power of the software lies in its simplicity.’
The online tutorials include simple yet effective teaching techniques such as how to blog, start a wiki, use Blackboard effectively or start social networking. As Stannard notes, ‘lots of teachers are struggling to keep up with the whole idea of Web 2.0. Few institutions have even thought about the idea of using training videos to solve the problem of training for teachers’.
‘The winning entry demonstrated not only innovation and impact but also a commitment to Open Access to educational content which makes it of importance across all education sectors.’
These innovative teaching and assessment methods attracted considerable international attention at Berlin’s Online Educa conference, with Stannard invited to the US to talk on the subject. Audio-visual feedback of this nature could become popular within HE institutions too, especially for distance learning, as students feel it is the nearest thing to a one-to-one feedback session they will get.
The website’s success led to the creation of www.multimediatrainingvideos.com, a second resource offering free training videos for those using more complex multimedia programmes like Flash, Director and Photoshop. In its second month alone, the site received nearly 60,000 hits.
Reacting to his win, Stannard said: ‘It’s a real privilege. It is important to me that the sites are openly available to everyone in the world.’ Traffic to his site has since risen by 30%, making it Google’s fifth most popular response to the search term ‘teacher training’ – quite a feat considering UK and global activity in this sphere.
‘The website is a real solution to the problem of getting training to teachers that they can do in their time and at their pace. I also think it addresses the technophobes and late adopters to technology that often get ignored.’
Despite his success, Stannard remains grounded, appreciating effective methods regardless of technology. ‘I think there are loads of brilliant teachers around and I like going to conferences where real teachers doing things at the chalk face get a chance to speak.’
Russell Stannard recently headed a break-off group at the JISC-sponsored Guardian HE Summit from 3-4 February. Keep a close eye on the news section of the JISC website for details of 2009’s awards.
Register for the 2009 awards
The initial article concerning Stannard's win
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News in brief
JISC Annual Review
Sir Ron Cooke believes that the review ‘demonstrates our commitment to helping ensure that the UK has the best infrastructure and ICT support possible.’
JISC’s annual review is now live online. Detailing a year of activity and accomplishment, it includes interviews with former Chair Sir Ron Cooke and JISC Executive Secretary Dr Malcolm Read. Its ‘Year in View’ highlights JISC’s often pioneering work over the 2007-2008 academic year, including:
- The publication of the ‘Google Generation’ report
- The launch of JISC Collections’ e-books observatory project
- Research into the attitudes to ICT of university hopefuls and undergraduates
- The renewal of funding for the JISC Regional Support Centres (RSCs)
- The multinational licensing initiative
- The launch of the JANET Lightpath service (the fibre optics network)
JISC Annual Review 2008
TASI re-brands as JISC Digital Media
TASI, a JISC Advisory Service, has now re-branded as JISC Digital Media. The team will continue to provide advice, training and guidance on the creation and use of digital media. The recently expanded service now provides expertise in sound and moving images as well as in still images for learning, teaching and research.
Offering help with finding and using the right media, advice on creating and delivering digital formats and consultancy on managing a digitisation project, JISC Digital Media promotes good practice, technical expertise, the use of appropriate standards and the sharing of knowledge within the UK FE and HE communities.
JISC Digital Media – still images, moving images and sound advice.
Visit JISC Digital Media or call 0117 331 4447.
New JISC Services company
As part of JISC’s ongoing strategy to deliver world-class services to the further and higher education sector, a new JISC Services Management Company will be launched in August 2009. On 3 February, Guy Lambert was announced as its new managing director.
Guy’s commercial and managerial career within the public and private sectors has involved managing operational improvement programmes and cultural change alongside the delivery of a variety of services to clients.
Guy said: ‘The key is to share the exceptional and often unique skills we have to offer and to build on our strengths to ensure we are receptive to our customers’ needs. We will build a collective identity across the six services we are bringing together – to strengthen the new company’s brand identity and thus give a clearer and more coherent message about JISC Services’ capabilities for our customers.’
Managing Director appointed to new JISC Services Company
Conferencing goes digital
‘Innovating e-Learning’ was the theme of JISC’s online conference in 2008, a four-day event that integrated a plethora of innovative devices to keep its hundreds of virtual delegates interested and involved. With speeches delivered using Elluminate’s real-time presentation software and experts on hand for technical help, almost 1,700 lively comments were posted, proving the conference’s worth and rigour whilst keeping its carbon footprint firmly on the ground.
…almost 1,700 lively comments were posted…
This image shows participants enjoying JISC Emerge’s fashion show held in Second Life, the multi-user virtual environment used as an aid to learning and teaching. Presentations and papers from the conference will be of interest to anyone involved in pedagogic innovation and are available online now.
Innovating e-Learning Online Conference 2008
The Guardian HE Summit
February’s Guardian HE Summit was a significant gathering of the UK’s senior HE decision-makers. Co-funded by JISC, it took place from 2-3 February, with JISC Executive Secretary Dr Malcolm Read participating in a panel discussion on ‘the future of HE in a changing global climate’. With leading commentators discussing the key strategic challenges facing HEIs, it allowed delegates to compare their institutions with the best in the world and hear how others are tackling similar dilemmas globally.
Guardian Higher Education Summit 2009
Universities help businesses through the downturn
The ‘Standing together: universities helping business through the downturn’ guide was recently published by Guild HE and Universities UK, detailing practical ways for universities to help local businesses weather the current climate.
JISC’s Dr Malcolm Read welcomed the resource, saying: ‘JISC’s Business and Community Engagement activities such as customer relationship management, process-mapping and online collaborative tools will help institutions to optimise strategic knowledge and learning partnerships and to manage and deliver services through enhanced systems, processes and the innovative use of ICT.’
’Higher education has a crucial role to play in helping the country through the economic downturn.’
HEFCE’s Chief Executive Professor David Eastwood added: ‘Higher education has a crucial role to play in helping the country through the economic downturn. [It] provides the people and ideas that inform and stimulate our economy, society and culture’.
Standing together: universities helping business through the downturn
North East e-Learning Stars shine
JISC’s Regional Support Centre (RSC) Northern Awards in December gave 12 e-Learning Awards to inspirational teams from across the North East for their outstanding achievements. The winners were joined by guests from the region’s specialist colleges, and work-based and community learning providers.
The winners were Newcastle College, Middlesbrough Adult Education Service, South Tyneside College, City of Sunderland College, Neta Training Group, Newcastle City Learning, Middlesbrough College, Gateshead College, Hartlepool Sixth Form College and Dilston College of Further Education.
Praising the winners, RSC manager Gareth Davies said, ‘these successes have been achieved through regional collaboration, cooperation and engagement. RSCs only broker and facilitate; you achieve’.
JISC Regional Support Centre Northern homepage
Preserving web resources
The JISC PoWR project (Preservation of Web Resources) handbook offers a wealth of tips for strategic decision-makers concerning the preservation of online resources. It encourages institutions to see the requirement for coherent strategies on what to keep and how to keep it, and the consequences of such decisions.
