Benefits of investment in ICT landscape study
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This project has considered different types of ICT investment within the Further Education and Higher Education sectors, categorised as infrastructure investments, teaching and learning technologies investments and corporate/central systems investments.
Executive Summary
The Further and Higher Education (FE and HE) sectors continue to witness significant investment in ICT to support education, administration, community engagement and, in the case of HE, research. These investments can range from general developments in underlying ICT infrastructure to the on-going support and maintenance of specialist software applications. Clearly it is important for institutions to be able to assess whether value for money is being achieved from these investments and to be able to base future decisions on an informed understanding of the impact of prior investments. The BIILS project based within the University of Strathclyde sought to address this issue by exploring current practice within the sector, investigating best practice and examining whether there are any lessons to be learned from the approaches that are used in other sectors.
The team utilised various methods to investigate the various approaches, processes and metrics that are used across the FE and HE sectors to monitor and evaluate ICT investments. A review of relevant literature was carried out, which informed development of a survey of the UK FE and HE sector. The survey outputs were synthesised with literature findings and with information from discussions with key FE and HE stakeholders, and case studies were developed to 'drill down' into more detail how institutions typically evaluate ICT investments.
All of the research and development work carried out led to the development of an Evaluation Toolkit, aimed at managers and practitioners in the sector. This toolkit includes a framework to describe and categorise common relevant evaluation techniques in the sector, allowing them to be compared and contrasted to inform decision making on appropriate approaches for different types of investment. The Toolkit provides practical guidance for practitioners to help decision-making related to which tools or approaches are most appropriate in the context of the type of evaluation being performed, as well as providing guidance on how such evaluations can be performed.
The project has concluded that although most institutions are actively evaluating ICT investments, they would still welcome greater support to promote a more structured approach, particularly when operating in an educational context where benefits from investment are often difficult to identify and measure.
There are 3 main recommendations for future work relating to the project; refinement of the Evaluation Toolkit, a consultation exercise with the sector and development of detailed case studies for a more in-depth view of evaluation of ICT within FE and HE.