The handbook results from a collaboration between UKOLN and the University of London Computing Centre’s (ULCC’s) Digital Archives, a partnership that unites web management with digital preservation expertise. It was influenced by sector-wide input, and addresses current issues using a helpful case study approach.
The PoWR handbook recognises that preservation is not an end in itself, but that it can complement an institution’s mission, whether that be improving the quality of research, conforming with national policy or avoiding the threat of legal action.
PoWR Handbook
Designing zero-carbon buildings
In January, a free JISC event in London showed education’s decision-makers how to conceptualise and design ‘carbon zero’ new buildings. Hosted by JISC’s Regional Support Centre South-East, the seminar provided essential information for senior managers faced with decisions concerning the environmental as well as the pedagogical impacts of their visionary new build projects.
'Carbon zero' new builds: what managers need to know
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New driving force
Professor Sir Tim O’Shea talks to Philip Pothen about taking the wheel as new JISC Chair.
There are few people born before today’s ‘Google Generation’ who could say with any confidence that technology has been a part of their whole lives. But JISC’s new chairman, Professor Sir Tim O’Shea, is one of them.
Developing an early fascination for ‘machines with memories’ after receiving a tape recorder as a Christmas present as a boy, he recalls being ‘fortunate enough to be in a secondary school where a pioneering teacher, Bill Broderick, managed to get us a computer’. But it was a computer that didn’t have any software. ‘So,’ he continues, ‘I wrote an assembler for it. And then we got a more powerful brand new Elliott 903, and I just had a wonderful time.’
As well as an interest in machines with memories, Sir Tim was, from the outset, ‘very interested in the idea of learning’. One of the very first students in the country to sit for a new, experimental A-level in Computer Science, he wrote a computer programme ‘which learnt to find its way through mazes. That really set me on my academic track. I subsequently did a PhD in the computer learning unit at Leeds, then worked in Texas, and was then lucky enough in 1974 to come to the research lab here in Edinburgh.’
Subsequently, he held a personal chair in Information Technology and Education at the Open University, becoming Pro Vice-Chancellor in 1993. In 1997 he was elected Master of Birkbeck College and subsequently became Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of London. When he returned to the University of Edinburgh in 2002, it was as its Principal. Sir Tim was knighted in the Queen’s 2008 New Year’s Honours list, for services to higher education.
Sir Tim’s background has given him a deep understanding both of the needs of the UK’s higher education sector, and of technology’s role in helping to meet these challenges.
Where once the main problems for the sector might have been those of adoption, take-up or even awareness of technology, now, the major challenges, in Sir Tim’s view, are those that follow from technology’s very pervasiveness.
‘JISC is a world leader and the great competitive advantage JISC has given us is that we actually work together as a UK university sector and we pool our IT talents.’
‘We know that if email goes down for a few minutes in a university, or if students or administrators have difficulty with one of their application packages, we are going to get big problems. So, issues of reliability and resilience are very important. Issues of integration are, too – we don’t want to be wandering around having to remember lots and lots of different computer identities and passwords. With integration come issues of ease of use. And there are certainly issues with regard to navigation.’
Questions of security and privacy are important too. ‘A big university like Edinburgh has medical data, we have student records that are confidential, for reasons of progress and reasons of financial status. So, security and privacy matter an awful lot. And all universities now make massive investments in IT, so there are issues of sustainability, of having an orderly movement from one application to an upgraded version of it. So it’s very demanding and universities now won’t work properly at all unless those core issues of integration, sustainability and security in IT are sorted.’
Sir Tim’s position as Principal of one of the UK’s leading universities also gives him a perspective on the UK’s international leadership in technology, acknowledging here that collaboration within the sector has been a vital factor in establishing this global standing. ‘We’re in a very strong position,’ he suggests.
He continues, ‘So in a lot of regards – in terms of how we use networks and how we use databases – we’re ahead of the rest of the world. I think the opportunities for us are particularly in e-learning, in open archives, and in managing the citation of research papers.’
As a university principal, Sir Tim considers JISC’s collegiality, the representative nature of its governance model and its ‘willingness to pool expertise and activity’ to be absolutely vital. But he warns that, ‘if JISC is to continue to be successful then we have to listen carefully to the whole sector, and also encourage the sector to continue to pool its IT leadership strengths and make those available on behalf of us all’.
As a Vice-Chancellor with a careful eye on where national funding goes, he suggests a very simple principle that might underpin JISC’s collegiality and perhaps his chairmanship of JISC too: ‘Universities generally don’t like top-sliced funding, if it’s in any sort of domain where individually they might be more effective or economical.
‘And there are some key examples. The network is obviously the most compelling one, but the development of new platforms and standards for the sector, the development of packages related to the management of research, or to the support of e-learning, are others. These are all things which, because of their scale, even a very big university can’t expect to do well on its own, but that British universities together can.’
What JISC has to do, in the IT domain, are things that can’t be done individually.
For now, Sir Tim begins his work with JISC in, as he puts it, ‘listening mode’. ‘I start from a position that I obviously listen very carefully to the operational leadership of JISC. There is a superb team there. I listen very carefully to the JISC Board itself, and the bodies that feed into it, and we’ve really got the leadership of the UK sector and some very talented people.
‘Obviously I listen very carefully to the needs of universities and colleges, and look very carefully at the successful innovators in the UK – and around the world for that matter – that we can learn from. So I start with the great comfort of knowing that JISC is a very successful organisation with an awful lot of really valuable work being contributed by some of the UK’s world leaders in the field.’
Podcast with Sir Tim
Times Higher Education interview with Sir Tim
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Traditional subjects, new technologies
Choreography, museum curation and archaeology are disciplines not naturally associated with e-science. But thanks in part to JISC funding, their practitioners are now developing advanced e-research tools for the arts and humanities. Judy Redfearn reports.
e-Dance
Performance artists have always explored the creative potential of cutting-edge technologies. Now, the advanced Access Grid video-conferencing facility is helping them to push the boundaries of collaborative performance.
Last summer, four dancers, located in two different places, collaborated over a performance to create ‘composite bodies’. They were participating in e-Dance, one of seven projects under the arts and humanities e-science initiative funded by JISC and the research councils.
‘In each theatre space, we projected four windows, each of which showed streamed live video of the upper or lower half of a dancer. The dancers had to create a new single virtual body out of two different halves and the two composite bodies then danced a virtual duet,’ explains Professor Helen Bailey from the University of Bedfordshire, who leads e-Dance. ‘This is cognitively challenging but conceptually very interesting. It’s about how you negotiate a telepresent relationship,’ she says.
Traditionally, this has depended on the choreographer reflecting on what was done and writing it down. However, ‘the creative processes are essentially non-verbal and ephemeral, so elements can get lost in the writing process and be unavailable to others,’ says Bailey.
Tools developed under an earlier JISC-funded project, Memetic, are being adapted to capture and document movement as it happens. ‘We’re giving the research discipline a set of tools to make research processes more transparent and transferable,’ says Bailey.
e-Dance is also pioneering new ways to document the creative process.
e-Dance is due to finish next September. In the meantime, dance and e-science researchers will have the opportunity to give their feedback on the project’s achievements at a series of workshops to be held in the spring. A final event, culminating in a performance, will be held in July. ‘We want people to share and witness what we’ve achieved and discuss how to take it forward,’ says Bailey.
Visualising museum objects in 3D
Museums are being urged to lend their collections more freely and to collaborate internationally across cultures. The e-Curator project, funded under the arts and humanities e-science initiative, has developed a prototype tool to make this easier by creating very high definition 3D images of objects and making them available over the Internet. Scholars and curators can then view all sides of the images using tumble, pan and zoom functions.
‘There are many potential ways in which such scans could be used,’ says project leader Sally MacDonald, of University College London (UCL). ‘Curators in different institutions could compare ostensibly similar artefacts without travelling to see them – or they could monitor decay and environmental damage over time, especially when objects travel in touring exhibitions.’
The images are created using UCL’s new state-of-the-art 3D laser scanner. ‘Its capabilities allow us to produce models which have a level of geometric and colour standardisation that easily surpasses any other available recording process,’ says MacDonald. The image files are shared efficiently over the Internet using a storage research broker, enabling access to extremely large distributed data files.
20 object have now been scanned, including items from UCL’s Museums and Collections and a Solomon Islands war canoe from the British Museum. The University of Bergen, Norway is collaborating on this project.
Archaeotools
The UK’s Archaeological Data Service (ADS) hosts a huge range of digital resources for research, all of which have good metadata for searching. However, there is a major backlog of ‘legacy’ literature that could be digitised.
‘Digitisation isn’t really the problem,’ says Dr Stuart Jeffrey from the ADS in York who is leading Archaeotools, another e-science initiative project. ‘The costs are in generating metadata because it has to be done manually. We’re developing natural language processing (NLP) techniques to extract metadata automatically,’ he says.
Archaeotools is also developing better ways of searching the database using a faceted classification browser that allows the user to narrow down a search according to ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘media type’ (e.g. journal article, video etc.). ‘If you ran a free text search in Google, it wouldn’t differentiate either between resource types or between documents that simply mention the Iron Age, for example, and documents that are entirely focused on it,’ says Jeffrey. ‘Using our tool, with just three or four mouse clicks you can narrow a search from well over a million records to a manageable number of specifically relevant records.’
Archaeotools finishes in September, with the classification browser planned for completion in July.
Visit e-Dance
Visit Archaeotools
Visit e-Curator
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What’s powering the ‘Green ICT’ agenda?
Green is not merely a buzzword. It is an attitude towards the sustainable management of ICT, and the focus of two recent JISC publications. Guest journalist Sally Whittle investigates.
The University of Sheffield recently undertook an audit of the energy consumption of its ICT equipment and found that desktop computers were responsible for more than 20% of the university’s total energy use. With each PC used for an average of 40 hours per week, turning off the machines whilst unused could save 75% of their running costs. Quite a sum, as some departments’ ICT energy bills hit the £1m mark. Realisations like this are helping the HE sector wake up to the importance of sustainable ICT.
Sustainable ICT offers several principal benefits.
With the government’s pledge to become carbon neutral by 2012, reducing public-sector carbon output by 30% within the next decade, greener ICT offers many benefits to FE and HE institutions today. There are cost efficiency gains; the enhancement of an institution’s reputation; new opportunities for teaching and research in this growing area of study and expertise; and an increase in location-independent working, which can also reduce fuel consumption and office space requirements.
JISC can provide information on how to monitor the environmental impact of current ICT equipment and how to evaluate the potential sustainability of new investments.
The key challenge for any sustainability programme is to raise awareness of the core issues. Staff in FE and HE often lack the knowledge to deal with the challenges of sustainable ICT, and there are frequently no coherent cross-departmental policies. Staff may not know where to turn for advice or information on reducing the environmental impact of technology, nor how to monitor or audit current environmental performance.
In addition to the JISC briefing paper, a useful resource that clarifies these grey areas is the government’s Energy Measures Report, a guide that gives local councils best practice advice on reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency. The Carbon Trust’s Action Plan tool also outlines methods for reducing energy consumption.
The second major challenge is a lack of funding. Moving from desktop PCs to a thin client architecture (whereby software applications are run from a central server thus reducing the need for cost-intensive workstations) can reduce energy bills significantly. However, the procurement structure of many institutions means that such projected savings are unavailable to the IT department to fund the initial investment required. The first step towards sustainable ICT is to create an institution-wide environmental management policy.The first step towards sustainable ICT is to create an institution-wide environmental management policy.
JISC’s Institutional Innovation programme has provided funding for a number of exemplar projects in sustainability. These include automatic powerdown of PCs that are not in use, flexible working practices and policies, thin client solutions, data centre efficiency and cooling, and work on reducing the energy consumption in computing intensive learning sites.
Environmental management policies should cover the procurement, usage and disposal stages of the ICT lifecycle. Procurement policies should incorporate sustainability criteria for equipment that is regularly replaced, such as desktop PCs. The life-long cost of ownership should be fully considered, as initially expensive options might be better long-term investments if they are easier to dispose of, or cheaper to run.
Similarly, where staff work remotely, it might be possible to invest in laptop computers rather than desktop PCs to cut power consumption by up to 50%. Where staff still require desktops, thin client architecture can use up to 80% less power than the traditional client-server approach.
Standardised sustainability emblems are becoming more widespread to assist in the selection of greener ICT solutions.
The lives of those in procurement should become easier as green labelling initiatives gather momentum. The European Energy Label rates electronic products from A to G, and goods that meet agreed levels of power consumption whilst in standby mode can carry the Energy Star logo.
One of the best ways to improve the sustainability of ICT is to adopt ‘virtualisation’, which transforms ICT servers and resources into a single, virtual pool.
Many organisations have dozens of servers, some hardly used, while others are at capacity. If servers are tied to specific applications or data, this means investing in new hardware and power when there is actually spare capacity elsewhere. Virtualisation makes it easy to utilise spare capacity and can dramatically reduce server and data centre costs.
As described in one of the SusteIT project’s case studies, Sheffield Hallam replaced 120 physical servers with 300 virtual servers, substantially improving utilisation and capacity, while reducing energy and maintenance costs. The new hosts require around 20% of the power of the physical servers they replaced.
Turning off PCs which are not in use and installing sensing systems that turn off lights when rooms are empty are obvious steps. The University of Liverpool have developed some free software to Powerdown idle PCs.
The University of Oxford has taken this approach a step further, and is currently testing software that simulates how people use computers. It monitors usage and measures capacity, revealing opportunities for grid computing (the application of several computers to a single problem at the same time), to make the most of idle machines. This software will eventually be free to all educational institutions.
Other energy saving efforts include replacing paper forms with online documents that can be read on screen, printing on both sides of paper to become a printer’s default setting and recycling and using recycled paper wherever possible. Though some of these actions many sound obvious, they are not currently implemented across the board.
Green ICT is not necessarily about using computers less. It may even relate to increasing the intelligent use of technology as part of a wider sustainability drive. For example, video-conferencing or audio-conferencing can replace carbon-intensive meetings. One study suggests that video-conferencing has the potential to reduce global carbon emissions by up to 80m tonnes by 2020. The new JANET Collaborate service, currently being piloted, will allow teachers and lecturers to collaborate using video in the near future.
Greener ICT is not merely about what to buy. It considers how it is made, run and disposed of.
When purchasing any computer, consider whether it can be disposed of in a carbon neutral manner. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive requires institutions to implement policies relating to the disposal of potentially hazardous materials, including much ICT equipment. One study recently revealed that producing a single desktop PC creates 37kg of non-hazardous waste, 0.7kg of hazardous waste and 193kg of greenhouse gases.
Recycling older PCs is an increasingly viable option, with several organisations ready to help. City and Islington College, for example, renews over 1,000 computers per year via Computer Aid, a non-profit provider of computers to developing countries. Computer Aid is registered with the Environment Agency as an official treatment company under the WEEE Directive.
How can institutions take their first steps towards more sustainable ICT? In order for sustainable ICT policies to work, organisations must take practical steps to encourage staff and students to adopt good practice. Such measures could include:
- Setting targets for achieving sustainable goals and regularly monitoring progress
- Creating an environmental advocate with responsibility for sustainability
- Allocating staff resources to investigating sustainable ICT solutions
- Auditing the environmental impact of ICT in an institution
- Examining low-impact alternatives
Managing sustainable ICT in education and research briefing paper
Managing sustainable ICT strategic overview
The greening of ICT in education
JISC's Institutional Innovation programme
Podcast: Green ICT for further and higher education
Editor's note: The above Green ICT article varies slightly from the printed version following a post-print correction.
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A searchable century of satire
The day cartoon lovers have been waiting for – iconic Giles archive now online
A century of satire, humour and biting political wit is finding a new audience thanks to a JISC-sponsored initiative at the British Cartoon Archive. The online resource of over 120,000 cartoons from 250 leading artists was launched in late 2008 and is now the world’s largest freely accessible collection of British social and political cartoons.
It makes available the vast Carl Giles archive, which has never before been open to the public nor available for research.
The cartoon archive, available through a portal which enables researchers to access, examine and share the images, features some of the most acclaimed names from the cartooning world including Ralph Steadman, Martin Rowson, David Low and Jak.
Giles is best known for his work in the Daily and Sunday Express from 1943 until 1991 and was the most famous social cartoonist of his generation. He died in 1995 but is still remembered fondly by the public and continues to influence today’s cartoonists. Giles assembled a massive studio archive of cartoons, correspondence, references and ephemera. After his death it was boxed up and kept in storage and was totally inaccessible. Now, via this JISC-funded digitisation project, it is freely available to all, online.
Giles used his famous cartoon family, from matriarch Grandma to the mop-haired anarchic child Larry, to comment on contemporary topics. Over 50 years, in his single panel snapshots of working Britain, he gently mocked the institutions of the day and conjured up a familiar yet always slightly subversive world.
Steve Bell, the Guardian’s award-winning cartoonist, is also featured in the archive, and has affectionate memories of Giles’s world.
‘I’d have been very young when I first saw Giles, because we took the Sunday Express and he was in it every week,’ Bell says. ‘I remember loving looking at it, and at the Giles annuals which would come round every year. They provided such a wealth of observation. That’s the wonderful thing about Giles, the scope of his work was socially panoramic. It was very cosy, which is nice in retrospect, but also quite penetrating in its way, because he was looking at the times with quite a sceptical eye, quite a wry sense of humour.’
In 2000, Giles was posthumously voted Britain’s favourite cartoonist, and Bell agrees that he is one of the greats. ‘His stature is assured not just because he was popular but because he was very, very good. Very acute, witty and beautifully observed, that’s the thing that always stands out with Giles. It’s a kind of suburban world which, if you were brought up in the suburbs as I was, you recognise instantly. It’s a bit like a film set in the sense that the living rooms are always vast – I don’t know anybody who had living rooms quite as big as Giles’s. Everything was wide-screen, including the massive Giles family. There was this huge cast of characters you came to know and love for the odd things they got up to.’
Bell adds that ‘you’ve got a kind of living history in itself from the work he did. A social history of English attitudes from war-time to post-war and into the 50s and 60s.’
Cartoons certainly enliven historical events and the Giles collection is a key resource for British political and social historians.
But the resource is not for them alone. Cartoons touch on many fields of study, from sociology and art history to cartoon fans and academics interested in using the archive content for teaching and research purposes. This web resource provides the widest possible access to the images that have framed and inflamed political debate over the last 100 years.
It also provides a real insight into the craft of cartooning. As well as Giles’s original black and white cartoons, full colour annuals and Christmas cards, there are also the preliminary sketches that reveal just how a cartoon is developed, from start to finish.
For Steve Bell, this provides a crucial educational aspect to the collection. ‘I think it’s very important to have some examples that show the process of how a cartoon comes about, because a cartoon is a very finished medium by definition. When you see it on a page there are no signs of any apparent effort behind it, but there has obviously been a long process behind its creation. To see this is fascinating for any cartoonist but especially for Giles.’
‘Cartoons don’t come fully formed,’ Bell adds. ‘They have to be dug out as it were, carved out of sometimes unwilling material. It intrigues me that people always think that you do a cartoon in a couple of minutes but that’s not true. Cartooning can take much longer than straightforward written journalism.’
It’s a wonderful thing to have an open resource which is publicly and freely available to people as this stuff is important. It’s a terrific resource,’ Bell concludes.
British Cartoon Archive
Giles collection joins world’s largest online cartoon archive
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Access all areas: the economic benefits of Open Access
In a knowledge economy, the vast amount of research and scholarly information produced by UK higher education (HE) is incredibly important. ‘The full value of this knowledge can only be realised when it is effectively disseminated,’ argues Professor John Houghton of Australia’s Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University. Guest writer Sally Whittle talks to Houghton to discuss a new report, co-authored by Professor Charles Oppenheim of Loughborough University and other colleagues.
On 27 January 2008, JISC published a report by Houghton et al. titled Economic Implications of Alternative Scholarly Publishing Models. It concerns how advances in ICT are disrupting traditional academic publishing models and changing the ways in which information is reproduced, distributed, controlled and published. The authors’ conclusions is that the UK’s HE sector should embrace Open Access (OA) publishing, which currently accounts for less than 20% of academic publishing in the UK.
Discussion of alternative academic publishing models has been almost exclusively focused on the cost, but Houghton argues that this is missing the point.‘
What something costs does not necessarily reflect its cost-effectiveness,’ he says. Cost-effectiveness is about what delivers the best possible value in return for a specific investment.’ Given how much money the UK spends on research – more than £6bn a year in HE alone – Houghton believes it is only sensible to know what returns are being generated and how they might be increased. ‘We talk a lot about what this costs versus what that costs but, as an economist, it is much more interesting to think about what something is worth, cost-effectiveness or value for money,’ says Houghton.
‘The aim is to stimulate debate about whether Open Access is a more cost-effective approach. You cannot do that without looking at benefits as well as costs.’
The report examines the costs and benefits of three emerging publishing models: subscription publishing, OA publishing and self-archiving. ‘The aim is, first and foremost, to increase awareness of the options. There is a definite lack of understanding of what Open Access publishing is, how it works and how it impacts on the higher education world,’ he says. ‘One of the things we hope is that this paper will help people to gain the knowledge they need.’
Though the report considers OA publishing for books, this article concentrates on journal publishing. It includes situations where authors or their employers or funders contribute to the costs of publication through a submission payment (ie author pays), a publication payment or sponsoring/supporting the operation of a journal which is then freely accessible to readers.
The other two key methods of publishing, against which the above is contrasted, are subscription publishing, and publication via OA repositories and overlay services such as peer review.
Making a comparison between these three models was incredibly difficult, Houghton admits, because of the challenges involved in assigning value to the knowledge contained in journal articles. ‘You can look at the value of citation, but what we’ve done instead is to look at the return on investment from research and development (R&D) and journals at an aggregate level. So, you have an economic model with labour, capital and knowledge as inputs. You then measure what percentage of the output is down to the knowledge over 20 years, and what the impact of increased access is, on the returns to R&D,’ he explains.
The report will help stakeholders to identify the costs and benefits involved in different scholarly publishing models. It seeks to quantify how these factors might impact upon major stakeholders in the scholarly communication system.
The key finding is that the benefits of more Open Access – however it is achieved – outweigh the costs.‘
It’s pretty clear,’ says Houghton. ‘If we look at Open Access publishing with producer side payments and an institutional Open Access archive or repository, both show benefits higher than the costs. That’s an important message.’
According to the new research, OA publishing for all UK HE journal articles in 2007 would have cost around £150m, of which £75m would have been authors’ fees. This would have represented a saving to the HE sector of £80m, based on the previous toll access model.
Based on the research, Houghton et al. predict that OA publishing for journal articles could potentially bring system savings of £210m per annum in the UK, of which £165m would accrue within the HE sphere. With the costs of OA publishing estimated at £170m for 2009, there are considerable savings to be achieved.
The argument for Open Access is strengthened by the possible increase in returns to R&D that might arise from enhanced access. Houghton found that with a 20% return on publicly funded R&D for the major categories of research expenditure in the UK in 2006, a 5% increase in accessibility and efficiency would have been worth £124 million in increased returns to HE R&D, with around £33m in increased returns for the research councils’ competitive grant-funded R&D.
Posting pre-print may increase the benefit of research, for delaying publication of knowledge through embargoes can have a serious impact on the returns from R&D. Houghton says that, ‘delays or embargoes can lose a lot of money over 20 years – perhaps £120m in reduced returns to higher education R&D.’
‘Posting pre-print may be an important way of increasing the benefit of research,’ says Houghton.
Houghton believes that the most important thing HE stakeholders can do to further the Open Access debate is to simply start putting some numbers on the table. ‘Try to put something together even if it’s not to 15 decimal places,’ he says. ‘At least you’ll begin to see what aspects are important, where value is being generated, and how to increase it.’
The report makes several recommendations. We focus on three key issues pertaining to JISC’s work within UK HE. Firstly, the most serious barrier to OA publishing in the UK today is a lack of information and knowledge. Appointing an advocate to help increase awareness of its benefits to key stakeholders is vital, with funders becoming more open to making funds available for producer-side payments.
Secondly, research assessment exercises (RAEs) need to consider OA publishing models, which are often very well cited. RAEs tends to rely on statistics drawn from existing publishing methods, so researchers seeking funding may propose traditional publishing models to achieve better RAE scores. Houghton says, ‘We need to find ways to be more supportive of different methods and metrics’.
The report identifies several areas where it is possible to make immediate cost savings.
Finally, Houghton et al. recommend focusing on quick ways of reducing the costs associated with scholarly publishing, with many specific actions outlined. These include removing the uncertainties and complexities that surround standard licensing conditions and permissions for use. These issues can lead to overly complex negotiations, says Houghton, with the development of standardised agreements being capable of making a huge difference rapidly.
Reaction to the report
‘RCUK welcomes this substantial and interesting report. It will be of great use to the Research Councils as we develop our future policies in relation to publishing and in particular Open Access.’
Professor Ian Diamond, RCUK
‘The argument for moving from more traditional subscription or toll-based publishing to a model that allows for greater accessibility and makes full use of the advances in technology cannot be ignored. This report shows there are significant savings to be made and benefits to be had. JISC will work with publishers, authors and the science community to identify and help to remove the barriers to moving to these more cost-effective models.’
Professor Sir Tim O’Shea
‘As a research funder that provides additional funds to its grant holders to meet the cost of Open Access publishing, I am delighted that this report vindicates this approach and shows that the benefits of enhanced accessibility outweigh the costs of supplementing research funds with ‘author-pays’ Open Access publishing fees.’
Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust
Research reveals economic case for open access article
Podcast interview with John Houghton
Full report available online
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Improving the student experience
JISC’s new Student Experiences of Technology campaign opened with the ‘Digital Student’ Guardian supplement, whose cover story features opposite. Through research, pilot schemes and a soon-to-report Committee of Inquiry, JISC aims to raise awareness of the core issues that can inform a student’s experience of ICT in FE or HE, whilst offering practical, technical and advisory help to institutions. Kerry O’Neill reports.
Digital Student
JISC’s new Student Experiences of Technology campaign has been launched, for the student ‘voice’ and experience is becoming increasingly important to institutions for the reasons outlined below. The campaign opened with a JISC-sponsored Guardian supplement (2 December 2008) examining the role played by technology ‘in shaping the new student experience, from the way students listen to lectures to the way they are assessed,’ writes journalist Harriet Swain.
Understanding and improving students’ experience of ICT at university can help institutions in diverse ways. It can widen participation; positively affect retention, progression and graduate employability; and help some students overcome their barriers to learning. These headline issues have helped put the student experience at the heart of governmental and institutional strategies for success.
The Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience
In harmony with JISC’s latest campaign, the ‘CLEX’ committee’s remit is to consider the impact of the newest technologies (such as social networking and mobile devices) on the behaviour and attitudes of students coming up to and entering higher education, and the issues this poses for universities and colleges.
An independent body chaired by Professor Sir David Melville CBE, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Kent, the committee’s aim is to emphasize the importance of the student experience to those directing policy and strategy – both inside and outside universities and colleges.
As Melville states, there has been a profound change in students’ attitudes towards education: ‘They have a more democratic view of the institution they are in, and they feel free to comment.’ The committee’s report will be published this spring.
This campaign is fuelled by the following drivers:
- The perceived quality of students’ experiences is a key indicator of whether they will persevere with and succeed in their studies
- A high quality student experience is a key offering of any institution looking to attract and retain high quality students
- The quality of the student experience is a key measure of the success of any interventions in the provision of learning, including ICT
- Technologies are pervasive in students’ lives. Students’ experiences of learning with technology are an integral aspect of their overall experience
- Students have new expectations of education, thanks to technology which they experience as offering flexibility, choice, ubiquitous access, personalised support, rapid feedback, and the benefits of social participation
- Students require new skills and strategies to succeed in a digital society
- Technology in the hands of learners is a potent force for institutional change
The Guardian’s Digital Student supplement marked the beginning of JISC’s Student Experiences of Technology campaign. Covering the use of virtual worlds for educational purposes and students’ expectations of ICT provision within HE, it also discusses the findings of the JISC-funded Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience. Here's what the students themselves have to say.
David Thaxter, first-year medical student, King’s College London (KCL)
I have a phone, a laptop, a USB stick, a portable hard drive and a video camera for presentations and the like. On my laptop I have Home/Student Microsoft Office to record notes during lectures and to type up relevant coursework, and it also allows me to access online KCL student facilities, such as the virtual campus and college webmail. I download my weekly timetable. I might record lectures on my phone and back up all my work on my portable hard drive. For socialising, I email, share pictures and music, and use sites like Facebook. I use the Internet more to organise myself, and for banking and shopping.
King’s has wireless Internet on all campuses and in halls of residence, and several areas with personal access work stations and I am very satisfied with this. The online facilities are very useful, although power points in lecture theatres for charging laptops could be beneficial.
Sarah Middleton, third-year psychology student, Sussex University
I have a mobile, a laptop, an iPod, and a digital camera. I use my laptop to read journal articles, to check emails, to collect data, and to check what I need to prepare for my classes. I write essays at home so I can browse the Internet and watch YouTube when I have writer’s block.
Socialising is very important and my laptop and mobile make it easy. I go on Facebook all day long, use my mobile to chat and text with friends and my camera to record nights out. The calendar on my laptop reminds me about classes, cheerleading practice etc. I use everything a lot more since I came to university. My laptop is on all day so I can check what’s going on, what I should be doing, and so I can Google anything.
Sussex is really good for technology. There are computer stations, there’s wireless almost everywhere on campus and all my course documentation is online so I can see exactly what reading I should be doing, and what my courses are about.
Alex Middleton, PhD candidate in British history, Cambridge University
I have a mobile, a desktop at home and a small laptop for taking notes, and an iPod to listen to in the library. I take all my notes on my laptop then transfer them to my desktop. I use the Internet all the time. My socialising is organised through text, email and occasionally Facebook. I use Skype to call friends abroad.
All my appointments are made by phone or online, but I have a physical diary for everything important. I spend quite a lot of time reading newspapers on the web and watching things on iPlayer/4oD. Facebook and online video have transformed sociability, or at least looking at pictures of it, and you can just sit in your room and watch programmes if you can’t face doing anything else.
Almost all the university faculties have wireless now, or it’s arriving. There are computers everywhere, and websites to check supervision reports, keep details updated, and share resources with people in your seminar groups.
Guardian Digital Student Supplement
The Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience
JISC's Student Experiences of Technology campaign
Academia tackles the future
For Laura, a first-year international business student, the heart of student life is a virtual one. An online community established through MySpace is where she and her peers network, collaborate on their courses and socialise. While she visits campus for classes and to meet other students, she also accesses the university’s virtual learning environment (VLE) from her home PC, downloading podcasts onto her MP3 player to revise on the move. ‘It’s just all these little technology things that make your life handier,’ she says.
Technology has dramatically changed the way students experience university life. It has affected where and how they study, helped them collaborate and broken down barriers between students and teachers, social life and study.
All this presents major challenges for institutions. Widening participation means that universities need learning technology that is accessible not only to IT-savvy school-leavers but also to adult, international and special-needs students. With students now paying for their education, their attitude and involvement is changing. They expect IT to add value to the whole student experience.
The response by both government and the universities has been to investigate what is happening and to consider how the challenges can be met. In April 2008, Paul Ramsden, chief executive of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), chaired an inquiry into teaching and the student experience.
Innovative approach
Ramsden’s report includes evidence that the student experience in UK universities remains among the best in the world. ‘What’s so good about the UK student experience? – It is the close relationship between teachers and students as well as the relatively small class sizes compared with universities in other countries.’
Last November, former JISC Chair Sir Ron Cooke published a report calling for a nationally co-ordinated core of open-access learning resources to support online learning in HE, combined with national centres of expertise in educational technology and e-pedagogy.
JISC’s Learner Experience of e-Learning programme is gathering feedback on how learners think technology should be used. Its initial publication, called In Their Own Words, makes interesting reading. Program manager Sarah Knight says: ‘Learners are already seeking both choice and control when it comes to the technology and are mixing and matching personal and institutional tools with skill. Technology, it seems, is central to their lives and therefore also to their studies, but increasingly, the boundaries between study and other aspects of their lives are being eroded.’
Choice and control
Meanwhile, universities are doing their own market research. The University of Edinburgh’s Learner Experience across the Disciplines (LEaD) project draws on student blogs and video diaries for a qualitative survey of students’ experiences. Project manager Judy Hardy says: ‘We wanted to learn about students at a time of great change and transition for them as individuals.’
The project has found students want to find a balance in the way they use technology – a kind of technological comfort zone. An application that appeals to them is Clickers, a personal response system that allows students to ask questions or respond to subjects being discussed at a lecture.
Hardy says technology is now so embedded in people’s lives that e-learning has become mainstream. ‘Students don’t see technology as something that is separate from teaching and learning’.
This article by Stephen Hoare and the students’ comments are reproduced with permission from the JISC-commissioned ‘Digital Student’ Guardian supplement from 2 December 2008. Hard copies available on request.
Full article online
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Sustainable access to digital assets
Digital preservation is about securing sustainable access to today’s digital data for the benefit of future generations. Neil Grindley, manager of the JISC Digital Preservation Programme, outlines JISC’s current activity in the field, in an article which will appear in its entirety in Research Information, Jan-Feb 2009.
Modern technologies rapidly become obsolete. The modern student will barely remember floppy disks or Betamax cassettes. Without strategic action now, today’s digital data could become inaccessible tomorrow due to obsolescence, data loss and myriad other concerns. Many institutions now address the task of sustainable access through digital preservation (DP), with JISC’s pioneering and globally recognised work leading the way, often in collaboration with key partners from the British Library to the US Library of Congress.
What large-scale DP projects exist?
The pioneering Digital Curation Centre (DCC) in Edinburgh is JISC’s flagship project, raising awareness and building capacity across the academic sector to undertake DP. Staging regular conferences and activities, it provides models for digital data auditing, archiving and preservation. Two of its key auditing outputs, of use to anyone involved in DP policy, are the Data Audit Framework and the DRAMBORA tool – the Digital Repository Audit Method Based On Risk Assessment.
Many collaborative JISC-funded initiatives are under way. The UK LOCKSS Alliance (Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) keeps institutions’ e-journal data assets safe by storing multiple copies on distributed servers to minimise risk. JISC also funds a significant amount of work in digital repositories and has also supported work to investigate the significant properties of digital objects. This approach identifies the attributes that need to be preserved if a digital object is to be considered a meaningful representation of the original following any preservation or data management action that has been taken, e.g. migration of the digital object from one format to another.
JISC is also a founding member of the UK Web Archiving Consortium (UKWAC), and its Preservation of Web Resources (PoWR) project has produced a handbook that addresses how to archive web materials. With the provision of a shared service infrastructure for preservation a hot topic, two JISC projects currently focus on aspects of that, namely Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access (SHERPA) DP2 and PRESERV2. Underpinning the rest of this work, recent studies have also focused on supporting the creation of institutional policies and determining the costs of long-term preservation.
Threats to digital assets
Though DP is ranked a top concern by the National Office of Science and Technology, digital assets face numerous threats. On the societal side, staff in charge of digital information often have little incentive to consider the future implications of their decisions, and the withdrawal of funding as strategic priorities change is also an issue. Raising awareness and promoting and supporting DP policy within institutions is the most effective way of tackling these issues.
On the technological side, the integrity of data can become compromised due to the failure of media components (an issue known as bit rot). Hardware and software obsolescence are also real concerns. This can be tackled by migrating data to newer software (migration), or by replicating the data’s original environment (emulation), though both options have associated risks. To minimise these threats, JISC is working with the government, private and education sectors as well as international partners to increase the take up of DP strategy and policy, safeguarding long-term access for all.
International collaboration
Some of DP’s major challenges cross many borders and will be most successfully tackled by national and international collaboration. A classic example is copyright. JISC has recently funded an International Copyright Law Study, with partners including the US Library of Congress, to examine different approaches to legislation regarding creating and storing preservation versions of digital materials. This is with a view to prompting reform so that copyright law can ‘catch up’ with the digital age.
What of the future?
No-one twenty years ago could have foreseen the alacrity with which technology would change, nor predicted the massive shift from print to online materials and communication. JISC is attempting to scan tomorrow’s horizons today, developing policies and pioneering schemes so that DP can achieve its rightful importance globally, nationally and institutionally. Our aim, complementing that of our international peers, is for future generations to enjoy unhindered access to the wealth of digital materials being created today. As Dame Lynne Brindley, CEO of the British Library, says, ‘Collaborative development is clearly the way forward. We don’t want to develop any more than we have to on our own. The future can’t be in too few hands.’
Read the full article in Research Information
JISC Digital Preservation and Records Management programme
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The ‘Accessibility’ Files
Hugh Daily introduces an award-winning initiative that is helping thousands of learners access technology.
JISC’s vision is one of ubiquitous and reliable access to digital information for all. The role of JISC’s Regional Support Centres (RSCs) and Services is to help turn this goal into reality, writes Hugh Daily, deputy manager of the RSC for Scotland North and East.
AccessApps is a prime example of translating this vision into useful practice. On one convenient USB memory stick, it gathers over 50 open source and freeware assistive technologies, including packages to help learners with hearing, reading and document navigation difficulties. Having such useful and high-quality assistive software applications at their fingertips enables learners with a variety of needs to access technology and digital information in an incredibly flexible way, directly from the USB stick, on any computer. This avoids the potential stigma of learners with particular needs being forced to use a specifically designated machine.
The design, development and deployment of this software initiative demonstrates how JISC RSCs and Services, working closely together, can identify precise needs within the sector and deliver effective tools to meet them. Staff at the JISC RSC for Scotland North and East had noticed that, though anxious to minimise costs, many providers seemed unaware that free, high quality alternatives existed for key assistive technologies. With the capacity of USB sticks increasing exponentially alongside the availability of open source software and freeware, the trend was matched to the technology to create a tool with the potential to liberate the learner from the system. Now, learners can keep a personalised system of portable technologies in their pocket, providing a more independent computing experience.
To help deploy AccessApps nationally to colleges and universities, RSC Scotland North and East collaborated with JISC TechDis, RSC Scotland South and West and later in partnership with all UK RSCs.
The fully loaded USB sticks were originally distributed to key members of the learning support community across Scotland, who immediately recognised the value of the tool and began to promote it widely to their students.
To satisfy growing demand, to make AccessApps even easier to access and to ensure that the configuration of software on the stick was exactly matched to the individual user’s needs, RSC Scotland North and East developed a customised online delivery system. Learners may now download the whole suite of applications, or pick and mix to suit their individual priorities. The software is also backed up by a range of supporting guides and tutorials.
Reaction to the initiative has been overwhelmingly positive.
Though AccessApps was only released online in September 2008, the website has already had thousands of individual downloads, with users quick to appreciate the power of the applications. AccessApps brings huge advantages not only for the user, but also for the institution where it is deployed – at no cost – across the curriculum.
AccessApps won the Scottish Open Source Award for Excellence in Education in November 2008, recognising the power of Craig Mill and Kenji Lamb’s original idea and the elegance of its execution. This is helping the RSC raise the profile of open source and freeware applications by placing the software directly into the hands of the people who need it most.
AccessApps attempts to narrow the digital divide between the haves and the have-nots. Some are ‘have-nots’ because they can’t afford the technology; others because perfectly resolvable obstacles to their learning have not been surmounted. AccessApps has something valuable to offer to everyone.
For further information, please contact RSC Manager Sarah Price
Scottish Open Source software award for AccessApps
'The Accessibility Files' - the technology is out there
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Debate: Should UK universities outsource their email?
YES
In 2007, Leeds Metropolitan University’s student email system was reviewed. This important medium at the core of the university’s communication strategy allows staff to communicate with students directly, quickly and easily. By outsourcing our email provision to Google, we now have an affordable, scalable system that meets students’ expectations.
A key driver prompted our move to outsourcing. Students have an ever-growing demand for online storage, fuelled by the use of digital media and the electronic submission of assignments. Yet their in-house system could only offer a small amount of personal disk space (10-20Mb), resulting in students not using their university email as their primary account. As many students didn’t configure their university account to forward mail on, important communications were not getting through effectively.
To provide the same email data storage ourselves would have cost around £1m over four years, not to mention the capital investment of upgrading the previous email system.
The first task was to work with students and cross-departmental staff to determine exactly what students required from a university email account. We researched the market and found that, unlike in the US, there were very few options available. The one product that met Leeds Metropolitan’s requirements was Google Apps which, in addition to email, offered many more continuously revised and improved features, from calendars and chat to collaborative working tools. The pilot service went live in February 2008. Within four weeks, over three thousand students had registered, exceeding all initial expectations.
In terms of economic benefits, we still carry out certain administrative tasks, but no longer worry about server capacity, reliability or scalability. This frees up staff to do other things that add value to the student experience. There are also fewer technological glitches, and we keep getting added features and therefore added value on an ongoing basis, for free. To provide the same email data storage ourselves would have cost around £1m over four years, not to mention the capital investment of upgrading the previous email system.
By September 2008, over 30,000 accounts had been created, ready to allocate a Google email account to every student at Leeds Metropolitan, with integration to a calendaring system to enable a single-view of calendars for students. This has been successful, with very positive feedback from existing and new students.
Whilst I understand that some people may prefer to keep their data in-house, I think that each system should be viewed on its own merits and supported by a business case. Our project was evaluated over the rest of the year and was judged a success by all stakeholders. Both logistically and legally – and our lawyers investigated this in depth – I have great confidence in Google’s infrastructure.
Hugh Lavery
NO
When it comes to outsourcing your email and other information systems, you can take your pick of the clichés when describing the potential dangers: ‘out of sight, out of mind’; ‘one hand tied behind your back’; ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’; and ‘the thin end of the wedge’ all spring to mind.
Human nature dictates that as soon as you become distanced from something you inevitably start to pay less attention to it. Soon the default answer to any question raised regarding security, back-up, data access or any other critical management issue will be ‘our service provider takes care of that’. I’m sure the Ministry of Defence said exactly the same about data security right up until their contractor lost a disk containing the personal data relating to 100,000 members of the armed forces. The simple fact is that no one has a greater vested interest in looking after your data than you. Outsourcing your data does not outsource responsibility – but it becomes all too easy to assume that it does.
Will your Vice Chancellor really be satisfied to hear that ‘we are waiting for our service provider to get back to us’ when demanding to know why his email doesn’t work?
Moreover, you could soon discover that without direct access to the servers and services themselves, you are powerless to take the required corrective measures when a problem does emerge. Will your Vice Chancellor really be satisfied to hear that ‘we are waiting for our service provider to get back to us’ when demanding to know why his email doesn’t work?
It’s also worth considering the volatile times in which we live. The global economic crisis is no respecter of size or reputation and it is a near certainty that some big names within the IT industry will be amongst the eventual casualties. When a company collapses it is the role of the administrators to try to recover as much of the money owed to investors as possible. It is far less clear who would take responsibility for reuniting the data they hold with their owners, or how long such a process might take.
Finally, it is interesting that so many of the current outsourcing projects have chosen to only outsource student email accounts, apparently on the basis that this raises fewer issues and represent a lower risk to the institution than outsourcing information created by, or relating to, its staff. That may well be true but if, despite all of the above, these initial pilot projects are a success, it won’t be long before the pressure is on to do likewise with mission-critical corporate data. Only then will institutions discover that all of their record and information management solutions are based on the premise that the institution has direct management access to its own information and that they have inadvertently exposed themselves to all manner of legal, regulator and operational risks. But by then it will be too late…
Steve Bailey
YES: Hugh Lavery is the Director of Information, Media and Technology Services at Leeds Metropolitan University.
NO: Steve Bailey is a records management professional and senior advisor at JISC infoNet. He is not anti-outsourcing but has kindly provided us with the flip-side to this debate.
Further case studies are available
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5-Minute Interview
eReturn with Clem Herman
What institution do you work for?
The Open University (OU).
What’s your job title?
Senior Lecturer in ICT.
What does that involve?
Developing and delivering online distance education courses and carrying out related research. The ‘Return to SET’ course I’m working on is aimed at people wanting to return to or begin work in the fields of science, engineering or technology.
What’s the name of your project?
eReturn.
How would you describe your project to friends outside of education?
Six institutions are involved in this project. It involves women who want to return to work, who have been taking part in an OU online course. Firstly they’ve each created an online ‘ePortfolio’ to document their achievements. This information can then be output in various formats such as a CV or website. Secondly, the project explores how ePortfolios can be transferred between institutions to enable the returners to continue studying elsewhere. We’ve also asked groups of employers, careers advisors and mentors about their views on ePortfolios and the best way to use them in supporting women back into employment.
What is your project attempting to achieve?
A better understanding of how ePortfolios can be used to support women returning to work and progress their careers in science, engineering and technology; and an analysis of the different options for making this data portable between institutions.
Which JISC programme does it fall under?
e-Learning – Cross-Institutional Use of e-Learning to Support Lifelong Learners (round 2).
When is its time frame?
From October 2007 until March 2009.
Is it achieving its objectives?
Yes and no!
In what ways?
Our students have completed their ePortfolios and passed their assessments, with many now in employment. Course feedback was excellent. Initial problems with the development of the ‘MyStuff’ ePortfolio software meant that the system was slow, with some functions not fully developed. We also had problems transferring data between institutions, though we’ve made progress here by creating standardised outputs. Noticing differences in ePortfolio usage, we’ve also run a national symposium to discuss whether there is still a gendered digital divide. Don’t underestimate the complexities of working with software systems across a range of institutions.
What would you say were its lessons for the wider sector?
Don’t underestimate the complexities of working with software systems across a range of institutions.
Who do you think would be most interested to hear about your project?
Other learning providers working with ePortfolios or women returners, SET employers and professional bodies, and ePortfolio developers working on interoperability.
What impact could it have on the student experience?
Using ePortfolios for returners to work is very productive. It enables them to think about and collate their life experiences in one place. However there needs to be a good mechanism for retaining and transposing this data to other institutions.
What has surprised you most about your project?
The complexities of working with so many institutions with so many different agendas.
Which other JISC projects do you work with most closely?
Other ePortfolio projects and CETIS.
What benefits to you get from that?
Sharing knowledge and joint problem solving.
What’s been the best thing about managing a JISC project?
Bringing together a wide range of people from different institutions to work on a shared problem.
And the worst?
As above.
What next?
We plan to carry on developing the ePortfolio software and working with women returners. Having realised the scale of the issues we set out to tackle, we now know that this will need a lot more than a single project to achieve.
The JISC eReturn programme
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JISC dates for your diary…
When: 20 February deadline for entrants. The shortlist will be announced in May, the winners on 9 June 2009
Where: The gala awards ceremony will he held at the London Hilton on Park Lane
When: 11-13 March 2009
Where: BT Conference Centre, Liverpool
When: 23-24 March 2009
Where: Edinburgh’s International Conference Centre (EICC)
When: Entries accepted from March to June, with shortlist announced in September
A Bodleian Library and JISC Libraries of the Future event: What is the Library of the Future?
80 further places are available for this event. For more information and to register online, visit the JISC events site
When: 2 April 2009, 2pm – 6.30pm
Where: The Bodleian Library, Oxford University
For details of all JISC events, please visit the blog.
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Recent publications…
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